| Title: | Class of 2011 |
Paul A. Welcome ’61 was a versatile four-year starter on the men’s basketball team who played nearly every position on the floor in his first two seasons before settling into the role of starting point guard in his junior and senior years.
Paul totaled nearly 700 points for an average of 8.6 points per game, helping his squads earn an overall record of 60-21 for a .740 winning percentage. He also aided the team in its run to the New England State Teachers Conference regular season and tournament title during the 1956-57 season.
Paul took the 1957-58 season off to serve in the Massachusetts National Guard, and he also has the honorable distinction of converting a lay-up for the first basket in the new gymnasium. With no seniors on the squad, Paul was picked to be a team captain in his junior year by head coach Fran Dyson.
In the league playoffs, Paul shined on the court as his teams competed in the New England State Teachers Conference title games during the 1956-57 season and for three straight years during the 1958-59, 1959-60 and 1960-61 campaigns. In eight games, he averaged 11.6 points per contest, including a game-best 23-point outburst in a semifinal victory over Salem State Teachers College his senior year.
In the 1956-57 championship game against Salem State during his freshman year, Paul drained the final three points of the contest in the waning seconds and held their top scorer without a basket in the fourth quarter to give the Lancers a chance to rally from a 12-point deficit. They posted an 89-84 triumph for the league crown.
After he graduated, Paul taught eighth grade science and math in the Douglas public school system for five years and also taught math at Framingham High for 30 years before retiring in 1996. Paul was the union president in Framingham from 1985-89 and the teachers bargaining representative for ten years.