Nine members of the famous 1945 La Salle Academy football team that played for a mythical national high school championship in New Orleans gathered at the La Salle Alumni Center in mid-March to be interviewed for a documentary about the team.

The nine members of the team who had the “football reunion” were Robert Gentile, Fred Thorpe, Dan Flynn, Fred Read, John O’Neil, Leo Palizza, Father Bernard Langton, Bud Cronin and Tom Gleason.

La Salle grad Justin Meunier ’06 is a student at the University of Rhode Island majoring in Film Media.  He was trying to come up with a project for the class and while looking through old La Salle yearbooks, he came across the story of The Game!

“I came to discover what a big deal it was at the time.  Because of the war, there were few colleges fielding teams so most people began focusing on and following high school sports,” said Justin. “So I decided the capture as much live history as possible from the members of that team before that in-person history disappeared.”

Justin is totally in charge of the project from directing to filming to conducting all the interviews to arranging the lighting.  However he is being assisted by two other URI film students, Mike Frazier and Arthur Kobin, both of whom were helping him during the two-hour plus session at La Salle.

“It was really interesting interviewing each of these gentlemen – they have such great memories of the football game and even more so of La Salle,” said Justin.  “And every one of them treated me as if I were a big-time movie maker and not just a college student fulfilling a class requirement.  Of course, I do not think of this as simply filling a requirement but rather the chronicling a true bit of history is more important that the specific course requirement.  For me these men and this story this is a part of the history of La Salle – my school!”

“I hope to have it ready before the URI Film Festival,” said Justin whose grandfather was La Salle Class of 1946 as was his great Uncle Alex Vitale who played on the 1945 team.  “Once it is done, I am going to give every member of that team a copy of the film.

Reminiscing about his own years at La Salle, Justin talked about playing football and being involved in student government, the student newspaper, band (he played bass clarinet) and about teachers and staff who had an impact on him including Mr. Obadiah, Mr. Fioravanti, Brother Gerard, Brother Michael and Father Kenney in his role as Chaplin of the football team.

“My years at La Salle truly prepared me for not only the rigors of college but for the rest of my life,” he said.  “I stay in touch with so many of my friends from La Salle as well as many of the teachers.”

When asked if me always wanted to be a film major, Justin said that he began his college studies as a business major but took an Introduction to Film class by URI professor Dana Nugent in his sophomore year and he was hooked.  “I fell in love with it and it has led me to this project which is capturing a very interesting piece of history that touches on my family and, of course, my high school,” he said.  “Right now, I am not certain exactly how and where I will finally focus in film – there are so many different ways to go from editing to freelancing to teaching to videography and on and on.  I just know that this is the business where I want to spend my career.”