Wakefield
Hall of Fame
William Tighe
William Tighe
started in Wakefield as an
assistant coach and became head football coach in 1957. He called his first team ‘the fighting 57’s’
which he coached to a Middlesex League championship. In the short seven years he led the Wakefield
squad, he won a total of three and one half Middlesex League Titles. If not for a forfeit because of an ineligible
player in a game Wakefield won
34-0, it possibly would have been four.
Mr. Tighe
coached many Wakefield Hall of Fame players like Tom Stuetzer, John Shevlin, Richard Nardone,
Fred Hupprich,
Dick Defeo,
and Richard North. One of the ‘57’s’ was right guard and writer Russell Banks, (whom
everyone called “teacher” because of his verbal precociousness) who became
famous for his novels Affliction (1990) and The Sweet Hereafter
(1992), both of which were made into critically-acclaimed movies
Mr. Tighe grew up in Ashland
during the great depression and played football, basketball and baseball in
high school. After graduation from high
school in 1942, he served in the Army Air Forces for three years as a P–38 crew chief during World War
II. He continued his education at Boston University where he was a two
sport standout athlete. He was the
starting third baseman as a sophomore on the baseball team who earned captain
his senior year. At one point he
bolstered a depleted staff by becoming a pitcher and responded by throwing a
no-hitter on his way to a 3-0 record. In
football, he even created even more of an impact. Halfway through the season in his junior year
he became starting quarterback propelling the B.U. Terriers to a 5-3 record. He averaged 6.6 yards rushing; (12-80) while
completing 12 of 25 passes for 185 yards. In 1948, his senior year, the
Terriers did even better by compiling a record of 6-2. He completed 21 of 39 passes for 295 yards
and ran 11 times for 42 yards. William Tighe received honorable mention on Boston
University’s Post-War All-Star Grid
Team in 1964 and was inducted into the Boston
University Hall of Fame in 1994.
After graduating from BU in 1949, he spent
some time in Vermont with the St.
Johnsbury professional baseball team of the Northern
League. Mr. Tighe
did get offers to play football for the New York Yankees of the short-lived All-America
Football Conference and baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies but the promises of financial security in
professional sports were not as attractive then as they are today.
After Wakefield,
Coach Tighe moved on to Malden
and then to Lexington as head
football coach. In each instance he was
known as a coach who could add a winning attitude to a football program. Tighe is a past
president of the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Association and a
member of its Hall of Fame. He has
received many other accolades, including the New England Football Officials
Memorial Award and the National Federation of State High School Associations
Service Award. Over 80 years old and still
going strong, Mr. Tighe attributes the support of his
wife and the memory of two of his children who died from cystic fibrosis as the
motivating strength he needs to continue as perhaps the oldest coach in the
nation. Updated
8/08
Coach Tighe
and President John F. Kennedy with the 1962 football
team.
William Tighe’s
Wakefield Coaching Record
The 1958 Wakefield
yearbook picture (left) was dedicated to Mr. Tighe
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