LOUIS “DUKE” ABBRUZZI (Athlete, Charter Class of 1998, Posthumous)

Duke Abbruzzi was the only Warren resident who was named to the All State team in baseball, basketball, and football.  He was also the only Warren native to play in the National Football League.

A running back for Warren High’s championship football teams in 1933, 1935, and 1936, Duke was named All Class C and All State in the latter two seasons.  In 1935 his seventy-seven points were good enough for second place in the state scoring race.

The 1936 Rhode Island high school basketball season was noteworthy in that three of the five first team All State players were from Class C.  Duke was one of the three, partially reflecting the fact that he had led the state in scoring with more than three hundred and twenty-five points.  He was also named All State (and repeated as All Class C) in 1937.

Warren High did not field a baseball team from 1932 to 1934 because of the financial effects of the Depression.  Returning to the field in 1935, the Red Raiders reached the finals of the Class B playoffs before losing to St. Raphael.  For his efforts as a pitcher/first baseman, Duke was named All Class C and All State.  The following year he repeated these honors, as Warren achieved the finals of the state championship competition before falling to Cranston. 

Duke then enrolled at Rhode Island State College (its name was later changed to the University of Rhode Island) where he was named an All Yankee Conference, Little New England, or New England Small College running back in 1938, 1939, and 1940. (In 1941 he played for the Eastern All Stars against the Chicago Bears.) As that school’s first baseman/center fielder, he achieved All New England Conference baseball honors in 1940 and 1941.

After serving in the United States Army during World War Two, he returned to the football wars in 1946 as a halfback and kick returner for the National Football League’s Boston Yanks.

In 1947 he hit .375 for the victorious Warren team in the Warren versus Bristol Little World Series; he had previously competed in the Series from 1934 to 1937.  And in 1948 he captured the Newport Sunset League batting crown with an average of .418.

After his playing days were over, Duke was a successful high school coach, leading Newport baseball, basketball, and football teams to championships at both De La Salle Academy and Rogers High.  His Rogers baseball team won the 1971 Rhode Island Championship, becoming the first Newport County squad to capture a state baseball title.

Duke was named the Words Unlimited 1971 Hugh McGowan Award winner; he is a member of the Providence Gridiron Club Hall of Fame (1971) the University of Rhode Island Athletic Hall of Fame (1973)  and the Rhode Island Football Coaches Hall of Fame (1976).

Duke is the only Warren High School athlete ever to have inscribed under his name “Football 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,” reflecting the fact that he returned to school “to help Charlie Burdge get his coaching career off on the right foot.”  He once won the town tennis championship using a borrowed racquet and playing in his bare feet.

(In 2008 Duke was named to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Hall of Fame.)