BY THE DECADES: Several Central Mass. high school football programs have boasted top marks over 10-year periods

High school football in Central Mass. has entered its 16th decade, the roots of the game going back to the 1880s.

It began to take hold on a widespread basis in the late 1890s and by 1900, almost every high school in the area with 11 boys enrolled had a team. The cities and big towns had teams — Worcester, Gardner, Leominster, Fitchburg, Clinton, Marlborough and Hudson.

Hardwick High had a team. So did Warren, Upton, Barre, Douglas and North Brookfield, although those schools did not play many games before running out of healthy bodies.

Through those 13 decades, the fortunes of Central Mass. schools have ebbed and flowed.

This recounting of the ups and downs will show how that has happened. It is a list of the best records in Central Mass. by decade; the actual calendar decade and not random 10-year selections.

It starts with 1900-1909, when scores became more consistently available, and includes our current decade to date. Teams must have played at least 80 games in the decade to qualify except for the current one.

The list:

1900-1909

Best record: Leominster, 56-32-15, .615

Notes: Leominster beat out second-place Gardner by the margin of one game. Gardner was 56-33-13, .613. However, there is controversy. The teams played a disputed game on Nov. 5, 1904. It ended in a brawl, as often happened back then, and Gardner claimed a 5-0 victory.

Leominster maintained that it scored after the brawl broke out and won, 6-5. The Gardner paper, and Mike Richard — the Godfather of Central Mass. football research — gave Gardner the win. The Leominster Enterprise awarded it to Leominster.

A neutral party, the Worcester Telegram, gave it to Leominster, so that’s how it stands in our records. Swap the result, and Gardner is the winner of the decade.

1910-1919

Best record: Fitchburg, 64-30-9; .665

Notes: The decade marked the debut of Fitchburg coach Clarence Amiott. He would go on to become one of the greatest coaches in Central Mass. history. He coached from 1913 to 1919, taking a year off for military service in 1918. His teams were 50-13-4 in six seasons during the decade. By the time Amiott retired after the 1937 season, his record was 150-51-11.

From 1914 through 1917, Fitchburg was 35-5-3, and 32 of those victories were shutouts.

1920-1929

Best record: Fitchburg, 68-35-4, .654

Notes: More Amiott, but Phil Tarpey and Bart Hodge also coached. There were two tremendous teams, 1922 and 1927. In 1922, Fitchburg was 10-1 and outscored the opposition, 264-43. Its only loss was to Proviso High of Chicago on a trip out there in November. In 1927, Tarpey coaching, Fitchburg was 9-1 with nine shutouts. Its only loss was to Malden, 7-0, and it outscored its opponents by 278-7.

1930-1939

Best record: Leominster, 76-20-2, .735

The north county continued its dominance of Central Mass. football, although that dominance began with a tragedy. Leominster coach Ray Comerford, whose team went 8-2 in 1930, died in August 1931. He drowned while trying to save a 12-year-boy from drowning off a beach in Marshfield.

To replace Comerford, Leominster hired Charlie Broderick away from Amesbury. He was 3-5 in his first year at Leominster. It was his last losing season for 14 years, and in ’32, Leominster had a 10-0 record, including victories over Cambridge Latin, Amesbury and Rogers High of Newport, Rhode Island.

1940-1949

Best record: Shrewsbury, 61-26-3, .695

Notes: Shrewsbury ended the north county’s streak of dominance with a great decade that was overshadowed by World War II. Shrewsbury limped into the ‘40s having gone through a merry-go-round of coaches. Ray Needham, hired in 1940, was the school’s fifth in four seasons. Needham also coached in 1941, then was succeeded by Frank Bergstrom, who never had a losing record in 12 years at Shrewsbury.

Shrewsbury was 18-1-1 in 1945 and ’46, its record blemished by a loss to Hudson in 1945 and a 6-6 tie with Holden on Veterans Day in 1946. The ’47 team featured the leading scorer in Central Mass., running back Gil Burrell. He had 73 points in 10 games — 12 touchdowns and one PAT.

1950-1959

Best record: Gardner, 73-14-2, .831

Notes: The Wildcats put together the best decade in Central Mass. history, each season under coach Walt Dubzinski. Gardner had three perfect 9-0 years— 1950, 1954, 1958 — and outscored the opposition by 1,824-567. The Wildcats were two points away from four perfect seasons. They were 8-1 in 1956, the loss being 13-12 to Leominster.

