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.
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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.
