After going seventeen years without a win against its closest rival, Warren High School’s 1955 football team defeated Colt Memorial, 15-7.  Hall of Fame member Charlie Burdge coached that eleven, and one of his starting guards on both sides of the football was Pete MacDougall.

The following year Pete was one of the Redskins’ co-captains, and he and fellow Hall of Fame member Chico Andrade were among the stars of the team that captured the Class C Co-Championship.  In the season finale, Warren defeated Burrillville, 19-14, for the first time since 1936, which just coincidentally was also the last time that the local high school had won a football title. 

One of the key plays in that contest came on a fourth and inches run with four minutes left and Warren trailing by two points.  Burrillville made the mistake of running at Pete, and he stopped their star halfback Howie Laporte in his tracks.  Three minutes later Warren Proulx scored on a double reverse, and the home town eleven had exorcised the second of their long-time demons.  For his efforts that year, Pete was named both All State and All Class C.

In that championship season, Warren also defeated North Providence, North Kingstown, Pawtucket Voke, Barrington, and Colt Memorial, one of six consecutive times that the Redskins downed the Colts in baseball, basketball, and football.  After the North Kingstown victory, fellow Hall of Famer Jay Barry opined, “When was the last time anyone saw Peter MacDougall play a bad game?  He played another beauty of a game against the Skippers, and hasn’t let up in a game yet.” 

Pete moved on to the University of Rhode Island, where he periodically started for the Rams in all three of his varsity seasons.  Good examples of his efforts can be found in his recovering a fumble to save an 8-6 win over Northeastern and this comment from the URI yearbook: “(Pete’s) fine play, continuing in an ever-improving performance, was a highlight.”

After playing semi-pro football with the Providence Steam Rollers, he entered the United States Army where he was a member of the undefeated Seventh Infantry Division eleven that captured the Korean and Far East Championships.  During that winning season, Pete was named an Eighth Army, Korea Lineman of the Week. 

Coached by Don Hollender, the famous “lonesome” end of Red Blaik’s West Point team, this 1963 squad then defeated the Twenty-Fifth Division All Stars in the Coconut Bowl and won the Pacific title.  One of the team’s stars was Jerry Pettibone of the University of Oklahoma.

Pete’s active football career ended when he played for the 1964 East Greenwich Townies.

In his younger days, he played a major role in the bizarre finish to the 1952 Little League season.  In what was intended to be a one-game playoff between his Yankees and the Braves, Pete and Eddie Abrain pitched a double no-hitter.  This was followed by a Yankee win that was successfully protested by the Braves, another scoreless tie, and finally a Braves victory.

Pictures from Hall of Fame Archives