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.

*

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.

November 27, 1986: A Crazy Thanksgiving In Middlesex County Football

November 27, 1986: It is Thanksgiving Day, and, as is traditional in New Jersey, high school football teams tend to play their arch-rivals, teams from within the same town or, if they're the only team in town, a team from the town next door.

I was a senior at East Brunswick High School, and our season was already finished: We'd played our entire 9-game regular season, and we did not get enough "power points" to make the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association's Sectional Playoffs. Under the current system, we would have, because 8 teams qualify. But, from 1975 to 1997, only 4 teams did. And, with a record of 6-2-1, we came in 5th in the section labeled Central Jersey Group IV -- IV then being the group for schools of the highest enrollment.

Schools of the smallest enrollment, naturally, are in Group I. In Middlesex County, this includes schools in smaller towns, which usually have the older schools. Two such towns are the Borough of Metuchen, which likes to call itself "The Brainy Boro," and is completely surrounded by the suburban sprawl of the Township of Edison; and the Borough of Highland Park, adjacent to Edison, and right across the Raritan River from the County Seat, New Brunswick.

The Metuchen Bulldogs and the Highland Park Owls had been playing each other on Thanksgiving (or right after it, in the case of postponements due to rain) every year since 1937. But in 1986, they entered the Playoffs with identical records of 7-0-1.

Here's how the power point system works: For every game you win, you get 2 points, times the group number of the team you beat. So, if your school beats East Brunswick 2 times 4 equals you get 8 power points. Then, you get half of that for every team that the team you beat beats. So, if, the following week, EB beats a fellow Group IV team, 1 times 4 equals you get 4 more power points.

A team in a tough league could load up on power points; one in a week league could suffer for them. The Colonial Valley Conference, then as now, was the leading high school sports league in Mercer County. Trenton Central, one of the biggest schools in the State, would annually find their season coming down to 1 game, against Notre Dame High School of Lawrenceville, because most of the schools in the league were Group III or even Group II. If they beat Notre Dame, they'd be 8-0 or 7-1 in the regular season, and make the Playoffs; if not, they'd be 7-1 or 6-2, and miss them.

In 1986, Highland Park had the 1st seed in Central Jersey Group I, and Metuchen, who had won the title the season before, had the 4th seed. In other words, these 2 schools would be set to play each other twice in 5 days: On Saturday in the Semifinal, and the following Thursday in a game that would decide the title of the Greater Middlesex Conference Blue Division. But, since Playoff games had overtime, and regular-season games didn't (until the 1995 season), while both teams would be undefeated going into the Semi, one wouldn't be going into Turkey Day.

In 1980, East Brunswick beat Woodbridge in the last game before the Playoffs, which ended up with EB having the 1st seed and Woodbridge the 4th. But the NJSIAA decided 2 teams shouldn't play each other twice in a row, and rejiggered the seedings, so that EB played Raritan High of Hazlet. We lost, and then Woodbridge ended up beating Raritan in the Final.

In 1986, there was just 0.75 power points separating Metuchen from the 3rd seed, so if the NJSIAA were consistent, they would have a better reason for rearranging things for Highland Park and Metuchen than they did 6 years earlier for EB and Woodbridge. But they wouldn't do it.

Why? Because the NJSIAA gets a big cut of the gate receipts at Playoff games. For regular-season games, they get nothing. So instead of postponing the Playoffs -- the usual schedule was Semifinal, Thanksgiving, then the Final the weekend after -- they wanted the gate receipts for an undefeated matchup between rivals. That didn't sit well with people in either town.

As Gene Haley, the main high school writer for Middlesex County's main newspaper, the New Brunswick-based Home News, and a Metuchen graduate, put it in his picks column the day before the Semifinal, "I refuse to recognize any Bulldogs-Owls game that isn't played on the fourth Thursday in November." And so, for only the 2nd time since the rivalry began -- the 1st time being in 1975, when he didn't yet have enough clout at the paper, and he was assigned to cover a different game -- he didn't show up for Metuchen vs. Highland Park.

