December 29, 1972: The Death of East Brunswick's Jay Doyle

December 29, 1972: Jay Doyle dies. The football game program at East Brunswick High School in East Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey notes that the school's stadium is named Jay Doyle Field, in his memory, and says that, "Most of you never had the pleasure of meeting this man."

When he died, my family had just moved to East Brunswick, and I had just passed my 3rd birthday, so I never came close to meeting him. Most people reading this post have never been to East Brunswick (except from maybe passing through it on the New Jersey Turnpike), much less to the campus of EBHS, my Alma Mater, and are unlikely to have ever even heard of him.

James Francis Doyle III was born on February 1, 1931 in Brooklyn. He grew up in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. Long Island did not have a tradition of playing high school football games on Thanksgiving. As a result, he didn't like it when schools did so, and East Brunswick only ended up doing so once in its 1st 14 seasons of varsity football: In 1963, when their game against Sayreville for November 23 was postponed due to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the day before.

Doyle served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Rutgers University in 1956, and a Masters degree from RU in 1957. Several other men for whom nearby high school football stadiums were named were also Rutgers graduates, including Jay Dakelman of Highland Park and Nicholas Priscoe of Woodbridge.

He married Joan Philedius, and they had 2 daughters, Susan and Kathleen; and 2 sons, Michael and James IV. They lived in Farrington Lake Heights, a section of East Brunswick that uses the post office of neighboring Milltown.

Doyle served on Rutgers' football coaching staff in the 1956 and '57 seasons, as a swimming instructor there from 1956 to '58, as the Township of East Brunswick's recreation director from 1956 to '59, and a gym teacher at East Brunswick grammar schools from 1957 to '59.

This made him a natural to be appointed as East Brunswick High School's 1st athletic director when the school opened for the 1958-59 schoolyear, even though he was only 27 years old. He was also named its 1st wrestling head coach in 1960, and its 1st football head coach in 1961. He also served a term as president of the New Jersey Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association.

He hired one of his Rutgers fraternity brothers, John Emery, as the school's 1st head basketball coach in 1960-61, and as one of his assistant coaches in football. Emery would remain head coach in basketball until 1977, and on the football staff into the 21st Century.

After 2 seasons, going 4-4 and 2-7, he left the football position, but remained as A.D. and wrestling coach. He coached a District Champion team in 1969, and 3 individual State Champions: Richie Aiello in 1963, Max Guidoboni in 1965, and Lenny Cassidy in 1966.

Until the late 1970s, the Middlesex County Wrestling Tournament was held on the weekend between Christmas and New Year's Eve. It was eventually moved to the 1st weekend in February. On Thursday, December 28, 1972, Doyle coached 3 of his wrestlers into the Semifinals, to be held on Friday, December 29: Joe Rishar, Mark Morrison and Roger Kissling. (The article in the football team's game program says it was 4 wrestlers, but the account in the local newspaper, then known as The Daily Home News, only mentions 3.)

But he suffered a heart attack on the 29th, and was taken to St. Peter's Hospital in New Brunswick. He died there, only 41 years old.

Jim Rishar, one of Doyle's assistants and older brother of Joe Rishar, had to step in. He told the wrestlers that Doyle would want them to compete anyway, but that he would respect their choices regardless. All 3 of them wrestled, in tribute to their fallen leader. But, being emotionally spent, all 3 of them lost. It didn't matter: The fact that they competed anyway matched the Olympic ideal, and would have pleased their coach.

Jay Doyle Field

EBHS' 4,300-capacity football stadium did not have an official name at the time of Doyle's death. Before the 1973 season began, it was named Jay Doyle Field. When the Greater Middlesex Conference was formed in 1985, taking in nearly every school in the County, the trophy for the overall team wrestling champion was named the Jay Doyle Trophy.

Doyle's monument inside the stadium

Doyle was laid to rest at Holy Cross Burial Park and Mausoleum, on Cranbury Road in East Brunswick, 5 miles down the road from the High School. His widow, Joan, lived on until 2010. Son Michael is a professor of communications at Rutgers. Son James is a lawyer in Hammonton, South Jersey. Daughter Susan Doyle-Lindrud is a doctor, and stayed in East Brunswick. And daughter Kathleen Doyle is a physical therapist in neighboring North Brunswick.

Jay Doyle was succeeded as football coach by Ronald A. Gonier. "Rock" coached the Bears from 1963 to 1967, winning Conference Championships in 1965, 1966 and 1967, and the Central Jersey Group IV Championship in 1966. He continued to teach math at EBHS until his death in 1979, also much too young, a few days away from turning 50.

Gonier's successor was a bit luckier, in every sense of the word. Mel Caseiro, brother of assistant principal John Caseiro, coached from 1968 to 1976, after having been an assistant under Doyle and Gonier. He won Conference Championships in 1968, 1969 and 1970, and both the Middlesex County Athletic Conference and Central Jersey Group IV Championships in 1972. He was fired after 2 losing seasons, and then served on the staff of Rutgers University coaches Frank Burns and Dick Anderson until 1985. He taught chemistry at EBHS until his retirement, and lived until 2012, at 75.

The next EBHS head coach was George Tardiff. He was the 1st to lead the Bears into the State Playoffs after their institution in 1974, doing so in 1980. Despite some success, he ruffled a few feathers, and when he got an offer from an NCAA Division II college after the 1982 season, there was not much effort to convince him to stay. He later returned to New Jersey, coaching at 3 different schools in the Shore Conference, having previously coached at 3 other schools in that league. Like Caseiro, he died in 2012 and was 75.

Marcus Borden coached, and won, more football games at EBHS than any other man, all while teaching foreign languages. He guided us to the Playoffs in 1984, '85, '87, '88, '90, '94, '98, 2004, '09 and '10; won Conference Championships in 1984 (the MCAC, from here on out the Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division), '86, '87, '90 and '94; and, after some gut-wrenching close calls, the Central Jersey Group IV title in 2004 and 2009.

He was succeeded in 2012 by Bob Molarz, who had achieved great success at nearby Carteret, but it just didn't happen at EB. In 7 years, he never had a winning season. In 2019, Andy Steinfeld became the 1st EBHS alumnus to become head coach, and he led us to the Playoffs in 2021.

I'll let Mel Caseiro have the last word on Jay Doyle, from a column that Barry Levine wrote in The Daily Home News, one of the predecessor newspapers of the Home News Tribune, Middlesex County's lone remaining daily paper: "He was a great man, a great educator. If I had to choose a boss to work for, it would have been Jay Doyle. He was very fair, and kept all the coaches working together."

*

December 29, 1972 was a Friday. Actors Jude Law and Leonor Varela were born.

Baseball was out of season. There were 2 college football bowl games played that day:

* North Carolina State upset Number 18 West Virginia, 49-13, at Atlanta Stadium, in the Peach Bowl. The stadium was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975, and torn down in 1997.

* And the University of Tampa beat Kent State University of Ohio, 21-18, in the Tangerine Bowl, at the stadium then carrying the same name, in Orlando. The game and the stadium later became known as the Citrus Bowl, and the stadium is now named Camping World Stadium. Believing that having an NFL team would cause its attendance to decrease, the University of Tampa dropped its football program after the 1974 season. And yet, since becoming a Football Bowl Subdivision team in 2001, the University of South Florida has had higher attendance than UT ever did.

There were 7 NBA games played that night:

* The New York Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons, 99-94 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Walt Frazier led the Knicks with 24 points. In defeat, Bob Lanier scored 38 points and had 26 rebounds.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 106-99 at the Boston Garden. Bob Love scored 41 points for the Bulls.

