Warren Wanderers Semi-Pro Football State Champions 1937 (Class of 2011 Old Time Team)

During the first half of the twentieth century, Warren semi-pro football teams played under such monikers as the Warrens, the Rough and Readys, Warren Artillery, the Indies, the Life Savers, the Townies, the Narries, and, most frequently, the Wanderers.

The 1937 Warren Wanderers were managed by 2011 Old Timer inductee Ernie Hoar and coached by Athletic Hall of Fame member Ben Polak.  They began the season by shutting out the Woonsocket Thunderbolts, 31-0 (with John Krawczyk and Joe Perry starring in the line), the Washington Park Bears, 13-0 (center Donat Gelinas, Perry, and Joe Tavares were outstanding in the trenches), and Oakland Park, 14-0.  Jesse Salvatore threw touchdown passes to Joe Bernatchez and Frank Rutkiewicz in the latter victory, which brought the team’s shutout string to ten games over a two-year period.

After narrowly losing to the South Providence Hustlers, 2-7, for their first loss since the first game of the 1936 season, the Wanderers started another shutout streak with a 26-0 whitewashing of the Attleboro Buckeyes.  In this win Bernatchez and Salvatore each scored twice.

Next up was the Rhode Island One Hundred and Thirty-Five-Pound Championship game, and the Wanderers easily defeated the one-loss Elmwood Shamrocks, 19-0, at Warren’s Burr’s Hill Park.  Bernatchez, Rutkiewicz, and Salvatore all scored in the title victory, a contest in which the Shamrocks failed to penetrate beyond the home town team’s twenty-five yard line.

And then to put the icing on the cake, the Wanderers celebrated Thanksgiving Day by downing the Bristol Olympians, 6-0, on an Emile Niemic touchdown.  This was our southern neighbors’ first loss of the season and the first time that they had been scored upon.

Team members included John Araujo, Joe Bernatchez, Tony Cappuccilli, Sid Cochrane, Dave Davenport, one of the Fish brothers, Donat Gelinas, Samuel Hochman, Kinnes, Kordas, John Krawczyk, C. Krychta, Lamoureux, Larisa, Logan, McGinn, Al Morra, Joe Murphy, Nellie Nencka, Emile Niemic, Joe Pasquale (whose tackle for a safety had provided the only points in the loss to the Hustlers), Joe Perry, Frank Rutkiewicz, Bernard Sagan, St. Vincent, Jesse and Norm Salvatore, Sullivan, Joe and Tony Tavares, Alexander (“Mussolini”) and Armand Vitullo, Anthony Voccio, and Joe Wajda.