Where Are They Now?: An accidental starter, Gary Vincent took the ball and ran with it for the Oakmont Spartans – The Gardner News

LUNENBURG Baseball history remembers Wally Pipp as the player who came down with a headache one day and sat out a game, paving the way for Lou Gehrig to go on to play a then-record 2,130 consecutive games.

Fifty years ago this fall over at Oakmont, a season-ending shoulder injury sidelined Spartans first-string junior running back Gary LeBlanc, allowing freshman Gary Vincent to be elevated to a varsity starting spot.

Although Vincent didnt play 2,130 straight games, he likely rushed for that many yards or more, pacing the Spartans football team in scoring all four years of high school. In fact, he still holds scoring records at the school five decades after playing his last game.

He began his football career playing one season of Pop Warner as a 12-year-old and then as an eighth-grader he suffered with Osgood-Schlatter disease on his knees. He sat out the season before going out for football during his freshman year at Oakmont.

We were pretty thin when I was a freshman, the 64-year old Vincent remembered. I was playing defense in the beginning and was a second-stringer on offense. During the last scrimmage, the starting tailback (LeBlanc) broke his shoulder bone and I got elected.

In his very first game, against Westford, Vincent scored on a conversion rush during a 16-0 victory.

The offense was based around the running game, so it was hard not to have success, he said, looking back on the starting Spartan backs which included quarterback Mike Hurd, and fellow running backs Tim Meagher and Andy Caouette. We ran the option play from the very beginning of my freshman year.

During that freshman season, Vincent proved coach Art Hurds confidence in him when he led the 5-4 team in scoring with seven touchdowns, 10 conversion runs and a total of 62 points. In addition, he set the school record with a 95-yard kickoff return in a win over Lunenburg a record which still stands today.

As I remember, the ball sort of scooted by me and kept on rolling back to the end zone, so thats why it ended up being so long, he recalled. I picked it up and everyone else seemed to be running the wrong way when I picked it up. It made it a lot easier for me.

The 95-yard return followed up a 69-yard touchdown run earlier in the game.

Im a sprinter at heart and did that when I ran track, he noted. Man, I was tuckered out after that long run.

He was one of three freshmen to start for the Spartans that season along with Chuck Wyman and Keenan Young.

As a sophomore, the only mar in the 1971 season was a 15-14 loss to Nashoba, the team finishing 8-1. Vincent went on to set new scoring marks with 12 touchdowns, 10 conversion runs and 92 points on the season. His touchdown run and conversion was the difference in an 8-6 win over Murdock on Thanksgiving Day.

The Spartans had an even better year in 1972, if you can believe that, as they finished undefeated at 8-0-1 with a 6-6 tie to Littleton spoiling the perfect season. However, because there was no Division 3 Super Bowl that season, that Oakmont team has fallen into relative obscurity.

That squad boasted a loaded backfield with Vincent nicely complemented by a pair of seniors in Caouette and wingback Paul Collette.

Wyman, a junior, was now the quarterback calling the signals behind a line that included the likes of center Phil Ahlin, guards Doug Lockhart and Dean Johnson, tackles Young and Bill Earle, and ends Rick Gould and Bob Bird Wirtanen.

Other key members of the team included Kurt Davis, Steve Nims, Rick Noseworthy, Jim Lupien, Tom Wolcott, Jim Perrett and Doug Marchant, among others.

For Vincent, the superlatives continued as he finished his junior year with a new record of 17 touchdowns and 104 points, which would turn out to be the best offensive output of his career.

That was a great team with all of those seniors that year, Vincent said. We had a real good group of players who played well together. It was all about the team, thats what the coaches preached to us.

He recalled that Art Hurd along with his assistants Bill Wyman, Win Dunn and Bob Weeks were always very supportive of the team.

To begin his senior season in the fall of 1973, the Spartans won their first four games of the season by shutout without allowing a single point behind the double-pronged running attack of Vincent and quarterback Chuck Wyman.

In week five, Oakmont was shocked by Ayer and dropped a 22-8 game, which was the first loss for Oakmont football in 20 games dating back to 1971.

That game with Ayer really stood out for me, it was a real heartbreaker, Vincent said. We had a lot of good teams in the league. After that loss we went on to beat every one of them.

The Spartans rebounded the following week with a 51-0 blasting of North Middlesex as Vincent became the first player in Oakmont history to score five touchdowns in one game. In addition, his two conversion runs gave him another record, 34-points scored in one game.

In perhaps the biggest win of the season the following week, Oakmont came back from a 10-0 deficit against Westford, going into the fourth quarter. Vincent scored on a three-yard run and added the conversion to cut it to 10-8. Wyman then booted a 15-yard field goal the first in Oakmont history to capture a heart stopping 11-10 win.

We never thought we were going to lose that game, even when we were trailing late, he said. You needed that right attitude and it made a big difference.

A 14-0 win over Littleton the next week, followed by a 17-6 win over Lunenburg on Thanksgiving catapulted the 8-1 Spartans into the first-ever Division III Central-Western Mass. Super Bowl against Mohawk Trail Regional at Springfield College.

Oakmont left the day before on Friday afternoon for Springfield, and the Spartans got a huge surprise after boarding their buses for the trip out west. As they made their way out of the parking lot, they were shocked to see the entire student body lining the driveway out to the street.

The students had signs and everything, it was a great send off, he recalled.

The Spartans responded with a 31-12 victory, their first-ever Super Bowl championship, as Vincent rushed for the first touchdown and caught a 28-yard pass from Chuck Wyman for another. Quarterback Wyman also scored a rushing touchdown and booted a 22-yard field goal.

The Super Bowl was a great thrill for all of us, Vincent said. Plus, we got the chance to play on AstroTurf for the first time.

Vincent went on to attend Assumption College where he played club football his freshman year, reconnecting with high school teammates Mike Hurd and Brad Johnson.

It was like old times for us, he noted.

After two years at Assumption as a math major, he decided to transfer to UMass and become an engineering major.

Vincent worked in Danbury, Conn., for Automation Industries for five years but decided to move closer to home for both he and his wife Sharon.

I was looking for a job in Massachusetts and wound up getting an offer from Simplex, of all places, he said.

He worked as an engineer, later in research and development and wound up in a management position for Simplex, which later became Tyco and he finished up with Johnson Controls. He spent a total of 34 years there, prior to his retirement last year.

Gary and Sharon live in Lunenburg where they brought up their two sons, Evan and Grady, who today both live and work in the Boston area. He and his wife enjoy golfing, hiking, biking and traveling and hes also been catching up with odd jobs around the house since his retirement.

Today, 47 years after the conclusion of his high school football career, Vincent still holds the Oakmont career records for touchdowns (50), conversions (28) and points (356).

Well, it certainly helped playing all four years, Vincent said. That was a bit unusual to start as a freshman, but it was a slim team back then and it was through a mishap that I got the varsity start in the first place.

(Do you have a suggestion for a future Where are they Now segment? Please contact Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Rd. Sandwich, MA 02563)

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Where Are They Now?: An accidental starter, Gary Vincent took the ball and ran with it for the Oakmont Spartans - The Gardner News