Amazing Football Team of 1934
Even if the Patriots had won the Super Bowl, their “perfect season” would be nothing compared to the 1934 season of the North Attleboro High School football team: they were undefeated and unscored upon. Jem, one of the main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird would have risked more than a broken arm to play on that team.
Here’s what the Evening Chronicle article about the 1934 closing Thanksgiving game against Attleboro said about the team: “The doughty band of crimson-jerkined youngsters with spartanic grit and courage repulsed every attack of a great Attleboro eleven, which had never before tasted defeat, and when the final whistle had blown they stood on the pinnacle among Massachusetts schoolboy elevens - the only one undefeated and unscored-on in the 1934 crusade.”
Football was primarily a college sport when it began in 1869, but high schools quickly formed their own teams. The North Attleboro-Attleboro rivalry predates 1921, but had been interrupted due to a ban on the sport in the early part of the 20th century. Without television, local sports were a popular source of entertainment. Players were on the field for the whole game, playing both offense and defense and were not as specialized as they are now. In the 1934 Thanksgiving game, the captain of the team kicked off, passed and ran for the one touchdown.
The first team is composed of, Louis Difiore fullback; Norman Poirier, quarterback; Hubert Rice, left half; Capt. Maurice Fournier, right half; Harold Tennant, left end; Russsell Smith, right end; Stanley Lycus, right tackle; Ray Bozzo, left tackle; Jack Daly, right guard; Bancroft Austin, left guard and Nate Phipps, center. Others on the team were Clifford Wise, Norman Benoit, Joe Tremblay, Ray Collard, Eli Beaupre, Walter LaRosee, Eugene Lorden, Emil Jacobs, Arthur Irvine, Cordner Stuart, Tony Difiore, William Thorp, Clinton Tingley, Herbert Ballou, Ray Brastow, Harold Hall, William Prew, Orin Armstrong, Whicott Robinson, Joseph Kivlin, Raymond Vandette and Leonard Simms. The head coach was Raymond Yates and his assistants were Roland Chandler and Charles Wettergreen.
Beatrice Montplaisir left her scrapbooks of North Attleboro life to the Falls Fire Barn. She had clippings on the reunion of the 34 team which allowed me to find the article and picture in the microfilm. Her scrapbooks are organized by theme and make for fascinating reading. This picture (wrongly labeled The Champs … 1933) was in the paper. Maurice Fournier and Eli Beaupre died in WWII.
Join the Big Read by reading To Kill a Mockingbird or the biography of Harper Lee, Mockingbird, and by attending one of the many events during the month of March. Visit the website RMLonline.org and click on The Big Read logo for more information or stop by at the library.
