High school football champs from 1953 are planning a reunion.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

RUMFORD – In 1953, 39 Stephens Memorial High School football players formed one of the most unusual teams in Maine.

Not only did the team have a front line that weighed an average 150 pounds, but it was the smallest-sized squad in state Class A play and the smallest school in the division, said full back Henry Harlow.

“We’d walk out on the field and we’d be referred to as the ‘Seven Dwarfs and Three Midgets,'” Harlow said Wednesday evening while reminiscing about Rumford’s last team to win a Class A state championship football title.

“We were outweighed every game by 30 to 50 pounds and we only had an enrollment of 432 kids, but we played teams from schools that had enrollments from between 1,200 and 1,500 kids,” he added.

Other odds to overcome included having only 17 returning lettermen and losing quarterback Dan Orino, who crushed his cheekbone during a tackling drill a week before the season began.

However, Orino proved to be an excellent punter and extra-point kicker, Thurlow said. Louie Irish, “an exceptionally good” defensive player who had played quarterback as a freshman, took over the helm for the Panthers, he added.

But sports prognosticators took all of those factors into consideration and picked the Rumford team to finish last by season’s end in a league that fielded teams from Lewiston, Bangor, Augusta, Waterville, Mexico, Auburn and South Portland.

That’s why their 8-1 record and league championship win against South Portland with coaches Ralph Parmigiane, George “Puggy” Gallant and Edgar Turmelle was so sweet, Harlow said.

“We were picked to be in last place but we had tremendous speed and a great coach. In our second game against Lewiston, the Lewiston Sun Journal predicted we’d be beaten 34-6, but we beat them 7-0. The only game we were favored to win outside of Mexico, we lost,” he added.

They were defeated 25-7 by Edward Little in Auburn.

Other than losing Orino at quarterback, “we were lucky that we didn’t have any injuries. But it was one of those exceptional years where everyone on the team had speed,” Thurlow said, noting that many of them could run the 100-yard dash in just over 10 seconds.

He attributed that speed and team toughness to conditioning and “The Hill,” a steep slope behind the end zone and toward the baseball field.

“The conditioning we had was unbelievable. We had to run up and down ‘The Hill’ for 10 to 15 minutes, piggyback, and that was at the end of practice,” he said.

Their last game of the season was supposed to be at Mexico, but a snowstorm had postponed the game before against South Portland in Rumford. So the team played and beat Mexico, then four days later, took on South Portland for the state title.

“We were ahead 19-14 until I intercepted a pass at their 35 yard line with four minutes left in the game and ran it back for the clinching touchdown. Winning that game and the title was like being on top of the world,” Thurlow said.

Members of that memorable team were Tony Koris, Arthur Patrie, Ralph DeSalle, Clifford Scott, Gerry Locke, Bob Watson, Bob Cote, George Bourassa, Marshall Scott, Dick Richardson, Walter Abbott, Frank Johnson, Ken Shea, Severin Beliveau, Roger Pepin, Orino, Bob Rouleau, John Rivard, Bob Lambert, Bob Routhier, Girard Lambert, John Amero, Albert Pomerleau, Robert Broomhall, Jim Bragoon, Bob Fallon, Eddy Bishop, Eddy Berry, Francis Paul, Bill Auger, Harlow, Irish, “Patsy” Umbro, Bob Roderick, Bob Porter, William Legere, Ernest Boudreau, Eddy Gauthier and Bob Boufford.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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