In my quest to report about all things Sachem, even mundane objects like winter hats make news.
Recently a photo began to surface on social media of a retro Sachem winter pom-pom hat. This past football season former Sachem coach Fred Fusaro attended a handful of games at Sachem North and Sachem East sporting his old vintage pom-pom hat from the 1970s.
Aside from it’s aesthetic appeal, coach said it was warm. He’s a man of habit, and a warm hat is like a good defensive game plan. You stay the course.
Immediately after I saw coach’s hat, I inquired with former Sachem wrestling coach Jack Mahoney about having replica pom-pom hats made. He has an apparel company that handles many clothing orders in the Sachem community. I didn’t have time to be the middle man in the process of ordering a couple of dozen and dishing them out accordingly. I dropped it and tucked the idea away.
Then these photos started popping up on Twitter and Facebook and someone adopted the same idea of creating the vintage hats. In a matter of minutes I was able to trace it back to Sachem East assistant football coach and Sachem North math teacher Mike Mastrogiacomo. Two days later, I got the hat.
Now for the history lesson. It’s not exactly the same hat. The hat that Coach Fusaro and many associated with the football program wore, had small black footballs near the crown and small writing that says “Sachem Arrows” in yellow lettering. On the new hat, there is no black coloring towards the top or any footballs, and the letters are colored black, not yellow.
For historical purposes, I’ve included every image known to man of Coach Fusaro wearing his winter hat:
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro