WARREN HIGH SCHOOL CLASS B BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS 1929 (Old Time Team, Class of 2012)

The Warren High School basketball team of 1929 competed in Class B and played its home games at Scenic Hall, later the Cercle Jacques Cartier Hall and now home to the 2^nd Story Theatre.

Captained by Al Mercier, the hoopsters were coached by Jim Sullivan and managed by Bickford Martin.  Other players included Lou Bernardo, Charlie Burdge, Christopher Leo Crowe, Ulderic “Sheik” Dallaire, Tom O’Brien, and Al Vitullo.

Burdge was the stalwart of the team, especially on defense, and despite missing a number of games due to injury, was eventually named to the Providence Journal-Bulletin All State squad.  Mercier’s finest game came when he held La Salle’s ace Reilly scoreless, while O’Brien, who led the team in scoring, notched twenty-one points against Bristol’s Colt Memorial and nineteen against Barrington.

The team finished the season with twelve victories, going undefeated while capturing the Class B title.  The neighboring schools of Barrington and Colt Memorial were each defeated twice, with the combined scores of the four games being Warren 124 and Barrington/Colt Memorial 56. 

Its only two losses were to the state’s top-ranked team, Mt. St. Charles, and the Rhode Island State College (later URI) freshmen.  In the Mount game Warren led by seven at the half before fading, while the team was down only one very late in the Rhode Island contest.  In the latter game Burdge was described in the press as “by far the outstanding player on the floor.”

Burdge, Mercier, and O’Brien received All Class B honors, while Dallaire was named All State in the following year of 1930.

Burdge and Dallaire are both individual members of the Athletic Hall of Fame.