Winter Olympics 2002 Part1
Published on February 27th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - When you combine the small town of Stoneham with the global reach of the World Olympics, you get a case in which ice is nice.
Consider. In the past 70 years, Stoneham has sent not one, not two, not even three, but six gifted athletes to compete in the Olympics. And how appropriate it is, for a community flush with frozen ponds in the winter and known for the shoes it produced, that five of these six Olympians skated their way to the planet’s premier athletic events.
Residents who fondly remember Stoneham historian Joanne Harriman, who passed away last year, may recall that in the early 1990s she narrated two programs about these five achievers that aired on the local cable access channel. The twin shows, titled “Olympic Fever,” were broadcast under the banner program name of “Stoneham: Not Just a Shoe Town” and featured segments dedicated to honoring the six accomplished Stoneham Olympians. In this first installment of a two part series, we invite you to meet . . .
• EDWIN HARTWELL FRAZIER, who was known to many as Ted, became the first local native to put Stoneham on the Olympic map when he tended goal for the United States hockey team at the third Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York in 1932. The 1925 graduate of Stoneham High School, who was described by peers as “fit for the net” in his yearbook, finessed his magic on the ice by practicing hockey on Buckman’s and Dike’s Ponds since he was a child. By the time he and his fellow American teammates skated and shot their way to a Silver Medal victory at Lake Placid, Frazier had, by then, already become a bit of an international celebrity. In 1931 he and the Boston Hockey Club competed in the Amateur World Hockey Championship in Poland. It was there that his trademark baseball cap, which was emblazoned with the letter “S,” kicked off a continent-wide fad in which Europeans everywhere donned such popular hats. Those about town may recall that Frazier, in his later years, enjoyed operating a mechanics garage and holding such positions as a post on the Parks Commission.
• JOSEPHINE MADDEN, a current resident of Park Street, was fast on her feet and didn’t use blades underneath them in order to get there from here. In this case, there would be the 11th Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where, in 1936, Madden was a member of the United States Track and Field Team.
It was the 1932 Olympics that captured the imagination of Madden, and it was her own dedicated practice and the good will of her fellow friends and family in her hometown of Somerville that got her to the Olympics in 1936.
“I always liked to run,” Madden recalled to Harriman during the aforementioned local cable access show.
Indeed. In addition to a high school athletic career that includes much time on the basketball court and in the swimming pool, Madden prepared for her Olympic moment with countless laps around Franklin Field in Dorchester.
Through the guidance of a writer from the Boston Post, Madden was able to navigate the series of tryouts and championships, all of which led to victory and paved her way to Olympic glory. At the time, it cost an Olympic competitor $500 to attend the Games, and for Madden it was an expense paid through a lot of door-to-door fund-raising and the generosity of Somerville’s mayor.
“I can imagine what $500 would do today,” Warren told Harriman.
The 1936 Olympics were, of course, fraught with international tension and blistering politics, for the location in Germany provided Adolf Hitler with a high profile. In fact, Warren recalled to Harriman, that the Games stand-out runner, Jesse Owens, was not properly recognized for his accomplishments because Hitler did not want to acknowledge him.
• The hockey career of FRANCIS O’GRADY, who many in town know as a retired and beloved teacher and administrator in the Stoneham school system, got off to a less-than-promising start when he was in the sixth grade and his team at St. Patrick’s School lost 26 to 1 in a game against the seventh graders.
Undaunted, the Warren Street resident kept to the frozen ponds, continued to play hockey at school, played games at the Boston Arena, twice made the All Scholastic Team of the Greater Boston Interscholastic League, achieved similar honors as a student at Boston College and, in 1956, found himself at the 7th Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy.
In the weeks before the Olympic Games, O’Grady injured his shoulder during an exhibition match that was held in Boston. The incident followed on the heels of a tribute paid to O’Grady after the first period of the game, and it prompted his physician to advise him against competing in the exhibitions that remained to follow between then and the Olympics. In fact, by the time O’Grady made it to Cortina, he was able to receive treatment for his injury but was unable to compete in the Olympics.
In the 1960s O’Grady emerged in Stoneham as a loyal family man and an enormously popular educator, a fact made evident by a tribute poem that was written about him by former teacher Earl Thibodeau. The piece, written in 1956 read, “You’ve played life’s games with head erect / Soiling not your honor nor self respect / You’ve known both the bitter and the sweet / When one has been victory, the other defeat / Yet you’ve met what e’er fates befall / And been a man throughout it all.”
In part two of this series, we will explore the Olympic careers of hockey goalie Don Whiston and figure skaters Nancy Rouillard Ludington and Nancy Kerrigan. In addition to such glimpses into the achievements of these local Olympians, there will be an invitation extended to you by the Stoneham Historical Society to attend its upcoming meetings and catch sight of some exciting Olympic memorabilia.
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