Well, the people of Metuchen and Highland Park both proved themselves to be brainy. The Semifinal was played at Edgar Field (named for the adjacent school) in Metuchen on November 22, 1986, and only about 300 people showed up. (It's just as well: Before MHS built their on-campus stadium, Edgar Field was the smallest high school football stadium in the County.) Highland Park won, 22-12. Five days later, at Jay Dakelman Field (the 2nd-smallest stadium in the County, named for the school's longtime football coach) in Highland Park, over 3,000 jammed in to see the real rivalry game, which Metuchen won, 16-7.

Haley did show up for that game, and continued to do so on Thanksgiving until 1991, as he passed away the following year. The GMC named the trophy for winning its boys basketball tournament after him. His sons John and Rich were also local sportswriters.

So, in 1986, each school foiled the other's undefeated season, Metuchen won the GMC Blue Division, and Highland Park went on to beat Keyport of Monmouth County in the Final, by another 22-12 score, to become Central Jersey Group I Champions.

A stranger thing -- and, if you watched TV in the 2020s, you know the 1980s for, among other things, being the decade in which the show Stranger Things was set -- involved the two public high schools in Edison, formerly the Township of Raritan, but, with several other towns in New Jersey having that name, changed its name to reflect that Thomas Edison had a laboratory in the town's Menlo Park section.

Edison High School opened in 1955, when John P. Stevens was the president of the town's Board of Education. It's on the south side of town. A new school opened on the north side in 1964, and it was named for Stevens, who had died in the interim. As a result, his name is on the dedication plaques of both schools.

Despite some success for EHS, JPS became the more successful school as far as football was concerned: While Edison won the Central Jersey Group IV title in 1976, Stevens won it in 1977, 1978, 1982, 1984 and 1985. Despite losing a regular-season game to East Brunswick on Halloween, Stevens was 8-1, had again reached the CJ IV Final, and was in position to win the GMC Red Division as well. Edison was 1-7, and was a big underdog, even though the game was going to be played at their home, Matthew J. Drwal Stadium.

But a long touchdown pass on the last play of the 1st half, which became known in Edison as "THE PLAY," sparked the Eagles to an 18-7 win over the Hawks, giving them the local bragging rights. What's more, in next-door Woodbridge, Woodbridge High beat crosstown rival John F. Kennedy Memorial High School. And, across the Raritan River, the 2 schools in Old Bridge played each other, and Madison Central beat Cedar Ridge. Those 2 results were not upsets at all.

But as a result of those 3 games, and EB's win over Stevens on Halloween, when the dust settled on Thanksgiving, EB, Stevens, Woodbridge and Madison each had Red Division records of 6-2. Against the other 3 schools, EB and Stevens were each 2-1, while Woodbridge and Madison were 1-2. That meant that, while all 4 schools could claim to be Division Champions, East Brunswick had the 2nd tiebreaker, and, if any single school could be called the legitimate GMC Red Champions, it was EB, backing into the title, despite not making the Playoffs.

Nine days later, in the Central Jersey Group IV Final, Stevens lost to Middletown North, a school EB had beaten in the Final in 1985; Stevens had beaten in 1977, 1978 and 1984; and Stevens had lost to in 1983. The score was 27-12. So the Hawks' bid for a 3rd straight State Championship.

For the record, the Central Jersey Group II title was won by Somerville, then the dominant team in Somerset County; and the Central Jersey Group III title was won by Long Branch, in Monmouth County.

In 1994, the 2 Old Bridge schools were reconsolidated into a single Old Bridge High School, and they began playing East Brunswick on Thanksgiving, with Old Bridge usually winning.

In the 2010s, the NJSIAA expanded the State Playoffs to include Thanksgiving Weekend, forcing schools to move their major rivalries to earlier in the season. In some cases, and for a while East Brunswick vs. Old Bridge was one of them, it was the opening game, which felt strange: Instead of building up all season long to the big game, which could decide whether your season is a success or a failure, it could be decided at the very beginning, with the rest of the season as an anticlimax, one way or the other.

But, the NJSIAA wanted more money. And what they want, they get. There would be no repeat of Highland Park vs. Metuchen in 1986.

*

November 27, 1986 was, as I said, Thanksgiving Day, and therefore a Thursday. There were 2 games in the NFL. The Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 44-40 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. And the Seattle Seahawks beat the Dallas Cowboys, 31-14 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

There were 2 college football games. Number 1 University of Miami beat East Carolina University, 36-10 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. And Number 10 Texas A&M beat arch-rival Texas, 16-3 at Memorial Stadium in Austin.

