By Rick O”Brien
All season long, Haverford High coach Joe Gallagher brought his black-and-red Central League championship football jacket from 1995 to practices.
“It was to remind the kids of what we wanted to accomplish this season,” Gallagher said. “We had come close several times recently, but didn’t get there. It was time not to just come close.”
The Fords achieved their goal of winning the program’s first league crown in two decades by beating neighboring Upper Darby, 49-42, in a wild and thrilling Thanksgiving Day contest before 5,000-plus at A.G. Cornog Field.
“We knew this was going to a be a dogfight between two heavyweights, and that it would probably come down to the fourth quarter,” Haverford senior quarterback Jack Donaghy said. “That’s exactly what happened.”
