Wakefield Hall of Fame
Joseph “Red” Czarnota
As described in the 1943 Wakefield
yearbook, ‘Red Czarnota was the hard hitting
shortstop’ on the Wakefield varsity
baseball team. He also starred on the
hockey team and played on the football team in 1941 and 1942. Red was one of the starters on the 1941-42 Wakefield
High School hockey team which in their first year of competition, won the
championship of the Eastern Massachusetts Hockey League. Mr. Czarnota
enlisted in the Marines after graduation to serve in World War II as many boys
his age would do in that era then returned to further his education in the New
England area. First he enrolled
at Brewster Academy in New
Hampshire then continued his education at Boston University where he played football and hockey.
‘Red’ was a legend and known as an enforcer for BU hockey resulting in
his being the most penalized player in the New England Intercollegiate Hockey
League his junior year.
Mr. Czarnota
earned a spot on the 1952 Olympic Hockey Team.
As a prelude to the winter games, the Olympic hockey team toured Europe
playing exhibition games, In addition to
being known as physically rock hard and solid muscle, Red maintained his
legendary status as an enforcer and was nicknamed by newspapers the ‘Little
Giant’ and the ‘Bad Boy’ of the American team.
In the 1952 Olympics held in Oslo, Norway,
it came down to a one game final with undefeated Canada playing the American
team who had suffered only one loss to Sweden.
Canada
was a power house who would end up scoring almost 30 goals more than any other
team in the tournament. However, a win
would give the American team a gold medal where a loss would drop them to
fourth place. It started bad for Red’s
team as they gave up 2 goals in the first period but the Americans snapped back
in the second period with goals by Johnny Mulhern of
Boston and Ruben Bjorkman of Roseau, Minnesota. With only 90 seconds left in the second period,
the Canadians scored again to take a 3-2 lead.
At the end of the third period, Jimmy Sedin of
St. Paul, Minnesota poked in the tying goal making the score 3-3 which is
how the game ended. A crowd of 10,000
were jammed into Jordal Stadium looking for a real
roughhouse slam-bang affair between the two teams but the rowdies played it
safely even though there was plenty of stiff body checking. In such a hard fought physical game, one would
have to conclude Joseph Czarnota played a major role
in securing the 1952 Olympic silver medal in hockey for the American team.
Joseph Czarnota
never forgot his roots and was an active supporter of youth programs in Wakefield. Mr. Czarnota passed
away before his time, but to commemorate the life of this great man named
‘Red”, a trophy was named in his honor and is given annually to an outstanding
youth hockey player in Wakefield.
1941-1942 Hockey Team Front Row: E.
Richardson, P. Cummings, J. Melanson, W. Vidito, C. MacDonald, W. Cullen, J. Czarnota
2nd Row: Coach Dinan,
J. Cryan, H. Ratcliffe, B.
Strong, A. Thresher, J. Inglis, J. Hurley
3rd Row: J. LeFave,
W. Thornton, F. Sousa.
Front Row: J. Czarnota, R. Mills, R. Kelly, J. Inglis,
J. Canavan, G. Buxton, H. O’Neill
2nd Row: Coach Rood, J. Butler, P. DeMarco, J. Colucello, J. Hird, R. Bates, F. Bartnick, R.
Pelletier, G. Armstrong, F. Knapp, Manager
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