Norwood High Shocks Undefeated Framingham North 6-0 Behind John Oldham’s Heroism-November 5, 1973

Oldham’s 41-Yard Dash and Stoic Defense Lift Mustangs to Thrilling Upset

Norwood High School‘s football team proved it can win the big ones. The Mustangs presented their case Saturday when they knocked off previously unbeaten Framingham North, 6-0, and threw the Bay State League race into a frenzy.

“We took a knock because some people were saying we couldn’t win the big ones”, said Norwood Coach John Doherty. “But I don’t know why they said it. We weren’t blown out by anybody. We lost to Walpole by only one point (8-7) and to Natick by only two (14-12). I’ll tell you now, when it comes to winning the big one, we did it today!” Indeed, they did, with senior halfback and co-captain John Oldham leading the offense and a host of heroes buoying the defense.

A 5-10, 165-pounder, Oldham scored a fourth-quarter touchdown on an eye-catching, 41-yard run en route to an afternoon’s work of 95 yards rushing on 17 carries. That put Oldham past the 800-yard mark in seven games, after which Norwood is 5-2 and just a half-game behind BSL co-leaders Walpole and Framingham North (both 5-1-1) with two games remaining. He was running at the right time and scoring at the right time, Doherty said. They were stacking it up against him and he still got 95 yards. He was just too much. He’s a super kid and a super football player.

Oldham’s touchdown, with 3:06 left, wiped away what had been nothing but frustration for the Mustangs on a cold and windy day. Oldham raced down the right sideline for the winning margin, two Framingham North defenders dangling helplessly behind. The touchdown trek had been preceded by the second of three North fumbles, Norwood’s Dave Steele recovering on the Framingham 40. On North’s subsequent series, the Spartans got down to the Norwood 17 only to fumble again. This time, with 1:20 on the clock, Greg Donahue retrieved the fumble for Norwood and the Mustangs prevailed.

Norwood had come close to scoring two other times in the final period, but five-yard penalties cost them on each occasion. The first occurred after the Mustangs had begun a drive from their 33 in the third quarter and had moved to the Framingham North three-yard line before a penalty pushed the ball back to the eight on the first play of the fourth quarter. No score. The second occurred two minutes later when North’s drive stalled at its 12-yard line and Bill Seward was going back to punt. The snap was a bad one, however, and Seward was tackled at the one. Oldham, on the first play from scrimmage, took it across for what appeared to be the game’s first touchdown, but it was nullified by an offside penalty. Despite four more cracks at a touchdown, the result was the same as before: No score.

Defense, then, was superb on both sides, Doherty being elated with his team’s exhibition. His post-game speech to the players in the locker room told it all. The game ball should go to the whole defense, but we’d have to cut it into 11 pieces. But even though it belongs to 11 guys, we’re going to give it to someone and that’s Dale Eckholm. Termed the Mustang – the equivalent to a monster back – in the Norwood defense, Eckholm was all over the field making key tackles, particularly in the second half. He earned the game ball. Defensive end Paul Glynn, another outstanding performer, won what Doherty calls the Bone Award for being a big, big sticker on defense.

The defense was near-perfect – no, I’ve got to say perfect because they (North) put no points on the board, Doherty said, also citing the play of tackle Nick Fanandakis, Donahue, defensive backs Steele, Eric Legarda, Jim Adelman and Kevin Murphy, linebacker Daryl Stampfl and so on down the line. Offensively, there was, of course, Oldham, as well as end and co-captain Dave Saad, quarterback Larry Brown and running backs Bill Breen, Brian Collins and Bob Solomon, all of whom had their golden moments.