Recalling the SPS Undefeated Football Teams of 1967, 1974, 1989, and 2018.

Jeffrey Selesnick

Since the inception of varsity football at St. Paul’s School in 1962, there have been just four teams to record a perfect season. Often undersized (but never overmatched), the St. Paul’s School football teams of 1967, 1974, 1989, and 2018 combined for a record of 30-0, including two postseason victories. Each undefeated season is a tale of hard work, camaraderie, resilience, and a bit of good luck. With the help of the players who donned the pads and the coaches who called the plays, here are the stories of the four unbeaten squads.

1967

“Winning only one of its games, SPS football had a dismal season,” reads the yearbook caption for the 1966 team. “Where the source of the unsuccessful season lies is hard to say. One thing is certain though; it was a painful season for coaches and players alike, and they all deserve credit for their perseverance.”

Former SPS lineman Bill Hoehn ’68 recalls of that less-than-successful year, “I remember being knocked flat in the fourth quarter against Vermont Academy [as a Fifth Former] and looking up at the clock, just hoping it would be over quickly.” One year later, most of that same team loaded the bus for its final game of the season, ready to make history. Many players took the 60-minute commute to Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., as an opportunity to finish a homework assignment or study for an upcoming exam, but the team that stepped off the bus on that overcast November Saturday was prepared, confident, unbeaten, and ready to maintain that status.

Quarterback and co-captain Jim Colby ’68, who had missed the majority of his Fifth Form season with a leg injury, had a sense his team could accomplish something special his Sixth Form year. “It was a group of guys that really cared to learn and excel and try to win. And [head coach] Bud Blake had an intimidating demeanor, but also a real soft spot in his heart for kids who made the effort.” The concept of varsity athletics was still new for a school that had long maintained a proud club athletics tradition. There were those in the administration who felt too many resources were being directed to the football team, or that Blake’s primary role being the football coach was a deviation from the SPS faculty triple-threat model. Midway through the season, those sentiments started to change.

In October, an article appeared in the Boston Herald, entitled “St. Paul’s Marches to Dixieland Beat,” in reference to the SPS linemen who hailed from mostly southern states, an oddity in New England prep school football. It spoke glowingly of the then 3-0 St. Paul’s squad and fueled a growing sense of school spirit on the grounds. Even with the added pressure from the publicity, the Big Red rattled off wins against Winchendon (26-6) and Lawrence (29-6) in the weeks that followed. A talented Brooks team was all that stood in the way of perfection. St. Paul’s came out flat in the first half. A group that had become accustomed to nursing big leads all season found itself in a dogfight as halftime arrived, prompting a heated tirade from Blake in the locker room. The Big Red received the second half kickoff and Blake sent in a deception play to try to catch Brooks off guard.

“We sent the halfback in motion to try to draw defenders away, and ran the fullback right in the guard-tackle gap,” recalls Colby. “We probably gained 35 yards on that play.” The same play to the opposite side worked nearly as well on the next down, and the touchdown that followed paved the way to the eventual 29-6 final.

Players, parents, and coaches hugged and high-fived in a midfield scrum until the bus was ready to leave. The team arrived to a hot meal and a raucous reception in the Upper Dining Hall. “When there’s clapping and shouting in that room, it’s a sound you don’t hear in any other part of the School,” says Colby.

1974

Bud Blake marched into the Moore Math Building on the eve of preseason and, without a word, started writing on the blackboard: “1972: 5-1-1. 1973: 5-2.” He scripted “1974” onto the board, put a big question mark next to it, and turned to his players, who were eagerly waiting for him to break the tension. “Fellas, we could go undefeated this year,” declared Blake, “or we might be 0-7.”

Blake’s ambivalence stemmed largely from the brand-new offense, known as the “run and shoot,” he was about to install. A revolutionary scheme that relied on timing, speed, and execution, the offense represented a total overhaul to the system Blake had been running at the School for more than 20 years. “It was just making its way into the college game,” Blake, now 95 and residing in Concord, says of the run and shoot. “I learned of it from a college classmate of mine who was the head coach at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio.”