Baseball was out of season. Due to the traditional dominance on T-Day of football, the NBA and the NHL usually don't play. This time, the NBA did not. And the only NHL game was between 2 teams in Canada, which celebrates its Thanksgiving in October. The Winnipeg Jets beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary. 

November 22, 1980: East Brunswick Football's 1st Playoff Game -- and 1st Playoff Hosing

East Brunswick High School in the 1980s, while I was there

November 22, 1980: For the 1st time, the football team at East Brunswick High School in East Brunswick, New Jersey played a Playoff game. It was the wrong result, against the wrong team, given to my eventual Alma Mater for the wrong reason.

The Bears started their season by winning their 1st 6 games, with junior running back Len Bellezza running wild. The local newspaper, the New Brunswick-based Home News, would name him the Middlesex County Offensive Player of the Year.

On November 8, at home at Jay Doyle Field, EB lost to neighboring Madison Central of Old Bridge, 32-7. It turned out to be their only loss of the regular season, and the only game all season they scored fewer than 14 points, but also the game that cost them the Middlesex County Athletic Conference title.

The next week, on November 15, EB beat Woodbridge away, 38-21. This clinched the 1st seed in the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs, the 1st time the Bears had made the Playoffs since their establishment in 1974. They had shared the CJ IV title in 1966 and 1972, when they and another school each had records of 7-1-1. They had fallen 1 win short of Playoff qualification in 1975, 1977 and 1978. This time, they made it, and would face the 4th seed in the Semifinal, at home, on November 22.

Except they didn't. Because that 4th seed was Woodbridge. They had earned that seed, fair and square, just as EB had earned their 1st seed. But since EB had just played them, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association decided that the same matchup shouldn't be played 2 weeks in a row. So they decided that EB would, instead, host the 3rd seed, Raritan High School, of Hazlet in Monmouth County.

This wouldn't be a big deal if EB had beaten Raritan. But we didn't: The Rockets beat us, 31-17. Aside from Madison, they were the only team to score more than 21 points on us all season. I was 10 years old, about to turn 11, and in the 6th grade at Bowne-Munro Elementary School in East Brunswick, so not only did I not see this game, I didn't even know it happened for nearly 4 years, until I got to EBHS.

The only detail I know about it is that John Emery, one of EBHS' original physical education teachers, and the team's offensive coordinator from its 1st season in 1961 until 2005, missed this game, the only EB football game he missed in all that time, due to it being the day of his daughter's wedding.

Five days later, on Thanksgiving, East Brunswick went back to Woodbridge, and beat Colonia, 23-0, to finish the season at 8-2, the 1st time we'd won that many games in a season.

And speaking of Woodbridge: They won their Semifinal, and then beat Raritan in the Final, in Hazlet, 7-6. How's that for a weird outcome? We'll never know what would have happened if the NJSIAA had allowed the rematch like they were supposed to. Maybe we would have lost, anyway. After all, between that 1972 co-championship-by-record and the 1st Playoff title we actually won, in 2004, 32 years later, there were a lot of weird things that happened to EB's football team, some of them favorable, a lot of them not.

This time, it was a weird bureaucratic choice, and we got hosed by it.

There's an interesting postscript. George Tardiff was the head coach at East Brunswick from 1977 to 1982, including the 1980 Playoff berth. His next coaching job was at Raritan, and he got them into the Playoffs. In 1994, he finally won a Central Jersey Group IV title, with another Monmouth County school, Marlboro.

Raritan have spent most of their seasons since 1980 in Central Jersey Group III, as their enrollment has dropped. While East Brunswick have played them in other sports, we have never played them in football again, either in the regular season or in the Playoffs.

*

November 22, 1980 was a Saturday. This was the beginning of college football's eight-day rivalry week. Number 1 Georgia, who won the Southeastern Conference title, were idle. So were Number 3 Florida State, Number 6 Alabama, Number 7 Penn State, Number 8 University of Pittsburgh, Army and Navy.

And, while not every game played on this day was a major rivalry, these were:

* Number 4 Nebraska were upset by Number 9 Oklahoma, 21-17 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Oklahoma thus won the Big Eight Conference title.

