Billerica Memorial High School Football

Billerica Memorial High School Football is the football program of Billerica Memorial High School and, before the new high school opened in 1955, of Howe High School. The team, called the Indians since the 1940s, plays in the Merrimack Valley Conference and meets Chelmsford High School every Thanksgiving Day in a rivalry that reached its 96th game in 2022. Its high points are the state Class D co-championship of the unbeaten 1952 team, Super Bowl titles in 1993 and 1999, Lowell Suburban League championships in the 1950s and Merrimack Valley Conference titles from 1993 to 2022. The team played its home games on the Howe High School athletic field until 1950, at the town's Memorial Field, now Lampson Memorial Field, from 1951 to 1972, at Calabrese Stadium at the Marshall Middle School from 1973 to 2019, and since 2020 on the lighted turf of BMHS Stadium beside the new school.

Football came late to Howe High School. The town reports mention no school team before the 1920s; the "Wild Cat" Football Club that played at the Kohlrausch Park in 1922 was a town club, and in 1923 the Park Commission staked out a football field there with portable goal posts set in cement sockets. In 1926 the boys coached by Robert A. Barrows "had a good baseball season, but were not able to do much with football, due to lack of material for a team." Wilfred W. Clark, who succeeded Mr. Barrows as coach in September 1927, "was able to organize a football team, and, although we won only one game, we have made a good start toward developing this branch of sport." The school magazine, The Torch, reported that the 1928 team opened with a 2-0 win at Wilmington on October 5, tied the Mitchell Boys' School 6-6 and then lost to Johnson High of North Andover. When Royal S. Adams followed Mr. Clark as athletic instructor in September 1929, "we again attempted to do something with football, starting with practically a 'green' team," and in 1930 the baseball and football teams "acquitted themselves well." In 1933 the school "decided to suspend work in football for the past season."

"After a lapse of some years, football was revived" in the fall of 1935, and in the falls of 1936 and 1937 the Park Department laid out the town's football field and put up its goal posts. A history of the school printed in the 1976 yearbook credits the "Howe High School Athletic Project" of the 1930s with the practice and game facilities, with the first admission ever charged at a school game, and with a football season "of five games culminating in the Chelmsford-Howe trophy game." The game did not yet pay for itself. In 1937 the principal wrote that "until football becomes self-supporting, we must spend carefully," and after a season of argument "regarding the status of players" the School Committee required every player to file a physician's certificate of fitness, a parent's consent and a birth certificate. In the fall of 1938 the high school athletic field was "available for football after withdrawal from use for five years on account of construction," with a gridiron laid out over the baseball diamond.

Chester D. Ingraham coached his first Howe team in 1937, and in four seasons his teams played Weston, Reading, Wilmington, Burlington, Dracut, Concord, Tewksbury and Chelmsford. The 1939 team beat Tewksbury for the first time "since the series between the two schools began," and its Thanksgiving loss to Chelmsford was "the first of a series between the two schools for a championship cup." In 1941, coached by Rodney C. Dresser with Chuck Lampson as his assistant, Howe went 6-2 and beat Chelmsford 13-0 on Thanksgiving Day, "for the first time in thirteen years," to win the Chelmsford-Howe trophy. Mr. Dresser left for military service at the end of the year and Mr. Lampson was named head coach. His 1942 team tied Chelmsford 14-14 on a muddy field, and Howe "was awarded the coveted 'cup' to guard for six months, after which it would return to Chelmsford for six months." Wartime rationing nearly stopped the game: "through the generosity of citizens in using their valuable gasoline" the 1942 schedule was played, and in 1943 football was the school's only interscholastic sport. That fall Mr. Lampson and his assistant George P. Carnie were both in the armed forces, and the players practiced without a coach "on the sand lot behind the Old Howe School" until Superintendent Harold D. Chittim brought in William O'Neill, formerly of Holy Cross. The 1943 team went unbeaten and unscored on in its first four games and beat Chelmsford 6-0 in the last seconds of the Thanksgiving game, and the Billerica Business Men's Club gave it a banquet with the Chelmsford team as its guests. Philip Collins took over the 1944 team a few days before its opener, and Mr. Ingraham coached again in 1945, when the team went 6-2-1.