* The Buffalo Braves beat the Baltimore Bullets, 118-109 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Elvin Hayes scored 35 in defeat for the Bullets.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Houston Rockets, 114-101 at the Hofheinz Pavilion (now the Fertitta Center) in Houston. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 39 points.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 106-99 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, 121-92 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Jerry West had 28 points. Gail Goodrich had 27. Wilt Chamberlain, in what turned out to be his last season, had only 10 points, but grabbed 26 rebounds.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-91 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 2 games in the American Basketball Association. The New York Nets lost to the San Diego Conquistadors, 114-104 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). And the Kentucky Colonels beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 131-104 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the California Golden Seals, 5-2 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-0 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 2-0 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks played to a tie, 4-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

And there were 3 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Houston Aeros beat the New England Whalers, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-3 at the Cleveland Arena.

* And the Los Angeles Sharks beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints, 5-2 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

December 1, 1984: East Brunswick's Black Saturday

The main entrance to East Brunswick High School

-- after renovations were made in 2000.

It would have appeared differently in 1984.

December 1, 1984: New Jersey completes its high school football State Playoffs. Among the games played is the Central Jersey Group IV Final, at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

I was there. I saw this game. I have been trying to forget it ever since.

East Brunswick High School, in Middlesex County, opened in 1958, and had been playing football since 1961. In 1966 and 1972, it won the Central Jersey Group IV Championship. But that was under the old system, based on total wins. In 1974, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) instituted a Playoff system, based on "power points": A team got 2 points for every win, and 1 point for every game won by a team it beat.

Under this system, John P. Stevens High School of Edison, also in Middlesex County and a Middlesex County Athletic Conference (MCAC) opponent of E.B., won the Central Jersey Group IV Championship in 1977, 1978 and 1982, also making the Playoffs in 1983. East Brunswick had made it only once, in 1980, losing in the Semifinal.

John P. Stevens was the President of the Board of Education in Edison. He oversaw the building of Edison High School in 1955, but died soon thereafter. When a 2nd high school opened, on the north side of town, it was named for him. As a result, his name is on the dedication plaques of both schools.

But in 1984, the year I entered EBHS as a sophomore, E.B. won its 1st 6 games. In just his 2nd season as head coach, Marcus Borden had built a team based on strong line play and quick-strike capability. The 7th game was at Stevens' John E. McGowan Stadium, on October 27. E.B. beat J.P., 26-6. It was a dominating performance, and it went a long way toward the Bears earning the MCAC Championship. I was there: It was Stevens' Homecoming, and 5,000 of their fans went home angry.

They would get their revenge. Their big running back, George Boothe, was unavailable for this game due to injury. He returned, and helped them make the Playoffs. E.B. won their Semifinal over Hunterdon Central of Flemington, and then beat Colonia of Woodbridge on Thanksgiving Day to clinch the MCAC title and our 1st undefeated regular season. Stevens won their Semifinal, over Middletown North of Monmouth County, but lost their Thanksgiving game against crosstown Edison.

The local newspaper, then named The Central New Jersey Home News, ranked E.B. Number 1 in Middlesex County. So did another nearby paper, The News Tribune. These 2 papers would merge in 1995, forming The Home News Tribune. The Statewide newspaper, the Newark-based The Star-Ledger, ranked E.B. Number 2 in the entire State, behind Union of Union County. We were 10-0, and Stevens as 7-3. And we had the home-field advantage for the Final. We were heavily favored to win our 1st real "State Championship" in the sport.

Jay Doyle Field -- also noticeably altered,

well after 1984

But we couldn't stop Boothe. He scored 3 of their 4 touchdowns, the 1st on an end-around on which he wasn't even touched, putting the Hawks up, 27-20 in the 4th quarter. But the Bears had come from 27-13 down to beat Colonia, 33-27, just 9 days earlier, so the thought was there that we could do it again.

The Bears did come back, and scored a touchdown to make it 27-26 with a minute and a half to go. Remembering the Orange Bowl at the beginning of the year, when Nebraska's Tom Osborne went for the 2-point conversion and the National Championship against the University of Miami, and not getting it, and losing 31-30 -- but forgetting that, unlike college football at the time, New Jersey's State Playoffs did have a provision for overtime -- Borden went for the 2-point conversion.

Steve Hughes, who would be named Middlesex County Offensive Player of the Year by The Home News, found running back Deric Rowe wide open in the end zone. It was 3:37 PM. Don't bet me on the time. Rowe later said he lost the ball in the Sun. It hit him in the chest, slipped through his fingers, and fell to the grass. It was still 27-26.

We got the ball back one last time, but it was no use: Stevens 27, East Brunswick 26. Our undefeated State Championship season was gone. And, yes, 38 years later, it still hurts. Every time that score comes up, in any sport, I cringe.

Twice, I walked out of Jay Doyle Field in tears. The 2nd time was after graduation. The 1st time was this one, a game that became known as Black Saturday. I was spoiled over the 1st 10 games. I waited a long time for that 1 more win.

Deric played basketball for us, too, and we still cheered him every time he got the ball. But this was E.B.'s "Bill Buckner moment" -- 2 years before Buckner had his own. There would be other close calls, including another 1-point loss to Stevens in next year's regular season, costing us the Conference Championship; and another loss to them in the 1985 State Final. But E.B. football hadn't won a "State Championship" (officially, Central Jersey Group IV Championship) since 1972, and not at all under the current system.

Finally, we did it again on December 5, 2004, against Shore Conference power Jackson Memorial, at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway. Borden was still the head coach. I was there. We did it again in 2009, beating Brick Memorial, another Shore Conference school, in a snowstorm at The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College) in Ewing. I was at that one, too.

There is a tragic postscript to that 1984 Final: Both Deric Rowe and George Boothe ended up in legal trouble. Rowe played football at Kansas State University, but dropped out, and served time in prison for armed robbery, carjacking and kidnapping. Last I heard, he was free, and living in the San Diego suburbs.

Boothe played at the University of Connecticut, but fell into drug use there, and became Central Jersey's "O.J. Simpson" -- the difference being that he was convicted for killing his girlfriend, in Atlanta in 1994. He was eventually released, and, at last check, was living in Connecticut.

*

December 1, 1984 was, as I said, a Saturday. After coming home, I didn't give a damn about the college football games that were played that day:

* Rivalry: Number 3 Florida beat Number 12 Florida State, 27-17 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee.

* Rivalry: Number 8 Boston College, 8 days after their Thanksgiving weekend thriller over Miami, beat Holy Cross, 45-10 at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts. A rivalry between 2 Catholic schools just 40 miles apart that began in 1896, and had been played every year but 3 since 1910, only lasted 2 more years, as Holy Cross was entrenched in NCAA Division I-AA (now the Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS).

* Number 10 Southern Methodist University (SMU) beat the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV), 38-21 at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl, in the Las Vegas suburb of Whitney, Nevada.

* Rivalry: Number 11 Auburn were upset by Alabama, 17-15 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

* Rivalry: Number 13 Texas were upset by Texas A&M, 37-12 at Memorial Stadium in Austin.

* Rivalry: Number 18 Georgia were upset by Georgia Tech, 35-18 at Sanford Stadium in Athens.

* Rivalry: Army beat Navy, 28-11 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* Rivalry: Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, 29-13 at Vanderbilt Stadium (now FirstBank Stadium) in Nashville.

* Rivalry: The University of Houston beat Rice University, 38-26 at the Astrodome in Houston. Champions of the Southwest Conference, Houston received an automatic bid to the Cotton Bowl, where Boston College beat them. It was Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie's last college game.

