New names set for induction to SHS Hall
Published on August 17th, 2005
The third class in Stoneham High School's Athletic Hall of Fame has been announced, and among the honorees are some of the most commonly talked about and revered names in the history of SHS sports.
The class links both some very familiar names from the recent past to some of the all-time greats to ever call themselves Spartans
The 2006 induction is scheduled for April 1 at the Montvale Plaza, and should be a rousing success - as both of the first two inductions have been.
First among the honorees is Peter Savelo, a 1934 graduate of Stoneham High School who played baseball, football, basketball and track during time at SHS.
Savelo attended St. Patricks Elementary School before he played first base for three years for the Spartans - including earning the Captain spot during his senior year. Savelo hit .571 as a junior, and was later accepted to Wentworth Institute of Technology with the intention of playing football.
An injury to Savelo's father caused the youngster to drop out of school and help support his family, but Savelo continued a semi-pro baseball career for nearly ten years after his graduation from Stoneham High School.
Robert L. (Butch) Knight was a 1953 graduate of Stoneham High School who actually played a season for the then Boston Patriots in the 1950's. Knight was an offensive lineman for three seasons with the Spartans, and guarded the blue line for famous Stoneham High School coach Doc Gordon.
Knight was named the MVP of the Metro Tourney in 1952 and was on the 1953 GBI All Star Team in hockey.
In fact, Knight and his sister Ruth DeMoor (Knight) combined to earn 13 letters during their time at Stoneham High School.
Knight played both football and hockey at Boston University on an athletic scholarship after college, and joined the Army to serve in the Korean War after his high school days.
Though he is known more these days as a Hall of Fame-worthy coach, Bill Seabury (Stoneham High School Class of 1961) is being inducted this year as a player. A standout ice hockey and baseball player during his years at SHS, Seabury went to excel in both sports during his college years at Northeastern.
Seabury played four years of each sport as a Spartan, and has the distinct honor of being a member of the Northeastern Hall of Fame - elected in 1986 for his accomplishments while skating at Matthews Arena. Seabury finished with 114 points on 65 goals during his career with the Huskies. Seabury is also the father of first class inductee Kristin Seabury.
William "Bill" Walczak graduated from Stoneham High School in 1973 and was a standout performer in baseball, basketball, and football during his high school days.
Walczak earned All-League honors as a shortstop for the Spartans, and then went on to earn All-American honors while playing at Division II Rollins College.
Walczak also spent time in the Minnesota Twins organization as a minor leaguer in the 1970's.
The second-half of the father/daughter Hall of Fame combinations, Sharon Russell excelled in three sports before her graduation from Stoneham High in 1975 - including a standout career as a tennis player that still sees her as the greatest women's tennis player to ever come out of Stoneham High School.
Russell was the Number One singles player from her sophomore through senior seasons, was the MVP in each of those seasons, and played on the 1974 girls team that it to the semi-finals of the state tournament.
Russell also played field hockey and basketball during her time at Stoneham High, before moving on to Salem State College where she played both field hockey and tennis.
Russell compiled a 39-5 career record at SSC, and won the Mass State College Singles Title in 1978 before spending the next decade competing in tennis tournaments across New England.
Lisa Powers graduated from Stoneham High School in 1986, and had compiled an impressive career in field hockey, basketball and softball by the time her career was over.
Powers Captained all three sports her senior year, and was an All-Star in basketball two seasons and All-Scholastic in softball during time as a Lady Spartan.
Derek Edgerly played only one sport at Stoneham High School, but when he graduated from SHS in 1990 it was widely agreed that he was one of the best - if not the best - hockey player to ever skate for the Spartans.
Edgerly played four seasons of varsity hockey for the Spartans and broke the all-time Middlesex League goal scoring record with 99 career goals during his time at Stoneham. For his career, Edgerly was a three-time All-Star, Middlesex League MVP his senior season, and was a sixth round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Edgerly finished his career as Stoneham's leading point-scorer with 174 career points, went on to play two seasons at Northeastern University and played six seasons of professional hockey after leaving the Huskies.
Michele Gagne excelled in field hockey and both winter and spring track prior to her graduation from Stoneham High School in 1991. After a career during which she garnered MVP honors in field hockey, Gagne was later named an All-American Field Hockey player at Holy Cross, and was later inducted into their athletic Hall of Fame.
Coach Howard "Doc" Gordon is perhaps the most legendary coach at Stoneham High School - leading the baseball, football and hockey teams in the early decades of the 20th century through the 1950's and acting as one of the great innovators in high school sports.
According to Stoneham legend, it was Gordon who first came up with the idea of pushing the defensemen up in ice to become more of an offensive threat. Gordon garnered numerous honors and coached scores of legendary players during his time at SHS.
Frank "Tiger" Burns, the Stoneham Independent Editor from 1949-1991 was perhaps the one constant in the ever-changing Stoneham High School sports scene.
If it happened in Stoneham, Burns was there to cover it and tell it like it was. Burns spent much of his free time, weekend and evenings covering Stoneham High School athletics and could always be counted upon for thorough sports coverage week in and week out. Burns was inducted as a Friend to Stoneham High School athletics, and is the perfect bridge between the early days of Doc Gordon and the modern athletes such as Edgerly and Gagne - Burns covered them all.
The 1995 SHS baseball team rounds up the honorees, as the squad - led by Minnesota Twins draft pick and University of Alabama star Peter Fisher - steamrolled their opposition en route to State Championship. The team had a host of talented players who went on to play college baseball including John O'Donnell, Steve Padovani, Mike Lindstrom, Joe Meahl, Darren Svenson and Dave Mattatal, and stands as one of the greatest baseball squads in a history full of great baseball teams.
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