1953 Five Amazing years of Warren Athletic History

In 1953 the Bristol County Little Bigger Baseball All Stars won the Rhode Island Championship before losing to eventual National Champion Stamford, Connecticut in the New England semi-finals.

The following year the Warren High School baseball team, with two freshmen starters, defeated the De La Salle Crusaders.  The Crusaders, who lost in the state playoff finals, had three players who were named to the All State squad.

During the summer of 1955, Bristol’s American Legion Kearney Post, with players from Warren and Bristol, won the Southern Division title and finished as State Runners-Up.  At the same time the Bristol County Babe Ruth All Stars captured the Rhode Island title before losing to Stamford, Connecticut in the New England regional final.

That fall the Warren High School football team defeated Bristol’s Colt Memorial for the first time since 1937 and in the process, won the Bristol County Football Championship for the first time in twenty years.  The eleven had earlier come from twelve points down to beat Barrington.

In the spring of 1956 the Warren High School baseball team shared the Eastern Division Championship with St. Raphael Academy.  (The Division comprised five Class A or B squads from Newport and Pawtucket and the three Class C teams from Bristol County.)  The Redskins copped all four games against Colt Memorial, which finished one game out of first place, and Barrington.  Chico Andrade, who was voted All State, pitched and played shortstop for this nine, which was only one of four Warren High nines to sweep Barrington and Colt/Bristol.

Following the baseball season Warren High School was presented with the All Sport Bristol County Trophy for 1955-1956.

During the summer, Bristol’s American Legion Kearney Post, with players from Warren and Bristol, won the Southern Division title and again finished as State Runners-Up.

In the fall of 1956 the Warren High School football eleven downed both Colt Memorial and Barrington for the second year in a row, and Burrillville, for the first time since 1936, on its way to a Class C Co-Championship with East Greenwich.  Led by All State guard Pete MacDougall, the team won the Bristol County Football Championship for the second consecutive season.

The following winter the Warren High basketball five defeated Colt Memorial for the first time since 1952 – and then beat them again.  This was only the second time since 1930 that the Redskins had swept the season series with Colt.  The team lost by only four points to South Kingstown, who that year became the first Class C team to win the State Basketball title. 

And then in the spring of 1957, the Warren High School baseball nine shut out Colt Memorial, 10-0.  This was the sixth athletic contest in a row where Warren defeated the Bristolians, the only time that this occurred in Warren school history.  Warren and Colt shared the Bristol County Baseball Championship, but the Redskins captured the All Sport Bristol County Trophy for the second year in a row.

Players, coaches, and managers from this period who are in the Warren Athletic Hall of Fame as individuals* are Jim “Shoes” Abbruzzi, Ed Abrain (as a contributor), George “Chico” Andrade, Pete Andreozzi, Ron Araujo, Donat Brochu, Charlie Burdge, Dick DeBlois, Jack Flynn (as a contributor), Charlie Francis (as a contributor), Paul Harvey, John Jannitto (as a contributor), Johnny Karcz, Jack Keegan and Pete MacDougall. 

 *As of the June 30, 2020