* And Iowa beat Hawaii, 17-6 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

Baseball was out of season. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 115-93 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 100-97 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 110-104 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Indiana Pacers, 131-109 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Houston Rockets, 94-86 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 142-110 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Denver Nuggets beat their arch-rivals, the Utah Jazz, 118-111 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Golden State Warriors, 115-103 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

And there were 9 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Hartford Whalers, 8-4 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins, 5-4 in overtime at the Boston Garden. Dave Christian, a member of the Gold Medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, scored the winning goal with 3:40 left in overtime.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Minnesota North Stars, 8-4 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Detroit Red Wings, 10-5 at the St. Louis Arena. Joe Mullen scored 2 goals and an assist. Brian Sutter had 2 goals. Bernie Federko had a goal and 4 assists.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the New York Islanders, the Edmonton Oilers and the Winnipeg Jets were not scheduled.

November 19, 1966: East Brunswick Football's 1st State Championship

From the 1967 EBHS Yearbook

November 19, 1966: East Brunswick High School, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, which would one day be my Alma Mater, beats Sayreville War Memorial High School at home, 33-0. This clinches the school's 1st State Championship in football, in only its 6th season.

EBHS had opened in 1958, due to the growth that the Township of East Brunswick had already had, and was forecast to have in the 1960s, thus taking its students out of next-door South River High School, which was, and has frequently been since, a football powerhouse.

EB's 1st varsity season was 1961, under head coach Jay Doyle. They went 4-4. They went 2-7 in 1962, and Doyle, also the school's 1st athletic director and its 1st head coach in wrestling, handed the head football coaching job over to his assistant, Ron Gonier. "Rock" led the Bears to records of 5-2-2 in 1963, and 6-3 in 1964 and 1965.

EB opened the 1966 season on September 24, home to Madison, a next-door neighbor, and won, 35-6. In 1975, to avoid confusion with Madison Borough in Morris County, Madison Township changed its name to the Township of Old Bridge. But the name of the school was changed from Madison Township to Madison Central. The town had opened a 2nd high school, Cedar Ridge, in 1969. In 1994, the 2 schools were reconsolidated due to declining enrollment, and have been Old Bridge High School ever since.

The next game was away to Woodbridge. I talked to Wayne Beck Jr., an EBHS baseball player in the late 1980s, whose father Wayne Beck Sr. played in the 1966 season. Wayne Jr. said his father told him that it poured that day, and that Woodbridge Stadium (now Nicholas A. Priscoe Stadium) was practically a field of soup. Not surprisingly, the game ended in a 0-0 tie.

The next game, at home on October 8, was against South River, who, naturally, became our 1st arch-rival. EB had Dave Wohl at quarterback, and he would go on to become the first (and still only) EBHS graduate to play in the NBA. South River's quarterback was senior Joe Theismann (then pronounced "THEEZE-man," it was at Notre Dame where it was changed to "THIGHS-man" to rhyme with the Heisman Trophy he ended up not winning), and his top receiver was sophomore Drew Pearson, who succeeded him as SRHS quarterback, and then opposed Theismann in some classic Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys games. The Rams beat us, 27-0. EB were now 1-1-1, and there was no indication that this would be a special season.

In spite of this rough start, EB won the rest of their games. They went to Edison, and won, 34-12. They went to Perth Amboy, who had beaten them the last 2 years, and won, 13-6. They came home to face Essex Catholic, and won, 32-14. This was the 1st time EB had ever played a religion-affiliated school. Essex Catholic was established in Newark in 1957, moved to East Orange in 1980, and was closed due to declining enrollment in 2003.

On November 5, EB hosted John F. Kennedy Memorial High School of Woodbridge, so named because JFK was assassinated while it was under construction, and won, 26-0. On November 12, they beat New Brunswick at their Memorial Stadium, 31-21.

They closed on November 19, at home, beating Sayreville, 33-0. This gave us the Championship of the Greater Jersey Group IV Conference, Central Division II, our 1st league title. And, due to our 7-1-1 record, it also gave us a share of their 1st Central Jersey Group IV Championship. Our first "State Championship."

That November 19 clincher against Sayreville was played the same day as the Michigan State-Notre Dame Number 1 vs. Number 2 tie game that was labeled "The Game of the Century." I have a separate entry for that event.

EB would repeat the story in 1972: We went 7-1-1, with our only loss being to South River, but won the Championship of the Middlesex County Athletic Conference, and a Co-Championship in Central Jersey Group IV. At the end of the year, Jay Doyle died of a heart attack, only 41 years old. The EBHS stadium, not yet named, was named Jay Doyle Field in his memory.

In 1974, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) dropped the best-record method, and came up with a "power points" system based on record and strength of schedule (in other words, the records of the teams that a team beat) to assign Playoff seedings.

East Brunswick would just miss the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs under the 4-teams-per-section-and-group format in 1977, '78, '81, '86, '92 and '95; reach the Quarterfinals in 1998 after the expansion to 8-teams-per-section-and-group; reach the Semifinals in 1980, '87, '88, '90 and '94; and the Finals in 1984 and '85.

A series of shocking moments, reminiscent of the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Rangers before those teams finally ended their World Championship droughts, and the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings who still have them as of 2022, prevented EB from winning another State Championship. Finally, in 2004, everything fell into place, and we won another, ending a 32-year drought. We won another in 2009, and have made the Playoffs again in 2010, '14 and '21.

*

November 19, 1966 was, of course a Saturday. Other notable college football games played that day, aside from the nationally-televised Michigan-State Notre Dame game:

* In the 2nd half of ABC's nationally-telecast doubleheader, Number 8 UCLA beat Number 7 USC, 14-7 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. This game forced a tie for the Championship in the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU), and, head-to-head, UCLA should have had the tiebreaker. The next week, Notre Dame went into the Coliseum, and walloped USC, 51-0.

But USC still got the Rose Bowl bid, and lost to Purdue. UCLA, hampered by a rule in the league now known as the Pac-12 similar to the Big Ten's, couldn't go to a bowl, despite finishing the regular season 9-1. Wow, if ever a 20th Century college football season needed a playoff, this was it. The next season, USC and UCLA would play a "Game of the Century."

* Number 3 Alabama and Number 4 Nebraska both had the week off. The following week, Nebraska lost to arch-rival Oklahoma. But they still won the Big Eight Conference title. Alabama beat Southern Mississippi and then arch-rival Auburn, and beat Nebraska in the Sugar Bowl.

* Number 10 Purdue crushed arch-rival Indiana, 51-0 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

* Michigan beat Ohio State, 17-3 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Wisconsin beat Minnesota, 7-6 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* Southern Methodist beat Baylor, 24-22 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, clinching the Southwest Conference title. But they lost the Cotton Bowl to Georgia, who were off this week, and ranked Number 7.

* Harvard beat Yale, 17-0 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.

* Penn State beat Pittsburgh, 48-24 at Pitt Stadium.

* Army and Navy both had the week off. The following week, Army beat Navy, 20-7 at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

* In New York City, Columbia beat Brown, 40-38 at Baker Field.

* In New Jersey, Princeton beat Cornell, 7-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

* And Rutgers lost to Colgate, 26-7 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway.

One more football score I want to mention, but not in college, nor in the pros. The school that would one day become my high school, East Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey, beat Sayreville 33-0. This enabled them to win both the Greater Jersey Group IV Conference, Central Division II Championship, and, due to their record, winning a share of their 1st Central Jersey Group IV Championship. Our first "State Championship."

There were 5 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the expansion Chicago Bulls, 116-104 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cincinnati Royals, 134-110 at the Philadelphia Civic Center.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Baltimore Bullets, 147-125 at the Baltimore Civic Center. (The building still stands, under the name of the CFG Bank Arena.)