A largely undersized squad, the ’74 team had no shortage of strong athletes, but very few who considered football their primary sport. Blake expected a steep learning curve, but was pleased to see his team adapt quickly and begin to enjoy the nuances of the new system. “It was so much fun that the guys would come to practice early just to work on the passing.” There was still plenty of uncertainty when the season began against Groton. The matchup had become a bitter rivalry, highlighted by a palpable disdain between the team’s two longtime head coaches. The Zebras took an early lead and secured it into the fourth quarter, but a late flurry saw the Big Red snatch a 24-22 final in what would be its most tightly contested game of the season. The Groton head coach was especially steamed, feeling he had been thrown a curveball as the first victim of the run and shoot.

As it turned out, the team had all the right players to make the offense click: Len Rodes ’75 distributing the ball at quarterback, captain John Marchand ’75 making catches and runs for scores at tailback, and complimentary split ends Carl Lovejoy ’75 and Reid Cassidy ’75, hauling in touchdown passes. “We were also doing an awful lot of blitzing on defense that other teams just weren’t doing,” notes Blake, being sure to credit a defensive unit that gave up double-digit points just twice all season. Points and victories were plentiful as the Big Red continued to perplex opposing defenses with its new-look approach.

“On the first play of every game, every other team would run a dive play and we would be throwing the ball. We passed on the goal line, we even passed on our own goal line,” says Blake. “We ran up the score,” adds Lovejoy. “Nobody could stop us. It was really fun.”

Following its fourth consecutive 20-plus point victory, the team needed to take care of a weak Brooks squad at home to seal the perfect season. The outcome was never in doubt, and the cheers from the home crowd reached new decibel levels as fellow fall athletes finished their contests and filled in the sidelines for the final minutes of play. Players and fans shared the field in celebration following the 34-6 win, but Lovejoy recalls the reaction from a certain few members of the faculty.

“The winter coaches came up to us after the game,” he says, “and while they were happy that we won, they were mostly relieved that nobody had gotten hurt – because hockey season started on Monday.”

1989

First-year head coach Doug Dickson was sick of answering phone calls from ISL counterparts telling him he was crazy. His team had just completed the third perfect regular season in School history, and had an opportunity to square off against an opponent no one else wanted to face. It was not a position he expected to be in.

“We came into the year with modest expectations, hoping to go 4-4,” says assistant coach Peter Tuttle, a longtime current SPS faculty member, who at 33 years old was one of the senior members of Dickson’s staff. The teams in ’87 and ’88 were better positioned to run the table; above average in size up and down the roster and loaded with Sixth Form talent. The ’89 squad had its share of talented players, but plenty of question marks at key positions. A 3-0 win over Holderness in a preseason game did little to instill confidence in the relatively green group, but Sixth Form placekicker Erik Scalavino ’90 was optimistic.

“I remember walking with my teammate Hank Jones ’90 on a perfect fall day right before the start of the regular season,” recalls Scalavino. “I turned to him and said, ‘Hank, we’re going to have a special year.’ I don’t know why I said it because nothing about our team seemed like there was anything special about it at that point.” SPS kicked off the season with a 20-12 win over Tabor and dominated the rivalry game against Groton to move to 2-0. Dickson had developed an unorthodox “gap control” defense that played to his team’s strengths. It relied on defensive backs, usually called upon to break up passes, to be a force against the run and linemen to focus on inside runs and not outside containment. On offense, the tailback tandem of Kenny Bey ’90 and Carli Walker ’90, running behind fullback Chris Buccini ’90, largely carried the load.

The margins of victory started to widen for the Big Red, and a 31-12 blowout of Thayer in week six made the prospect of perfection real. After dispatching Lawrence 26-14 in the penultimate game of the regular season, the team traveled to Brooks in search of its eighth victory. The Big Red arrived to a suspiciously muddy playing surface (despite a week largely devoid of rain), and only managed one touchdown, but held the hosts scoreless to secure an ugly 7-0 win. It was then that Dickson accepted an offer to play Andover in a playoff game. The top team in Class A, Andover boasted a roster replete with post-graduates and owned a massive size advantage over the SPS squad. The matchup garnered intrigue throughout New England. Eight different Boston Globe sportswriters weighed in on the game, with seven predicting a lopsided win for Andover.

Team statistician Stephan Solzhenitsyn ’91 hosted players on his WSPS radio show to preview the game, and team members traded diplomatic responses until it was Scalavino’s turn. “You know, Stephan,” he began, “I’ve watched the tape on Andover, just like I’ve watched the tape of all our opponents. And Andover is the most beatable team we’ll face this year.” The studio erupted. The seed had been planted that victory was possible, and that energy carried all the way across the Massachusetts border that Saturday evening.

