Monday, November 09, 2026

1964 Staples Backfield Honored

Among those honored tonight at the Sportsmen of Westport’s 44th Dinner of Champions in Norwalk were four players who formed the backfield of the 1964 Staples football team, among the best of all-time. Fomer Coach Paul Lane (l) led tributes to (l-r) John Bolger, Bill During, William Leavitt, and Jack Forehand. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

2 thoughts on “1964 Staples Backfield Honored”

bulldog says:
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at 2:37 am
Somebody forgot Ned Batlin !! Anybody seen him?
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Tom Allen says:
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at 5:00 am
In the spring of ‘65, legendary Syracuse U football coach Ben Schwartzwalder visited Staples to get a look at these four. He watched Buzz Leavitt at baseball practice, and Johnny Bolger, Billy During and Jack Forehand at track practice. Then he summoned all four and said, “I’ll take all of you, right now.” Earlier in the year, after the football season ended, Darien coach John Maher, a local legend, opened the deliberations of the first-team all-County nominations by declaring, “I nominate the entire Staples backfield.” Power, speed, size and smarts: these guys had it all. But you won’t find their names in the Staples record book. They played a nine-game season in an era when the concept of “featured back” did not exist. They shared the workload without complaint. At last night’s dinner, former coach Paul Lane said to the current, and very successful, SHS coach, with great respect, “Marce, you’ve had great teams and you’ll have more great teams, but you’ll never have what I had: four Division I players (three of whom were 3-year college starters) in the same backfield.”
Tom Allen SHS ‘66
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