The 1950s ushered in an era of excellence on the football field. It was the beginning of the Fabulous Fifties of Neshaminy High School football – a period that would last for over two decades. This was largely the influence of Harry Franks who arrived at Neshaminy in 1951 and quickly established traditions we still keep to this day. He coached JV in 1951 and moved to the varsity team in 1952. He would use different numbers for his players for their dark and for their light jerseys. We suspect that was to  confuse his opponents. We know it sure confused us multiple times in our research of the 1950s. The 1950 season was the first year the team was identified as Neshaminy High School instead of Langhorne-Middletown High School. The team continued to play on Playwiki Field on Cherry Street until Coach Franks opened the new stadium at Neshaminy High School. The first home game was played there on Friday, September 7, 1956. Click here for history of Heartbreak Ridge.

We have only one game from this decade – 1959. This is courtesy of Chadom Watkins. His Dad was Bill Watkins, a senior in the 1959 season and was awarded the Neshaminy Mr. Lineman selection and was also selected as All-Lower Bucks County 1st Team G.  We are grateful for this rare piece of Redskin history. Chadom was not sure of the year this game was played but after researching, this game has been identified by Paula G., our resident historian, to be a 1959 game due to the presence of Harry Franks on the sideline (in the light colored suit) and the absence of the stars on the shoulder pad area.

Thank you to Don Cameron’s daughter Brenda Masulis, who supplied us with all of the All Lower Bucks Selections going back to the 1930s and many ad programs and some great photos of her dad.

The days, dates, field location and time of game got harder and harder to research the further back we went in the 50s. There may be one or two incorrect game times (8:00pm versus 8:15pm). Feel free to drop us a line if you see any corrections.

The 1950 season is the first year as Neshaminy High School.