St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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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

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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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clean cut victory by a 21-O count, Richie Donahue registering every one of the points. Noble and Greenough served as the next victim, the Dedhamites yielding to us via Gilbert's fancy end sweep which Richie punctuated to make the total 7-O. We prowled farther afield for our next scalp, luring Franklin Freeman High School all the way from Franklin, Mass. A windy day vetoed any passing efforts, so we em- phasized power plays that clicked invariably and catapulted Collins, Marshall, Dailey and Richie QtWiceD across the last white line, the latter using his educated toe to garner three extra points and swell the margin to 33-6. The last game of the season saw us facing St. Bridget's of Framingham, and Fr. Collins again handling the coaching reins. The country lads gave us trouble enough but we eked out a 7-0 verdict, Don Marshall scoring the lone touchdown, and Bob Baker coming into the backfield to pass to R. Donahue for the seventh point. At the end of the competitive season it was announced that an inter-squad game would be played between rival Red and Blue teams, in keeping with long-estab- lished private school traditions. Two cap- tains were elected and they, together with the coach and Fr. Collins, divided the school's manpower equally. The contest came off in late November and was marked by a spirited aggressiveness that no other game had evoked. Even families were di- vided on the issue, with brother being pitted against brother. When the smoke of battle had cleared away, the Reds had triumphed by a 9-O edge, and Captain Richie Donahue had won the right to have his name and his team's score emblazoned on a commemorative plaque that would hang in the dining hall and inform posterity of the epic struggle waged that day. Thus our second football year became a matter of history and we could well take pride in the late season surge that made the record read five victories and three defeats. When we met again in a football atmos- phere, we found a changed scene. To his deep regret our coach of former years had found it impossible in the face of war-time duties, to continue his work at St. Sebastian's, and he had been succeeded by Mr. Vincent P. Murphy. Then too the spacious gym locker- rooms of previous years seemed to have con- tracted suddenly and grown smaller, but closer investigation proved this to be a mere delusion caused by the presence of almost 80 boys, more than twice the enrollment of 1942. We sized up our new instructor rather cautiously, sensing the fact that the athletic destinies of the school hung in the balance, contingent on his success. We were not forced to suspend judgment long. Right from the start Vin showed a love for sports, a thorough grasp of the game and a drive that could not fail to bring out the best that was in us. We marvelled at his ability to organize effi- ciently such an unwieldy group of candi- dates, and when we found that he was as quick to praise as he was to call us on a boner , we said: He's our man . Time has not altered that verdict. Three weeks of intensive, preparatory drill were put in under our new coach, a period which he used to try out veterans and novices with equal impartiality. By the time that the first game on the schedule loomed into view he had settled on the following line-up: Barry and Ellard, ends, Doherty and Bob Shea, tackles, Lydon and George Baker, guards, McCarron, center. The backfield was composed of Captain Collins, Bob Baker, Joe O'Connell and McGrath.