The 1950 team included lineman Frank Morze, who went on to play 84 games in the National Football League, first with the 49ers, then with the Browns. It won the state Class B championship. The 1954 team was paced by Stan Merkel, who led Central Mass. in scoring with 120 points.

1960-1969

Best record: Tie; Algonquin, 61-24-2; Gardner, 60-23-3; both .713.

The Wildcats were not as good as in the ‘50s but were still very good. When they were 2-6 under coach Marty Anderson in 1969, it snapped a streak of 20 straight winning years.

Algonquin was in its second year of regionalization in 1960 and led by Dick Walsh, one of the area’s greatest coaches. He took over in 1957 when the school was still Northborough High. In th ‘60s, Algonquin was never perfect, but five of its 10 seasons included only one defeat.

Nashoba Regional rates an honorable mention. It inaugurated football in 1961 and played just 73 games in the decade, all for coach Everett Ingalls, but went 57-13-3 in those games for a .801 winning percentage.

1970-1979

Best record: Leominster, 80-19-0, .808.

Broderick was gone, but the Blue Devils kept winning. This time, Huck Hannigan coached for the decade’s first six years, Pete Beaulieu for the final four. Leominster had two 11-0 seasons, one for Hannigan in 1974 and another for Beaulieu in ’78.

The decade included two 18-game winning streaks. From 1973 into ’75, Leominster won 18 in a row and also from 1977 into ’79. The Blue Devils won Super Bowls in 1973, 1974 and 1978. They scored 13 points in each of the victories.

1980-1989

Best record: Northbridge, 77-23-4, .760

The Rams barely edged Leominster, which won one fewer game, or the Blue Devils would have been back-to-back decade champions. In Ken LaChapelle’s first full decade as coach, Northbridge was 9-1 to open the decade and closed it with an 11-0 season in 1989.

The Rams went to four Super Bowls and went 2-2 in those games. Two of the bowls were against Assabet Valley, and Northbridge lost the first, 21-20, and won the second, 13-12. In ’83, back Steve Heney led Central Mass. in scoring with 154 points.

1990-99

Best record: Northbridge, 83-25-1, .766

Again the Rams played in four Super Bowls and went 2-2. They did not have any perfect seasons but went 11-1 in 1997 and ’98. Their 1997 defeat was a 13-12 loss to Oxford. Northbridge had a rare losing season in 1999 to close the decade, going 5-6. It could have been 6-5 save for another 13-12 loss, this one to Grafton. In 1998, Rick Asadoorian led Central Mass. in scoring with a then-record 177 points.

2000-2009

Best record: St. John’s, 86-26-0, .768

The Pioneers played under two coaches in the decade, Tony Wood for the first four years and John Andreoli for the last six. They were perfect in 2001 with an 11-0 mark, including a Super Bowl triumph over Longmeadow. St. John’s winning streak extended to 18 games before a 42-0 loss to Leominster on Nov. 9, 2002.

The Pioneers were 5-0 in five Super Bowls during the decade, 6-0 in playoff games overall, and lost only 16 games to Central Mass. teams.

2010-2019

Best record: Nashoba, 98-23-0, .810

This is the most victories in any decade for a Central Mass. school. Both coaches were Tuckers — Ken for the first three years, son Jamie for the next seven. During the decade, Nashoba had three 13-0 seasons and had six years of plus-10 wins.

From 2011 into 2013, Nashoba had a 29-game winning streak, second-longest in the history of the area. It played in six Super Bowls and won four of them.

An honorable mention: From 2000 through 2019, Auburn was 173-61 and had a 41-game winning streak, but its biggest successes came late in the 2000s and early in the 2010s, so the numbers are divided.

2020-2023

Best record: West Boylston, 36-5-0, .878

There is still a long way to go in the current decade, but the Lions have put up some stunning numbers so far. West Boylston has two games left in 2023. The Lions have a chance to put together the region’s first perfect season since St. John’s was 13-0 in 2017, and a chance to become just the seventh Central Mass. team to score 500 points in a season, the first since St. Bernard’s in 2018.

—Contact Bill Ballou at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BillBallouTG.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Here are Central Mass. football's winningest programs, by the decades