Daniel M. Clark, a former University of Delaware student now best known as Massachusetts’ “Singing Trooper,” was the featured performer during the football game between the Fightin’ Blue Hens and the University of Massachusetts on Saturday, Nov. 5, at Tubby Raymond Field in Delaware Stadium.

For Clark, and for the UD fans, it was a very special occasion.

Clark briefly attended UD before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps at the time of the Iran hostage crisis in 1980. His father, the late Arnold M. Clark, was a UD professor of genetics and biology for 30 years and also served as faculty representative to the Athletics Governing Board for 10 years, and his mother, Constance Clark, also taught in the biology department.

“Performing at the Delaware-Massachusetts game has long been a dream of mine,” Clark says, adding that it carries even more meaning for him personally than the opportunity to sing during one of the classic American League Championship Series games between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees last season.

“The magnitude of an event doesn't matter to me,” Clark says. “It is the significance of an event that is the most important factor. And this represents my home, my upbringing and my father. This is so important to me that I canceled a paid concert to be a part of it because the best things in life are worth more than money.”

Clark grew up in the Silverbrook development in Newark, just a quick walk from the David M. Nelson Athletic Complex on South College Avenue, and says that because of his father’s position with the Athletics Governing Board, he practically lived on campus.

“The University of Delaware was almost my personal playground,” Clark says. “Everyone knew me, and I had access to all of the athletic facilities. I remember high jumping in the pit at the Delaware Field House, hanging out at the ice rink and the Carpenter Sports Building and kicking field goals on the football practice field.

“On Saturdays, my best friend and UD alumnus Robert Barrow and I would run over to Delaware Stadium in time to the music of the UD Marching Band,” Clark recalls. “We spent much of our young lives on the 50-yard line, about five rows up. We were addicted to Blue Hen football. In those days, before you could buy team memorabilia, I even remember buying a white football helmet, painting it blue and putting a classic wing design on it using tape.”

Clark says he has fond memories of former Hens Dennis Johnson and Herky Billings. “What I remember about Dennis Johnson was his awesome size. He would tower over the other captains at the coin toss,” he says. “And, I remember Herky Billings as a punt returner who was absolutely fearless and an inspiration to watch. He never took a fair catch and punished those who tried to stop him.”

From those days prior to the advent of NCAA divisional championship playoffs, Clark also remembers the Boardwalk Bowl games, where sod was brought in and the same Atlantic City Convention Center that housed the Miss America Pageant was turned into a football field.

After attending Glasgow High School and graduating from Randolph Macon Military Academy in Front Royal, Va., Clark enrolled at UD as a music major in the fall semester of 1979. However, having done a great deal of singing through middle and high school and in his spare time, Clark found himself looking for a fresh endeavor and became interested in possibly going into the field of exercise physiology and sports medicine.

Clark also was accepted into a U.S. Marine Corps officers training program and found himself drawn to the military because of the shocking turn of events in the Middle East. “About that time, American hostages were taken in Iran,” he says. “I was so upset about that, I decided to enlist.”

During his tour of duty, his father retired from UD and decided to settle on Cape Cod, where for many years he had conducted research during the summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

After leaving the Marines, Clark wanted to be close to his family and so moved to Massachusetts, where he began a career with the Massachusetts State Police that spanned 20 years.

As a trooper, Clark returned to his love of music and became known as the Singing Trooper for his many performances at sporting events and government functions, for which he has performed anthems in more than 20 different languages.

He also returned to college, completing his degree at the University of Massachusetts campus in Boston and striking up a friendship with George N. Parks, director of the heralded Minuteman Marching Band who also attended UD before earning a bachelor’s degree from West Chester (Pa.) University. Parks is a mentor to Heidi Sarver, director of the UD Marching Band and a UMass graduate.

Clark performed at several Minuteman games, and it was Parks who suggested the idea of the Singing Trooper performing at a UD-UMass game. Clark first did so in Amherst, getting a chance to meet UD Head Coach K.C. Keeler in the process.

Performing at Delaware Stadium, however, was something extra special. “The Blue Hens are from my home, and they are family,” Clark says. “When I walk down Main Street or down The Green, looking to where my father’s old office was, it makes the hairs on my neck stand up.”

Clark says he has tried to explain the unique atmosphere that surrounds UD athletics to his wife, Mary, and his children, but he has found that words do not do it justice.

“Unless you grew up here and experienced the frenzy surrounding Blue Hen football, and actually all of Blue Hen athletics, it is hard to understand,” he says. “The Delaware experience is completely different than any other, with the team, the fans, the marching band, the tailgating. It is unique.”

Although he no longer wears the dress blues of the Massachusetts State Police, having retired in July to pursue a new career as a professional singer, Clark was wearing a special piece of jewelry during his visit to Delaware Stadium.

“My father presented me his ring from the Blue Hens’ 1979 NCAA Division II championship before he passed away,” Clark says. “I proudly wear that ring at events everywhere I go, and I certainly was going to wear it on the field Nov. 5.”