Farewell To An Old Friend

While today’s Cranberry Bowl carries on a longstanding tradition on the gridiron between Massachusetts Maritime and Bridgewater State, the match-up will also close a chapter on a longstanding Buccaneer tradition that dates back 40 years.

Today’s contest marks the final one for the Academy as a member of the New England Football Conference, to which Massachusetts Maritime has belonged since joining the NCAA Division III ranks in 1973.  After this season, the Buccaneers will join Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, Framingham State, Westfield State and Worcester State as members of the newly formed Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, which will also welcome in UMass Dartmouth, Plymouth State and Western Connecticut as affiliate members in 2013.

Many of the top Division I conferences have, in recent years, split their leagues into two divisions for the purpose of creating a championship game at the end of the season to build excitement and interest.  Most notably, the Big 10 Conference created such an event for the first time last fall, and other leagues, like the ACC, the Big 12 and the Pac-12, jumped on the same concept over the last three years.

But the New England Football Conference was ahead of its time.

In 2000, the league split into its current divisional alignments in the Paul Bogan Division, named for the former Westfield State Athletics Director, and the Larry Boyd Division, named for the longtime Framingham State Athletics Director.  Bogan and Boyd were instrumental in the continued growth and development of the NEFC as the conference’s first two commissioners, and their vision helped pave the way for the first championship Saturday held 12 years ago when Bridgewater State upended Salve Regina by a 27-24 final.

The legacy and tradition of the New England Football Conference is not lost on someone who has been around since the beginning of Massachusetts Maritime’s affiliation with the league, as longtime Buccaneer Director of Athletics Bob Corradi is bittersweet about the upcoming realignment.

“The MASCAC provides a great opportunity for our program going forward, and I’m certainly excited about the future of the conference,” Corradi, who served as an assistant football coach as well at the Academy for 38 seasons, says.  “The NEFC has such a rich tradition and has given our student-athletes and fans so many wonderful memories—it’s tough to see that experience end.”

Massachusetts Maritime created some of the fond memories by capturing a pair of NEFC titles in both 1977 and 1983, and that tradition of success back in the late 70’s translated some 30 years later for Buccaneer Hall of Famer Skip Bandini ’81, now in his seventh season as the Head Coach at Curry College.  Bandini was a freshman on that 1977 Buccaneer championship squad, and he took that on-field success to the sidelines, where he led the Colonels to back-to-back NEFC crowns in 2006 and 2007.  For Bandini, pride and tradition are two words that sum up his feelings about the conference.

“The NEFC has been a very competitive conference for me both as a player and a coach,” Bandini says.  “However, the camaraderie between opposing players and the different coaching staffs is what makes it a very special conference.”

Bandini’s mentor and fellow Hall of Famer Don Ruggeri built the Buccaneers from their NCAA infancy in 1973 to a title team just four years later.  For Ruggeri, as well as his longtime assistant and fellow Hall of Famer Joe Domingos, the NEFC helped lay the foundation for what the program would become and still is today.

“One of the aspects that helped in the early days was the identity that the NEFC gave us, as that was very helpful in recruiting and establishing the program,” Ruggeri, who guided the Bucs from 1973 through 2000, says.  “The relationships and the rivalries made it a very exciting time, and part of me is saddened to see us lose a little bit of that identity.”

“As the conference grew, it took on a whole new identity,” adds Domingos, who served as Massachusetts Maritime’s mentor from 2001 to 2004.  “It became very competitive as the years went on, and the natural rivalries that were built became games that players and coaches looked forward to each season.  It definitely helped make our program better as the years went on.”

While the MASCAC will provide the conference champion with an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Championships in two years for the winner of the nine-team league, there is something to be said of the excitement that a divisional format and championship contest has played in the development of the NEFC, which just four years ago saw both an NCAA automatic bid (Plymouth State) and an at-large berth (Curry) bestowed upon it.

“You take a look at what the Division I power conferences have done in terms of re-structuring the makeup of their entire league,” Corradi says.  “They saw what a draw a championship game would have in terms of interest, exposure and student-athlete recruitment.  We had that before they even thought about adopting such a concept—it has been a great run and I’m sad to see it end.”

As for the two coaches in today’s Cranberry Bowl?  They’ve both been part of the NEFC since arriving on their respective campuses in 2005, and the conference has helped shape both of their programs greatly.

“I don’t think people fully realize how high the quality of competition is in the NEFC on a weekly basis, and that, in turn, has helped raised the level of our play,” Massachusetts Maritime’s Jeremy Cameron says.  “The respect that our players and coaches have for opponents in this conference is immense, and while the move to the MASCAC is an exciting one, I’m definitely going to miss being a part of the NEFC.”

“The NEFC has offered tremendous growth to college football in the region, and the quality of play has risen dramatically, especially over the past decade,” says Bridgewater State’s Chuck Denune.  “It’s been great to see the conference help grow the game in New England, and I think in time the MASCAC will do the same.  It’s a very exciting time for both of our schools.”

The future for both Massachusetts Maritime and Bridgewater State is bright in the MASCAC, to which both institutions belong as their primary conference affiliation in most of their sponsored sports.  And one day, the MASCAC will have the tradition and excitement that the NEFC has offered over the years to student-athletes, fans, alumni and observers alike.

Thanks for the memories, NEFC.  It’s tough to say farewell to an old friend.