Over 200 Marblehead and Swampscott football alums met at the Gerry No. 5 Veteran Fireman’s Association function hall on Nov. 24 night for the annual Old Timers night hosted by the Marblehead Gridiron Club.
“This is really quite unique,” said Evan Harris, president of the Marblehead Gridiron Club and a member of the MHS class of 1976. “I know of no other two rival towns that would do anything like this. It’s something everyone looks forward to. You see old friends and teammates and people you played against. It’s just a whole bunch of fun and it’s a great way to kick off the Thanksgiving week.”
The dinner, hosted each year by the Gridiron Club of the home team for the Thanksgiving morning game, is a major source of funding for the two club’s scholarship funds and the youth football programs in each town.
Graduates from eight different decades were represented at the dinner, spanning from the 1950s all the way to members of Marblehead’s 2021 state championship winning team.
“I just talked with someone from the class of 1960 and I’m sure there’s a few people who have been around longer,” said Josh Robertson (MHS 2022). “Having such a wide range of graduates, just seeing what it was like for them in the program a while ago… it’s just a special program.”
Volunteers running a 50/50 raffle at the Thanksgiving Day game were also in attendance Nov. 24.
“It’s nice to see a lot of these guys who I actually saw as a kid,” said Barbara-Sue Roselle, the lone Swampscott graduate on the raffle crew. “I think I was one of the first Powderpuff participants. When I was a senior in high school, we challenged the juniors at Swampscott and we had a game on Blocksidge Field and Coach [Stan] Bondalevitch let us wear the football uniforms. I remember back in 1959, kicking a field goal at Blocksidge field. I can’t remember if it was good or if it was bad, but [the powderpuff game] goes way back.”
The highlight of the night came during speeches from the two head coaches, Swampscott’s Peter Bush and Marblehead’s Jim Rudloff, as well as former NFL offensive lineman and New England Patriots Hall of Famer, Matt Light. Light is the founder and president of the Light Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping young people develop leadership and career skills as well as funding academic scholarships for students in the greater New Bedford area and his native Darke County, Ohio.
“This event is near and dear to me,” said Light. “Dirk and Tara [Martin] have been incredible volunteers for the work we do at the Light Foundation. He asked me to come up and say a few words tonight. I’m more than happy to do so.”
Light, a native of Greenville, Ohio, also recognized the unique nature of Thanksgiving morning high school football, a tradition seldom seen outside of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey.
“This Thanksgiving game is an interesting concept,” said Light. “We didn’t do this where I grew up. This lag between the end of the season and this last game and what it represents for the respective towns is unique.”
As hundreds of alums from the rival teams shared a steak and fish dinner together, Light said: “Maybe the government can learn something from a moment like this.”
