Biography

Sure-handed, reliable, and clutch, Mike Yurof stood only 5 feet 6 inches tall, but his leadership and big-play ability were indispensible in the rags-to-riches story that was the Bishop Feehan High School football program in the early 1990’s.

The Shamrocks, coming off a disappointing two-year stretch which included an 0-10-1 season in 1991 and with hopes riding high under first-year head coach Joe Gilmartin, opened up the 1992 season at Hayward Field against traditional rival North Attleboro. Yurof, a North Attleboro native making his first varsity start against his hometown school, put on a show, piling up six receptions for 83 yards from his wide receiver position while totaling seven tackles and one interception on defense. Although the Rocketeers eventually wore down the Shamrocks 42-16, the foundation had been set for a year of rebirth on Holcott Drive.

Playing alongside offensive weapons such as Hall of Fame quarterback Nate Cote, tight end Matt Flemming, and fellow receiver Paul Klin, Yurof excelled in Gilmartin’s wide-open aerial attack. After losing to North, Feehan posted its first varsity win in nearly two years with a 14-0 shutout of Seekonk, followed by an epic 37-34 shootout loss to conference rival Bishop Stang in which Yurof was dominant, catching three touchdown passes from Cote in the first half and decimating the Spartans’ overwhelmed defensive secondary. Yurof’s shining moment for the 1992 season, however, came in the third quarter at home against Dartmouth, when the diminutive wideout outleaped an Indians defender in the back corner of the end zone and hauled in a halfback option pass from Dave DesVergnes for the game-winning score in an 18-14 Shamrock victory.

After that 6-4 rebuilding campaign, Yurof was elected captain for his senior year of 1993. Under new head coach Matt Lanagan’s ball-control, option offense, Yurof’s receiving numbers declined from his junior year, but he was no less effective blocking for fellow captain and Hall of Famer Tony Chang, while still catching passes from Cote to keep the defense honest. After an 0-3 start, the Shamrocks rolled through Thanksgiving, a 43-20 shellacking of Coyle-Cassidy that included Yurof’s final career catch, a 2-yard fourth-quarter touchdown reception from Cote. The victory over the Warriors capped off a 7-3 season and a winning streak that wouldn’t come to an end until the Shamrocks’ loss to Mansfield in the school’s first Super Bowl game in December of 1994, completing the turnaround of the program that had begun in ’92.