June 1, 2013 - For the first time at Brewster, a team was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame. Howard "Butch" Lovering '62 (The Villages, Fla.) spoke on behalf of the team. The team sent numerous players on to college programs and three onto the NFL.
"I'd never seen so many great athletes gathered together in one group. Toughness and ability was the thing," Lovering said of the team. He then shared the story of the Bobcat team showing up at the University of Massachusetts to play their undefeated junior varsity team. "Here we are the little Brewster guys coming in on our yellow bus and these guys from UMass are making fun of us," Lovering reminisced. "We go out and they get seven points. Now we are a little nervous because we haven't been scored on quick like this. We end up beating them 28-7!"
"It was a great team, the linemen were great, the backs, we had bucket men who could hit you in the nose with the ball. It was fantastic ... but the big thing was ... We liked each other. We had chemistry, and we loved Brewster."
Along with Lovering, Mike Murgo '62, (Narragansett, Rhode Island), Victor Whitkens '62 (Wolfeboro), Thomas Thornton '62 (Hampton, New Hampshire), Fred Lee '63 (Manchester, Connecticut, and Allen Parker '64 (Nashua, New Hampshire) were at the ceremony to accept their induction awards. Bruce Atkinson '62 (Englewood, Fla.) visited Brewster with family early in the fall of 2013 to tour campus and accept his award. Bruce also donated his championship football jacket to the Brewster Academy archives.
The full 1961 team roster included:
Row 3: Larson, Effley, Volpicelli, Manning, Meers, Parks, Brooks, Doyle, Twomey, Owens, Nimmons, Vigilante
Row 2: Coach Whalen, Bloomberg, Brown, Rabin, Thornton, Osborne, Davis, Franzoni, Lee, Malatesta, Lovering, Coaches Wilkins and Murphy
Row 1: Witkins, Riley, Murgo, Morin, Kelly, Co-Captians ogan and Nichols, Tosi, Atkinson, Parker, Fenlon, Davison, Smyth
Lower Left: Managers Isenberg and Perry
Lower Right: Managers Blanthin and Griffin
