The Catholic Hoop Tourney in 1954
The 21′ annual Catholic high school hoop tournament was held at CCHS on February 26, 27 and 28, 1954.
This was a high school extravaganza that drew Catholic schools from all corners of New England. It was a hoop junkie’s delight and was always a jam packed affair.
The entrants were St Pat’s of Watertown, Immaculate Concepcion of Newburyport, St Mary’s Brookline, Immaculate Concepcion Revere, Sacred Heart and St John’s both of Cambridge, Matignon Cambridge, St Ann’s Gloucester, Keith Academy Lowell, St Stephen’s Worcester, Arch. Williams Braintree, Assumption Worcester, Mission Roxbury, Bishop Bradley of Manchester NH, Monsignor Coyle, Taunton.
The local entry would play the feature game on opening day. Eight would be played starting at 1pm with CCHS and Coyle of Taunton tipping off at 9:20 pm. Teams were classified as Class A and Class B, Central Catholic was in the A bracket.
In the 21 years of this tourney’s existence only one team was a repeating champion and that would be the local entrant Central Catholic. They won it in 1951 and 52.
The tournament program had 49 pages and had pictures and a rundown of each team. It was loaded with ads from the area of these teams. This booklet was sold for 25 cents.
This writer was amazed at how many of these Catholic schools have closed since then. I didn’t know that Newburyport had a Catholic High School, Keith Academy of Lowell at one time was a powerhouse in all sports especially when the Stagnone brothers wore their colors.
The program contains ads from many colleges with some offering the price of two hundred and fifty dollars a year.
A few other ads caught my eye and they were ads inviting young men to enter the Priesthood or become a brother.
H P Hood sellers of milk and ice cream were sponsors, so did St John’s Prep, A&P markets, The Andover Inn, The Arlington Trust Bank, The Red Tavern, and Merrimack College. They all were sponsors and you can see how many of these places are now gone.
A&P merged with Stop & Shop and it didn’t work. I think it was the new name they called it Stop & P. The McGuiness award given to the tourney’s MVP was won by Central Catholic’s Charlie Fiorino in 1953. Charlie was one of the schools all time greats playing 3 sports. He winters in Florida and summers in Seabrook NH. A following story of this tourney will appear soon in Rumbo. I hope this article wets your memory bank as it was truly a great take in.