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 105-87 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

* And the San Francisco Warriors beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 144-109 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. For the Warriors, Rick Barry scored 45, and Nate Thurmond had 24 points and 27 rebounds.

And the entire NHL -- all of the "Original Six" teams -- were in action:

* The New York Rangers played the Boston Bruins to a tie, 3-3 at the Boston Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 7-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

Also on this day, Gail Devers, an American sprinter who won Olympic Gold Medals, was born. So was celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito. So was actor and martial artist Jason Scott Lee. Although not related to Bruce Lee, he played Bruce in a film biography. 

November 18, 1972: East Brunswick Football's 2nd State Championship

November 18, 1972: East Brunswick High School, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, which would one day be my Alma Mater, beats Sayreville War Memorial High School, 41-14 at War Memorial Stadium in Sayreville. This clinches the school's 2nd State Championship in football.

EBHS had opened in 1958, due to the growth that the Township of East Brunswick had already had, and was forecast to have in the 1960s, thus taking its students out of next-door South River High School, which was, and has frequently been since, a football powerhouse.

EB's 1st varsity season was 1961, under head coach Jay Doyle. They went 4-4. They went 2-7 in 1962, and Doyle, also the school's 1st athletic director and its 1st head coach in wrestling, handed the head football coaching job over to his assistant, Ron Gonier. "Rock" led the Bears to records of 5-2-2 in 1963, and 6-3 in 1964 and 1965.

In 1966, he led EB to a 7-1-1 season, winning the school's 1st Conference Championship, in the Greater Jersey Group IV Conference, Central Division II. It was also enough to earn a share of the Central Jersey Group IV Championship, winning us our 1st "State Championship," in only our 6th season. He coached 1 more season, leading us to 6-3 and another Conference Championship.

His assistant Mel Caseiro took over from there, and led EB to Conference Championships in 1968, '69 and '70, going 6-3, 6-3 and 6-2-1, respectively. The 1971 season was the 1st in the new Middlesex County Athletic Conference, and EB slipped a little, going 5-3-1.

EB opened the 1972 season on September 23, wearing a block EB logo on our helmets for the 1st time. The opener was home to Madison, a next-door neighbor, and we won, 37-6. In 1975, to avoid confusion with Madison Borough in Morris County, Madison Township changed its name to the Township of Old Bridge. But the name of the school was changed from Madison Township to Madison Central. The town had opened a 2nd high school, Cedar Ridge, in 1969. In 1994, the 2 schools were reconsolidated due to declining enrollment, and have been Old Bridge High School ever since.

The next game was away to Woodbridge, and we won, 19-13. This was followed by a home game against Cedar Ridge, and we won, 27-11. Threeroad games followed, beating Edison school J.P. Stevens, 27-7 (we did not play Edison High School that season); Carteret, 46-6; and Thomas Jefferson High School, forerunner of the current Elizabeth High School, 20-6, proving that our win over them the season before, while a big upset, was no fluke.

The next game, at home on November 11, was against South River, who, naturally, became our 1st arch-rival. In 1966, South River had dealt us our only loss of the season. History repeated itself, as they beat us, 35-14.

And the next game, home to New Brunswick, ended in a 0-0 tie, putting our hopes for any title in doubt. Especially since our season finale would be away to Sayreville, who had beaten us at home the season before. This turned out to be Sayreville's only football win over EB between our 1st season of 1961 and 1990. Since then, they have been considerably better at the sport, and have dominated us.

But on November 18, we went into Sayreville's War Memorial Stadium, and, led by quarterback Dave Cole, put up a dominating performance, winning, 41-14, advancing us to 7-1-1, and clinching the MCAC title. When the results were in from the other games in the section, we found out that we were tied for the best record, and thus Central Jersey Group IV Co-Champions.

On December 29, 1972, Jay Doyle died of a heart attack, only 41 years old. The EBHS stadium, not yet named, was named Jay Doyle Field in his memory.

In 1974, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) dropped the best-record method, and came up with a "power points" system based on record and strength of schedule (in other words, the records of the teams that a team beat) to assign Playoff seedings.

East Brunswick would just miss the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs under the 4-teams-per-section-and-group format in 1977, '78, '81, '86, '92 and '95; reach the Quarterfinals in 1998 after the expansion to 8-teams-per-section-and-group; reach the Semifinals in 1980, '87, '88, '90 and '94; and the Finals in 1984 and '85.

A series of shocking moments, reminiscent of the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Rangers before those teams finally ended their World Championship droughts, and the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings who still have them as of 2022, prevented EB from winning another State Championship.

It would be a long, agonizing, gut-wrenching wait for another. Students and graduates of schools that won "State Championships" from 1974 onward would remind EB people that, "You've never won a State Championship." What they meant was, we'd never won a State Championship under the Playoff format.

Finally, in 2004, everything fell into place, and we won another, ending a 32-year drought. We won another in 2009, and have made the Playoffs again in 2010, '14 and '21.

*

November 18, 1972 was, of course a Saturday. Baseball season was over. Among the college football games played that day were these:

* Number 1 University of Southern California beat their crosstown arch-rivals, the University of California at Los Angeles, 24-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Stadium, in what was officially a home game for UCLA, though both teams then played their home games there. USC won the Pacific-Eight Conference title.

* Number 2 Alabama beat Virginia Tech, 52-13 at Denny Stadium (now Bryant-Denny Stadium) in Tuscaloosa. Alabama won the Southeastern Conference title, but lost to Auburn the next week, in the famed "Punt, 'Bama, Punt!" game. For the 1st time since the 1948 season, the Sugar Bowl did not invite the SEC Champions.

* Number 3 Michigan beat Purdue, 9-6 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. Losing to Ohio State meant that Michigan only got a share of the Big Ten Conference title, and cost them a bowl bid due to the head-to-head tiebreaker and the Big Ten's awful "Rose Bowl only" rule that held until 1975.

* Number 4 Oklahoma beat Kansas, 31-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas. Oklahoma beat Nebraska to win the Big Eight Conference title, and advanced to Number 2 in the country. Unable to face Number 1 USC in the Rose Bowl, they turned down a bid to the Orange Bowl to face a higher-ranking team in the Sugar Bowl, in the hope of a better shot at the National Championship.

* Number 5 Nebraska beat Kansas State, 59-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Losing to Oklahoma meant that the 2-time defending National Champions, in their last season before Bob Devaney handed off the head coaching job to his offensive coordinator, Tom Osborne, only got a share of the Big Eight Conference title. But they still got the league's Orange Bowl bid.

* Number 6 Penn State beat Boston College, 45-26 at Alumni Stadium, just outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Penn State were invited to the Sugar Bowl, but lost it to Oklahoma, 14-0. Oklahoma's win did not impress the voters enough to put them ahead of USC, who were awarded the National Championship by both polls, the Associated Press (AP, the college football writers) and United Press International (UPI, the head coaches).

* Number 7 Texas beat Texas Christian (TCU), 27-0 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. Texas won the Southwest Conference title, then beat Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.

* Number 8 Louisiana State beat Mississippi State, 28-14 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.

* Number 9 Ohio State beat Northwestern, 20-17 at Dyche Stadium (now Ryan Field) in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois. This avenged Northwestern's win at Ohio Stadium the year before. Ohio State beat Michigan to win the Big Ten title, but lost the Rose Bowl to USC, who thus won the National Championship. Had Ohio State won the Rose Bowl, they might have won the National Championship.

* Number 10 Notre Dame beat the University of Miami, 20-17 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame were invited to the Orange Bowl, where they were beaten by Nebraska in Bob Devaney's last game.

