Tales from Northfield
Toolbox
Published: February 3, 2009
Northfield never ceases to amaze me.
The village and town has just 6,000 people, about the population of one high-rise apartment building in Manhattan. But within its 44 square miles it contains the nation's oldest private military college, and until recently it supported two weekly newspapers.
Northfield, I would argue, can also lay claim to Vermont's finest winning baseball tradition. And let's not forget, back in the day, it had oddly an adult theater, and, since 2002, more plausibly, it became home to the National Center for the Study of Counter-Terrorism and Cybercrime.
Now I discover, during the late 1950s to mid-1960s the town was home to the Northfield Speedway, also known as the Dog River Track.
I found this out when Randolph resident Dick Lacaillade wrote me asking for help in gathering information on the track where his dad, Donald, and many others used to race.
"Most races," he says, "were on Sunday afternoons so as not to compete with the Thursday night races at Thunder Road." The track was located on the old fairgrounds site on Route 12A, south of the village. "It started as a half-mile dirt track," he says, "then it became a paved half-mile track, then it was shortened to a one-third mile paved track, but only banked on turns 3 and 4."
Local individuals who raced at the track, in addition to his dad, included Frank Bradley, Fred Smith, and Nate Thurston. Vermont racers who regularly appeared at the Speedway included Ed Pelletier, Russ Ingerson, Ray Stygles, Chet Woods, Bobby Waugh, Herb Corse, Emilio Girelli, Larry Granger, and Malcolm Durkee.
"Durkee had Turn 2 named after him," said Lacaillade, "as he frequently parked his vehicle on the dirt embankment coming out of the turn. Emilio Girelli, I recall, was also a flagman in addition to driving."
Over the past several months Lacaillade said he talked with former driver, Russ Ingerson. "He was one of the fiercest competitors at any track he raced, and he also expressed the thought of how everyone back then respected each other."
Lacaillade, who works for the Vermont State Police, was also a Vermont high school baseball ump for 19 years until his job moved to Rutland.
Some of the drivers have passed on, he says, but before any more oral histories are lost, or attics cleaned out, he is hoping to gather the stories, pictures, and scrapbooks, anything, really, that will help tell the full story of this marvelous little race track in marvelous little Northfield.
People can reach him at his home phone, 728-5775. Or folks can e-mail me and I'll pass along the info.
Short is beautiful
The vote was unanimous at the home of Barre lawyer Richard Rubin on Sunday. All seven of us agreed the most memorable ad during the Super Bowl ad-a-thon was about three seconds long. It was that strange little ditty where some middle-aged, bald, chubby guy screamed "Higggh-Liiife!" and that was it. Nice job Miller Brewing.
The ad that made us all laugh for the wrong reasons was a teaser for NBC's "The Office." The ad showed a woman tossing a cat into a mysterious hole in the ceiling, in order to save it from an unidentified threat. A second later the cat or what was left of it crashed through the same ceiling 10 feet away. The sight gag had us all briefly hysterical
at, oops, animal cruelty!
But none of us could agree on what, if any, League penalty awaited 250-pound Steeler linebacker James Harrison for his 4th quarter mugging of Cardinal Aaron Francisco, a 200-pound safety. Rubin wondered what Francisco could have said to induce such an outburst and presciently observed it likely cost Harrison the MVP award. I predicted a fine of between $50,000 and $100,000 would be assessed in a few days. Nobody climbed on board, but I believe that would be a fair penalty for Harrison's brutal disrespect of an already brutal game.
I was able to capture a few seconds of personal recognition during the Springsteen half-time show when I announced that my twin sister was, as I spoke, probably pouring beers at a sports bar she just purchased about 500 yards away from E Street in Asbury Park, New Jersey, namesake home of Bruce's band.
Ultimately, by game's end, the world was not turned upside down. It's only right that former steelworkers of hard-scrabble Pittsburgh should whup the retired golfers of frou-frou Arizona.
Dodgeball getting too much respect?
Hard to say whether I'm to blame because of my boosterism, but the adult dodgeball community has just about exceeded the carrying capacity of the Union Elementary School gym in Montpelier where it is played.
There are now routinely enough players showing up Monday nights to field four teams of six, and that's almost too many for the small gym, says one of the Montpelier Rec. Dept. organizers, Jim "Buzz" Surwilo. He says they're even toying with the idea of extending the one-hour time slot by an hour, which may spread out the arrivals and departures.
WCAX-TV also got in the booster act a month ago when they aired a three-minute segment on the Montpelier game, which even included a shot of the reporter getting smacked with the ball. Go to the CAX Web site and type "dodgeball" in the search window.
What do boxing and fishing have in common?
One of the editors of this paper recently suggested I look into the subject of endurance and sports.
He writes: "Hockey is intense bursts for about two minutes, then line change. Basketball you're up and down the court for 30 minutes, but you get to stand around some and catch your wind. Wrestling, boy, that is a tough sport and I think those kids train very hard, but it's an intense all-out war for a few minutes. Nordic, I know from experience, is a grueling sport but you have downhills to recover..."
One of his suggestions was I poll local athletic directors for their thoughts on what sports require the best conditioning. AD's, consider yourselves invited to comment.
Meanwhile, I researched the topic and unearthed a recent ESPN "Page 2" study that polled dozens of sports scientists, athletes, and journalists for their opinion on the most demanding sports, and this is what they concluded.
"In Page 2's Ultimate Degree of Difficulty Grid, boxing scores higher than them all." The least demanding is fishing.
The study used 10 criteria for their rankings, including endurance, strength, power, speed, agility, etc. The top ten toughest sports out of the 60 listed are: boxing, ice hockey, football, basketball, wrestling, martial arts, tennis, gymnastics, baseball/softball, and, finally, soccer. The highest ranking in the endurance category alone was distance cycling, with Nordic skiing a close second.
Ravens present awards
The Vermont Ravens semi-pro football club held their annual award dinner Saturday at the Canadian Club in Barre. Awards and certificates were presented to players and volunteers for their contribution to the team during the past season.
The 2008 Season Award Winners:
Coaches Award Rob Owen, DE/DT/TE/OL
Most Improved Greg Herbert, OL
MVP Special Teams Henri Moser, P/K
MVP Defense Jim Buzzi, MLB
MVP Offense Malik Butler, RB/WR/QB
Unsung Hero Award Gordon Cochran, DE/DT/LB/OL
Most Promising Rookie Defense Tyler Baker, LB
Most Promising Rookie Offense Trevor Williams, RB
Above and Beyond Award Players Thomas Estes, FB/LB
Above and Beyond Award Volunteers Buzz Fisher, Photographer
The Puzzler is taking a rest this week.
Send your sporting news to jimhiggins@pshift.com.
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