THE GRIDIRON 12–2010

THANKSGIVING DAY MEMORIES
By Dick Engelhardt

The 2010 football season, Fair Lawn’s 68th since FLHS opened September 13th, 1943, is the second season in which our CUTTERS had no Thanksgiving Day football game. Coach Marty Fischbein found an opponent for his new CUTTERS that initial 1943 season in the TERRIERS of Holy Trinity High School of Westfield. Our CUTTERS started their Thanksgiving series off with a 19-0 victory!

In 1944, Fischbein’s CUTTERS began a 40 year Turkey Day rivalry with the MAROONS of Ridgewood which ended in 1984 when Fair Lawn left the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) to return to the Northern Bergen Interscholastic League (NBIL), that Fair Lawn and Ridgewood had left in 1959. Ridgewood took the annual classic 26-11-3 (.703).

In 1984 back in the NBIL, our CUTTERS began a 10 year Turkey Day rivalry 1984-93 with the PATRIOTS of Wayne Hills that wound up 5-5 (.500). The teams continued to play during the regular season through 2009. The Patriots took the overall rivalry 20-5 (.800). Fair Lawn’s last victory was in 1989 when Mike Alberque’s NBIL Division 1 champion and playoff bound Cutters thrashed Wayne Hills 35-8.

In 1994 the THUNDERBIRDS of Mahwah joined the NBIL, which they had left in the 1960s for the new Bergen-Passaic Scholastic League (B-PSL). They wanted to play their old Turkey Day foe, Ramsey, but the RAMS were playing the HIGHLANDERS of Northern Highlands. The reshuffling of the Turkey Day NBIL rivalries enabled Fair Lawn to pick up the BEARS of Bergenfield. Fair Lawn took the 1994-2008 Turkey Day rivalry 11-4 (.733) and the 1945-48 and 1962-2008 overall rivalry, at 51 seasons, the longest in either school’s history, 35-16 (.686).

Fair Lawn’s Thanksgiving Day record for those 66 seasons, 1943-2008, is 28-35-3 (.444). Several of the games stand out in my memory. In 1953 Frank Bennett’s Bergen-Passaic Interscholastic League (B-PIL) champion CUTTERS, led by Dave Sime, who would become “The World’s Fastest Human,” beat the MAROONS of Ridgewood 26-6 to take the title. They shared the North Jersey, Section 1, Group III State championship with the COMETS of Hackensack. In 1955, with my twin brother, Bill, and I working the game as “waterboys,” Bennett’s CUTTERS came from behind to beat Ridgewood 19-7 and take the B-PIL title again. The league would become the NBIL in 1956. In 1958, our heavy underdog CUTTERS fought Ridgewood to a scoreless tie spoiling the retirement of long time Ridgewood coach and friend of Coach Bennett, Frank Mozewleski.

In 1959, Fair Lawn and Ridgewood moved up to the NNJIL and our CUTTERS needed only to tie or beat Ridgewood to take the title. The MAROONS went after Fair Lawn star Bob Wright, who went on to play for Army, and their 13-7 upset win gave the COMETS of Hackensack the title even though our CUTTERS had beaten the COMETS 27-6.

And who can forget Turkey Day 1966 when Frank Devens’ CUTTERS, led by Bruce Jankowski, who went on to play for Ohio State, the NFL Kansas City CHIEFS and the World Football League (WFL) Shreveport STEAMER, came into the game with a 24 game non-losing streak that had begun in 1964 under coach Ed Sheehy. With 13,000 fans looking on at what is now SASSO FIELD, the MAROONS shocked our NNJIL champion CUTTERS 40-34!

Thanksgiving Day is chock full of great memories for this Fair Lawn fan. GO CUTTERS GO!!!