* Number 12 Iowa State were upset by Number 19 Missouri, 6-5 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri. Yes, 6-5. That's in football, not baseball.

* Number 16 North Carolina beat arch-rival Duke, 14-0 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.

* Number 17 Washington were upset by their arch-rivals, Number 20 Washington State, for the Apple Cup, 27-10 to close the 1st season of Wazzu's new Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington.

* In an intra-State rivalry game, the University of Richmond beat the College of William & Mary, 20-3 at City Stadium in Richmond, Virginia.

* Miami University of Ohio beat the University of Cincinnati for the Keg of Nails, 23-0 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati.

* Brigham Young beat arch-rival Utah in "the Holy War," 16-7 at Rice Stadium (now Rice-Eccles Stadium) in Salt Lake City.

* The University of California beat arch-rival Stanford in "the Big Game," 24-21 at the old California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.

* Oregon beat Oregon State in "the Civil War," 30-3 at Parker Stadium (now Reser Stadium) in Corvallis, Oregon.

* Among the service academies, Army beat Holy Cross, 15-13 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy lost to Georgia Tech, 30-7 at Grant Field in Atlanta; and Air Force lost to Number 15 Colorado, 38-7 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs.

* The closest thing New York City had to a major college football team, Columbia, lost to the University of Pennsylvania, 20-14 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* And among New Jersey's teams, Rutgers beat Morgan State, 37-14 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway; while Princeton lost to Yale, 31-7 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.

There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 87-86 at Madison Square Garden. In a losing effort for the Bucks, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 32 points and grabbed 20 rebounds -- and that wasn't the best performance of the day.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Phoenix Suns, 126-122 at The Omni in Atlanta, in its 1st season. "Pistol Pete" Maravich scored 45 points -- and that wasn't the best performance of the day.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Baltimore Bullets, 95-79 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Kansas City-Omaha Kings, 127-117 at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska. Nate "Tiny" Archibald scored 51 points, and that was the best performance of the day.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Buffalo Braves, 120-92 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat their arch-rivals, the Portland Trail Blazers, 102-100 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 2 games in the American Basketball Association. The San Diego Conquistadors beat the Kentucky Colonels, 112-104 at Freedom Hall in Louisville. And the Denver Rockets beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 111-103 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver. Ralph Simpson -- not to be confused with later Houston Rocket star Ralph Sampson -- scored 44 points, but, as we've seen, that was not the best performance of the day.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Boston Bruins, 7-3 at the Nassau Coliseum. Phil Esposito and Wayne Cashman both scored 2 goals, Bobby Orr just 1.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at the Montreal Forum. 

* The Minnesota North Stars and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a tie, 4-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Atlanta Flames, 6-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Al McDonough scored a hat trick for the Pens.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Detroit Red Wings, 8-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Mike Corrigan and Ralph Backstrom each scored 2 goals for the Kings.

* And the Philadelphia Flyers, the California Golden Seals, the Buffalo Sabres and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.

And there were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The New York Raiders beat the Quebec Nordiques, 7-1 at Madison Square Garden. But with the established Rangers and the expansion Islanders having the NHL's backing, if the New York Tri-State Area could only support 2 pro hockey teams at the time, in this era before the New Jersey Devils arrived, then the Raiders were the likeliest odd team out, and only lasted the season.

* The New England Whalers beat the Ottawa Nationals, 3-2 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the Philadelphia Blazers, 5-4 in overtime at the Philadelphia Arena in West Philly.

September 23, 1961: East Brunswick High School Football Debuts

September 23, 1961: East Brunswick High School plays its first varsity football game. The Bears beat Carteret High School, 7-0.

EBHS, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, 38 miles southwest of Midtown Manhattan and 60 miles northeast of Center City Philadelphia, opened on September 8, 1958. Until then, public school students from the Township of East Brunswick attended South River High School, in the next-door town of the same name. E.B. experienced tremendous growth in the 1950s, and they knew even more was coming in the 1960s. So, in 1955, they began building their high school.

Two junior highs, eventually named for world statesmen Dag Hammarskjöld and Winston Churchill, would open in 1961 and 1963, respectively. Three elementary schools would be named after teachers, one of those becoming Mayor, Henry Warnsdorfer; one jointly named after a pair of principals; and one for poet Robert Frost.

When EBHS opened, it housed grades 6 through 9. Students in grades 10 through 12 were allowed to remain at South River. By the 1960-61 schoolyear, EBHS was ready to begin most varsity sports. In 1961-62, with grades 8 through 12, it was ready to begin varsity football.

James F. "Jay" Doyle was the school's 1st head coach in football, and also in wrestling, and also its 1st athletic director. He would coach the 1st 2 football seasons, then stick to coaching wrestling and running the athletic department. He died of a heart attack during Christmas Break 1972, only 41 years old. The school named its football stadium for him.

That stadium wouldn't be built until 1965. For the 1st 4 seasons, EBHS played on what became its practice field. As part of the 1998-2001 renovation of the school, that practice field and the varsity baseball field switched locations, so the baseball field, from the 1st base line to left field, is now the site of the 1st EBHS football field.

But that field would have to wait for the team's 2nd game, 2 weeks after its 1st. The opener was held at Carteret's field, named Walter B. Overholt Jr. Memorial Stadium, for a Carteret football player who died in service in World War II. With its distinctive overhanging roof, Overholt Stadium is known as "The Pit," and it's considered one of the best home-field advantages in the area.

Sadly, like most high school fields in the area,

it now has artificial turf.

That nickname was not in place in 1961. The game in question was scoreless until the last 4 minutes, when a 2-yard quarterback sneak by Bill Gruver gave E.B. the lead. The Bears' defense held on for the win against the Ramblers.

The Bears would finish a respectable 4-4 that 1st season. They've won Conference Championships in 1966, '67, '68, '69, '70, '72, '84, '86, '87, '90 and '94; made the State Playoffs in 1980, '84, '85, '87, '88, '90, '94, '98, 2004, '09, '10, '14 and '21; and won Central Jersey Group IV Championships in 1966, 1972, 2004 and 2009. However, that 32-year gap between 1972 and 2004 -- including my tenure there from September 12, 1984 to June 23, 1987 -- was full of moments that could lead people to think the program was cursed.

*

September 23, 1961 was Saturday. Actor Chi McBride was born. So was William McCool, one of the astronauts killed in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Despite it not being a Sunday, there was an NFL game played that day: The Chicago Bears beat the Los Angeles Rams, 21-17 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

There was also a game played in the AFL: The Boston Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 23-21 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

Not all college football teams had begun their season yet. None of the Big Ten teams had, including Iowa, ranked Number 1 in the 1st poll. Nor had Notre Dame. Nor had Rutgers and Princeton: The 2 big New Jersey teams would open their seasons the next week, against each other, at Palmer Stadium in Princeton. Rutgers won, 16-13, starting them on an undefeated 9-0 season.

On September 23, Number 3 Alabama beat Georgia, 32-6 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. But in a shocker, Number 5 Louisiana State lost to Rice, 16-3 at Rice Stadium in Houston.

And, of course, there were Major League Baseball games played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Whitey Ford advanced to 25-4 on the season. Home runs were hit by Mickey Mantle, Elston Howard and Bob Cerv. 

For Mantle, it was his 54th of the season. It would be his last, as he had been sick, and, to make a long and sordid story short, the treatment he sought made things worse, and he had to be hospitalized. He would return for the World Series.

