The Newark-based Star-Ledger's article
on the high school football postponements
November 22, 1989: The News Tribune, a newspaper based in eastern Middlesex County, New Jersey, prints an article about the grounds crew at John P. Stevens High School in Edison, and their preparations for the next day's Thanksgiving Day game against Edison High School, their crosstown rivals. They were lining the field at Stevens' John E. McGowan Memorial Stadium. They decorated one end zone in the home team's colors, green and gold, with the letters "JPS"; the other, in the visiting team's colors, red and gold, with the letters "EHS."
The article sounded like they took a great deal of pride in their work. Nice field. Be a shame if something happened to it...
November 23, 1989: Six inches of snow are dropped on the Northeastern U.S. It doesn't sound like much, but blizzards usually don't happen on Thanksgiving Day.
There hadn't been one in the Northeast on Thanksgiving since 1938, although most of the New York Tri-State Area only got rain instead -- but a lot of rain.
This 1989 T-Day blizzard led to the deaths of at least 3 people; messed with the parades sponsored by department stores Macy's in New York and Boscov's in Philadelphia; and postponed high school football games all over New Jersey, all but 3 of them in South Jersey.
My Alma Mater, East Brunswick High School, had already finished its football season, so its schedule was not affected. Somehow, my father was able to drive me, my mother and my sister down from East Brunswick to my grandmother's house in Brick, and we were able to have Thanksgiving dinner on time.
November 24, 1989: I picked up The News Tribune, and saw a new picture of McGowan Stadium, with the bleachers and the field covered in snow.
November 25, 1989: The field cleared, the game was played. Edison won, 12-0.
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November 23, 1989, being Thanksgiving Day, was a Thursday. There was 1 game in college football that day: Number 17 West Virginia beat Syracuse, 24-17 at the Carrier Dome (now the JMA Wireless Dome) in Syracuse, New York.
There were 2 games in the NFL. The Detroit Lions beat the Cleveland Browns, 13-10 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. And the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys, 27-0 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. This became known as the Bounty Bowl. I have a separate entry for this event.
Baseball was out of season. No games were played in the NBA. There was 1 game in the NHL: The St. Louis Blues beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.
