Portsmouth's Pete O’Hara and the advent of fake news

How a coach’s tall tale fired up the PHS soccer team for a crucial game in 1978

By Jim McGaw
Posted 10/17/17

PORTSMOUTH — It was a big game, recalled John Burton. A member of Portsmouth High School’s Class of 1982, John was talking about the time the varsity soccer team traveled to East …

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Portsmouth's Pete O’Hara and the advent of fake news

How a coach’s tall tale fired up the PHS soccer team for a crucial game in 1978

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — It was a big game, recalled John Burton.

A member of Portsmouth High School’s Class of 1982, John was talking about the time the varsity soccer team traveled to East Providence in the fall of 1978. The Townies had beaten the Patriots on their home field earlier in the season, and Portsmouth couldn’t afford to lose to them again since the re-match had playoff implications.


FOR MORE: Read more about Pete O'Hara and others who were inducted into the inaugural Portsmouth High School Athletics Hall of Fame.


John and other members of the team were on a school bus sitting in the parking lot near Pierce Field when head coach Pete O’Hara pulled out a newspaper clipping.

“He says, ‘I just want to read this story,’” said John, the only freshman on the team.

“It was from the East Providence school newspaper,” added Jim Burton, John’s older brother and another member of the team.

The article, a preview to the Townies/Patriots game, quoted East Providence coach George Poli, a well-known figure on the Rhode Island interscholastic athletic scene.

“So he reads this story, and it scorches everyone,” said John.

Mr. Poli didn’t hold back; he named names. Jim Blaess, the Patriots’ goalkeeper, was a particular target of ridicule.

“He called Jimmy Blaess an average goalie at best,” said John.

“I was particularly fired up over it,” said Jim Blaess, who still remembers one of the article’s quotes: “Blaess couldn’t make a save if his life depended on it.”

When they took the field for warmups, the Patriots were primed for a fight.

“We’re in the circle warming up and Blaess is on fire: ‘I can’t believe he said that! I can’t believe he said that!’ Jimmy Blaess was the maddest. He had fire coming out of his eyes,” said John.

Team members stared down Mr. Poli during warmups, barking some choice words to the puzzled East Providence coach.

The story had its intended effect.

“I’m on the bench at the end of the first half and there’s a ball shot (by the Townies) and it’s going in the goal. It’s clearly a goal; we’re going to be down 1-0,” said John.

Not so fast.

“Jimmy Blaess used to wear this all-yellow outfit. All of a sudden you see this yellow thing just dive. He dives the whole length and just tips it out,” John said.

Jim Blaess jumped up, looked at the Townies coach and started yelling his way, John recalled. “The coach is like, ‘What is going on?’”

Jim Blaess, who's now the PHS girls' soccer coach, acknowledged the Burtons have a better memory of the game than he. He recalls getting a big save at some point but doesn’t remember cursing at Mr. Poli, saying his parents never would have stood for that.

“But I was pretty pumped up,” he said. “There was a lot of emotion in that game and we were really fired up.”

The Patriots held on to their anger — and their wits — to defeat East Providence that day. “I think it was 2-1, and it was a big game that put us into a position in the playoffs,” said John.

The truth comes out

The Patriots would go on to win the school’s first-ever Division I state championship later that fall, with John scoring a crucial goal in the finals.

“And then, 30 years later, (Mr. O’Hara) finally admitted he made it up,” said John. The moment of truth came in 2008, during a 30-year reunion for the championship team.

“And we’re like, ‘Oh, that Poli. I guess we owe him an apology,’” said John.

Jim Blaess’ recollection of when he found out about the fake story differs from the Burtons. 

After the season ended, he was chosen to compete on a Rhode Island soccer squad put together by Mr. Poli, Ed Bradley of Barrington and Tim Cook of Tiverton. They competed against teams around New England and took a trip to Germany in the summer of 1979.

“George and I were in Germany and he said there was no such paper,” said Jim Blaess, recalling that the name of the fake publication was the “East Providence Bugle” or something similar. 

Jim later spoke to Mr. O’Hara, who admitted his white lie, saying it was his way of motivating the team. 

“But he told me, ‘Don’t tell anybody,’” said Jim, who dutifully kept it under his hat.

The Burtons, for their part, said they were never actually mad at the Townies coach because the fake newspaper story derided every Patriots player but them.

“I was listening to it and saying, ‘Yeah, that’s fair,’” said Jim Burton, laughing.

’Invented fake news’

Mr. O’Hara, who coached and taught math at PHS for many years, died in 2013. He was posthumously inducted into the inaugural PHS Athletics Hall of Fame Saturday night when his son, Peter O’Hara, recounted the story to a packed house at the Green Valley Country Club in Portsmouth.

“My dad invented fake news before Donald Trump,” said Peter, who was on that school bus 39 years ago, watching all the drama unfold as a wee 8-year-old.

“I really believe that fake news article leveled the playing field that day. That’s what my dad was all about. He used athletics to help level the playing field of life,” Peter said.

A few years ago, Peter ran into someone who used to play for his father.

“He told me about joining a soccer team, but being too poor to afford cleats. He was using beat-up, old hand-me-down sneakers from his brother,” said Peter.

“One day he got to his locker room to find brand-new cleats waiting for him. He’s never forgotten that, almost 30 years later, and tells the story to this day as a life-changing event for him. The playing field of life was leveled a bit for him that day.”

Portsmouth High School, PHS soccer, PHS Athletics Hall of Fame, Peter O'Hara

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.