Roger Maris got a hit that day, but not a home run, and was stuck on 59 home runs. He would hit his 60th on September 26, and his 61st in the season finale on October 1.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Wes Covington won it with a home run off Roy Face in the bottom of the 16th inning.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 10-6 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Gordy Coleman hit 2 home runs in support of Jim O'Toole. Orlando Cepeda hit one for the Giants. Willie Mays had a 2-RBI single. Three days later, the Reds would clinch the National League Pennant. The Yankees beat them in the World Series, in 5 games.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium, in a game called due to rain at the 7th inning stretch. Eddie Mathews hit 2 home runs, and Joe Adcock hit 1. Hank Aaron went 0-for-3. Ernie Banks went 1-for-3 for the Cubs.

* A doubleheader was split at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The Minnesota Twins, who had been the Washington Senators until the year before, lost the opener to the new Washington Senators, 6-4. The Twins won the nightcap 10-0. Camilo Pascual pitched a 2-hit shutout. After the 1971 season, the "New Senators" moved to the Dallas area, becoming the Texas Rangers.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-5 at the original Busch Stadium in St. Louis. (It was known as Sportsman's Park from 1909 to 1953.) Duke Snider went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Stan Musial only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not get a hit.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Athletics, 9-5 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-2 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. The previous version of the Angels had been in the Pacific Coast League, and a farm team of the Cubs. Cub owner William Wrigley Jr. had their ballpark built in 1925 to look like what was then known as Cubs Park in Chicago. He then renamed Cubs Park "Wrigley Field," so, while the L.A. version was newer, it had the Wrigley name first. When Dodger Stadium opened for the 1962 season, the Angels began groundsharing with the Dodgers, until Anaheim (now Angel) Stadium opened in 1966.

* And the game scheduled for Memorial Stadium in Baltimore was rained out, and rescheduled as half of a doubleheader the next day. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game, 8-7. The Baltimore Orioles won the 2nd game, 5-3.

Also, Arsenal drew with Birmingham City, 1-1 at Highbury in North London.

September 8, 1958: East Brunswick High School Opens

September 8, 1958: East Brunswick High School opens, on a sprawling 69-acre campus on a hilltop overlooking Cranbury Road in East Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey. This might not count as a historic day for you, but it is one for me, as I am a graduate of that school.

From 1891 to 1958, children in East Brunswick in grades 9 through 12 went to South River High School, in South River, one town over to the east. But the tremendous growth in East Brunswick, largely facilitated by the opening of Exit 9 of the New Jersey Turnpike in 1951, meant a building boom in the Township. Up until 1950, the town had just 3 elementary schools. Over the next 20 years, the Township would build a high school, 2 junior high schools, and 8 elementary schools.

EBHS opened to grades 6 through 9. By the time it graduated its first class in June 1962, it held grades 8 to 12. The next schoolyear, it was 9 to 12. It was designed to hold 1,300 students. By 1967, it held 1,700, so the decision was made to keep the 9th graders at the junior high schools. But the growth continued. New wings had been built in 1965 and 1970, but it still wasn't enough: By 1973, there were over 2,600 students at the school.

After that, enrollment declined. By the time I graduated in 1987, it was down to a little over 2,000. It bottomed out in 1997, to around 1,700. It was at that time that our Board of Education decided on a major construction project, including adding a 2nd floor above the administration area, and a renovation of the athletic fields, which was completed in 2001. Now, the school's front entrance looked very little like the one I remembered.

The school has won academic awards since its early days, and its athletic program is the best in Middlesex County, having particularly excelled in soccer and tennis. It was particularly strong in the 1980s, when I got to see the Bears win 2 Conference Championships in football; County Championships in baseball, basketball (both boys and girls) and wrestling; and Central Jersey Group IV (large-enrollment school) Championships in soccer (both boys and girls), boys basketball, wrestling and tennis (both boys and girls).

EBHS has won 4 Central Jersey Group IV football championships: In 1966, 1972, 2004 and 2009. To my regret, however, the school has no ice hockey team (although its field hockey team is usually good); and they didn't have a team in volleyball, the one sport I could sort-of play, until a few years after I graduated. But now, both its boys and girls volleyball teams are usually State Championship contenders.

The school's main rival is adjoining Old Bridge. Nearby Sayreville is also a rival for geographic reasons, but the similarly-named New Brunswick, North Brunswick and South Brunswick really haven't been, due to enrollment issues.

St. Joseph's High School of Metuchen used to be a rival, because they seemed to have so many students from East Brunswick that they were nicknamed "East Brunswick Catholic." They claimed they didn't recruit students from public schools, but when boys (they're still an all-boys school) with Jewish surnames started playing for their teams, we knew they were breaking at least 2 Commandments (the ones against stealing and bearing false witness against thy neighbor).

The EBHS gym, during the 2021-22 boys basketball season opener,

a win over Old Bridge

Notable graduates include Heather O'Reilly '03, Olympic Gold Medalist in soccer and Women's World Cup winner; Josh Miller '88, our only NFL player; Dave Wohl '67, our only NBA player (we've never had a player in Major League Baseball); Matt Pinfield '84, MTV and VH1 host; and Cenk Uygur '88, host of the politically-themed TV show The Young Turks. Actors Jesse Eisenberg and his sister Hallie Eisenberg (a.k.a. "the Little Pepsi Girl"), attended EBHS, but transferred to New York's Professional Performing Arts School.

Today, enrollment is back over 2,000, well within current capacity. However, rising enrollment in the elementary schools has led the Board of Ed to look into designs for a new high school building, to be built on the current site of the soccer practice fields, off Summerhill Road, down the hill from the current building, which would be torn down. It will be a sad day for me when that happens -- probably not until the end of the 2020s, at the earliest -- so whatever they build better live up to the tradition of the old building.

*

September 8, 1958 was a Wednesday. Only 1 game in what we would now call Major League Baseball was played on that day: The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Redlegs, 4-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. (The Reds were known as the Redlegs from 1954 to 1958, because anti-Communism was frequently as crazy as Communism.) Roberto Clemente had 3 hits, all triples, although only 1 RBI. Frank Robinson went 0-for-3, although he did draw a walk.

June 11, 1986: East Brunswick High School Wins Its 1st County Baseball Title

Photo shown in the next day's Home News.

Yes, at the time, we wore a green variation on the

Houston Astros' "Rainbow Brite" uniforms.

June 11, 1986: I was at the baseball field of the Memorial Stadium complex in New Brunswick, New Jersey, watching the final of the 1st Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, the successor to the Middlesex County Tournament. Dear Old Alma Mater was playing.

East Brunswick High School played Madison Central -- the Old Bridge-based school now known as Old Bridge High School. Here's the starting lineup for Da Bears, coached by Lou Kosa, better known as the school's girls' soccer coach, builder of the best such program in the State:

* Batting 1st, the right fielder, a lefthanded sophomore, Number 1, Craig Semchyshyn. Normally, underclassmen did not make the starting lineup, but "Semy" stepped in due to an injury to a senior. He turned out to be an ideal leadoff man, his speed allowing him to beat out some infield hits (including some good bunts), steal bases, and get to some tough plays in the outfield.

He starred for the team for the next 2 years, although when the Class of '86 and then the Class of '87 players graduated, the team around him was not what it had been in 1984 (County final), '85 (nearly won Conference title) and '86.

* Batting 2nd, the 3rd baseman, a righthanded senior, Number 30, Keith Motusesky. Also the leader of the E.B. basketball team that won the GMC Red Division and Central Jersey Group IV (largest enrollment classification) title the preceding winter. "Mot" could also play catcher.

* Batting 3rd, the shortstop, a righthanded senior, Number 6, Ken Wainczak. Probably our best all-around player, "Check" (a shortening of his name, not his ethnicity, as I think he was Polish like me rather than Czech) was in the mold already formed by Robin Yount, Alan Trammell and the young Cal Ripken Jr., of shortstops no longer being spindly, good-field-no-hit types, rather becoming big guys with power, presaging the era of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra.