In 1946 Principal Cyril D. Locke appointed Mr. Lampson coach and director of athletics, and he coached the team for nearly twenty more years. His 1946 team went 7-3, lost the Suburban League title at Tewksbury and beat Chelmsford 12-6 on Thanksgiving to become the "permanent owner of the Westlands Improvement Association Trophy, which has been the object of many a battle between Howe and Chelmsford." A 26-6 Thanksgiving win in 1949 gave Howe "final possession of the Chelmsford-Howe football trophy." His assistants in these years included Walter I. Fowler and Natale J. Federico. In 1951, "for the first time, we have been able to play our football games on the new Memorial Field," the athletic field and bleachers off Campbell Road that the town had accepted the year before. The 1951 team, expected to be one of the poorest Mr. Lampson had coached, went 9-1, played its first game under lights at Hudson and won the Suburban championship. The 1952 team, coached by Mr. Lampson, Mr. Federico and George Retalis, won all nine of its games, shut out five opponents and beat Chelmsford 19-0, and the School Committee reported that it was "suburban champions and co-champions of the State Class 'D'." The 1953 and 1954 teams had losing records of 3-5 and 4-5.

Billerica Memorial High School opened in September 1955. Its first team had its opener with Milford cancelled because of polio and lost its first three games, then won five straight after Mr. Lampson changed to the single wing, among them a 20-18 win over Phillips Academy and a 19-12 upset of Chelmsford on Thanksgiving; the coach called it "one of the best teams he has coached while at Billerica." The 1956 team did not win a game. Among Mr. Lampson's assistants in the mid-1950s was George Gracie Jr., who had played for him at Howe before playing football at Boston University; Stanley Bocko, later a state representative, had played on the Howe teams of the 1930s. The 1959 team, "not expected to do much in pre-season predictions," went 7-2, won the Lowell Suburban League title and shut out Chelmsford 19-0, and the 1960 team went 6-2-1. By the middle of the 1960s Billerica's teams had moved to the Merrimack Valley Conference. Mr. Lampson gave up coaching football in 1965 but remained athletic director until 1979.

The biology teacher Paul L. Whitley, who was also the town's recreation director, was head coach in 1968, when the team went through a winless season and then beat Chelmsford on Thanksgiving Day. In 1966 the town meeting put off a request for plans for a football field and track at the rear of Memorial High School, and in 1967 it voted $5,000 for them. The 1972 season was the last at Memorial Field, which became the Charles E. Lampson Memorial Field; in 1973 "the High School football games were played at the Marshall School," and the town lit the Lampson field for Pop Warner football. The 1973 season also brought a new coach, the physical education teacher Clyde Meyerhoefer (also written Meyerhoeffer), and the yearbook wrote that the team "began a new type of football. This is winning." His 1974 team went 4-4-1 in the conference, and his 1975 team did not win a game. In 1978 his outmanned team held a Super Bowl-bound Chelmsford team "at bay for most of the game" before 9,000 fans, losing on a last-minute field goal, and in 1980 it went 6-3-1 and finished second. Mike Esposito coached the team for the seven seasons from 1983 through 1989. His 1984 team went 5-4-1 and his 1986 team opened against Lowell under the lights, but the 1988 and 1989 teams won one game between them.

Peter Flynn took over in 1990, and his first team ended an eighteen-game losing streak with a 5-5 season. His 1991 team went 7-3 and finished third in the conference, and in 1992, playing the run and shoot, the team was the highest-scoring in the school's history to that time, and played the first night game at home in Billerica's history at the Marshall Middle School field, which the players called "the Reservation." The 1993 team won nine straight games to clinch a share of the Merrimack Valley Conference title, lost to Chelmsford before almost 10,000 fans on Thanksgiving, and still went to the Super Bowl, where it beat Woburn on December 4, 1993; it set school records for most points scored and fewest allowed in a season. The 1995 team went 8-2 and finished second in the conference, and the 1996 team beat Chelmsford 41-0. The 1999 team went undefeated in the league, beat an undefeated Chelmsford 9-7 on Thanksgiving when Chelmsford's last-second field goal try failed, and came back from a halftime deficit to beat Newton North for the Division 2 Super Bowl. The 2005 team was undefeated in the conference and beat Chelmsford 21-0 in the snow before losing to Woburn in the playoffs, and the 2009 team won the Merrimack Valley Conference championship. In 1998 students of Shawsheen Valley Technical High School built a concession stand at the Marshall Middle School "to be used at high school football games," and the field was later named Calabrese Stadium for Robert J. Calabrese, superintendent of schools from 1984 to 2006.

