At the home of the blue and white on Haverhill St there were many exciting things going on.
One to none of the sports fans surprise was the naming of Joe Cockroft the player of the Month of February. He was the team captain and his all-around leadership traits made this choice a no brainer. At 6 foot 3 he not only was an on the mark shooter but they could name him Windex for his ability to clean the backboards with his ferocious rebounding.
Joe graduated from the Bruce School and is now retired from Raytheon. He was also a big part of Coach Bill Regan’s baseball team. He and his still good friend Aimie Reming gave the Lancers one of the best 1-2 punches this area has ever seen. Joe now enshrined in the LHS Hall of Fame and after High School he signed to play major league baseball where he played first base.
His daughter Donna is in the Greater Lawrence Hall of Fame and so is his son Mark, Donna is still involved with sports as she is now a great woman dart thrower entering competition throughout the country. Many of you know Mrs. Cockroft, the former Jeanette Lambert a former Ice Capades pro skater. The high school sweethearts and Waters St. kids now live in NH and are both retired. Jeanette just celebrated a birthday but if you put bamboo shoots under my fingernails I’m not giving up her age. They both take great pride in watching their granddaughter perform on the softball field for the Central Catholic girls. That’s Mark and Diane’s daughter. Diane is the administrator of the City of Lawrence Retirement Board.
On his way to becoming the LHS player of the month Joe had a monster game while knocking of up city rival Lowell.
The LHS jv hoop team under Tony Perrochi’s guidance was carving out a good record and had some really good athletes for the fans to look forward to.
Captain Bobby Laudani was a multi-sport guy and a good hard-nosed kid. He is remembered for losing his life in a historic plane crash in the icy Potomoc River.
Jack General Mills a kid who could do anything with a basketball, he was doing Globetrotter-like things and he was only 15 or 16 years old.
Eddie Lonardo now retired from Raytheon was a scoring machine and was on his way to HS stardom. He still lives locally.
Jimmy McCarthy was also waiting to play for the varsity team. He came from Prospect Hill and later on played at Merrimack College.
Ronnie Rochon of the Essex Housing area was a sharp ball handling guard that was part of a group that had varsity coach Basil Bova salivating with thoughts of the future of this upcoming team.
In mentioning Coach Bova I found one of his greatest thrills was not on hardwood but in the boxing ring. In 1938 while he was part of company B and the 182nd infantry of the National Guard he became a boxer. He won his way to runner-up for the 26th division championship in Plattsburgh NY.
Although he had only 4 years at boxing he was edged out in the finals, ad by a split decision at that.
At the L-Men’s dance were Clarice Parthum, Ann Speechley, Pat Poulin, Tom Hayes, and now of North Andover Al Furneaux. The Ideal Jr Girl was hair: Rita Fillipon.
Eyes: Nancy Mc Queeny; Mouth: Marylyn Harty; Figure: Roz Ruggerio; Personality: Marylou Shikrallah.
AND THE MOST POPULAR GIRL OF FEBRUARY 1954 MARIE FRANCO.
