Stroll down memory lane: Dick Walsh’s legacy

The Algonquin legend shares some of his favorite memories from the past 62 years

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Dick Walsh at the first ARHS Thanksgiving Day football game with captain Paul Pisinski in 1959.

Emily Smith, Sports Editor

62 years at ARHS, 23 years coaching football, 10 years as athletic director, 1,000s of memories

Square dancing in gym class:

“The best thing we ever did in gym class was square dancing. Mrs. Perry and I taught square dancing, and we said pick your partner and if you don’t pick them, we’ll pick them. I did the calling of the square dancing with Mrs. Perry, and everybody loved it after a while. It was the best thing we ever did.”

ARHS’s first football season:

“When we first started, the year we [Algonquin] opened, our fields weren’t ready to play so we had to go to Memorial Field to practice because that’s where Northborough High played. The first game ever played at Algonquin was the Thanksgiving game in 1959, and they let us play on our field.”

Cows on the baseball fields:

“This used to be a farm, and when the school opened the farm was still there where the cross country trails are. When we used to play baseball on the fields the cows would come and walk by and the other team would go and say, ‘Oh you guys are a bunch of hicks!’ because we were out in the booneys.”

Yes, I’m still alive:

“The first class that graduated from here was 1960, and when we had that class come back for the 50th reunion, I was still here and I was the only one still here! When they came they toured the building, which is so different from then, and some of my football players were there, and they came back and they go ‘Oh you’re still here, you’re still alive?’ but yes I was still alive! It was nice to see some of the people I had in school 50 years ago.”

How we became T-hawks:

“The members of the student council from Northborough and Southborough got together and helped name the school, and did the school colors, the nicknames; the kids did it all with some help from advisers and that’s how it all came to be. The first year I taught in 1955 in Southborough, the senior class had 9 boys 9 girls so you get to know them pretty well. We have grown a lot over the years.”