The guests surprised everyone with a strong first half, finding the end zone twice and keeping the strong but simple Andover offense in check. With SPS clinging to a 14-7 lead midway through the third quarter, the hosts cut the deficit to one point. As Andover lined up for a two-point conversion, St. Paul’s called a timeout, realigned its defense, and dropped the tailback in the backfield to maintain the lead. Andover wouldn’t find the end zone again, but had an opportunity to pull ahead with a short field goal late in the fourth. The attempt got away cleanly, but the roar from the SPS faithful reached a crescendo as the ball drifted just outside the left upright. The referee, surrounded by a sea of Big Red fans, didn’t dare raise his hands. The clock hit zero and the team celebrated the 14-13 nail-biter as a fuming Andover side stormed toward the locker room.

“I didn’t take my pads off for probably half an hour,” says Scalavino. “I didn’t want the moment to end. I didn’t want the feeling to end.”

2018

“Be prepared to play anywhere,” head coach Craig Vandersea told his team the night before the biggest game of the season. An over-performing mid-November snowstorm had deposited upwards of eight inches of snow, rendering the newly upgraded home of SPS football, Guzzo Family Field, unplayable. “We didn’t know if we were going to have to get on a bus,” says Vandersea. “We didn’t know if it might be a night game. It was all up in the air.”

Fortunately for Vandersea, his team had proven to be unflinchingly resilient throughout a 7-0 regular-season run. The team’s identity started with strong Sixth Form leadership and was complemented by key newcomers in 6-7 quarterback Parker McQuarrie ’20, wide receiver/defensive back Joey Corcoran ’20, and running back Malcolm Bussey ’21. “I knew we were going to have a talented group from the start of the season,” says tight end/defensive end and co-captain Jon Saklad ’19, “and, as a result, I held myself accountable to lead both by example and vocally. The team chemistry was the best it had been in all three of my years.” 

A bevy of playmakers made for an explosive offense capable of gaining yards in chunks, while the defense’s bend-but-don’t-break approach kept opponents out of the end zone. A well-developed kicking game served as an “X” factor for the Big Red, consistently ending drives with points and winning field-position battles. The offense flexed its muscles early, topping 40 points twice in road wins against Tilton and Canterbury to start the season. The first real test came in week four against New Hampton, a team with extensive postseason experience and an identical 3-0 record.

It was the defense’s turn to shine under the lights, forcing four turnovers and consistently setting up the offense with short fields in a 49-21 romp. The Big Red christened Guzzo Family Field with its fourth 40-point game of the season a week later in a 42-6 victory over Cushing, but a showdown at nationally ranked Berkshire loomed. “Berkshire was one of the most intense games we’ve played in my time here,” says Vandersea. All the game’s scoring happened in a flash at the start of the second half. Berkshire missed the extra point following its touchdown on the first possession of the third quarter. Three plays later, Saklad plunged past the goal line to knot the score at six. A Daniel Mirzai ’19 extra point proved to be the difference, as St. Paul’s escaped with a 7-6 win and all but secured a spot in the postseason. A decisive 42-12 win over Proctor wrapped up the regular season, and earned the Big Red a spot in the Ken Hollingsworth Bowl against fellow unbeaten Pingree.

All eyes were on the forecast as SPS prepared to face the best defensive team they had seen all season. An above-and-beyond effort from the SPS grounds crew got the Bogle-Lechner Turf Field game-ready on the snowy Saturday, and the contest kicked off as scheduled. The hosts needed just three plays to open the scoring, with UCLA-bound McQuarrie finding Nathan Sleiman ’20 in the back of the end zone for a 17-yard score. St. Paul’s ended the first half with a 9-0 lead, thanks to a Pingree safety, and Sixth Form running back Marshall Mather ’19 took over from there. “He was our MVP of the game,” says Vandersea. “He was unstoppable running the ball and on defense. He put the team on his back.” Not only did Mather extend the SPS lead to 16-0 with a fourth-quarter touchdown, he sacked the opposing quarterback on the final play of the game, sealing the 16-6 final.

“Nobody on the team had experienced a game as big as this one was for both St. Paul’s football and the School itself,” says Saklad. “Accomplishing our goal of going undefeated and winning a bowl game was an amazing feeling.”