Acton Observer: Memories of Emerson Playground
A field of grass, dirt, and limestone is just that until it comes alive under the knowing hands of coaches.
Growing up in Acton, few places were more important than Emerson Playground. Right around the corner from our house on Hubbard Street, I passed it every day on my way to elementary school. In middle school, we had recess on it and practiced and played our interscholastic games. I walked across it every day on the way to high school. I played football there until the high school field was finished for the 1962 season.
Here is how I remember it: three football fields, a cinder track, tennis courts, two baseball fields, a field hockey field, a softball field, and a little league field. There was also an area near Hunt Gym that served as a basketball court in the summer and a skating rink in the winter.
Hall of Fame coaches
A field of grass, dirt, and limestone is just that until it comes alive under the knowing hands of coaches — and did we have coaches.
Bernie Megin was a football coach from 1941 through 1961, with time off for the war. During his tenure, he had an unbeaten streak of 56 games (one tie) and took two teams to bowl games in the South. His 1946 team went 10-0, scoring 420 points while giving up 12.
A granite marker beside the new track celebrates Skip O’Connor, an equally exceptional track coach. I understand that baseball players would interrupt their participation in a game, change into track clothes, and compete in the nearby track meets.
Walter Carew, later to coach CCHS football, coached varsity baseball at Emerson Playground.
John “Coach” O’Connell oversaw countless baseball games involving kids of very different ages. (At those games, I met a boy who was three years older than me. Later, we became best friends for 55 years.) More importantly (to a writer and a reader or two), Coach led our freshman football team to an undefeated 10-0 season in 1960, the first undefeated season in any sport in CCHS history (keeping in mind the 1960 genesis of the regional CCHS).
All these coaches are in the CCHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
Another coach of some fame (or infamy) was Fred Tobin, who coached the 1960 junior varsity football team with little success.
All football teams began practice at the same time. When done, we would walk back to the new high school, shower, and dress. To our general horror, the JV team was usually still on the field running laps or grass drills until Coach Tobin was satisfied… which took some time. Some of us vowed internally to work extra hard to avoid JV football the next year.
Special times
One other “elder” who made an impression on me was Bobby Gray, a CHS alum who showed up at practice in 1961. He told us of seeing Vince Lombardi — and then showed us how to kick field goals… in the middle of a practice. (Bobby later coached and umpired baseball games and was an uber CCHS fan.)
In those days, the varsity team practiced on the game field surrounded by the track. The junior varsity and freshman teams practiced on the other two fields: one at the corner of Stow and Everett and the other at Thoreau and Everett.
Some special recollections:
One winter, I had a job making ice for the rink, moving sprinklers around every half hour or so. It was a great job, as I could study whenever I wasn’t out making ice. I used an office that was Bernie Megin’s. It had a framed cartoon from a Boston paper of the Earth with a CHS football player yelling out into the cosmos, asking if there were any teams out there who would like to play Acton.
When I was in high school, teams from different towns came to the basketball courts to play in a summer league. The summer before college, a female classmate of mine met a fellow from Melrose. Upon learning that he and I would be going to Bowdoin, she advised him to be on the lookout for me. We met the first day of school, joined the same fraternity, and are friends to this day.
We used to watch older boys (Pete Driscoll, Jim Diskin, Chick Nickerson, et al.) play Court against the baseball backstop, two against two.
A dirt path led from Everett Street to the flagpole on the edge of the quarter-mile cinder track where Skip O’Connor ran his championship track teams for decades. I remember running a mile in a decent time as a youngster, but I soon realized that my growing body was neither that of a distance runner nor a sprinter.
In my first varsity football game, we punted and I ran down the field to cover the punt. Unfortunately, it was fielded by Mike Bellino, the younger brother of Joe Bellino, who won the Heisman Trophy at the Naval Academy. I tasted limestone as he easily escaped my tackle.
A note from the author: I’m putting aside my Acton Observer duties for a while so that I can complete a couple of “literary” efforts. Thanks to all who have read my columns and stopped me in town to comment on them. I look forward to seeing you in the future.
