You could call Charles “Butch” Jefferson Old Rochester Regional High School’s original Bulldog.

Jefferson competed so fiercely in ORR’s first football game that his coach changed the school mascot to reflect the bulldog-like intensity Jefferson displayed on the field.

He was one of eight individuals and one team inducted to the ORR Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday evening.

The team’s captain, Jefferson came to ORR in 1962 from Wareham High School where he was an all-star football player. He was charged with leading players that had little, if any, football experience.

In the team’s first interscholastic game they played Dighton-Rehoboth. The odds were against them, Jefferson said.

“Every sportscaster in the state had said we were going to get beat by 50 points,” said Jefferson. “Well, we didn’t want to get beat by 50 points.”

The team was down 6-0 by halftime, but did not quit. A recovered fumble led to a touchdown, which was followed by another one. ORR won the game 14-6.

Known at the time as the Red Wave, the school’s original mascot was retired after that game.

On the ride back to a pep rally, Jefferson said the coach called him to the front of the bus.

“Coach told me that the whole game he overheard parents saying, ‘He doesn’t quit, he’s so scrappy, he’s like a little bulldog,’” Jefferson recalled. “He said, ‘When we get back you will have the privilege of telling 400 kids at that pep rally that we will be known as the Bulldogs.”

After that season, Jefferson was the only ORR athlete named to the Standard-Times All-Star football team and he was also a Tri-County Conference All-Star. Jefferson also competed in winter track and played baseball. In 1962, the school’s first graduating class, he was named Most Valuable Athlete.

Now in its fourth year, the ORR Athletic Hall of Fame has been highlighting stories like Jefferson’s while inducting student athletes, coaches and outstanding teams.

ORR’s 1962 cross country team was also added to the Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Coached by Norm Fuller, the team claimed the school’s first state championship. At the meet, five ORR runners placed in the top 20 in a field of more than 100 athletes.

For fellow inductee Coach Jim Hubbard this wasn’t the first Hall of Fame ceremony he’s attended. A lifelong Mattapoisett resident, Hubbard has been a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League’s Hall of Fame since 2006. He was recognized by the league for his contributions as a player, coach and manager of several teams.

At ORR, he coached spring and winter track, baseball and football in the 1960s and 1970s. He ended up as the track coach after a misunderstanding. The mistake left him grateful.

In his first year at the school, the athletic director promised Hubbard a position as the baseball team’s manager. Instead, the superintendent hired someone else.

“It was the best move I could have asked for,” Hubbard said.

After that, he coached spring track teams to three league titles, two South Coast Conference titles and the 1967 Class D state relay championship.

He also served as ORR’s athletic director from 1975 to 1980.

“In the 20 years I spent here the teams accomplished a lot,” Hubbard said.

This year’s other inductees were: Steven Health, Class of 1969, for baseball, track and football; Tom Decosta, Class of 1970, for earning 11 varsity letters and his playing on the football, baseball and basketball teams; Cornelia Dougall, Class of 1971, for being one ORR’s first female stars in track, volleyball, field hockey and basketball; Gretchen Hamer MacDonald, Class of 1981,  for excelling in volleyball where she led teams to three Southeastern Mass Conference championships; Peter Borsari, Class of 1982, for football as a four-year started as offensive tackle and defensive end. He went on to play for UMass Amherst;  and Andy Mendes who was recognized for his work as a trainer and someone who was a role model for students.