SAUGUS — If there’s anyone who should know the Saugus-Peabody rivalry, it’s Sachem alumnus Gene Decareau.
A former offensive and defensive end for the Sachems in the mid-to-late 1940s, Decareau celebrated his 90th birthday Wednesday night by attending the Saugus-Peabody pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Prince Restaurant. The rivalry began in 1944 (with a 19-7 Peabody win), and Decareau graduated in 1948. So in terms of the rivalry, he’s seen it all.
“All I know is that we lost my senior year,” he said. “But over the years, it’s been a real up-and-down rivalry. A lot of good games, and the kids always played hard, but played clean. It’s been a good rivalry.”
Decareau, who has been in the Saugus Lions Club for 51 years (the Lions Clubs of Saugus and Peabody co-sponsor the annual dinner) doesn’t know when the dinner started. But he knows that David J. Lucey (who would go onto become Massachusetts Registrar of Vehicles) was the coach when it began. He was also Decareau’s coach.
In his senior year, Decareau was good enough to make the North Shore All-Star team, and played alongside the late Harry Agganis.
“He was built really solid, and he was really tough to tackle,” Decareau said. “He used to run with his feet spread wide apart, and that made him tough to bring down.”
Off the field?
“He was really a quiet guy,” Decareau said, adding that his quietness didn’t translate into arrogance.
“He just didn’t have much to say.”
Decareau has come to view Thanksgiving as his favorite holiday, and one of the reasons for that is football.
“I love the whole day,” he said. “I was the youngest one of nine, so I loved having everybody together, and I love getting everyone together now. I love the game before the dinner. I just love the whole game.”
Though he’s attended more Saugus-Peabody games than he can count, these days he doesn’t always go.
“It depends on where I am, and where the game is,” he said. “And if it’s too cold, I don’t go. I hate being out in the cold, although my son bought me a heated jacket, so now I guess I have no excuses.”
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Both coaches singled out players for awards Wednesday, but each for different reasons.
Saugus’ Steve Cummings, just wrapping up his first year, presented the Saugus High Heiseman’s Trophy to running back Christian Correia, who was forced to play quarterback this season when the starter was hurt.
“It was one of those years anyway,” said the first-year coach. “We had injuries in the beginning, and a lot of people were playing in different spots.”
Cummings, whose Sachems are 3-7 heading into next Thursday’s game at Stackpole Field, said being quarterback is tougher than it looks because “you’re not just taking snaps, you have to own that huddle.”
Two weeks of watching Correia, Cummings said, and he and his coaching staff wondered how he could have only been doing it for two weeks.
“We were amazed,” he said.
Peabody’s Mark Bettencourt, whose Tanners are also 3-7, tabbed Krisli Miraca as his team’s most dedicated player.
“It’s easy to come to practice when you’re the star,” Bettencourt said. “But give me a guy who’ll go to practice, do everything the star does, and never see the field on Friday nights. They’re good teammates, and those are the guys you need on teams.”
Miraca was one such player.
“He didn’t see the field nearly as often as he would have liked,” Bettencourt said. “But finally, when we needed him, he was there. And he did a good job for us.”
That included a touchdown pass in last Friday’s loss to Lynn English.
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Peabody native Chris Collins, now chief sports anchor for the New England Cable Network (NECN) was the featured speaker Wednesday. Collins told the collection of players, coaches and Lions Club members from both communities that he remembers football games from his youth more than he remembers high school games “because they mattered to me. You remember anything you do that matters to you.
“This game will be in your memories forever,” he said. “High School should be a great time in your life, and you should remember it. You should remember the guys who sat on your left, and sat on your right, and sweated through practices together.”
He said he admired players who persevere even when things get tough, such as when you’re 3-7.
“How easy is it to take that easy road?” he asked. “But you put too much into not to have that courage and confidence you need. That’s powerful stuff.”
He liked it to his own journey as “a young black kid going into the deep South for my first job (in Alexandria, La.). But I always knew I wanted to come back to Boston to be a sports broadcaster, because I wanted mom and dad Collins to be able to see me on TV every night.”