Duane Sigsbury coached the team for eleven seasons, from 2014 through 2024. His teams won Merrimack Valley Conference titles in 2015 and 2017, beat Chelmsford on three straight Thanksgivings from 2014 to 2016, and beat Everett 24-21 in an overtime upset. The new Billerica Memorial High School opened in September 2019, and that Thanksgiving the team beat Chelmsford 21-19 as it "walked away from Calabrese Stadium at the Marshall Middle School one final time." The new stadium on the school campus, with an artificial turf field under lights, was ready for the season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 team beat Hanover in the Division 3 quarterfinals, and in 2022, in the 96th meeting with Chelmsford, the Indians won on Thanksgiving to take the Merrimack Valley Conference Small title. They beat Chelmsford again in 2023. Sigsbury stepped down in March 2025, and Shawn Theriault was named head coach.

The Thanksgiving Day game with Chelmsford has been the last game of the season since the 1930s, and the yearbooks call Chelmsford the "traditional rival" and the "arch rival." For Howe it was played for a series of trophies, the Chelmsford-Howe cup and the Westlands Improvement Association Trophy among them, and the school held a rally the day before, at which the cheerleaders were escorted onto the stage by the players. The game drew crowds of 9,000 in 1978 and almost 10,000 in 1993. Chelmsford held the upper hand for long stretches, notably through the 1980s and early 1990s, while Billerica won three straight from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2014 to 2016.

Howe's teams wore green and white and were called the "Green Wave" in the early 1940s. By 1946 the yearbook called them the Howe Indians or Billerica Indians, and Indians has been the team's name since, though the yearbooks of the early 1950s also called them the Howe Warriors and Chieftains, the 1953 yearbook was titled the Howe Chieftain, and the teams of the late 1950s and early 1960s were often called the Warriors, the name the Billerica Memorial High School yearbook has carried since 1960. Chelmsford's teams are the Lions. The school's athletic reports of the 2020s close with the motto "Indians now...Indians forever!" The name has also been questioned: a petition asked the Billerica schools to end the use of the "Indian" as a mascot, bills to ban Native American mascots in Massachusetts public schools were filed in the legislature from 2017 on, and in the summer of 2026 Governor Maura Healey was urged to enact a statewide ban.

