Stonington – Eugene Gynther, 100, gains an extra flicker of light in his eyes when he speaks of history.

He laid with his body flat against the deck of the USS O'Bannon, a United States Navy destroyer, while bullets being fired by the Japanese whistled overhead during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November, 1942, the midst of World War II.

He watched Babe Ruth play baseball for the Boston Braves during Ruth's final season.

And then there was Gene Gynther's own high school career.

A graduate of Stonington High School's Class of 1933, Pawcatuck's Gynther – who will turn 101 years old on May 5 – will be among the honorees Saturday at the school's Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where he will deliver his own remarks.

“I'll just tell 'em a few things,” Gynther said. “… I have a good memory for an old guy.”

Gynther, who used to take the trolley from his house in Pawcatuck to get to the high school, formerly located in Stonington Borough, competed in four sports – football, baseball, basketball and track – and won 10 letters for the Bears.

He played outfield as a freshman for the baseball team, second base for two seasons and then caught as a senior. In football, he played quarterback as a senior in the old double-wing system, whereby the quarterback and the running back would each line up behind a guard so that the snap might travel in either direction. Already Thanksgiving Day football rivals with Westerly, Stonington beat the Bulldogs 6-0 that season.

Gynther, the captain in three sports, was named “Most Athletic” among his senior classmates.

“What happened was, I went to high school during the depression. We didn't have any money,” Gynther said, noting the first thing that came to mind when asked about his high school career. “Now they have a beautiful high school, four or five fields, artificial turf, bleachers. We played at Owens Field (near the borough). It was a cow pasture. We played basketball at the oldest wooden church in the borough and my senior year the season was canceled because the teams wouldn't play there.

“… My best thing was hitting. Not for power. I hit with a little space between my hands; I was a line drive hitter. I don't think I ever struck out once. I had some (5-for-5) games.”

A machinist's mate, Gynther served two stints in the Navy. While aboard the USS Quincy from 1936-40 he played baseball. He recalls a game in Venezuela, where the best players from three different Navy cruisers matched Venezuela's best and won. He was named All-Navy in 1938 as a center fielder.

In 1942, Gynther re-enlisted in the Navy following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was assigned to the O'Bannon.

Nicknamed “Lucky O,” the O'Bannon was the Navy's most decorated destroyer during the war, earning 17 battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation from Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite its role in Guadalcanal, where it found itself in a head-to-head fight with Japanese battleship Hiei – “we opened fire with everything we had, salvo after salvo after salvo,” Gynther said – the O'Bannon never lost a crew member.

With Gynther aboard, the O'Bannon was selected to escort the Navy's flagship, the USS Missouri, into Tokyo Bay for Japan's formal surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.

“Once, our whole ship came out of the water,” Gynther said of the war's battles. “I was just lucky that's all. When we were finished, we said the guys in Bath, Maine (where the 376-foot boat was constructed) must build good ships.”

Gynther, whose parents were Finnish immigrants, is originally from Fitchburg, Mass. He married his late wife Janet in 1946, following the war, and has five children, 10 grandchildren (whose pictures adorn the fireplace at his Pawcatuck home) and six great-grandchildren.

He retired as a machinist from the Harris Corporation in 1979.

“I played a lot of ball,” Gynther said. “I played in Brazil, Hawaii, I played in the prison in California and there were guards on the wall with guns. … I had some good coaches. You meet a lot of people in sports. I liked all the guys. I liked the friendships.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday