enlarge 2007 Press Herald file

Justin Villacci of Gorham is one of the three finalists for the Fitzpatrick Trophy that, according to Mike Rutherford, who won for the 1982 season, is “the best award you can get.”

Of the trophies, honors and awards that Mike Rutherford has won during his years of high school and college athletics, he has kept only one: the James J. Fitzpatrick Trophy.

That trophy, he believes, is the ultimate accomplishment for any high school athlete in Maine. Twenty-five years after he won the award, it still retains an emotional value.

"It not only meant so much to me but it meant so much to my father before he died," said Rutherford, who won the award after the 1982 season, when he was a senior at Portland High. "It meant so much to him. But it was such an honor. I talk to people from out of state and no one has an honor like that."

Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of Rutherford winning the award, presented annually to the top senior football player in the state, and Rutherford will present the 37th Fitzpatrick Trophy to this year's winner.

Justin Villacci of Gorham, Jack Hersom of Lawrence and Kyle Stilphen of Gardiner are the finalists for the 2007 season and will be honored at the banquet, which begins at noon at the Holiday Inn By The Bay in Portland.

Rutherford, a quarterback who helped Portland win the 1982 Class A championship, spent two weeks prior to the banquet in January 1983 preparing his speech.

During the banquet, he sat anxiously as he and the other finalists, Mike Small of Biddeford and Mike L'Heureux of Sanford, awaited the announcement of the winner, who would be presented the trophy by Sen. William Cohen.

"I remember sitting there but not listening to the speaker because I was so nervous," Rutherford recalled. "But when your name's mentioned ... that's the best award you can get as an athlete."

This will be only the third Fitzpatrick banquet Rutherford has attended -- after his senior year at Portland, Rutherford returned 13 years later for the 25th anniversary of the Fitzpatrick Trophy in January 1996, when the first 24 winners were honored.

"Yudy Elowitch (the founder of the award), before that year said 'I want to do something big on the 25th anniversary,' " said Jack Dawson, the Fitzpatrick Trophy chairman. "It had grown to far more than anything he ever anticipated."

Since the 25th anniversary banquet, it has become a custom for the winner from 25 years prior to deliver a short speech and present the trophy to the winner.

Some of the past winners are ecstatic at the thought of returning to Portland to present the award, considered the state's high school football equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.

Others are a bit more sheepish, but Dawson offers them some encouragement.

"Some say, 'I thought that (the 25th anniversary) banquet would be the last hurrah,' " Dawson said.

"I say, 'No, we want you here. You have a story to tell. This is your turn.' "

Rutherford was the first Portland High player to win, preceding Shaun Hawkins (1983), Joe D'Andrea (1995) and Carl Frye (2002).

He now teaches history at Portland and prepares for his first season as the Westbrook High baseball coach.

But around this time each year, he said, a list of past Fitzpatrick Trophy winners is published and several students will approach him the day after the banquet.

"You won that award?" they have asked Rutherford.

The answer? Yes.

"Not only is it an honor to win it, but it is an honor to be invited back and to present it," Rutherford said.

"This is something you will remember for the rest of your life."

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:
rlenzi@pressherald.com