Needham High School - Advocate Yearbook (Needham, MA)

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l16j THE ADVOCATE built. He might have been a wrestler or a shot-putter in his younger days. The two glanced at each other, but no sign of recogni- tion passed between them. The big man was evidently a stranger, for like most small-town business men, the other knew everyone in his community. The stranger glanced about the room. nQuite a museum here, he remarked. 44Yes-yes it is,', said the smaller man absently, without looking up. A moment or two elapsed, the stranger wan- dering about the room, the other still gazing at the cup. Suddenly, he seemed to break the trance which held him. Then, as if to atone for the apparent coldness with which he had answered the stranger's remark, he said:- Quite a story behind the winning of this cup. '4That so? said the stranger, stepping up to view it more closely. 'LThere7s a moral to it, too. I used to tell it to my boy when he was in school. He paused, waiting for a sign of concern from the stranger. 4'Sounds II1lCl'CSllIlg,,, said the prospective audience, invitingly. f'Not very familiar here, are you? he began. Then of course you donit know what kind of an athletic record this school has. Well, ruefully, Nit's not very good, in fact this cup represents the only championship that we ever won. I say Gwei because I played on the team that won it. Ohgonly a sub- stitute guardf, he added apologetically, ubut it gave me an intimate knowledge of the team that the ordinary spectator never gotf, We had a crackerjack team that year, and the whole school was all pepped up about it. Weid never had a championship and every- body was looking for us to come through. There were ten teams in the league, each to play the other teams twice on a hon1e-and- home basis. There were some pretty good players in that league, too. A lot of them were later corking good college players. For a small-town league, it certainly put on some mighty fine games. Then, to make it all the more interesting, old John Frothingham put up a cup to be awarded to the highest scorer in the league, in addition to the regular championship cup. Old John was quite a sports fan and basketball was his craze. He died, ohf 'bout twelve years ago, I guess, and he left quite a sum of money to the athletic fund. Here, the speaker stopped to light his pipe. MCan,t talk without in' pipe. uWell, we had a forward named Fred Burns, captain of the team-Tlashi, we called him. Only a little fellow, stood about five- four and weighed, ohfwell,-not more than one-twenty, but could he play basketball! Like a cat on his feet and fast as greased lightnin'. Had a habit of shootin' baskets from the middle of the Hoor. Always cool and calm, never got excited or rattled. Nice teller, too, popular with everybody. No one hgured on his being a high-scorer, though, be- cause the last year he'd been only fair and his size sorta went against him. But after the first two games, which we won by large scores, heid made about forty points. Then everyone began to sit up and take notice. He didn't hog the shots either. He passed when he should and was all all 'round good team man. Every time he got his hands on the ball, it seemed, we scored. Well, we breezed through seventeen of the eighteen games scheduled and lost only one. That was to Brewster, which had been beaten unexpectedly by Hillsboro. That made us tied with Brewster for first place. The outcome of that last game decided the championship. Whenever I think of that game, I think of what a swell story could be made out of it. Regular Horatio Alger set- ting. You know Attica is to Brewster as Harvard is to Yale, and the rivalry was some keen in those days. There was a center who played for Brewster, lesseefwhat was his

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THE ADVOCATE E151 BULL MARTIN Ralph Adams, '33 The Bull comes strutting down the aisle, The crowd now stands to boo at him, Upon his face a sneering smile As if to say heis sure to win. He bows and climbs up on the mat, The bell soon rings and they begin. He crouches and prepares to dive- Two-forty pounds of seething beef- Then when he springs and forward flies, God help the man that's underneath. A NEWSPAPER Gardner Fay, ,33 Sheet after sheet A jumble of black and white: But on closer view, What comedies, thrills, and tragedies May lie beneath its folds. Headlines flashing, Breaking the lines of monotonous printg Pictures sprinkled carelessly Over its speckled face, lt tells the secrets of all the world. THE CUP IN THE BIG GLASS CASE Edmund Hanson, '33 It was house-warming night at the new Attica High School. Everywhere throughout the building a buzz of excitement prevailed. Harassed taxpayers critically examined the cause for their boosted tax rates. Building committeemen strutted about, looking for people to ask them questions and tell them how well they had done their task. Efferves- cent mothers ohid at every new-fangled doo- dad called to their attention by self-conscious students appointed to do so. All the grown- ups kept reminding each other and their off- spring that, '6We never had such opportuni- ties when we were children. The young people today donst realize how lucky they are, while the lucky young generation won- dered if their parents had ever been subjected to an English teacher like Miss Soandso or a math instructor like Mr. Whosis. Everyone had an education complex that evening and the trophy room just off the main hall, near the front entrance, was almost deserted. ln spite of its fresh newness it was a room of memories to any former member of the school. Pictures of long ago teams adorned the creamy walls. Fragments of shattered goal posts rested on tables. Tattered numbered jersies of plunging full- backs, worn track shoes of long since stiff- kneed sprinters, and faded caps and battered gloves of slugging outiielders graced the wall cases. ln the center of the room stood a large glass case containing a single, huge silver cup. Before this case stood the only occupant of the room, a middle aged man of medium height and stocky build. His bearing seemed to mark him as a former athlete, although he was beginning to show signs of many hours of office work. He was a typical moderately successful small-town business man, who might have had a son in college or a daughter showing her mother the home economics department at that very moment. He seemed lost in thought, gazing at the newly-polished cup. It seemed to be the most highly prized trophy in the room. It bore the inscription:- GREEN VALLEY BASKETBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP CUP Awarded to ATTICA HIGH SCHOOL 1910 Presented by JOHN A. FROTHINGHAM Another man entered the room. He was about the same age, but tall and heavily

