Milford teammates from '78 Super Bowl team climb tallest peak in New England at 61
The extra baggage went up the mountain. But not in a backpack.
A fear of heights. Knee, hip and back problems. Another commonality: teammates.
The hike to the tallest peak in New England was completed on July 22, but planning, preparing and training commenced nearly a year ago.
Four members of Milford High’s Class of 1979 - friends since grade school who played in the ’78 CMass Super Bowl - trekked up and down Mt. Washington at the age of 61. They encountered hikers half their age while climbing toward a foggy, rocky summit. They stopped periodically to hydrate, eat snacks and give each other what only buddies that go ”way back" do: grief.
“It just makes for a great day when you struggle a bit,” said Steve Morelli. “It's awesome to have friends with you that motivate you to push through and to share in the experience.”
“We usually do something like this once a year but never something this big,” added Dave Buckley. “This was the toughest thing I’ve ever done.”
Mike Elia, Peter Sanchioni, Morelli and Buckley – who played Pop Warner football together and college sports at different New England locales – are part of a larger group from the Class of '79 who meet occasionally to rent cottages on Cape Cod, play cards, golf, hockey and softball.
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And, over the past few years, climb mountains. A previous hike to Mt. Monadnock was tackled enthusiastically, but without Elia. He has a fear of heights, plus no hiking gear.
Buckley reassured him that no cliffs were involved and that he would provide any climbing equipment.
“That closed the deal,” Elia said.
Buckley began sending ”countdown" emails in January - it was time to start training.
Mt. Washington hike helped foursome ‘stay elite’
The foursome, who were sophomores when Pro Football Hall of Famer and current Fox analyst Howie Long was a senior, played on Milford's 1978 team that reached the Central Mass Super Bowl. The Scarlet Hawks, coached by Dick Corbin, took a 9-1 record into the Super Bowl against Leominster, an undefeated team that was ranked sixth in the nation. Milford lost, 13-6, in overtime to a team that outscored opponents 277-50 with six shutouts. Elia led CMass in scoring, finishing ahead of Ayer’s Joe Morris, who became Syracuse University’s career rushing leader and won a Super Bowl with the New York Giants.
Elia, who played Legion baseball in Milford and later captained football and baseball teams at Trinity College, scored his team’s lone touchdown against Leominster.
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Buckley played fullback for Milford and became a four-year starting running back at Bridgewater State. Morelli, who played at the University of Maine, was one of just three members from the ‘78 team to play Division 1 football. Sanchioni ran track at Boston College, the Boston Marathon twice and was later superintendent for Millis and Natick schools. The PhD is currently superintendent for Tiverton (R.I.) Schools and his brother John is Milford’s deputy police chief.
“This is how we try to stay elite even though our wives hate it,” Buckley, a senior data analyst for Wells Fargo, said of the Mt. Washington hike.
Preparation for the hike
Buckley, whose brother Bill was a Milford selectman for 18 years, said he required nearly six months to train, losing 18 pounds in the process. Elia began leg workouts in April and Morelli used several training methods to get ready to climb the 6,288-foot peak in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
“Preparation is important especially when you reach our age,“ said the technology specialist with Dell Technologies (where he's worked for the last 27 years) whose first trek to Mt. Washington was in 1990 to ski Tuckerman’s Ravine. “You just can't expect to do a hike like Mt. Washington and succeed/enjoy it without prep work.”
Morelli used hikes at Hopedale Parklands, Upton State Forest, Mt. Wachusett and Mt. Monadnock (with Buckley and Sanchioni) as well as mountain biking, resistance bands and weightlifting to prepare. Many hikes and bikes happened in this year’s wet weather, which also served as good prep for the group, who climbed in typical July conditions: 82 degrees at the Pinkham Notch visitor’s center; 41 degrees at the summit with zero visibility.
“Don’t let a rainy day keep you from a good local hike/bike ride,” Morelli said. “Dave (Buckley) always has a great phrase: ‘prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”’
The foursome experienced the latter, especially Elia, the self-described “newbie” hiker who works in the insurance industry and lives in Erie, Pennsylvania.
“The scenery was so vivid and always changing,” he said in an email. “The terrain varied from a rocky footpath...to a narrow and steep incline paralleling Tuckerman's Ravine...to the final ascent which was above the tree line and a landscape of a kazillion boulders.”
Elia had one final observation. Remember, this is coming from the man who is still apprehensive of heights and had no prior hiking gear.
“The climb itself was way more fun than I anticipated.”
Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tdumas@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Milford Super Bowl teammates from '78 tackle Mt. Washington at age 61