* Number 5 Ohio State were upset by Number 10 Michigan, 9-3 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. This gave Michigan the Big Ten Conference title.

* Number 12 University of Southern California were upset by Number 18 University of California at Los Angeles. UCLA beat USC, 20-17 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 13 Brigham Young University beat the University of Utah, 56-6 at Robert Rice Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* Number 14 South Carolina were upset by Clemson, 27-6 at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

* Number 15 North Carolina beat Duke, 44-21 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. UNC thus won the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

* Winning the Apple Cup were Number 16 University of Washington, beating Washington State, 30-23 at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane, Washington. "Wazzu" played some games at Joe Albi, 80 miles north of their campus in Pullman, because, at the time, it seated more than their on-campus Martin Stadium. This win gave UW the Pacific-Ten Conference title.

* Number 17 Mississippi State beat the University of Mississippi, a.k.a. Ole Miss, 19-14 at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson.

*  Yale beat Harvard, 14-0 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.

* Boston College beat the University of Massachusetts, 13-12 at Alumni Stadium (now Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium) in Hadley, Massachusetts, outside Amherst.

* Villanova beat Temple, 23-7 at Villanova Stadium in the Philadelphia suburb of Villanova, Pennsylvania.

* The University of Richmond beat William & Mary, 26-14 at City Stadium in Richmond, Virginia.

* Maryland beat Virginia, 31-0 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia.

* Tennessee beat Kentucky, 45-14 for the Old Bourbon Barrel at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* Louisiana State University (LSU) beat Tulane, 24-7 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

* The University of Cincinnati beat Miami University of Ohio, 23-13 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati.

* Winning the Old Oaken Bucket were Purdue, beating Indiana, 24-23 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

* Winning Paul Bunyan's Axe were Wisconsin, beating Minnesota, 25-7 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* In "the Border War," Missouri beat Kansas, 31-6 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri. 

* In "The Big Game," the University of California beat Stanford, 28-23 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California.

In non-rivalry games:

* Number 2 Notre Dame beat the Air Force Academy, 24-10 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 11 Baylor beat Number 20 Texas, 16-0 at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco, Texas.

* Syracuse beat West Virginia, 20-7 at the new Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia. The new Mountaineer Field, now Milan Puskar Stadium, replaced the old Mountaineer Field that season. Syracuse also opened a new stadium that season, the Carrier Dome, now the JMW Wireless Dome. Had Rutgers opened their new Rutgers Stadium then, shortly after their 1976 undefeated season, instead of waiting until 1992-94, they would have been a lot better off.

* North Carolina State beat East Carolina, 36-14 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* Wake Forest beat Appalachian State, 28-16 at Groves Stadium (now Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

* The University of Miami beat North Texas, 26-8 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* Vanderbilt beat Chattanooga, 31-29 at Dudley Field (now FirstBank Stadium) in Nashville.

* Iowa State beat Oklahoma State, 23-21 at Lewis Field (now Boone Pickens Stadium) in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

* Texas A&M beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 13-10 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.

* The University of Houston beat Texas Tech, 34-7 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.

* Wyoming beat the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), 52-7 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso.

* Iowa beat Michigan State, 41-0 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.

* Kansas State beat Colorado, 17-14 at KSU Stadium (now Snyder Family Memorial Stadium) in Manhattan, Kansas.

* San Diego State beat New Mexico, 24-22 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

* Arizona State beat Oregon, 42-37 at Sun Devil Stadium (now Mountain America Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* Arizona beat Oregon State, 24-7 at Parker Stadium (now Reser Stadium) in Corvallis, Oregon.

* And in New Jersey, Rutgers beat Colgate, 35-13 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway; and Princeton beat Dartmouth, 27-24 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Golden State Warriors, 116-110 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Detroit Pistons, 117-103 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Utah Jazz, 99-93 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Houston Rockets, 129-120 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Washington Bullets, 114-101 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 108-101 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. George Gervin led all scorers on the night, as "the Iceman" scored 39 points.

There were 10 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 6-4 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Quebec Nordiques and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 3-3 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 7-3 at the Montreal Forum.

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

* The Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals played to a tie, 2-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Edmonton Oilers were not scheduled.

And in English soccer, Arsenal, the team I would one day support, beat Liverpool team Everton, 2-1 at Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury for its North London neighborhood.