St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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Lydon and McCarron at the guard posts. The fourth member of the backfield quartet was Don Marshall. The cold-blooded statistician would ana- lyze this, our first season, as an inauspicious beginning, but to us it served as proof that a new school could provide competition for experienced teams and, what's more-to us it indicated the shape of things to come. Optimistically enough we talked about next year , and built our hopes on the progressive development of the first year's luminaries, R. Baker,Collins and R. Donahue. We answered the summons to return to school in the fall of 1942 with alacrity- not because of any magnetic attraction that the books held for us but because we were anxious to don the moleskins and the cleats once more. Ted Duffy was not slow in issuing a call for candidates, and accordingly we found ourselves trudging up to the gym every afternoon and being hustled out for long sessions of physical and strategic con- ditioning. Since the school had almost doubled its enrollment of the previous year, many new arrivals earnestly competed for varsity positions. An eight-game schedule which had been arranged for the season was a stimulus that roused us to give a peak performance before the critical eyes of the coach. The sophomore team of Belmont High provided the season's first opposition, and we made the pilgrimage to the neighboring town full of confidence. The starting backs were Collins, Dailey, R. Donahue Qveterans from the preceding yearD and George Gilbert, a newcomer. In the line could be distin- guished onlyeone new face, tangy Ed Murphy at end, and the skyscraper lad was in the experienced company of Bob and George Baker, Lydon, Shaun Kelly, McCarron and Kickham. That our confidence in the team was justified became apparent as the game settled down to an even battle. Our oppo- nents scored first and kicked the point, but Richie Donahue made it his personal business to even the tally by scoring seven points soon after half-time. Thereafter the contest threatened to develop into a stalemate until a very excusable muff of a long punt turned the tide of battle against us and Belmont emerged the victor 12-7. The next two games also found us on the wrong end of the score. Rivers School visited our field and brought along a bull- dozer who answered to the name of Billy Ormsby, and that gentleman personally es- corted the pigskin over the goal on four occasions and was the chief factor in our 38-0 defeat. Our Jimmy Collins threw every- thing he had into the breach in a vain attempt to bottle up his friendly enemy , but nothing could halt the visiting star's field day. A week later we entertained Sacred Heart of Newton only to be nosed out because of our failure to convert. Collins and R. Donahue plunged over for scores but they were not enough to avert a 14-12 decision. It was in this game that gangling Ed Murphy made his interception that prefaced a 70-yard run to within inches of pay dirt. Another feature of the contest was the play of the Shea twins in the Sacred Heart line. So much for the blue notes . From this point forward we forged a chain of victories that numbered five straight triumphs to end the season in a blaze of glory. The first link was made at the expense of the neighboring Presentation team, although the opposition put up a stubborn resistance and only bowed to us as the result of Gilbert's tally and Richie's placement. Fr. Collins handled the team in the absence of Mr. Duffy and we did not dare lose! Revenge was sweet when we went back to Belmont for a return game and won a

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SPORTS HISTORY 1941-1945 -nu- THE athletic history of St. Sebastian's has been made in great part by the members of the class of 1945, and, for that reason, this chronicle, in which the names of our classmates Will appear time and time again, assumes the proportions of a labor of love. lt takes a long stretch of the imagination to visualize now, at this day and date, the humble beginnings of organized sport here on Nonantum Hill. The School had opened in September, 1941, hence our first athletic efforts were in the realm of Football. Super- intending our infant steps was a capable coach, Mr. Bernard T. Duffy, who could scarcely have been expected to enthuse over the motley array of candidates that con- fronted him. Every lad in the school went out for the team, but the squad had far more enthusiasm than it had talent. After having appraised our individual and col- lective capabilities, the athletic mentor wisely decided that we should confine our- selves temporarily to six-man football . There followed then several weeks of in- tensive drill, the backfleld men receiving specialized instruction and the line candi- dates amateurishly endeavoring to learn their assignments. Gur efforts were rewarded by the scheduling of a game with Shady Hill School of Cambridge for mid-October. The contest was scheduled for the opponents' field and was eventually started, after much confusion resulting from our inability to locate the gridiron and the failure of the long-anticipated Red and Black jersies to arrive before we left for the game. When astra? PPI ' the opening whistle blew, we Helded this im- posing collection of future football greats. Bob Baker and Barry at the ends, George Baker at center, Co-Captain Richie Donahue and jimmy Collins together with Dailey in the backfield. To say that these stalwarts functioned as a smoothly operating machine would be hyperbole , but our heroes rallied after a rocky first half and managed to eke out a 12-12 tie. The grandstand quarter- backs, however, saw hope for the future in Richie Donahue's 80-yard break-away from scrimmage for a score and Collins' accurate passing. On the strength of our showing against Shady Hill, it was decided that we could take the field again-this time against Cambridge School of Weston. Our opponents descended upon us supported by a large cheering- section, but this did not daunt our warriors who pushed across four touchdowns and followed them up with an equal number of conversions. The final score was 28-13 and just about demonstrates the relative superi- ority ofthe Red and Black that day. The time had now arrived, we felt, to hazard an attempt at orthodox football with an 11 man complement. We played two games of that type, both of which resulted in defeats: the first at the hand of the Rindge Tech J.V.'s to the tune of 18-7, and the second to the Malden Catholic lI.V.'s by a 25-0 score. In these last two contests, the original nucleus of six stars was aug- mented by the presence of Kickham and Shaun Kelly at the tackle positions, and

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STUDENT MANAGERS .Yei1red.' Holes, Glashccn .SifzlIILff7l'Q,' Fichmcr, T. Bgirrcrru THE FIRST PIGSKIN Collins, Glushccn, Eastwood THRGUGH THE UPRIGHTS McCz1rron sharpcns up his eye, Baker assisting