50 years later, the gridiron rivalry between Wayne Hills and Ramapo is as strong as ever, with plenty of memories, from the late Drew Gibbs, to Chris Olsen and future NFL players Greg Olsen, Chris Simms, Chris Hogan, Ryan Neill and Blake Costanzo; Teams will meet again on Sept. 9, in Franklin Lakes

They first met during the heyday of the Richard Nixon administration. And 50 years later, the gridiron rivalry between Wayne Hills and Ramapo has stood the test of time.

There’s so much history and memories attached to this game.

The huge crowds which accompanied the matchups in the late 1990’s.

The state sectional championship games between the two, not to mention a bunch of playoff games, in general, before the schools moved to different groups.

Because both programs have been tremendously successful, there haven’t been many head coaches at Ramapo or Hills. The Patriots and Green Raiders had two coaches, each, from 1995-2021, before the tragic loss of Ramapo legend Drew Gibbs on Nov. 16, 2021.

There have been improbable comebacks, by both. There was also a championship game played in a blizzard, 12 years ago, at the old Giants Stadium.

A few offensive explosions also accompanied this game. Future NFL players have competed in it. But through it all, it’s been a series filled with intensity, but a lot of respect, too.

Both schools have had great kickers. Ramapo’s Ross Krautman held the state record for consecutive point-after kicks made, with 84, before Erik Martinez of Wayne Hills broke that record, in 2013, by converting 105 straight.

Here are some fun facts, to get you ready for the next meeting, when Wayne Hills travels to Ramapo, on Sept. 9, in a 6:30 p.m. start.

1-Wayne Hills leads the all-time series, 30-23-1.

2-Ramapo won the first-ever meeting between the schools, 13-8, in 1972.

3-The lone tie was a scoreless game, in 1976.

4-Since the rivalry started in 1972, Ramapo has put together a record of 347-161-5, which includes this year’s opening day win over Willingboro.

Included in Ramapo’s overall record are 12 state championships, the first coming in the initial season of playoff football, 1974, with a 46-14 victory over Dumont, at Convention Hall, in Atlantic City.

And in that ’74 campaign, Wayne Hills defeated Ramapo in the regular season, 19-7, for Ramapo’s only loss.

There have been five undefeated seasons for the Green Raiders, including back-to-back in 2018 and 2019.

5-Since 1972, Wayne Hills has a record of 358-157-5, which includes a win last week, in Tennessee, to open the 2022 season. The program has won 10 state titles, with the first coming in 2002. Hills has the states’s second longest winning streak, 55 games, from 2004-2009. (And in a perfect irony, that 55-game winning streak began after a loss to Ramapo, in 2004, and later that season, the Patriots avenged the loss to the Green Raiders in the sectional semifinal).

Wayne Hills’ first playoff appearance came in 1975, where it lost in the first round to the eventual champion, Passaic Valley. The program has six undefeated seasons to its credit.

6-Since 1972, Ramapo has had five head coaches in Mike Moran, Mike Miello, Paul Granatell, Drew Gibbs and now, Mike DeFazio.

7-Since 1972, Hills has had five head coaches in Ray McCrann, Ralph Polito, Ray Riker, Chris Olsen and Wayne Demikoff, who was an assistant, beginning in 1999, before being promoted to head coach in 2013, when Olsen retired.

8-Since the inception of the state playoffs, in 1974, Hills has qualified for the playoffs in 30 seasons while Ramapo has been to the playoffs, in 28 seasons.

9-Wayne Hills and Ramapo have met eight times in the playoffs, with the first matchup in the 1993 final, which Ramapo won, 23-17. They next met in the 2000 finals, which would be Miello’s final game as Ramapo’s head coach. The Green Raiders won, 14-7. Ramapo also defeated Hills in the 2001 final, 14-10, after winning the regular season contest, 31-21. Wayne Hills defeated Ramapo in the 2002 final, 19-0.