* Batting 4th, the 1st baseman, a lefthanded senior, Number 11, Mike Cioffi. He had a very good glove, he was our 2nd starting pitcher, and I don't think E.B. has ever had a player who could hit the ball farther.

Earlier in the season, in an otherwise unpleasant loss to Woodbridge, he hit one that I paced off at 492 feet. In retrospect, having read books about long-distance home runs, I probably measured wrong -- or, perhaps, the measurements on the outfield fences at the former EBHS baseball field (since totally redone with FieldTurf, and with dugouts that wouldn't be condemned by the health inspector) were wrong.

But in another game that season, at Perth Amboy, then forced to play their home games at their football stadium, resulting in a mirror image of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum when the Dodgers played there (right field was much too close, rather than left field), he hit a ball over the houses on Myrtle Street across from the stadium. That had to be at least 450 feet. (Too bad we lost that game, too, but better times were coming and he would be a big part of it.)

* Batting 5th, the 2nd baseman, a righthanded junior, Number 5, Don Marchiselli. "March" also played a bit of 3rd base, and when he got a hold of a pitch, the opposing 3rd baseman learned why the position is called the hot corner.

* Batting 6th, the left fielder, a righthanded junior, Number 7, Andy Wang. Although E.B. already had a large South Asian population at that time (much more interested in cricket than baseball, although they did perform on our soccer, field hockey and track teams), we didn't have a lot of East Asians then. A few of them were on the track team, but Andy was good with both the bat and the glove.

* Batting 7th, the center fielder, a lefthanded senior, Number 10, John Breen. Normally the right fielder, "Breener" moved over due to another player's injury. Three brothers, three good baseball players, three different schools: His older brother Bill had pitched no-hitters for the East Brunswick campus of Middlesex County Vo-Tech H.S. (now named the Middlesex County Magnet School), and younger brother Sean starred for St. Joseph's of Metuchen. John went on to become an East Brunswick policeman.

* Batting 8th, the catcher, a righthanded senior, Number 20, Rich Helmold. The son and namesake of the head coach of the town's team in the Middlesex County league of American Legion baseball, Rich was a Crash Davis type, a catcher you did not cross up, who would remind you, "Don't think, Meat, just throw." And "Cheese" (I have no idea how he got that nickname) could hit, too. There was no weak spot in this lineup.

* Batting 9th, the designated hitter, a lefthanded senior, Number 3, Rich Loninger. This was the injury I mentioned earlier: "Los" was a good fit as a center fielder and as a leadoff man, but he got hurt shortly before the tournament began. The final was his 1st appearance in the tournament.

* Pitching, a righthanded starter, Number 41, Steve Hochman. A serious Met fan, Hoch (pronounced like "Hock") wore 41 in honor of Tom Seaver, and even copied Tom Terrific's pitching motion, overhand with his right knee brushing the ground with a permanent dirt-stain.

One time, in American Legion Ball, an opposing pitcher took the mound wearing 41, and was awful. Steve said, "He's making Seaver look like an asshole." His coach wisely benched the scrub, and brought in a pitcher wearing Number 36, and he wasn't much better. This was before David Cone reached the majors with the Mets, let alone came to the Yankees and wore 36, so I said, "He's making Robin Roberts look bad." Hochman gave me this dirty look. I hope it meant he was suggesting that Roberts wasn't as good as Seaver. Or maybe it was because he'd already gotten into the University of Michigan, and Roberts was a Michigan State graduate.

Steve's brother Brad, a year behind him, was also on the baseball team, and a star on the soccer team. Another brother, Brandon, was a key cog on the next E.B. team to win a County baseball title, in 1991.

Head Coach Lou Kosa

*

If Connie Mack was right, and "Pitching is 75 percent of baseball," then Steve's Spring 1986 performance can be Exhibit A for the prosecution. He was the reason we went from entering the tournament 11-12 – having been eliminated from the State Tournament in the 1st round the day before the County Tournament began – and the 12th seed to reaching the final.

Hochman struck out 14 batters against heavily favored Carteret in the 1st round. On the bench, we were wondering what the school record was. Being the school's resident trivia freak, they figured I would know, but I didn't. Wayne Beck, a sophomore on the '86 team, told us he thought it was 17, set by his father, also named Wayne Beck, back in 1966, when the school won its 1st Central Jersey Group IV title in the sport. As far as I know, he was correct, but I don't know if that record has since been broken. We won the game, 6-4.

Three days later, in the quarterfinal, against GMC Gold Division (small-school) Champion Harold G. Hoffman High School (which has since reverted to its original name of South Amboy H.S.), Hoch fanned 11 batters in just 5 innings, with Jim Craig (a junior righthander, no relation to the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey goalie of the same name) finishing the game. (New Jersey high school baseball games are 7 innings, barring a tie.) We won, 15-1.

Don't be fooled by the score, or by the fact that Hoffman was a small school (barely 300 students): They did win their Division, and were then perennial contenders for the Central Jersey Group I title.

Next up was the semifinal against South Plainfield, Champions of the GMC White Division, soon to win the Central Jersey Group II title, and ranked Number 1 in the entire State by the Star-Ledger, the Newark-based largest newspaper in the State. Were we intimidated?

If we were, it wasn't for long: We kicked the stuffing out of them, 16-4, crushing the horsehide in support of Cioffi, who threw some serious smoke. (Well, serious by the standards of New Jersey high school ball.)

South Plainfield was led by Phil Aiello, like Cioffi a lefthanded 1st baseman and pitcher, and we clobbered him. One of the spectators that day, waiting for his own semifinal against Old Bridge, was yet another lefty 1st baseman-pitcher, Chuck Frobosilo of Sayreville, a school which had just clinched its 3rd straight Conference title (the Middlesex County Athletic Conference in 1984 & '85, and the GMC Red Division in '86). This game was such a laugher, literally so, that we were joking with him that this game pretty much clinched the Home News' Middlesex County Player of the Year award for him (and he did get it, over Aiello).

Part of the reason we scored 31 runs in 2 games, and ended up scoring 51 in the 4 games of the tournament, was the field dimensions. From the 1990s onward, GMC Tournament games have been played at the home field of the higher-seeded school until the Final. In the 1990s, the Final was played at the immaculate, professional-quality field of East Brunswick Vo-Tech. Since the turn of the 21st Century, it's been played at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, home of the independent Atlantic League's Somerset Patriots, even though it's in an adjoining County. But in the 1980s, the entire tournament was played at the Memorial Stadium complex in New Brunswick.

New Brunswick High School was established in 1875, as the 1st public high school in Middlesex County. It had played its football games at the complex since 1940, with the press box of the (thankfully now-renovated) football stadium being strangely a few yards off midfield.

When they moved off their old campus at Livingston Avenue (State Route 26) & Comstock Street and opened their new school in 1967, they built it on Livingston between 9th and 12th Streets, with Joyce Kilmer Avenue (the "Trees" poet, killed in combat in World War I, was born on that street when it was Codwise Avenue) behind it and the stadium on that street.

Behind the stadium was the old Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, by this point (as they still are) used by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, and whenever an event is held there, it's fun to watch the trains go by. The baseball field, on the 9th Street side of Joyce Kilmer Avenue, is limited by the tracks, and has a chain-link fence that is 300 feet all the way around, but is 20 feet high to discourage cheap home runs. It does not, however, discourage cheap doubles, and the Bears were smacking the ball all over the yard.

