Tradition, and TDs, on hold at Chelsea High
This morning droopy-eyed but devoted high school football fans will file into Chelsea Memorial Stadium. They will roar when a touchdown is scored, rail when a call goes against their team, and spend two hours rooting feverishly for the home side. But no one will be cheering for Chelsea High.
Everett to clash with Cambridge. Page 15
For the first time since 1927, Chelsea is not playing a football game on Thanksgiving Day. In early October, the high school suspended its varsity program after two games because of safety concerns, resulting from low turnout -- the team had fewer than two dozen players -- and a rash of injuries. Chelsea forfeited its remaining seven games, including today's scheduled tilt with Everett's Pope John High School. So instead of Chelsea versus Pope John, the recently rededicated Veterans Field at Chelsea Memorial Stadium will host the Matignon-Arlington Catholic game today.
Chelsea High athletic director Frank DePatto said it is going to be strange not seeing his team take the field. ''It is going to be a funny feeling," said DePatto. ''Usually we have a number of alumni that come together before the game and meet over coffee and doughnuts, but even that legend is going to stop for a year. That is kind of sad.
''We have a rich tradition of playing varsity football at Chelsea. We have played for more than 100 years. It's not a pretty scenario, but we had to do it for the kids."
For longtime followers of Chelsea football, the loss of today's game is the culmination of a steady decline that began in 1989, when the Red Devils discontinued their long-running Thanksgiving rivalry with neighboring Everett. The two teams began play in the 1890s, and squared off every Thanksgiving between 1931 and 1989. But when it became apparent that Chelsea, which plays in Division 6, could no longer compete with Everett, a Division 1 powerhouse, the Red Devils replaced their traditional foe with Pope John in 1990. While the games went on, the new series has never held the same sway with Chelsea fans.
''You got your people that went, but you didn't get enormous crowds," said Arnold Goodman, a Chelsea High alumnus and former teacher who spent two decades as the public address announcer for Chelsea football games and writes a local sports column. ''It wasn't a natural rivalry. Everett-Chelsea -- that was magic, that was electricity."
Although Chelsea was usually on the losing end of things -- the school finished the series with a 13-65-6 mark -- the fans' fervor for the game was unaffected. Saul Nechtem, former athletic director at Chelsea High, recalls crowds of 8,000 to 10,000 at the Everett game. ''We could almost be assured to have a full house regardless of what we did for the year," said Nechtem, who was Chelsea AD from 1962 to 1988. ''If we went to Everett or they came to Chelsea, whatever seats we had were full."
How big was the game? Everett High coach John DiBiaso Jr., whose father, John DiBiaso Sr., was an assistant at Chelsea High from 1960-66, recalled the welcome the team received in 1963 after defeating an Everett squad that appeared destined for a state title.
''I remember driving through Chelsea on the back of a fire engine and people were clapping and crying," said the Everett coach and former Crimson Tide player. ''[The rivalry] was so one-sided that when Chelsea won it was a monumental celebration."
But sometimes the passion for the rivalry got out of hand. The teams' final meeting, 14 years ago, was called with 7 minutes remaining when a fight erupted between the players, and fans stormed the field. Everett, which was leading, 32-0, at the time, was awarded the win.
It was not the first time a Chelsea-Everett clash resulted in violence. In 1937, Chelsea, which entered the game 0-9 against Everett on Thanksgiving (the teams played on the holiday briefly from 1910-1912) and 0-22 all-time, defeated Everett, 6-0, for its first ever win in the series. Or so it was believed. (Everett High football historian Arnie Boardman later uncovered that Chelsea had defeated Everett, 6-0, in 1901.) Enraged Everett fans pelted the house of their then-head coach, Dennis Gildea, with stones and tore up the fence in front of the home of Chelsea High halfback John Grigas, who had scored the winning touchdown.
The furor reached a crescendo two days after the game, when police from both cities fired their weapons to disperse a throng of opposing fans who had gathered in Chelsea's Washington Square, according to newspaper accounts of the day.
Chelsea's signature victory in the series came just five years later. Trailing Everett, 12-0, in the fourth quarter, Chelsea rallied to win, 13-12. Chelsea halfback Bill Lewis cemented his place in series lore when he raced 51 yards around right end for the winning score with five minutes remaining. Although there were no reports of violence, to this day Everett fans who were in attendance argue that Lewis's foot touched out of bounds during the glorious gallop.
But there will be no arguments or celebrations today -- something that saddens Nechtem.
''The beauty of [the Thanksgiving] game was when people moved out of Chelsea . . . they came home, not only to cheer for the Chelsea team, but to socialize," he said. ''They would meet each other and talk old times. It was great."
DePatto understands the game will be missed, but believes that Chelsea residents understand why the team isn't playing today. ''I think people realize we made the right decision and that the safety of the players should come first," he said. ''And, we are going to resume varsity football next year."
Chelsea High coach Andy O'Brien, who declined to have his players interviewed for this story, said the team, which returns all 21 players next season, is excited about getting back to the varsity level and has already mapped out a weightlifting program to prevent some of the injuries that occurred this season. He also said the team benefited from getting a taste of success at the subvarsity level, where it posted a 3-0-2 mark.
Pope John athletic director Ken Peavey said his school is looking forward to reviving its Thanksgiving Day game with Chelsea next year, so it appears the Red Devils absence from high school football's most celebrated day could be just a one-year deal.
O'Brien, who has fond memories of playing for Stoneham on Thanksgiving against rival Reading, vowed next year will be different.
''We will work our tails off to make sure the varsity program is back in place and we get back to that Thanksgiving Day game."
Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com.
