THANKSGIVING FOOTBALL WARMUP

Before we get going on a few items of interest, we ask you to join us in extending our prayers to the friends and family of Owen Kilcoyne, the legendary coach and friend to so many. He taught a lot of football players how to win, but we all know his impact is much greater than his effect on a game.

When it comes to local sports, we really don’t care about who wins and who loses, but, with all due respect to St. John’s and its fine program, we’d love to see the Guardians come up with some magic this Thursday morning.

Kilcoyne was still a wet-behind-the-ears 26-year-old when he was hired as the first head coach in the history of the Hudson Catholic High School football program. That was the fall of 1960.

The year before, 1959, was Kilcoyne’s only one as an assistant coach before moving out of the limelight at St. Peter-Marian prior to last season, His football coaching internship, as it were, occurred at Notre Dame High of Fitchburg.

During his time as a head coach Kilcoyne compiled some staggering statistics. He retired as a head coach with:

Exactly 250 victories and a career record of 250-164-8.

Three undefeated seasons – 1980, ‘93 and ‘95. Four if you count the Green Wave’s 1-0 varsity record in that inaugural 1960 season.

Six one-loss seasons – 1977, ‘78, ‘92, ‘94, ‘96 and 2002.

Six Super Bowl victories overall – 1980, ‘92, ‘93, ‘94, ‘95 and ‘96. The five consecutive Super Bowls he won from ‘92-‘96 are a state record.

The distinction of having never lost a Super Bowl.

Speaking of Thanksgiving football, picking one game to go to will be a tough task for fans hanging out in a neutral corner. There’s always a lot on the line on Turkey Day, but for some schools it will literally make or break their seasons.

In a couple of accidental conversations with local coaches, each one said if their game happened to be on Wednesday night and they had Thursday free, they’d go to see Fitchburg and Leominster duke it out. There probably won’t be any room, anyway. Be sure to join us this week to make your picks. You’ll win a prize for being the “most right,” also known as the “best guesser.” We’ll get to read e-mails from you about how dumb we are when we pick against your school. So, really, we don’t have to wait until next year’s football playoffs to experience “everybody wins.”

On to another subject. We tried to bring up a little controversy without discussing religion, politics, race or proclaiming that there was more than one guy who played the Undertaker in wrestling. We figured declaring Bromfield boys’ soccer the greatest dynasty in the history of Central Mass. sports would get some resistance. It got very little, although we did hear about some great baseball programs (Leominster, Milford), Gardner swimming, another Bromfield team – girls’ cross-country - and the NDA field hockey team. Still couldn’t compare and Bromfield distanced themselves even further by winning the state championship yet again.

That’s it for today. Start studying your game films and talking to sources about injuries and locker room tension to be prepared to win the Turkey day Pick ‘Em contest.