Glover "Dill" Broughton (1916-1918)
Dill Broughton stands as one of the highest scoring players in the history of Marblehead High School football. He is probably one of the top-ten scorer, depending upon which newspaper accounts are used to tabulate his statistics. He is credited with 24 touchdowns and 144 points. The 1916 Marblehead team played only 8 games because of the cancellation of a scheduled game with Melrose, due to polio cases in that town. Marblehead's record that year was 3-5-0. Charlie Fox was coach for the first five games, but was replaced by Ray Brackett for the final 3 games of the season. Broughton scored his lone touchdown in a 38-0 rout of Saugus. The Lynn Item said of the young sophomore, "Broughton's fast work in getting around the Saugus ends was easily the feature of the afternoon." Broughton played his junior and senior years under coach Ed Pidgeon.
In 1917 he scored 10 touchdowns for 60 points. He ran across the goal line twice in Marblehead's 39-7 romp over Melrose and scored two touch-downs during a 12-6 victory over Winchester. He scored four touchdowns as Marblehead shellacked Newburyport 66-0. In a 20-13 loss to Peabody, Broughton threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Lennie Woodfin. He also faked a forward pass and then ran around end for Marblehead's other touchdown. Going into the 1917 Thanksgiving Day game, Marblehead had never won the holiday contest against Swampscott, but that year prevailed 20-6. Broughton participated in two of Marblehead's touchdowns. On the first, he ran a short distance for the score; on the second, he passed to Woodfin who caught the ball on the Swampscott 20 and then went into the Swampscott end zone.
Marblehead had a strong 5-1-0 team in 1918. The shortness of that season was due to an influenza epidemic. Broughton would doubtless have ranked even higher among Marblehead's leading scorers had his team been able to play a full schedule. As it was, he scored 78 points in the six game season. In an opening game 6-0 win over Peabody, Broughton intercepted a pass and on a subsequent play, he ran 45 yards for a touchdown. He scored two touchdowns in a 42-0 victory over Lynn Classical and six more touchdowns in a 51-0 victory over Punchard High of Andover. He had four touchdowns in Marblehead's 59-0 lashing of Swampscott. He scored the first touchdown on a short run and passed to Nimmer Lewis for Marblehead's second score. He scored the seventh touchdown on a pass from Charlie Snow.
The late "Dill" Broughton served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a CPO in the U.S. Navy during WW II. He founded the famed seafood restaurant "Dills" on Pleasant Street. He was a direct descendent of the first skipper of the USS Hannah, Nicholas Broughton.
