November 21, 1987: East Brunswick's "Blue Saturday"

Jay Doyle Field, on a considerably warmer day,

after its 2007 renovation

November 21, 1987: A high school football game is played at Jay Doyle Field, on the campus of East Brunswick High School in Middlesex County, New Jersey. It is a Semifinal in the Central Jersey Group IV Tournament, and the host school is playing its neighbor and rival, Madison Central High School of Old Bridge.

From 1963 to 1974, EB went 9-1-2 against Madison Township. From 1975 to 1993, when the opposing school was named Madison Central, they led, 13-8, including Conference title deciders in 1980 (them) and 1987 (us); their ruining EB's 1st-ever home night game in 1986; a Number 1 vs. Number 2 game in 1988 where they beat us in the worst blowout in our history, 55-3; Playoff defeats to them in 1987 and 1988; and our ending their 24-game winning streak in 1989. Up until 1987, most of these games were early in the season, sometimes even the opening game.

On October 1, 1987, at Madison's Lombardi Field, EB won, 19-14. Afterward, Spartans coach Bob DeMarco -- whose brother, Greg DeMarco, had been East Brunswick's wrestling coach and still taught at Madison, and both men were graduates in the school's time as MTHS -- retooled his offense, installing the wishbone formation, allowing multiple running options.

Both schools won every game for the rest of the regular season. As a result, EB won the 1st seed in the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs, and would host the 4th seed, which turned out to be Madison Central, in the Semifinal, set for Saturday afternoon, November 21.

It turned out to be the coldest game in EB football history, our very own "Ice Bowl." Given that we were so cold that we were turning blue, Madison wore alternating navy blue and sky blue, and how "Blue" we felt afterward, I have called it East Brunswick's "Blue Saturday."

There was nothing we could do. We couldn't stop their wishbone offense, led by quarterback Ed Walsh. (His father, Hugh Walsh, had been the head coach and athletic director at nearby Monroe Township High School, and their stadium is named for him.) Madison scored 2 touchdowns in each of the 1st 2 quarters, led 27-0 at the half, and coasted to a 33-0 win.

To make matters worse, our best running back and best cornerback, Mark Harmon -- he was black, and thus not related to the UCLA quarterback turned actor of the same name -- tore up his knee. He missed the upcoming basketball season. When he returned for his senior year, he wore a plastic knee brace, and was limited to defense.

He did play basketball in his senior year. To put that in perspective: EB's boys basketball team made the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament Semifinal and won the Central Jersey Group IV title when he was a freshman, won the GMC Red Division and its Tournament when he was a sophomore, and reached the GMCT Final when he was a senior; but had a losing record when he missed the season as a junior.

Madison Central went on to beat Neptune in the Central Jersey Group IV Final. The next year, they inflicted an even worse loss on us, then beat us again in the Playoffs, before beating Middletown South for the title. The 1987 Madison team was just a prelude for the 1988 Madison team being named, along with the 1966 South River and 1982 J.P. Stevens teams, one of the greatest high school football teams in Middlesex County history. (The 2004 Piscataway team is now included among those contenders.)

Ed Walsh received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. The Army football team was running the wishbone at the time, so he seemed like a good fit. But after an injury, he transferred to an NCAA Division III school closer to home, Trenton State College, now known as The College of New Jersey. He did not play pro ball.

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November 21, 1987 was a Saturday. It was the start of college football's rivalry week. These rivalry games were played:

* Number 2 Oklahoma beat Number 1 Nebraska, 17-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, to win the Big Eight Conference title, and set up a National Championship showdown.

* Number 5 University of California at Los Angeles were upset by the University of Southern California, 17-13 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. This cost UCLA, and gave USC, the Pacific-Ten Conference (Pac-10) title.

* Number 9 Louisiana State University (LSU) beat Tulane, 41-36 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* Number 12 South Carolina beat Number 8 Clemson, 20-7 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina. This was a non-conference game, and Clemson had already clinched the title in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

* Number 15 Tennessee beat Kentucky, 24-22 at Commonwealth Stadium (now Kroger Field) in Lexington, Kentucky.

* Number 18 Iowa beat Minnesota, 34-20 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

* Number 20 Indiana beat Purdue, 35-14 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.

* Harvard beat Yale, 14-10 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, to clinch the title in the Ivy League.

* Duke beat North Carolina, 25-10 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

* Mississippi State beat the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), 30-20 at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson.

* Ohio State beat Michigan, 23-20 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

* Northwestern beat Illinois, 28-10 at Dyche Stadium outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois.

* Missouri beat Kansas, 19-7 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

* Stanford beat California, 31-7 at Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California.

* Oregon beat Oregon State, 44-0 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon.

* Brigham Young University (BYU) beat the University of Utah, 21-18 at Cougar Stadium (now LaVell Edwards Stadium) in Provo, Utah.

* Washington beat Washington State, 34-19 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

In non-rivalry games:

* Number 3 University of Miami beat the University of Toledo, 24-14 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. This set up a National Championship showdown between Miami and Oklahoma, also at the Orange Bowl, in the game of the same name. Miami won, to take the title.

* Number 4 Florida State were idle, preparing for their rivalry game with Florida, which they won.

* Number 6 Syracuse beat West Virginia, 32-31 at the Carrier Dome (now the JMA Wireless Dome) in Syracuse, New York.

* Number 7 Notre Dame were upset by Penn State, 21-20 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

* Number 10 Auburn were idle, preparing for their rivalry game with Alabama. They won it, to win the Southeastern Conference (SEC) title.

* Number 11 Michigan State beat Wisconsin, 30-9 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. This clinched the Big Ten Conference title for Michigan State.

* Number 13 Oklahoma State beat Iowa State, 48-27 at Lewis Field (now Boone Pickens stadium) in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

* Number 16 Texas A&M beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 42-24 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Forth Worth, Texas.

* Number 19 University of Pittsburgh beat Kent State, 28-5 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* Virginia Tech beat the University of Cincinnati, 21-20 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia.

* Virginia beach North Carolina State, 34-31 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* Wake Forest beat Georgia Tech, 33-6 at Grant Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta.

* Vanderbilt beat Maryland, 34-24 at Vanderbilt Stadium (now FirstBank Stadium) in Nashville.

* The University of Houston and Texas Tech played to a tie, 10-10 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* Texas beat Baylor, 34-16 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. Five days later, on Thanksgiving, A&M beat Texas to win the Southwest Conference (SWC) title.

* Colorado beat Kansas State, 41-10 at KSU Stadium (now Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium) in Manhattan, Kansas.

* Wyoming beat the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), 37-13 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, to clinch the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) title.

* San Diego State beat New Mexico, 53-30 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* Among the service academies, Air Force beat Hawaii, 34-31 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu; while Army and Navy were idle, preparing for their game against each other, which Army won at Veterans Stadium.

* And with New Jersey's teams, Rutgers beat Temple, 17-14 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia; and Princeton beat Cornell, 23-6 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

Baseball was out of season. There were 9 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Golden State Warriors, 99-91 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Boston Celtics, 107-97 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Houston Rockets, 104-94 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 101-88 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Detroit Pistons beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bulls, 144-132 in overtime at the Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan scored 49 points.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Utah Jazz, 120-119 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 97-91 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Sacramento Kings, 103-96 at the original ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics, 124-103 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-4 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-3 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena) in Hartford, Connecticut.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 6-6 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 7-5 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 4-4 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

And in English soccer, Arsenal, the North London soccer team I would one day discover, lost 1-0 to Hampshire team Southampton at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury for its North London neighborhood.