In the playoffs, Ramapo leads the series with Hills, 5-3, including four wins in state sectional finals.

10- The teams met regularly, from 1972-2008. In 2009, there wasn’t a regular season game, but they played in a blizzard at Giants Stadium, in the sectional final, with the Green Raiders winning, 16-8. There are just three seasons, 2012, 2013 and 2020, when the teams didn’t meet, in the regular, or post-season, since ’72.

11-In a 2005 regular season game, at Ramapo, the Patriots trailed, 26-7, at the half, as Ramapo’s Chris Hogan, a future Super Bowl champion, ironically with the Patriots, dominated the first two quarters.

Chris Hogan was part of a Super Bowl championship team with the New England Patriots. At Ramapo High, he was a tremendous football player, as well as an outstanding lacrosse athlete. Many Hills players who competed against him on the gridiron called Hogan the best they had ever played against.

But Wayne Hills made some adjustments at the half, Hogan was hurt in the second half, and the Patriots rallied back to win, 27-26. Former Wayne Hills coach Chris Olsen called it one of the top five victories of his career.

Another big comeback for Wayne Hills came in 2017. The Patriots, at one point, trailed, 21-0, late in the first half, but rallied to win, 29-24, in Franklin Lakes, as Jaaron Hayek led the way.

12-Beginning with the 2004 playoffs, Hills has won 11 of the last 16 games in the rivalry. Ramapo, however, has won the last three matchups.

13-Most of the games have been pretty close. The biggest margin of victory for Ramapo was a 42-0 win, in the 2003 regular season, while Wayne Hills won a 41-7 contest, in 2007.

14-Ramapo’s highest point total was 56 in a home victory, in 1997, while Hills put up 49 in a 1994 victory.

15-Ramapo hadn’t defeated Wayne Hills, on its home field, from 2003, until an exciting overtime contest in 2019.

16-In the first year of the NJSIAA ‘Bowl Game’ concept, both Wayne Hills and Ramapo won its games, at MetLife Stadium, in 2018, after winning state sectional titles in Group 4 and 3, respectively.

17-Among the players in the rivalry who went on to play in the NFL were Chris Hogan, Blake Costanzo and Chris Simms of Ramapo and Greg Olsen and Ryan Neill, of Wayne Hills. Hogan and Olsen were teammates with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers for a season.

Olsen and Simms are now high-level broadcasters for NFL games, with Fox and NBC respectively.

Wayne Hills celebrated its first state championship in 2002, as Greg Olsen, here with his dad and Hills head coach, Chris Olsen, led the way. The ’02 Patriots defeated Ramapo in the sectional championship game, 19-0. Greg Olsen, of course, played at the University of Miami and was a star in the NFL, playing tight end with the Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks. He retired in 2021, after a 14-year professional career.

Ryan Neill had a tremendous career at Wayne Hills, then played at Rutgers before an NFL career with the Buffalo Bills, St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers.

Blake Costanzo led Ramapo to a pair of state championships. He played his college ball at Lafayette College before a 9-year NFL career with five different teams, including a pair of stints with the San Francisco 49ers.

Chris Simms had a marvelous career at Ramapo and went on to play well at the University of Texas. He was a third round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003 and went on to play eight years in the NFL.

18-Talk about domination. In the 1990s, Hills was 81-23-1, and then, in the first 10 years of the new century, the Patriots were 108-11, with six state championships and four unbeaten seasons.

19-In that same span, Ramapo was 75-26 in the 1990s, with two state titles and a pair of undefeated seasons and then 88-24 in the first 10 years of the 2000s, with four state championships and an undefeated season.

20-From 2010-2019, Hills was 82-31, with four more state sectional championships and an unbeaten season in 2016. Patriots also won a Bowl Game crown in 2018. Ramapo’s success from 2010-2019 included a 90-25 mark, four more state titles, a Bowl game victory in 2018, and unbeaten seasons in 2018 and 2019.

