December 7, 1974: New Jersey's 1st High School Football State Playoff

Sorry, Coach Jim Mora, but I'm about to talk about Playoffs!

December 7, 1974: The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA), which still runs high school sports in the Garden State, holds its 1st football Playoffs.

The NJSIAA originally divided its public schools by geography. The Counties of Warren, Sussex, Passaic, Bergen and Hudson were placed in North Jersey Section 1. The Counties of Morris, Essex and Union were in North Jersey Section 2. The Counties of Hunterdon, Mercer, Somerset, Middlesex and Monmouth were in Central Jersey. The Counties of Ocean, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic and Cape May were in South Jersey.

Then, they were further divided by enrollment size, the smallest schools being placed in Group I, then Group II, then Group III, and the largest ones being put in Group IV. That way, a small school like Cedar Grove won't have to go into the same Playoff bracket as a big school like Paterson Eastside.

They divided the Parochial schools into North and South, and Group A and B. Eventually, for football only, they created a Group V for the very largest schools.

For 1974 only, they admitted only the top 2 teams in each section. How did they determine the top 2 teams? Not by best record, because that could have caused ties to argue about. So they set up what they called "power points." A team would earn 2 points for a win over a team, multiplied by that team's group classification. Then they earned "residual power points," gaining half-credit for every game that team won, up to and including the 8th week of the season.

Example: I went to East Brunswick High School, in Middlesex County. For football, they are in Group V; for all other sports, Group IV. Suppose "EB" starts the season by beating their neighboring arch-rival, Old Bridge. (That hasn't happened since 2010, so you're going to have to use your imagination here.) Old Bridge are also Group V. EB gets 10 power points for doing this. Now, suppose, over the next 7 weeks, EB goes 5-2, with 3 wins coming against Group V teams, and the other 2 against Group IV teams. That's 4 points for each win, meaning we now have a total of 56 points. And suppose, on the average, the 6 teams we beat go .500, or 4-4. That's another 23 points, for a total of 79 points.

Convoluted? Yes. Fairer than the previous system, where they simply gave the Championship to the team with the best record in the section in each group, and if that meant a tie and a Co-Championship, so be it? Yes.

The way the schedule worked out for 1974, the 1st game was on a shortened temporary field at the Convention Hall (now Boardwalk Hall) in Atlantic City, for the South Jersey Group IV title. It was a Jersey Shore suburban team over a hardscrabble city team: Brick Township 21, Camden 20.

And Brick fans have never let anybody forget that they won the 1st-ever State Playoff game. The Green Dragons are a lot like Notre Dame: They never lose, time just runs out on them, or the refs are against them.

Brick's head coach, Warren Wolf (1927-2019) was also the Mayor of Brick Township at the time -- a Republican. He became the winningest coach in the history of New Jersey High School football, including winning 21 State Championships, the 1st in Group II, the next 3 in Group III, and the rest in Group IV, all in South Jersey.

They began to win less often in 1981, as the Township built a 2nd high school, Brick Memorial. It took Memorial a few years to become even respectable, but, eventually, they became Playoff perennials as well.

For 1975, the NJSIAA expanded the Playoffs to include the top 4 teams in each section, with the 1st seed hosting the 4th, and the 2nd hosting the 3rd. In 1998, they expanded again, to include the top 8.

For the record: East Brunswick, which opened in 1958 and began playing varsity football in 1961. won Central Jersey Group IV Co-Championships under the old system in 1966 and 1972; and had some agonizing close calls -- shades of certain major league teams that eventually broke, or haven't yet broken, "curses" -- in the 1980s and '90s, before winning the title in 2004 and 2009.

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December 7, 1974 was a Saturday. There was 1 game in college football on this day: Arizona State beat Hawaii, 26-3. This was the last game that Hawaii played at the old Honolulu Stadium, a minor-league baseball park that opened in 1926, and was in bad shape, to the point where it was known as "The Termite Palace." The next season, the Rainbow Warriors moved into the new Aloha Stadium.

There were 2 games in the NFL that day. The Minnesota Vikings beat the Atlanta Falcons, 23-10 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. And the Dallas Cowboys beat the Cleveland Browns, 41-17 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

Baseball was out of season. There were 5 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 120-112 at Madison Square Garden. Geoff Petrie scored 37 points for the Blazers, and John Johnson scored 35. Walt Frazier led the Knicks with 24.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Buffalo Braves, 116-112 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Bob McAdoo scored 34 for the Braves, who became the San Diego Clippers in 1978 and the Los Angeles Clippers in 1984.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 94-89 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 92-88 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 132-96 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

There were 5 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Virginia Squires, 103-86 at the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Spirits of St. Louis, 119-107 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the San Diego Conquistadors, 126-113 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. George McGinnis had 36 points and 21 rebounds.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Memphis Sounds at the Denver Auditorium Arena. Stew Johnson scored 35 for the Sounds.

* And the Utah Stars beat the San Antonio Spurs, 111-107 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

There were 6 games in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 7-4 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The New York Islanders beat the Kansas City Scouts, 4-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* In another "Original Six" matchup, the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a tie, 3-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Washington Capitals, 8-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Atlanta Flames, 6-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And there were 4 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The New England Whalers beat the Indianapolis Racers, 6-3 at the Eastern States Coliseum, a.k.a. The Big E, in West Springfield, Massachusetts.

* The Cleveland Crusaders beat the San Diego Mariners, 3-1 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Chicago Cougars beat the Toronto Toros, 9-3 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago.

* And the Vancouver Blazers beat the Michigan Stags, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

And in English soccer, Arsenal, the North London team I would eventually support, lost to Carlisle United, 2-1 at Brunton Park in Carlisle, Cumbria.