Richard Messinger (1932-1935) 

Dick Messinger played four years of football under Marblehead's legendary Charlie McGuinness, coach at MHS from 1930 through 1938. A halfback in Coach McGuinness' double wing offense, Messinger started the 1932 Thanksgiving Day game against Swampscott as a freshman. 

     During his first two years on the team Messinger played with Elliott Roundy who says, "Dick was one of Marblehead's greatest all-around backs. His specialty was blocking. He was an excellent runner, a devastating tackler and a really hard-nosed kid. He was one of the original 'Magicians'." Roundy recalls, also, that Messinger was an excellent left fielder in baseball, both at Marblehead High School and for the American Legion Post 32 team. He also played basketball at MHS. 

     Messinger scored 132 points as a Marblehead High School football player, including six touchdowns and two conversions in 1933, eight touchdowns and three points after touchdowns in 1934, and he registered seven touchdowns and one point after in 1935. He scored one of the touchdowns in the well remembered MHS post-season rout of Miami Edison High School at Miami in 1934 and on New Year's Day in 1936, in a post-season game against the Jacksonville, Florida All Stars, Messinger ran 16 yards for the team's second touchdown which tied the game at 13-13. 

     Following his graduation from Marblehead High School, Messinger attended Kiski Prep in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania where he played half-back as a post-graduate student. Kiski was known for fielding some of the top prep school football teams in the eastern part of the country in the 1930's. He attended Dartmouth College for a year, playing half-back on the freshman team. Following that year Messinger enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corp. 

     Dick Messinger survived World War II as a pilot, but shortly after the end of hositilities he was killed while testing a German-made jet that had been captured by the Allies. At the time of his death he was a First Lieutenant in the Air Force.