A new NBHS was built on the other side of the tracks, on Somerset Street (State Route 27), in 2010, and the previous high school was repurposed as a middle school. But the stadium complex remains their home for outdoor sports.

*

We dusted off South Plainfield to advance to the final, and Madison Central did the same by upsetting Sayreville. In 1986, Madison was the closest divisional opponent to EBHS in terms of distance. A few others, such as E.B. Tech, Spotswood and South River -- once much larger, and the school to which East Brunswick 9th-to-12th graders were sent up until 1958, and thus our original rivals -- were closer, but had smaller enrollments, so we could only play them in County Tournaments. Because of distance, Madison was considered a rival, but not really our biggest rival.

St. Joseph's of Metuchen, a school which took so many E.B. athletes in the 1970s and '80s that they were nicknamed "East Brunswick Catholic," would have been our biggest rival, except they had no football team. (They finally debuted a varsity football team in 2011.) They said they never recruited, absolutely insisting on this. As New Jersey native Jim Bouton would say, "Yeah, surrrre!"

And, in this era, we had some legendary football games against J.P. Stevens H.S. of Edison, including games that decided the Conference and Central Jersey Group IV Championships. It would be a little longer, with some nasty defeats, including two terrible State Playoff football losses, before Madison, and its successor Old Bridge, became the unquestioned school that we hated the most.

Still, we already didn't like them, and the feeling was very mutual. Even more than the Township of East Brunswick, the Township of Old Bridge had a reputation for ginkers. If you're not a Middlesex County native and are not familiar with this term, you probably have your own term for this type: Ginkers were the 1970s & '80s successors to the greasers of the '50s, liking "hair metal" as opposed to greasers' love of Elvis and the 1950s rock and roll pioneers.

These were guys who needed to take 3 or 4 steps up in class and articulation before they could be celebrated in a Bruce Springsteen song. They were more like the kid in John Mellencamp's song "Pink Houses," with the greasy hair and the greasy smile, who knows that nothing better than what he's got now will ever be his destination, unless he wises up. Think Judd Nelson as John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Scott Valentine as Nick Moore on Family Ties, or Ashton Kutcher as Michael Kelso on That '70s Show.

There were a few ginker types on EBHS' athletic teams, but not many. Cigarettes reduce lung power, and nicotine is not exactly a performance-enhancing drug. But the guys at the 2 high schools Old Bridge had at the time, Madison Central and Cedar Ridge, they took the cake. And probably robbed the bakery in the process. Nah, they didn't rob anything. They were too lazy.

*

But it wouldn't have mattered if the Madison hitters were all in tip-top condition: We crushed them. In the top of the 1st inning, Semchyshyn and Motusesky both reached base, and Wainczak stepped up. He cranked one down the left-field line. It cleared the high fence, and this was no cheap shot: It was an absolute no-doubt-abouter.

I've often said this was "the longest home run ever hit," because it went onto the tracks and landed on a passing Amtrak train that carried it all the way to Florida. Now, I don't have any proof that this happened -- Amtrak and NJT trains went past all night, but the homer didn't hit any of them -- but I looked for this ball, and it was nowhere to be found. The only thing I can think of is that it did leave the complex and land on the tracks. And I wasn't about to go onto the tracks and find out. Wherever it went, everybody associated with E.B. was over the moon.

Hochman was dealing. We built up a 7-0 lead, and it looked like we would win easily. Well, it wasn't that easy: In the 4th inning, Madison rallied, made it 7-3, and loaded the bases with 2 out. A shot went to dead center, and it looked like it would clatter off the high fence for a double, scoring at least 2 and making this a game again. But Breen (playing out of his usual position, mind you) made a leaping grab, and the rally was stymied.

That was it: They couldn't touch Hoch, as if Seaver (who, by this point, was wrapping up his brilliant career) himself were on the mound, and we tacked on a few more runs, for the 14-3 final score.

This was E.B.'s 25th season of varsity baseball. We had never won the County Title under the old format, and only reached 1 final, losing to Edison 2 years earlier. This would be our 1st title, if we could finish it off. At 10:02 PM on June 11, 1986, Steve Hochman did just that: His arm must've felt like Swiss cheese at this point, but he fired an aspirin past Rob Jessup, who started the game as the opposing pitcher, but had long since been moved off the mound. He swung and missed. Strike 3.

The mighty mighty Bears were County Champions. Well, Greater Middlesex Conference Champions, but since the only County school not in the GMC was Piscataway (which joined 2 years later), and they didn't reach the sectional final or win their league, it's safe to say E.B. was County Champions.

As one of the student managers on that team, it was, at the time, the happiest moment in my life. For the 1st time ever, my 3 great loves all came together: East Brunswick, baseball, and winning.

*

In 1991, at East Brunswick Vo-Tech, East Brunswick won the Tournament again, beating South Plainfield in the Final. They did it again in 1997, also at E.B. Tech, beating Woodbridge's John F. Kennedy H.S., just 1 day after beating Edison at Hamilton's Mercer County Park for the Central Jersey Group IV title. In 2005, they won the Tournament Final, beating St. Joe's at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater. I was in attendance for each of these. I was not there in 2016, 30 years after winning the 1st one, when they won the 5th one, defeating J.P. Stevens at Bridgewater.

*

June 11, 1986 was a Wednesday. This was also the day the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off premiered. I have a separate entry for that event.

Football was out of season. Hockey season had ended on May 24, with the Montreal Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup, beating the Calgary Flames in Game 5 of the Finals. Basketball season had ended on June 8, with the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship, beating the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the Finals. These Major League Baseball games were played on the day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 9-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Ron Guidry was done in by 2 errors, although Dave Winfield hit a home run off Frank Tanana. Don Mattingly went 0-for-4, and Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Shea Stadium. Ron Darling outpitched Steve Carlton: The days when a Carlton start meant, "It's Win Day" were long-gone. Ray Knight hit a home run off Carlton. He, Mookie Wilson, Kevin Mitchell and Rafael Santana each got 2 hits. Knight and Gary Carter each had 2 RBIs. For the Phillies, Von Hayes hit a home run, and Mike Schmidt singled as a pinch-hitter.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Roger Clemens advanced to 11-0 on the season, finishing 24-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 12-11 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Eddie Murray went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, Cal Ripken went 2-for-4 with an RBI, Robin Yount went 1-for4, and Paul Molitor was injured and did not play.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Kirby Puckett went 4-for-6 with an RBI, but Kent Hrbek went 0-for-6. Oddibe McDowell won it with a home run in the top of the 16th inning.

* The Montreal Expos beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Jim Wohlford won the game with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals, 12-2 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.) George Brett went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 11-7 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-2 with an RBI before leaving the game with an injury.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Franklin Stubbs singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. He and Alex Trevino had homered earlier in the game for L.A. Dave Parker homered for the Reds, and player-manager Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Ozzie Virgil Jr. won the game with a home run in the top of the 10th inning.

One more baseball game of note, from high schools in New Jersey: The Final of the 1st-ever Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, replacing the former Middlesex County Tournament, was played at Memorial Stadium in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey. East Brunswick beat Madison Central of Old Bridge, 14-3.

I have a separate entry for this event. Why? Because I was then a junior at EBHS, and the scorekeeper for their baseball team. It was one of the best nights of my life, and that's before I knew that Ferris had been released the same day.

Also, the 1986 World Cup was underway in Mexico. The host nation beat Iraq 1-0 in Mexico City. England beat Poland 3-0 in San Nicloás de los Garza. Morocco beat Portugal 3-1 in Zapopan. And Belgium and Paraguay played to a 2-2 draw in Toluca.

And actor Shia LaBeouf was born.