Sixty years after a ruling deprived them of an unbeaten season and a Massachusetts Class B Championship, members of the 1964 Revere High football team were celebrated Friday night during a halftime ceremony at Revere’s season-opener against Whittier at Harry Della Russo Stadium.
Mayor Patrick Keefe unveiled a banner listing the team’s 1964 triumphs that will hang in the RHS fieldhouse. About 15 members of the team met with their 2024 successors before the game, several of the RHS veterans giving the team a locker room pep talk that variously spoke of the toughness, spirit, and lasting memories that grow from high school football.
Master of Ceremonies City Councilor Ira Novoselsky, who was a team manager of the 1964 team, started the halftime ceremony by commenting that the 1964 Patriots were 7-0-1 headed into their final game of the season against Winthrop, but a ruling by the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Principals Association (Headmasters) determined that a player on the Revere roster had been ineligible to compete. Revere was forced to forfeit its first eight games but went on to defeat Winthrop in the season finale.
Addressing the 1964 players and the fans at the game, Mayor Keefe noted that sixty years ago, “…these young men endured something that taught them, as teenagers, that life is not always fair.”
Though the team went from 7-0-1 to 0-8 because of a “…ruling that had nothing do with performance on the field,” said Mayor Keefe, “they still had one game to play. And those players of sixty years ago showed up for that game against Winthrop and demonstrated a sense of determination, toughness, courage—all of the greatest qualities that come from playing competitive athletics.”
The Mayor continued: “They defeated Winthrop 8-0 in what is probably the greatest game ever played at this site. Over 7000 people were here to see it” Keefe said.
The halftime ceremony included remarks from Steve Dubzinsky, Assistant Director of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) that oversees high school spots in Massachusetts. “I hope the students and community how special this night is.”
Dubzinsky, noting the 1964 team’s legendary status, said he did a little research back to Thanksgiving Day, 1964 to find out the Number 1 hit song at the time. “It was ‘Leader of the Pack’”, he said. “And this group were all Leaders of the Pack in 1964.”
This November, Revere High graduate and assistant coach Brandon Brito will release a full-length documentary detailing the success and hardship of the 1964 team.
