Athlete Bio
Football
Baseball
Track
Allen (Al) Dougherty
Class of 1956
There are few who can make a claim-to-fame in the dominance of track as the fair haired Dougherty. He was an Irishman who could run. Dougherty, a human missile who was so fast that when he pressed the pedal to the metal all you saw was a blur, set a state record in the 100 when he zipped over the fabled distance in 9.9 seconds.
He set the mark in 1956 at White Stadium in East Boston as his mother, Helen, proudly looked on.
Dougherty was a phenomenal track star for the late Coach W. Harold "Skip" O'Connor who tonight, coincidentally, is also being inducted posthumously into the Concord and Concord-Carlisle Athletic Hall of Fame.
In football, Al played on Coach Bernie Megin's final unbeaten-untied football team, the 6-0-0 55 team that played a truncated schedule because of the polio epidemic scare of that era.
Dougherty was part of what could be called a "Dream Backfield” or a "Million Dollar Backfield.” In addition to him, there was left halfback Charlie Flanigan (33), fullback Andy Horne (15) and quarterback Jack Hutchinson (11). Dougherty played right halfback and he wore number 26.
Following high school, Dougherty played football at Brandeis University. He attended Brandeis on a track scholarship, but injuries prevented him from competing. In football, he once scored three touchdowns, each a long gallop of 70 yards or more, against the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.
Dougherty, an outstanding baseball catcher at both the high school and college levels, once tore up the old Greater Boston College Baseball League when he hit a lusty .429 for Brandeis.
The Concord speed merchant once stole home in a baseball game against Winchester, sliding under the late tag of Joe Bellino, who was a great catcher and went on to win the Heisman Trophy (1960) wearing number 27 and playing for the Navy Middies.
Dougherty, a former teacher, coached football for many years. He is currently the track coach at Bedford High School.