Another Staples High School football season has begun.
As is traditional, the Wreckers are gunning for their 5th state championship.
The first came in 1975. That’s around the time Fred Cantor took this photo:
(Photo/Fred Cantor)
Much has changed since then.
The stands have been enlarged. There’s a new press box. The track is no longer cinder. The area behind the gym (right side of photo, with parking lot) was “modernized” between 1978-81, when a fieldhouse and swimming pool were added.
Thanks to lights, Staples now plays football games on Friday nights, not Saturday afternoons.
The field itself finally has a name. It honors Paul Lane — coach of that 1975 state championship squad.
But much has not changed. A new fall season still brings excitement, fun — and the belief that anything is possible.
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Today, “06880” introduces a new addition to our “Friday Flashback.” Each week (hopefully!) we’ll include a “50 Years Ago This Week” tidbit at the end. (Okay, maybe it will be “25 Years Ago…” or some other number.)
Thanks to Carl Addison Swanson for the idea. And big props to Fred Cantor: Staples Class of 1971 graduate and amateur historian, who loves digging into newspaper archives.
So … 50 Years Ago This Week:
Tennessee Williams, Sandy Dennis, and Dave Brubeck were among the prominent names featured in an ad for the new Connecticut Center for Continuing Education at the Westport Country Playhouse.
The Center promised “over 100 courses” during the Playhouse’s “nine-month ‘intermission.’”
(Whether you’ve been here 50 years or 50 days, if you like “06880,” please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Click here — and thank you!)
