To this day, it remains one of the two or three most extraordinary sports events that I’ve ever witnessed live. The fact that it was a high school football game, played on Halloween 50 years go, somehow makes it more extraordinary.
That was the day St. John’s Prep — and a rather ordinary Prep team at that — snapped Swampscott High’s 32-game unbeaten streak, 19-13, thanks to a Dave Handy-to-Dana Hughes pass that, between pitch, catch and run, covered 60 yards. It happened just after the Big Blue had taken a 1-point lead.
The people involved helped make this astounding. We had two of the more legendary coaches over the last 60 years going toe-to-toe: Stan Bondelevitch of Swampscott and Fred Glatz of St. John’s. Hughes grew up in Swampscott alongside opposing quarterback Mike Lynch (yes, that Mike Lynch). A very young Frank DeFelice was a coach for the Big Blue. Also on the Blue, among others, was Mike Jauron, whose brother, Dick, is the greatest athlete in Swampscott history.
Context played a huge role. In 1967, St. John’s, with Steve Harrison; and Swampscott, with Dick Jauron, were both undefeated. “Harry” went to Harvard while Jauron went to Yale. Subsequent events make it a not-very-fair comparison between the two, but in high school, it was tougher to say.
The high school Super Bowl wasn’t around in 1967, so when St. John’s beat out Swampscott by the slimmest of margins for the Class B championship, based on a formula that took many factors into account, the Swampscott people weren’t happy. A lot of the usual back-and-forth ensued, and Prep people just got tired of hearing Swampscott folks whine about it.
Mssrs. Hughes, Handy, Hank Healey of the Marblehead Healeys, Mark Occhipinti of the Saugus Occhipintis, and Steve Krause of the Lynn Krauses were all freshman football players at The Prep in 1967. And in the grand tradition of Sesame Street jingles, Krause was one of those things that was not like the others. Captains Healey and Occhipinti, as well as Hughes and Handy, played. I’m honored to tell their story.
If there were a year where Swampscott might have to struggle a bit more than usual to maintain its unbeaten ways, local experts predicted, 1970 would be it.
Meanwhile, St. John’s struggled early, and actually suffered a loss to Peabody prior to that Swampscott game.
Still, the Big Blue unbeaten streak coming into Halloween 1970 was 32 (making for a rather off-color chant by the Prep boys).
From the opening kick, you could see that the Eagles had come to play. They took everything Swampscott dished out, and with 2:00 to go, they had the lead, the ball, and — the good Lord willing — the win.
But the good Lord played tricks. The Prep fumbled. Lynch et al showed their pedigree and three plays after that fumble, Lynch threw a touchdown pass. St. John’s stopped the 2-point conversion attempt, but with about 1:30 to go (you could never tell exactly with those old clocks) Swampscott had the lead. We were crestfallen.
The Eagles got a good return on the kick, and set up at their 40. Handy dropped back, a la Doug Flutie in 1984 in Miami, and launched one that floated right into Hughes’ hands from over his shoulder around the Big Blue 30. Hughes never broke stride, and outran two Swampscott defenders to get into the end zone. There was bedlam, even though there was still more than a minute to go. Walter Herbert’s kick made it 19-13 (Glatz got so caught up in the moment he forgot about trying for 2).
It still wasn’t over. Three plays after getting the ball back on its own 30, Swampscott was inside The Prep’s 30. And it took four gut-wrenching pass plays for the Eagles to finally shut the door and go into victory formation for one play.
Among those reveling in the win were the Marblehead football players, who had come to Blocksidge to watch. On the way home, going through Salem, the Prep bus was cheered on by all the Witches too, as word had spread quickly.
It matters not that a year later, the two teams played again and this time Swampscott scored a one-sided win. Nor does it matter that a year after that, Swampscott beat our Catholic Conference rival (Catholic Memorial) to win the first Super Bowl, with Mike Jauron calling signals.
The Eagles have won five Super Bowls — the last two in a row. They have had some huge wins. But for my money, none of them were as big, or as dramatic, as that one was.