Billerica football by season (Howe High School to 1954, Billerica Memorial High School from 1955), from town reports, yearbooks and news reports. Records are as printed or as counted from the printed scores; blank cells are not known.
Season	Head coach	League	Record (W-L-T)	League finish	Postseason/Thanksgiving result	Notes
1926	Robert A. Barrows					Little football "due to lack of material for a team"
1927	Wilfred W. Clark					First organized team; one win
1928	Wilfred W. Clark					Opened with a 2-0 win at Wilmington; 6-6 tie with the Mitchell Boys' School
1929	Royal S. Adams					A "green" team
1930	Royal S. Adams
1931
1932
1933						Football suspended
1934						No team
1935						Football revived
1936
1937	Chester D. Ingraham		4-3-1		Tied Chelmsford 0-0	Includes a forfeit win over Tewksbury
1938	Chester D. Ingraham					Back on the high school athletic field
1939	Chester D. Ingraham		3-5-1		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 22-6	First win over Tewksbury; first game for the Chelmsford-Howe cup
1940	Chester D. Ingraham		5-2-1			Eight games listed in the 1941 yearbook
1941	Rodney C. Dresser	Suburban League	6-2		Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 13-0	Won the Chelmsford-Howe trophy
1942	Chuck Lampson		4-3-3		Thanksgiving: tied Chelmsford 14-14	Cup shared, six months to each school
1943	William O'Neill		4-3-1		Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 6-0	Unbeaten and unscored on in its first four games
1944	Philip Collins		3-4-2		Thanksgiving: tied Chelmsford 6-6	Includes a forfeit loss to Lexington
1945	Chester D. Ingraham		6-2-1		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 6-0
1946	Chuck Lampson	Suburban League	7-3		Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 12-6	Permanent owner of the Westlands Improvement Association Trophy
1947	Chuck Lampson		6-5		Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 13-6
1948	Chuck Lampson
1949	Chuck Lampson		6-4		Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 26-6	Final possession of the Chelmsford-Howe trophy
1950	Chuck Lampson		5-5-1		Thanksgiving: tied Chelmsford 13-13
1951	Chuck Lampson	Suburban League	9-1	Champion	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 19-0	First season at Memorial Field
1952	Chuck Lampson	Lowell Suburban League	9-0	Champion	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 19-0	State Class D co-champion
1953	Chuck Lampson		3-5		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 12-0	Game with Milford cancelled
1954	Chuck Lampson		4-5		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 20-7
1955	Chuck Lampson		4-3		Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 19-12	First Billerica Memorial High School team; also a non-classified 20-18 win over Phillips Academy
1956	Chuck Lampson		0-9		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 26-6
1957	Chuck Lampson		3-5-1		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 13-8
1958	Chuck Lampson				Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford
1959	Chuck Lampson	Lowell Suburban League	7-2	Champion	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 19-0
1960	Chuck Lampson		6-2-1		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 6-0
1961	Chuck Lampson		3-5
1962	Chuck Lampson					A losing season
1963	Chuck Lampson
1964	Chuck Lampson
1965
1966
1967
1968	Paul L. Whitley	Merrimack Valley Conference			Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford	Winless before Thanksgiving
1969		Merrimack Valley Conference
1970		Merrimack Valley Conference
1971		Merrimack Valley Conference
1972		Merrimack Valley Conference				Last season at Memorial Field
1973	Clyde Meyerhoefer	Merrimack Valley Conference				First season at the Marshall School field; a winning season
1974	Clyde Meyerhoefer	Merrimack Valley Conference	4-4-1
1975	Clyde Meyerhoefer	Merrimack Valley Conference				Winless
1976	Clyde Meyerhoefer	Merrimack Valley Conference
1977	Clyde Meyerhoefer	Merrimack Valley Conference
1978	Clyde Meyerhoefer	Merrimack Valley Conference			Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford on a last-minute field goal	Crowd of 9,000
1979	Clyde Meyerhoefer	Merrimack Valley Conference
1980	Clyde Meyerhoefer	Merrimack Valley Conference	6-3-1	2nd	Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 22-12
1981		Merrimack Valley Conference				Wins over Dracut, Haverhill, Greater Lowell and Greater Lawrence
1982		Merrimack Valley Conference				Three wins
1983	Mike Esposito	Merrimack Valley Conference	2-7-1		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 19-0
1984	Mike Esposito	Merrimack Valley Conference	5-4-1		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 24-7
1985	Mike Esposito	Merrimack Valley Conference
1986	Mike Esposito	Merrimack Valley Conference	4-5-1		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 15-14	Opened against Lowell under the lights
1987	Mike Esposito	Merrimack Valley Conference
1988	Mike Esposito	Merrimack Valley Conference	1-9
1989	Mike Esposito	Merrimack Valley Conference	0-9		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 28-6	Thanksgiving game postponed to Saturday by snow
1990	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	5-5		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 14-7	First win ended an eighteen-game losing streak
1991	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	7-3	3rd	Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 22-16
1992	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	7-3		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 14-0	Highest-scoring team in school history to that time; first home night game
1993	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	10-1	Co-champion	Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 33-12; Super Bowl: beat Woburn, December 4, 1993	School records for most points and fewest allowed
1994	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	6-4		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 61-20
1995	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	8-2	2nd	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 27-6
1996	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	7-4		Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 41-0	Wins over Acton-Boxborough and Tewksbury, league champions
1997	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	6-5		Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 21-20
1998	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	2-8		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 23-20
1999	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	10-1	Undefeated in league	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 9-7; Division 2 Super Bowl: beat Newton North
2000	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	6-5		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 13-12
2001	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	6-5		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 24-14	Double-overtime loss to Lowell, both teams unbeaten
2002	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	5-6		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 27-6
2003	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	6-5		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 28-7	Six straight wins after an 0-4 start
2004	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	7-4		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 20-14
2005	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	9-2	Undefeated in league	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 21-0; playoffs: lost to Woburn
2006	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	3-8		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 53-51
2007	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	8-3		Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford 28-20
2008	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference	7-4	4th	Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford	6-0 start and a state ranking of 8th
2009	Peter Flynn	Merrimack Valley Conference		Champion	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford
2010		Merrimack Valley Conference
2011		Merrimack Valley Conference
2012		Merrimack Valley Conference
2013		Merrimack Valley Conference
2014	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference			Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford	First season
2015	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference		Champion	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford
2016	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference			Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford
2017	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference		Champion		Conference sportsmanship award
2018	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference
2019	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference			Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford 21-19	Last game at Calabrese Stadium
2020	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference				Season shortened by the pandemic; first season at BMHS Stadium
2021	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference			Division 3 quarterfinal: beat Hanover; Thanksgiving: lost to Chelmsford
2022	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference (Small)		Champion	Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford	96th meeting with Chelmsford
2023	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference			Thanksgiving: beat Chelmsford
2024	Duane Sigsbury	Merrimack Valley Conference				Sigsbury's last season
2025	Shawn Theriault	Merrimack Valley Conference				First season

Billerica Memorial High School Football

Billerica Memorial High School Football

References