Wakefield Warrior Club

Michael Magliozzi Memorial Award

Before 2001, 9/11 was already a tragic reminder of unthinkable proportion in Wakefield history. On the morning of September 11, 1982, at 8:05 AM, a short time before a preseason Warrior football scrimmage with the Lawrence Central Catholic High School at Landrigan Field, four football team members and juniors at Wakefield High School were involved in an automobile crash on Nahant Street. At the corner of Birch Hill Road, a small 1973 Datsun slammed sideways into a telephone pole ripping off most of the car’s right side almost splitting the chassis in two. Peter Mastrangelo and Richard Curley were treated and released relatively early from the hospital but Michael Magliozzi remained in critical condition while Michael Moschella was in a hospital paralyzed with injuries to his spine. The event stunned the Wakefield Community even more when 16 days after 9/11 Michael Magliozzi died.

Michael Magliozzi was a baseball infielder, a first line center on the hockey team and a good student who had his sights set on going to Boston College or Boston University so he could stay close to his family. He did not play football his sophomore year but his athletic ability had earned him the starting safety and backup quarterback positions for the football team. Edward Sapienza, the head football coach of Wakefield at the time stated, “Getting this boy (Magliozzi) out for football was a plus for the team, not only as an athlete, but as an individual, and because of his leadership qualities as a person.”

‘Never forget Mags’ and ‘Always remember Michael’ were some of the sayings Michael Magliozzi’s classmates and teammates used in the aftermath of his passing. In the 1984 yearbook for Wakefield High School, the memorial page for ‘Mags’ says: ‘One never dies if he is remembered by those who loved him.’ The establishment of this award was made by those who loved Michael in order to honor the current football player who displays the quality of character, dedication to scholastics and innate athleticism most associated with the promise and all but guaranteed successful future of Michael Magliozzi.

Michael Magliozzi Memorial Award Recipients

Awarded to a Wakefield High School Varsity Football Player who best exemplifies moral, scholastic and athletic excellence as displayed by and in memoriam of Michael Magliozzi

1982 Michael Magliozzi Citizens’ Scholarship Fund of Wakefield Established