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THE ADVOCATE f17J name? Oh yeah, Jarvis. Big fellow, must have weighed two hundred pounds. Fast though, and surprisingly light on his feet for a man of his size. He and Flash were almost tied for scoring honors. Jarvis was good, no question about it, but he was an individual player, not a team man like Flash. And then, too, he was inclined to take advantage of his size to scare the smaller players. Heid been disqualified several times for fighting and for personal fouls. Well, as I say, he and Flash were pretty close in scoring honors. I do1'1't think Flash cared so much for the seorer's cup as he did for this onef' pointing to the trophy before him. MThat game took place twenty-three years ago, but I can still remember it. With the championship and scoring cups at stake, the game drew a big crowd. I can still remember the brightly lit gym, the running, shouting players, the changing scoreboard, and the noisy crowd because I was so impressed that night. You know we don't get many exciting moments in this town, and any event like that is remembered for a long time. Of course, the details are a bit hazy, but I know that Jarvis ran wild in the first half and piled up, Lt big score. There were lots of times when he should have passed, but he wouldn't. lt was all Jarvis and to blazes with Brewster. lt looked bad for Attica, but in the second half Flash ffot froinff and when he ffot Uoinf' D D D7 C D U7 the rest of the 7 team couldnt keep up with him. Well, we gradually crept up on them, until, with one minute to play, Brewster led Attica by one point and Jarvis led Flash by one point. Jarvis was getting pretty nervous and also pretty rough. He certainly wanted that cup, all right. The gym was like a mad- house. I never heard such a racket in all my life. There were just seconds left to play when Flash got a break and dribbled down the floor but Jarvis forced him toward a corner. He stopped and got set to shoot. It was a tough angle shot, but he probably could have sunk it. He was always best in a pinch. I suppose Jarvis thought he was going to shoot, but instead, he passed, or tried to pass to another man left uncovered under the basket. But as he threw it, Jarvis drew back his fist and let fly. I suppose he just lost his head and did it without realizing. He caught Flash right on the point of the chin and he went out like a light-stone cold. Butfeas he threw the ball, it bounced off Jarvis' fist and looped through the basket as neat as you please, just as the bell rang, ending the game. I don't expect you to believe that, but itis the truth. Well, sir, you could have heard a pin drop. The noise stopped just as if a blanket had been dropped over the whole crowd. Everyone just held his breath and gasped. Nobody even moved. The only noise was the ball bouncing up and down underneath the basket. I ran over to where Flash was. There he was, flat on the floor, Jarvis standing over him, stupefied. The middle finger of the right hand was broken between the knuckle and the first joint. He was staring at it with the blankest expression I ever saw on mortal man. I remember how the bone stuck out like a candy cane at the bottom of a Christmas stocking. 1,11 never forget that scene as long as I live. I kneeled beside Flash and was trying to bring him to. Then the crowd started to rumble. It sounded dangerous, so the Brewster team hurried Jarvis off to the dressing room where the crowd couldn't get at him. I think he was almost as unconscious as Flash. He seemed unable to understand what he had done. We took Flash to our dressing room and doused him under a cold shower. He came to all right and all he had was a headache. It was an awful sock, though, he must have been outweighed eighty pounds. HI donit think there were a dozen people in tI1e audience who realized that Attica had won the game. Nobody paid any attention to the ball, they just saw Flash go down. Attica won the championship but Jarvis wo11