Boston Park League Football Reunion

There is a Boston Park League Football Reunion Saturday September 21, 2013 at 7 pm.  This reunion is for the old Boston Park League's former players, coaches, referees and LOYAL FANS of the old neighborhood teams.  This is a city wide event with all sections of the city being represented.  The event is being held at the Boston Teachers Union Hall in South Boston.  The Park League was instrumental component of the boys growing up in the neighborhoods of Boston and is reflected below by our own Townie Charlie McGonagle.  It was the neighborhoods back then that made as what is referred to as "Boston Strong" today.

                     THE TOWNIES

                   Charlie McGonagle

             It was the 1950’s.  We were all in our teens.  We were the Shamrocks.  Football was our game.  We played it in the Conference League, the lowest level of the Boston Park League.  Each of us lived in Charlestown back then, and Charlestown was just about the only world we knew.  The undisputed king of our neighborhood, at least during the autumn months, was the Charlestown Town Team.  Professional football had not yet come to New England and the “Townies” represented the highest level of football as we knew it then.  The New York Giants were, geographically, the closest professional football team to our town, and to most of us, New York might just as well have been the other side of the earth.  We were the Shamrocks, and our greatest desire was to one day become a “Townie.”

            Time passed, and as we grew older, many of us moved up a few notches in the Boston Park League, and we were to become the Falcons.  Mike Ingemi, a local police officer and former Senior Park League performer himself, was our coach.  Under Mike’s tutelage, we honed our football skills, and the dreams of one day becoming a “Townie” began to appear brighter.

            Over the next few years the possibility of those dreams blossoming into reality became more certain as some of the Falcons were talented enough to move their game in an upward direction.  Those who had proven themselves on the gridiron had finally achieved what they had set out to do back in the days when they were Shamrocks.  Most of us, now old enough to see more clearly, began to accept the fact that we were either too small, too slow,  just not quite strong enough, or maybe a bit of each.  We would not  wear  the “Townie” uniform.   Rather than feeling that our dreams had been shattered, though, we proudly joined a fan base that may have been the largest, and certainly the most enthusiastic, that any Boston Park League Football team had ever had before or since.

            Jack “The Barber” Luiselli, a man who did not live in Charlestown, but whose heart most certainly did, was perhaps the person most responsible for the resurgence of the Charlestown Town Team.  Jack’s introduction to the area came in the 1940’s when he joined his father-in-law, Jerry Santoro, at his barber shop on Bunker Hill Street across from Allston. 

            Jack was a young man then, and it was only a matter of time when groups of teenagers began to frequent the shop, first as customers, but shortly thereafter, as friends.  Somehow the idea of starting a football team found its way into the barber shop, and the Mystic A.C. was formed.  That team played in one of the lower levels of the Boston Park League, and with them, a seed was planted, a seed that one day would grow to become the dominant “Townies” team of that conference. 

            The “Townies” popularity, under Jack “The Barber” was to reach far beyond the extremities of Sullivan Square and City Square.  Soon national publications, Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, perhaps wondering why grown men were willing to go to such extremes without being paid for what they were doing each week, found the situation so interesting that they decided that the “Townies” story should be told to a national audience.  Many believe that the people at Sports Illustrated came away from the project with the feeling that what was being done was happening out of pure a love for the game, and for nothing more.

            Players like Jim “Crash” McNeil, his brother Brian, Chuck Chevalier, Jack and Richie McGonagle, Pat Considine, Dan Bradley, Bill “Nippy” Nolan and oh so many, many more were responsible for bringing hundreds out to see them perform each week.  People in the town began to plan their week’s activities around Sunday, for Sunday was the day that the “Townies” played ball, and wherever that, might be, it would be where they would be found.

            As the “Townies” reputation began to spread, semi-professional teams from all around New England suddenly began to take interest.  Teams like the Providence, Rhode Island, Steamrollers, and the Portland, Maine, Seahawks, Chelsea / Everett Nu-Way Sweepers began to schedule games with the “Townies”.  Although these team’s rosters were sprinkled with notable ex-college and soon-to-be professional players, they were never disappointed with the caliber of competition provided by the “Townies”.  Because these were the days when funds were raised by “passing the hat” the huge number of fans who religiously followed the team only added to the attraction of scheduling a football game versus the Charlestown Town Team.

            As more years were torn from the calendar, and Jack’s boys began to find themselves in familial and employment situations that demanded much more of their time, the dominant “Townies” were slowly becoming a lesser force on the gridiron.  Soon interest had waned to the point where, without players, Jack would step down after compiling an impressive record of winning Park League Championships in ’59,’60, ’61, ’62, ’65.

            Over the years, Jack’s shop moved down Bunker Hill Street a bit, first to one location between School and Elm, and then finally to the corner of Elm and Bunker.  It was from that site when Jack finally, and totally without fanfare, retired.  While at these two locations, though, something new and very meaningful began to develop.  Saturday afternoons at Jack’s barber shop became a meeting place for the old “Townies” and, in many cases, their sons.  They came each week, not so much to have their hair cut, but to relive the times gone by, and to have Jack mesmerize their boys with stories of their dad’s times as “Townies.”.  Most of Jack’s regular customers came to realize that Saturday afternoon was very special to Jack and many of his former players, and that it definitely was not the time for a haircut.

            Sometime in the 1970’s, no doubt inspired by the stories of past Charlestown Town Teams, a group of former high school football players, spurred on by Bob “Becky” Beckwith, approached the late Jack Green, then a Charlestown High School faculty member and coach, and asked him if he would be interested in helping them resurrect the “Townies.”  

Jack considered the request the ultimate complement even when told that, should he choose to lead them, there would be no financial compensation for his efforts.   Raised in Dorchester and by that time living in Quincy, Jack had been part of the Charlestown community, first as a social worker, and then as a teacher/coach, for many years.  His work had been responsible for him getting to know an extraordinary number of youngsters in the neighborhood, and even with the knowledge that the extent of his compensation would be no greater than seeing a group of young men doing what they truly wanted to do, Jack jumped at the chance.

Jack’s and his closest friend, Jack Morris, himself a teacher/coach at Charlestown High School, then began an unforgettable football journey, one that would take the team featuring names like Ted Ryan, Rich Johnson, Jerry McCormick, Paul Brady, Brian McCabe, John Brennan and so many more into the very competitive Boston Senior Park League where teams like the South Boston Chippewas, Hannna Club, Killilea Club and Hyde Park Cowboys had been performing at a very high level for several years.

A group of followers, including several old time “Townie” footballers, just as numerous, and certainly showing the same enthusiasm as their predecessors, began to gather for each game.  It did not take long for this new “Townie” team to make its mark on football in eastern Massachusetts football, and for several years they proudly and quite successfully wore the uniform of the Charlestown Town Team winning championships in ’72, ’73, 74, ’75 and ’77.

Bob Beckwith had two older brothers, Tom and Dick, both of whom played for Jack “The Barber” Luiselli’s “Townies”.  Bob more than adequately carried on the family tradition as part of Jack Green’s team as a player and later as coach of the Townies.   Boston Park League football has always been an important part of Bob’s life, and because of his yeoman efforts, a Boston Park League Football Reunion will be held on Saturday evening, September 21, 2013, from seven o’clock until midnight at the Boston Teachers Union Hall in South Boston.

Tickets are priced at $40.00 each.  A buffet is to be included as part of the evening’s festivities and it is important to know that the affair is NOT limited to former players, but is open to anybody who may be interested or who may have had any sort of connection with the once very popular Boston Park League football program

What a great idea!