The Scrapbook Heroes of '33
The 1932-’33 season was a great one for Peterborough High School, with both the boys and girls winning the Monadnock League Championship that year. (More on the girls’ season later this month.) While it marked another state tournament for the defending Class B champs, the boys' regular season was most memorable for two hotly-contested games against neighboring Appleton Academy of New Ipswich!
In their toughest battle of the season on Feb. 10, 1933, the Peterborough Transcript reported that “the Appleton boys received coaching reinforcements from Fitchburg, Mass. for a week or more, and a large crowd of Greenville and New Ipswich fans came over hoping to see Appleton wreak vengeance on their Peterborough rivals for the stinging defeat administered them at the Greenville town hall two weeks ago.”
In a nip-and-tuck game from the opening tap, tensions among both fan bases reportedly ran high at times but the players kept their heads and the contest was clean throughout. Appleton, with a powerful outfit, almost made Peterborough “bite the dust” on their home court, and “it was a relief to the Peterborough supporters when the final whistle blew” as PHS held on for a 26-20 victory. “Peterborough has met no stronger team this year than Appleton Academy,” the Transcript observed afterwards.
That was true until they met a powerful North Country team in that year’s Class B tournament at UNH.
Peterborough High was on the verge of a dynasty, having won the Class B title the three previous years. In 1933, they again rolled through the quarter-finals and semis and seemed to aiming for a a four-peat, but the boys fell to a skilled outfit from Groveton High in the finals, 35-25.
Though disappointing, the loss marked a remarkable run for the Peterborough boys, who had won 10 straight games at the state tournament since 1930. Wow!
