The main entrance to East Brunswick High School
-- after renovations 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, 40 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.
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