Daniel "Jake" Healey (1959-1961)

Jake Healey has scored more points as a Marblehead High School football player than any other MHS gridster in history. Playing all three of his var-sity football years under coach Noel Reebenacker, Healey scored 180 points during those three seasons. He scored six touchdowns in 1959 when he was only a sophomore. His highest scoring year was with the Northeastern Conference championship 1960 team when he registered 12 touchdowns and made 5 two-point conversions for a total of 82 points. In 1961 Healey scored 10 touchdowns and had a two-point conversion for 62 points. 

Marblehead ended a 12-game losing streak with an opening game 12-6 win over Amesbury in 1959. After Amesbury had taken a 6-0 lead, Healey ran 12 yards off tackle to tie the game at 6-all in the third quarter. Late in the fourth quarter he ran 90 yards around right end to bring about the final score of 12-6. In the team's 14-0 win over Andover Healey scored on an end run. Marblehead defeated Gloucester that year 14-0 on a Tommy "Bucket" Manning 45-yard touchdown pass to Healey. In Marblehead's 14-12 loss to Danvers Healey ran off tackle for 36 yards to score one of the touchdowns. Beverly defeated Marblehead 20-6 in '59 with Healey scoring the team's only touchdown. 

     Marblehead opened its 1960 season with a 40-0 rout of Amesbury. Healey made a 79-yard touchdown run and caught a conversion pass from Manning. The Magicians won an exciting 18-14 game with Salem, Healey scoring from the Salem 1-yard line in the second period to end a 43-yard Marblehead march. In the third period, with Salem leading 14-12, Manning passed to Healey on a touchdown play good for 33 yards. In the same year Marblehead won an easy 50-14 game against Andover. Healey made a 62-yard punt return for a touchdown and rushed twice for conversions. He ran 51 yards for another touchdown and scored on two conversion rushes as the team defeated Gloucester 38-12. Marblehead's only loss in 1960 was a game which Danvers won in the final minute, 21-20. Healey scored on a 21-yard pass from Manning. He ran four yards around his right end for his other touchdown later in the third period. He scored 12 more points in Marblehead's 20-14 win over Winthrop. A 14-14 tie was broken in the third period on a 49-yard forward pass play from Manning to Healey. Marblehead cleared its bench in a 46-22 trimming of Newburyport that year. Healey scored only one touchdown in this game, the score coming on a 72-yard punt return. But what fams remember about Healey that day is that he apparently ran offside intentionally to help make it possible for Bucket Manning to complete his nineteenth touchdown pass of the season. This put Manning in a tie with the record set by the late Harry Agganis at Lynn Classical in 1946. Manning, by season's end, had thrown 25 touchdown passes, an Eastern Massachusetts schoolboy football record. Healey scored 12 points in a 32-8 victory over Woburn. He scored the first touchdown on a 17-yard run. The second touchdown was the result of a 22-yard pass play from Manning to Healey. Marblehead began its 1961 season with a 6-6 tie with Amesbury. Healey ran 3 yards for a touchdown to end an 80-yard march. He scored 12 points in the team's 26-14 loss at Gloucester on two short runs. Marblehead also lost to Danvers that year by a score of 16-13. Twelve of those points were scored by Healey. On the team's second play from scrimmage, he ran 85 yards for a touch-down. Marblehead's other touchdown came on Healey's 6-yard run around end. He scored 8 points in a 30-14 loss to the Northeastern Conference championship Woburn team. He scored on a 63-yard pass interception runback and then rushed for two conversion points. Helping Woburn to win the Conference championship in 1961 was Marblehead's big 35-14 upset victory over a favored Swampscott eleven. Healey produced 24 points in this memorable game. Marblehead's first touchdown came on Healey's 45-yard run around his right end. He later scored touchdowns from the Swampscott 2-yard and 8-yard lines. His fourth touchdown came when he cut back through his left side of the line for a 19-yard scoring run. Frank Murphy, who covered that Thanksgiving Day game for the Salem Evening News, wrote, "Playing his final game for the Magicians, Jake Healey turned in the greatest performance of his high school career, scoring four touchdowns, one on a 45-yard scamper in the first period, and playing a sterling game on defense as well. Praising Healey after the ball game, coach Reebenacker called his 175-pound halfback 'one of the greatest in the state.' Healey played two years of varsity football at Syracuse University. He is now a mathematics teacher at the Rupert Nock Middle School in Newburyport.