21-The late Drew Gibbs had a record of 180-51 from 2001 until his passing on Nov. 16, 2021. His last game as coach was a playoff victory, on Nov. 12, vs. Ridge High School.

22-Wayne Hills’ current coach, Wayne Demikoff, is 63-32, with two state titles and a Bowl Game victory.

23-In 26 seasons at Hills, Chris Olsen put together a 232-53-2 record along with eight state titles and was the architect of the 55-game winning streak.

24-There’s been two overtime games in the series, in 1999, as Hills won, 17-14, and 20 years later, in 2019, as Ramapo prevailed, 35-28.

25-Here are the scores of all 54 games.

1972- Ramapo 13, Wayne Hills 8.

1973- Wayne Hills 20, Ramapo 14.

1974- Wayne Hills 19, Ramapo 7.

1975- Wayne Hills 15, Ramapo 10.

1976- Wayne Hills 0, Ramapo 0. (Tie)

1977- Wayne Hills 21, Ramapo 0.

1978- Wayne Hills 14, Ramapo 6.

1979- Ramapo 21, Wayne Hills 0.

1980- Wayne Hills 7, Ramapo 0.

1981- Ramapo 19, Wayne Hills 14.

1982- Wayne Hills 21, Ramapo 13.

1983- Ramapo 14, Wayne Hills 0.

1984- Ramapo 38, Wayne Hills 6.

1985- Wayne Hills 18, Ramapo 6.

1986- Ramapo 31, Wayne Hills 0.

1987- Wayne Hills 14, Ramapo 6.

1988- Ramapo 20, Wayne Hills 17.

1989- Wayne Hills 13, Ramapo 0.

1990- Wayne Hills 27, Ramapo 14.

1991- Wayne Hills 14, Ramapo 0.

1992- Ramapo 21, Wayne Hills 7.

1993- Ramapo 43, Wayne Hills 6.

1993- Ramapo 23, Wayne Hills 17. (Sectional final)

1994- Wayne Hills 49, Ramapo 20.

1995- Wayne Hills 24, Ramapo 7.

1996- Ramapo 20, Wayne Hills 19.

1997- Ramapo 56, Wayne Hills 21.

1998- Wayne Hills 21, Ramapo 9.

1999- Wayne Hills 17, Ramapo 14 (OT).

2000- Wayne Hills 27, Ramapo 24.

2000- Ramapo 14, Wayne Hills 7. (Sectional final)

2001- Ramapo 31, Wayne Hills 21.

2001- Ramapo 14, Wayne Hills 10 (Sectional final)

2002- Wayne Hills 23, Ramapo 12.

2002- Wayne Hills 19, Ramapo 0. (Sectional final)

2003- Ramapo 42, Wayne Hills 0.

2003- Ramapo 35, Wayne Hills 12 (Sectional semifinal)

2004- Ramapo 24, Wayne Hills 20.

2004- Wayne Hills 38, Ramapo 20. (Sectional semifinal)

2005- Wayne Hills 27, Ramapo 26.

2005- Wayne Hills 41, Ramapo 13. (Sectional semifinal)

2006- Wayne Hills 28, Ramapo 7.

2007- Wayne Hills 41, Ramapo 7.

2008- Wayne Hills 31, Ramapo 21.

2009- Ramapo 16, Wayne Hills 8. (Sectional final)

2010- Wayne Hills 36, Ramapo 14.

2011- Wayne Hills 31, Ramapo 24.

2012- No Game.

2013- No Game.

2014- Wayne Hills 22, Ramapo 21.

2015- Ramapo 34, Wayne Hills 7.

2016- Wayne Hills 14, Ramapo 7.

2017- Wayne Hills 29, Ramapo 24.

2018- Ramapo 38, Wayne Hills 22.

2019- Ramapo 35, Wayne Hills 28 (OT).

2020- No Game.

2021- Ramapo 21 Wayne Hills 14.