HISTORY:
High School football came to Billerica just after
the turn of the century. Some sources
show the Howe
School with a team as far back as 1901, some don’t show a team until
1920. No hard evidence excises showing
just when the first Billerica team came about.
In the beginning Billerica played under the name of Howe High School, named after the
founder of the old Howe School, Dr. Zadock Howe, until 1955 when the first Billerica
Memorial High School team took the field. The green and white had to play more established teams during the
early years and did not see very much success.
The Korsusch Field in North
Billerica was the first home field for the Indian gridmen. The games were
played there until 1938 when the new Works Projects Administration (WPA) field
was built behind Howe High School. In
1950, Memorial Field on Campbell Road shared the duties as home field with the
old WPA field. In 1955 Memorial field
(The Chuck Lampson field today) served as sole home site of Billerica football
games. In 1972, the Indians moved to
their present home at the Marshall Middle School and they have played there
ever since.
Billerica & Howe high have been
blessed with many fine coaches. Victor
Adams was the coach in the beginning, followed by Robert Borrows in 1925. Roy Adams became coach a few years later and
then gave way to Chet Ingraham in 1937.
Rodney Dresser served Howe in 1941 before Chuck Lampson took over in
1942. Lampson went into the army for
three years starting in 1943. Bill
O’Neal took over and led HHS to the 1943 Lowell Suburban Championship before
Phil Collins took over for 1944 and half of 1945. Ingraham came back to finish out the year.
Lampson returned in 1946 and led the
green and white through its most successful period until 1965. Under Lampson, Howe won the Lowell Suburban
League title in 1942, 1951 and 1952. The 1952 team went undefeated (9-0-0) and
won the State Class D championship.
For the next six years Billerica was
forced to play a major independent schedule as Wilmington, Dracut and
Burlington led a boycott of Howe & BMHS. This prevented Billerica from
participating in the reorganization of the LSL in 1955 when it became the
Lowell Suburban Conference. In 1959 the
boycott ended and Billerica entered the Suburban Conference winning the title
that first year.
The decade of the 1960’s was a bad
time for Billerica in football. The team had only one winning season, 1960, and
they finished at the bottom of the MVC three times, 1962, 1964 and 1968. The decade did bring in some shining
moments. Ray Demers 51 yard field goal
at Methuen, in 1965, set a school and conference record. Beating Chelmsford, 24-6, on Thanksgiving
morning, 1968, to end a 14 game winless streak. The 1969 upset of Andover (18-12) and forcing a tie with Wilmington
(6-6) that same year, which cost WHS the conference championship.
Lampson retired as coach in 1965 and
was replaced by Paul Whitley. The
school’s athletic program went through some rapid growth in the late 60s. This hurt the football team as students
chose the newer sports, which took some good talent away from football. Whitley had some difficult times because of
this, as the team had only one winning season (1970) during his time. The only thing that went right for Whitley
was that he defeated Chelmsford twice in 1968 & 1970.
Clyde Meyerhoeffer took over for
Whitley in 1973 and Billerica began to improve on their overall team records,
but the team just didn’t have that extra push to win the Merrimack Valley
Conference championship. Meyerhoeffer
stayed for 10 years (1973 to 1982) and was replaced by Mike Esposito.
The team rebounded nicely during
Esposito’s first few years, but as the 1980s came to a close, the team hit rock
bottom. Billerica lost 16 straight
games and Esposito resigned as coach after a winless 1989 season.
Peter Flynn was hired as coach in
1990. The losing streak reached to 18
until week three vs. Methuen. Billerica
has known nothing but winning and success since then.
In
1993, Billerica won their first Merrimack Valley Conference Championship in 34
years and defeated Woburn, 27-7, in the E-Mass Division 2A State Championship
Game. The Super Bowl title was the
first state title for a Billerica team in 41 years. It was the first under the Super Bowl format, which the state
imposed in 1972. The Super Bowl also
marked the first time Billerica played a football game in the month of December
and gave BMHS their first 10 win season.
1999
saw a return to the Super Bowl as the Indians went undefeated in league
play. The return trip to the bowl was
clinched with a thrilling, 9-7, victory over Chelmsford, in an undefeated
showdown, on Thanksgiving.
Billerica faced Newton North on Boston University’s
Nickerson Field for their second post-season game in school history. The Indians rallied from a fifteen point
halftime deficit to defeat the Tigers, 37-15, to earn their third state
football title, their second under the Super Bowl format, in school history.
This first decade of the new century &
millennium has seen Billerica in the think of the hunt in the Merrimack Valley
Conference, but the team fell short of the league crown and state playoff
births until 2005 when Indians put together another strong team that went
undefeated in the MVC and took home their third league title under Flynn’s
leadership. The team earned a trip to
the playoffs with a thrilling, 21-0, win over Chelmsford on Thanksgiving,
however, the season ended with a tough loss to Woburn in semi-finals.
The future looks bright for Billerica football as
they keep playing at a level that has kept BMHS at or near the top every year.
RECORDS
& STATS:
The
following pages are the records and stats for the Howe High School Warrior and Billerica
Memorial High School Indian football teams. They are complete back to the 1930s. These records and stats can and will change
several times as future teams come in and if more information about the past is
found. ENJOY!