For nearly 30 years, the champion of Friday’s Greasy Pole contest at St. Peter’s Fiesta has been given an award named after the late Joe “Black” Frontiero. Unfortunately, the trophy has been missing since 2025.
Frontiero’s granddaughter, Shyla McNutt, said the family only learned of the trophy’s disappearance after Frankie Neal, her husband’s longtime best friend, won Friday’s competition for the first time in 20 years of walking.
McNutt said she asked the St. Peter’s Fiesta Committee if her daughter could present the trophy to Neal after his victory but was eventually told the committee does not know where it is.
“We were shocked, embarrassed and heartbroken,” McNutt said. “Our family had taken great pride in knowing that it would be presented to each year’s champion.”
The trophy holds special significance to the family, McNutt said, because her grandfather, a three-time Greasy Pole champion in the 1960s, had a stroke in 1993 that took his ability to walk. Frontiero was born to a fishing family, was raised in the Fort neighborhood and worked as a fisherman, she said.
Six years later, McNutt said her father approached the committee about naming the Friday competition and the trophy in honor of Frontiero, which was approved.
“(The committee) approved it in 1999 and that was the first year they had the Friday Greasy Pole in honor of my grandfather since he was not able to walk again,” she said. “That was such a hard thing for us and he loved the Greasy Pole so much — a lot of the guys knew him so it was fitting.”
According to McNutt, the trophy was last seen at the St. Peter’s Club the Wednesday of Fiesta in 2025 when the 2024 Friday champion returned it. Greasy Pole champions hold onto their trophies for a year and return them before the following Fiesta.
She said the 2025 Friday champion also did not receive the trophy and was told the committee did not know where the trophy had gone.
McNutt is asking the community for help with locating the trophy. Anyone with any information about its location should reach out to her at 978-879-6424.
Staff Writer Bobby Grady may be contacted at 978-675-2714 or bgrady@gloucestertimes.com.