Whenever Offisuh Hardt and I meet to talk about football days, like most people we tend towards the days we were growing up and playing.
The Offisuh enjoyed better days on the gridiron than I, but hell, that’s not much of a cut down. The “Animal” (as he was christened by teammates) enjoyed that distinction with 99 percent of New England schoolboys.
That would put us right between 1958-59 and 1967-68. I surely would have liked to see the late ’40s team with my (late) great buddies, quarterback Freddy Thompson and running back Bill Marcoccio, but Ma would’ve had to push the stroller up to Hayward Field each Saturday, and she was working in Medfield then, so it was a no-go.
So, it was Hayward Field a decade later for us, with Franny Driscoll, Jim Gravel, Mel Santos, George Burns, Eddie Calesa, Bob Minor and tough Joey Stewart, Tommy Carpenter, Art “Butch” Nunes, Mike Shockro and then on up to Big Dave, Dick Ezyk, Frank Marcoccio, Dave Thornhill, Rich Dalpe, Dale Hopkinson, Kevin Nolan, Bill Bergevine, Joe Jillson, and the great defensive destroyer Lenny Lallier.
Then you had teams from other squads in the area – Kevin and Neal Poirier, Tommy Schmidt, Tom and Wes Whidden, Larry and Steve Stack, Jimmy Ferrara, Gary Flynn, Dave Kirby, John Shea, Kerry Horman, Billy Leforte, Dave Laporte, Chris Servant, Lou Gazzola, and....
Ron Gentili. When Hardt and I were 11 or 12, we saw Secretariat packed into the body of a human running back. I recall standing with Dave and Mike Walsh on the sidelines at Hayward Field spellbound and open-mouthed (in my case...) just watching the storied GENTILI running back punts. He was huge, bigger than any other Hornet except teammate and old friend Wally Jordan. His legs looked like they were taken off a Grand Superior diesel. Dear God, anyone trying to stop this man would die – simply die.
If it need be said, our Bombardiers lost that Saturday, though not by much. It seemed to us like a pre-recorded play (like the old “Lonesome End” play Army used to run back then). Need a touchdown? Handoff to Gentili! Need another one? Short pass to Gentili! 98 yards to a touchdown? No problem... Mansfield had the man.
An Attleboro Sun in January 1962, wrote this:
Ron Gentili, the Mansfield High School senior who has already achieved the heights of greatness as an all-around athlete, gained another singular honor today with word that he has been nominated as a candidate for the National High School All-America Football Team.
Selected by a the Wigwam Wisemen of America upon recommendation of the Attleboro Sun, Gentili becomes the 2nd Sun District football player to make the team this year and the 3rd in 2 years. He joins Neal Poirier, the slick North Attleboro quarterback on the 1962 team. Making it a year ago was Jim Gravel of the Attleboro High School who was a member of the Holy Cross freshman team last fall.
Like Gravel, Gentili was a fullback during the 1961 season, but he played at that position for just 2 of his 4 years as a member of the Green Hornets varsity.
The 6-foot-3-inch 200-pounder was a standing regular end as a freshman, switched to fullback during his sophomore year, became a quarterback as a junior, and returned to the fullback post last fall.
Gentili has already been given the green light by his parents and his principal, Harold L. Qualters, to play in the 14th annual national high school game to be staged at Oklahoma City on May 19. He has not yet been selected to be one of the 44 boys participating in the Oklahoma City contest, but is ready to go in the event the invitation is issued.
Gentili is one of the finest all Massachusetts athletes developed in the Sun District and already has more than a dozen colleges on his trail. The young man is currently playing with the Mansfield basketball team for the 4th year and will be a member of the baseball team for the 4th time next spring.
In addition to his prowess on the football field, he is an outstanding football and baseball player. He has been a pitcher on Hornet baseball teams for years and has won 29 games after losing his first. The rugged lad is also a hitter, being used at first when he’s not on the mound. He was voted the outstanding player in the American Legion zone 9 league last summer on the basketball court. He scored 450 points for the Hornets his junior year and led them to the class C championship of the Bay State Tournament.
He holds all basketball scoring records as a freshman, sophomore and junior at Mansfield.
But he’s even better on the foot and ball field, where he registered more points last fall, for the all time scoring leadership in the Sun District. He was 4th in the Massachusetts schoolboy circle in that category. The year before, as a junior and quarterback, he scored and even 100 points. Ron was co-captain or captain of football and basketball as a junior and senior. The election of a captain for the 1962 team has not been yet sent.
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So it went in that period of time. Offisuh Hardt, Walshie and I enjoyed our era of Bombardier memories — will have more of other times, other teams in the future. Peace...