Capacity Crowd Watched Injured Quarterback Lead Warde Over Ludlowe in Thanksgiving Day Clash 30 Years Ago

Despite separating the shoulder on his throwing arm a week before the Thanksgiving Day football clash with arch-rival Roger Ludlowe High School in 1983, Andrew Warde High School quarterback Jack McFarland had a game he'll never forget.

McFarland led the Crimson Eagles to a 26-6 victory over the Flying Tigers during his senior year. Warde, which won four of its last five games that season, improved to 4-6 overall. It was also the Eagles' fourth straight Thanksgiving Day triumph over the Tigers.

"I remember having a separated throwing shoulder from the New Canaan game the Saturday before," recalled McFarland in an interview with me a couple of years ago. He completed 11-of-23 passes for 114 yards and a pair of scoring aerials. "The Thanksgiving game always had a 'bowl' atmosphere. It meant everything to me, my teammates, the coaching staff, and the school," he admitted.

"The thing that stands out to me was the game was at Ludlowe, (and) the crowd was huge, (about) five to seven thousand," added McFarland, who lives in Monroe with his wife and four children.

What does he remember most about the game itself? "I threw two touchdown passes, one to Jeff Baker (the split end), and another to Glen Cantwell (the running back). Ludlowe had a pretty good linebacker named Charlie Nagy." Nagy, of course, would go on to pitch major league baseball for the Cleveland Indians. Cantwell, who had two interceptions, rushed for 52 yards.

The quarterback said his coach deserved a lot of credit for getting the team ready to play. "Our coach, Jack Coughlin, was a master motivator," he acknowledged. "He made sure we knew the season and our pride was on the line when we played Ludlowe."

Coughlin was Warde's third football coach, having succeeded the legendary Fern Tetreau (1956-1969), who came over from Ludlowe and started the program at Warde, and the late Bill Davis (1970-1979), who coached the first five Thanksgiving Day tussles with Ludlowe.

"Jack (McFarland) carried the team while we were losing," Coughlin was quoted as saying after the game. "He always played hard. He's a tough kid."

At the time, McFarland and his teammates didn't realize the 29-year history of Andrew Warde football was drawing to a close. "We knew the series was winding down, (but we) had no idea it was coming to an end at that time," McFarland stated about the penultimate game of the original series. The Crimson Eagles played their last-ever football game the following Thanksgiving Day against Ludlowe.

Three years later, in 1987, Andrew Warde High School graduated its final class, and both Warde and Ludlowe consolidated into Fairfield High School at the Warde site. The Fairfield Mustangs were born in 1988. When the Board of Education decided to reopen a second high school at the Ludlowe site several years ago, the modern-day version of the rivalry was resurrected in 2005.

"I have not been back to the Thanksgiving game, but I have been up to the school to visit former coach Ed Bengermino," said McFarland, now a baseball coach at Staples High School in Westport. "I have been an assistant coach in football and the head baseball coach (for nine years) at Staples."

Paul Piorek