FILE PHOTO
English athletic director Dick Newton is one of the players from the 1976 Classical-English Thanksgiving Day game invited to take part in a ceremonial coin toss Thursday.
By STEVE KRAUSE
LYNN — Prior to Thursday’s English-Classical football game, there will be a special coin toss for a special group of athletes.
Thursday will be the 40th anniversary of one of Lynn’s most historic Thanksgiving Day games — the 1976 game that pitted two one-loss teams with a high school Super Bowl at stake.
Whichever team won would accumulate enough points in the old Massachusetts high school rating system to earn a trip to Schaefer Stadium (as it was called at the time) to play the Division 2 Super Bowl.
Classical won the game, 7-0, with the late Jay Alicudo scoring the only touchdown of the game, and then kicking the extra point.
Paul Baribeau, a senior fullback on that team, wants to get a group of players to gather for the coin toss to mark the occasion.
Baribeau invites not only seniors from that game, which include the likes of Arthur Akers, Ed Thurman and Lew Reynolds from Classical; and himself and Mark Holey from English; but any juniors, such as current English athletic director Dick Newton, and sophomores from the squad.
“My biggest memory of that game is how both teams played their hearts out,” said Baribeau, who was the game’s offensive MVP. “It was a very even game. Very physical. We may have won our battles, but they won the war.”
As is often the case after these types of games, “We’ve all become friends later in life. Great friends. It didn’t matter, race, color, creed.
“I hope when we get out there, that seeing those guys will get the memories flowing.”
Classical ended up winning the Division 2 Super Bowl that year, 20-12, over Wilmington.
Among the coaches on the field that day were Billy Wise of Classical and Bill Hall of English; and assistants Peter Pedro and Eddie Toner of English.
Players included Akers, Thurman, Dan Dufour, Reynolds, Alicudo, and Joe Pannucci of Classical; and Holey, Newton, Baribeau, Mike Hanlon, Jim Reddington, Jimmy Sapia, Norm Saunders and Mike Sullivan of English.
“It was a different time,” said Baribeau. “We couldn’t wait to get out there and play. Now, you can’t find kids to play.”
Also, he said, “this was old Manning Bowl. I think there had to be about 18,000 people there that day. That’s on a scale close to what it was like when Harry Agganis played there.”
In the end, he said, “everyone respected everyone. There were no bragging rights. They may have won the game, but to me, everyone was a winner that day.”
Newton said while invitations have been extended, he doesn’t know how many people will be there.
“We’ll take it as it comes,” he said.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].
