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Time Travel: Budget out of balance in Nashua

By Alan Greenwood - Staff Writer | Jan 28, 2023

JAN. 28, 1953: “What price the school athletics program in 1952?

“Well, $15,517 – and four cents – covered the cost to this city for supplying the kids with basketball, spring sports and football, the athletic committee reported in its annual recap to the school board. And it was due to be a lean year with five home football games, three of which were practically rained out, a budget $3,000 less than the year before, and an expanded program which included a junior high school intramural schedule.”

And in other budget news:

“Nashua High School gridders may be able to check over their playing mistakes this fall – in the movies.

“Buzz Harvey, submitting his appropriation requests to the Board of Education this week, is asking for funds to avail himself of the services of a movie concern which caters to the schoolboy football trade in this area. They ‘shoot’ the game, develop the negatives, and have the reels back ready to use the first of the following week.”

The cost for this luxury was estimated to be $100 per game.

JAN. 29, 1963: “The first official meet at the new track on the Fairgrounds will take place April 20 when Nashua High plays host to Portsmouth High, it was revealed at a meeting of the Board of Education last night.

“The schedule was announced by Atty. John D. Wilcox, chairman of the Board’s committee on athletics, lists 10 meets, including four at home.”

JAN. 30, 1968: “The Detroit Lions of the National Football League this morning picked Nashua’s Greg Landry, the famed University of Massachusetts quarterback, as their first-round choice in the combined college draft by the NFL and the AFL.

“Landry was the seventh player taken from the list of eligible college football players.

“… When informed of the move by the Lions, Charles (Buzz) Harvey, Landry’s coach at Nashua High, proclaimed ‘Wonderful … Wonderful.’ “

JAN. 31, 1973: One plan was afoot that would have expanded a facility that was long gone before it could become a landmark.

Another threatened the future of Nashua’s most beloved athletic shrine.

Plans to expand and complete the Nashua Garden complex were announced today by Adrien Labrie, Nashua Garden Corporation president.

“The Garden’s board of directors voted last night, he said, to add a second ice rink and to enclose both the new and existing facilities with a structural steel building which will eventually seat 4,000 people.”

Just below that on the front page ….

“A proposal that a second public high school be constructed on the North Common – as advanced more than a decade ago – has been revised in recent weeks.

“… Construction on the North Common would mean the end of Holman Stadium and many other athletic facilities.”

To make these tales shorter, it boils down to this:

Holman and the North Common survived.

The Garden had one sheet of ice and it was eventually enclosed. The second rink and 4,000-seat arena never happened. Several years after this, the Garden was demolished.

FEB. 1, 1988: “Anybody have a replay?

“It’s the desire of Matt Breveleri, the Nashua High School indoor track team junior who both did and didn’t set a record in the 00-meter dash during the state meet in Hanover on Saturday. Unfortunately for Breveleri, replays are used in the National Football League, not by the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association.

“Breveleri was brimming with joy after running the 300 in 35.2 seconds, as was his coach. Bob DeMello.

“The 35.2 looked to be good for the state crown and a record, breaking the mark of former Panther Barney Borromeo. But wait!

“An official ruled that Breveleri had cut in too soon on Dover’s Lee Tasker, the apparent runner-up, and had impeded Tasker’s progress. Breveleri was disqualified.”

FEB. 2, 1948: “It is up to local school boards to decide whether they want to follow a state Board of Education to commendation that Sunday sports be abolished Commissioner Edgar Fuller declared today.

“… Attorney General Ernest R. D’Amours recently ruled that the State Board had authority to forbid schools from taking part in Sunday sports if the board saw fit to do so.”

FEB. 3, 1983: “The Bishop Guertin wrestlers had little trouble in handling Plymouth yesterday at a dual meet 54-6.

“At 101 pounds, Tim Lee won a 13-6 major victory. At 108, Mike Schramm won 15-5. At 115, Dave Beaulieu won by a pin in 1:50. At 122, Steve Gallagher won by a pin in 3:20. At 129, Dave Hegel took a 19-7 superior decision. At 135, Jay Franks won by a pin in 1:18.”