Regardless of the athletic competition he encountered, 2008 Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductee Edmond P. \u201cGaffer\u201d Rice never backed down from a challenge.\u00a0 Whether he was competing as a tackle and end on the football squad or as a center on the basketball team, this inductee was a key member of many memorable Branford Hornet achievements.<\/p>\n
In football, the 1928 team enjoyed a very successful season. Branford lost only one game that season, losing to Derby by the score of 13-7, in the final minutes. One other game was tied at 6-6, against Milford.\u00a0 The Hornets defeated Wallingford (12-0), Shelton (12-0), Fairfield (13-0), Stratford (15-0), Seymour (20-0), and New Canaan (12-0) to end the season with a record of 6-1-1. In Ed\u2019s sophomore season, the Hornets turned their season around after a poor start.\u00a0 Led by fellow Sports Hall of Fame inductee and captain Paul Pauk (1991), Branford started off with a record of 2-3 but capped off the season with four consecutive victories over Derby (the first ever win over a Derby football team), Stratford, Seymour, and Commercial.\u00a0\u00a0 The team was coached by another Hall of Fame inductee, Johnny Knecht (1988).\u00a0 Gaffer\u2019s junior year was also successful.\u00a0 For the first time in its history, the Hornets turned out a team that captured the Housatonic League title.\u00a0 The season started off with a loss at the hands of a strong Fairfield team, but Branford rallied for seven consecutive wins versus Seymour, Shelton, Milford, Wallingford, Derby, Stratford and Commercial before ending the season in a hard fought 0-0 tie against West Haven.\u00a0 His senior season proved to be the best in the history of Branford High School at that time going undefeated and unscored upon. With Ed at tackle and a member of the All-Housatonic League team, Branford captured the league title for its second consecutive season and the State \u201cB\u201d championship.\u00a0 He was also named 1932 All-State Honorable Mention.\u00a0 Tonight\u2019s inductee played with fellow inductee Harry \u201cHeb\u201d Williams (1990), who was the captain of the Hornets football team that year.<\/p>\n
As a center on the Branford Hornets\u2019 basketball team, \u201cGaffer\u201d, as he was known to many, was a member of the 1930 Class C State Championship team, which finished second\u00a0 in the Housatonic League as well .\u00a0 That year, the Hornets captured a 14-3 record, including state tournament wins over Woodbury (26-19), Madison (23-16), and Putnam (32-6).\u00a0 The 1932 Hornets schedule was upgraded when they added the three city District A schools, Hillhouse, Commercial and West Haven to their schedule. The tough competition helped the Hornets to second place honors in the Housatonic League\u00a0 and a 10-7 record.<\/p>\n
Following high school, Gaffer enlisted in the Conservation Core in Oregon before returning to Connecticut, where he worked for the Southern New England Telephone Company and the Connecticut Transit Bus Company.\u00a0 Edmond was married to his wife, Mary for sixty-five and a half years, and was the father to son, Robert G.\u00a0 Sadly, this inductee passed away on December 29, 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1408,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee\/1407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/inductee"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}