Hall-bound
Woonsocket native honored with Gridiron Club laurel
Former city standout and current Burrillville AD John Abbate will be inducted into the Gridiron Club Hall of Fame.
“I’m still stunned. I’m also incredibly honored. This is something I’ll revel in for a long, long time.” – John Abbate
BURRILLVILLE – John Abbate calls it the surprise he never saw coming.
The 63-year-old Burrillville High athletic director and Broncos’ “Super Fan” chose to return home from school one day for lunch a few weeks ago and decided to check his mailbox. Inside, he found among the never-ending bills one intriguing envelope.
“I opened it, and it was a letter from Rob Izzi; it said something like, ‘Congratulations! We have inducted you into the Providence Gridiron Club’s Hall of Fame,’” Abbate recalled. “I was shocked. I was, like, ‘Wow,’ but also thinking, ‘Why am I receiving this? Did they make a mistake?’
“I mean, I’m a member of the club, have been for years, and I know all about the Hall, but I never, ever thought I’d be inducted,” he continued. “I told my wife, Gabrielle, and she was very happy, though I admit she doesn’t know much about what this (honor) entails.
“When I told my son, Tony, he was excited, but he said, ‘You know what this means Dad?’ I said, ‘No,’ and he replied, ‘It means you’re old.’ What a wise (guy). But I later learned my wife had emailed my family members to notify them, and I guess Tony sent everyone a note telling him exactly what it means, the importance of it. He wrote the Hall is basically a ‘Who’s Who in Rhode Island High School Football.
“When I heard that, I was floored.” Abbate will be inducted with a pair of other area legends – including former St. Raphael Academy signal caller Jackie Jordan and SRA/Cumberland grid coach and basketball official Frank Iannetta on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at the Quonset “O” Club.
Truth be told, it should not have been such a stunner.
Abbate, a Woonsocket native, starred for the Villa Novans as a center and defensive tackle in the late 1960s and early 1970s under legendary chief Frank Morey. As a junior, he received all-division laurels as a center, and – during his senior campaign in the fall of 1972 – earned both all-division and All-State accolades, the latter courtesy of WJAR-TV (NBC10 to us locals).
“We won the Class B championship in 1972 (as a senior), and that led to an appearance in the first-ever interscholastic Super Bowl,” he explained. “We were going to play the winner of one of the Class A sub-divisions; it was Cranston East.
“I remember that, because it was a night game at Brown Stadium, Coach Morey said we had to practice at night,” he added. “Barry Field didn’t have lights, so coaches and parents lined up their cars around the field and turned on their headlights. That was wild.
“We ended up losing, I believe it was 36-9, but we had beaten them earlier in the season. I think we were a little overconfident; they kicked our butts.”
Despite that defeat, that ’72 squad later was inducted into the WHS Athletic Hall of Fame – and for good reason.
Upon graduation in 1973, he attended Western Connecticut State University to study education, but he admitted he went to play football.
“I was doing well,” he noted. “I was the long snapper on the varsity team my freshman year, but I remember playing at Plymouth State in New Hampshire two or three games into the season, and I went down with a knee injury.
“I was out two or three weeks, an – when I got back to the team – they told me I had to fight to regain my job. When I got hurt in high school, I knew the job would be mine when I returned. In college, it was a different ball game. It became a job, and I didn’t like that. I played because I loved the game, so that took some of the fun out of it. I transferred to URI.
“I entertained the thought of playing football again, but then figured, ‘Why bother?’”
What transpired after that changed his life. He continued taking classes in Kingston on a part-time basis, but then landed a job at the Department of Children, Youth and Families’ R.I. Training School at the tender age of 21. In the interim, he also interviewed for and got the North Smithfield High freshman team’s head coaching position.
“It was something I always wanted to do – work with troubled teens,” he said. “I found them interesting; I don’t know why, except they provided a challenge, and were fun to work with … I would watch some of them improve and begin to help themselves, and it was so rewarding.
“I ended up doing that for 30 years or so. As for North Smithfield, I talked with the head coach, Charlie Brusso, about me working at the training school and coaching. I had to make a choice: Work at the training school and provide for my family or follow my passion for high school football.”
He later became a cottage manager at the school, and developed unique relationships with some of the boys.
“Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of kids out on the streets, or in the malls or in public places such as sporting events, and some will approach me,” he stated. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, I remember you! You gave me five days in lock-up one time! Do you remember me?’ I admit I have to ask them their names, but once they give it to me, oh, I knew them.
“I remember my wife and I were at Providence Place one day, and there was a kid looking at clothes in one of the stores,” he continued. “He looked up kind of shocked and said, ‘You John Abbate?’ I actually remembered his name, and he proceeded to tell my wife how much he respected me and how I had helped him.
“He was a real troubled kid, and a tough kid, but I know my wife really liked hearing that.”
During his tenure there, he developed the Project Peer Program, which became a much sought-after model for many youth organizations and high schools around the state. They wanted to adopt it to combat juvenile delinquency.
Later, in 1998, Abbate received the DCYF Distinguished Peer Award.
He retired from the training school in 2005, but continued to officiate high school grid contests, something he began doing in 1991. That same year, he took a most fitting position – as Burrillville High’s truant officer.
In 2009, he was asked if he’d also like to serve BHS as its athletic director, and “Here I am, seven, eight years later. I love it. I really care about the high school kids, seeing them improve and excel in all sports, or academics.”
During his achievement-stocked career, he also has served on the WHS and R.I. Interscholastic League Hall of Fame committees; is the state representative and voting member for the National Federation of High Schools’ Football Rules Committee; and is a member of the Gridiron Club’s Executive Board and RIIL’s Injury Fund.
And, for the last quarter century, he has been an active cog of the R.I. Football Coaches Association, serving as president from 2010-12. (He actually was the first to be elected to a two-year term).
Lastly, Abbate has officiated numerous R.I. Super Bowls during his tenure, and is considered one of the best by most of the state’s toughest-to-please coaches.
“I’m still stunned,” he confessed. “I’m also incredibly honored. This is something I’ll revel in for a long, long time.”
The HOF banquet at the “O Club will begin at 7 p.m., and tickets may be purchased for the ceremony/prime rib dinner ($40 per person) by visiting robert.izzi@aol.com or calling him at (401) 378-4393. All of the inductees will also take part in a special brunch on Sunday, Nov. 5 at Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington. Ducats are available for $25 per person with the same contact information.