Fifty years ago, an incredible New Jersey high school football game was played between Westfield and Nutley.
It was on Oct. 27, 1973 that the Raiders and Blue Devils met before a HUGE crowd at the Park Oval, in Nutley. Well over 10,000 fans were in attendance.
The game was so legendary that a future Nutley head football coach, then 12 years of age, was perched in a tree, located inside the Oval, and giving the overflow crowd, who couldn’t get into the complex, updates on the game.
Yes, Steve DiGregorio was that 12-year-old who was giving play-by-play accounts to the fans who couldn’t get a ticket, and stood outside of the Oval. He was literally being ‘Twitter’ 40 years early. (Steve was graduated from Nutley High, in 1979, and played for the Raiders).
It was something that DiGregorio recalled with vigor, when reminded, in 2019, of that game.
“Are you kidding?” DiGregorio said to me, when I asked him if he was at the game. “I’ll never forget it. The crowd was enormous.”
Among those in the crowd that day was me, who at the time was a sophomore at Belleville High School. I remember that getting a ticket to the game was almost impossible. I’ve been trying to recall how I got the two tickets. (My father and I went to the game that day). I’m pretty sure I made my way over to Nutley High, on the Wednesday before the game, after school, to purchase the tickets.
Anyway, it was a perfect fall afternoon, weather-wise, on that Oct. 27. My father and I must have gotten there at least an hour ahead of time, and we actually got to sit in the stands, rather than the standing-room-only option. The Oval was packed, but everyone was there to have a good time. It was indeed a festive atmosphere.
I remember getting an autograph from Jeff Torborg, who was sitting near me. He actually signed my ticket stub for the game.
Jeff, a former Major League baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and California Angels, and later an MLB manager, was a Westfield, NJ native and graduate of Westfield High. Torborg was a tremendous catcher for the Dodgers and Angels. He caught multiple no-hitters and was also behind the plate for a perfect game by Sandy Koufax, in 1965. Later in his career, he caught the first of Nolan Ryan’s seven no-hitters, with the Angels.
I’m sure there were other famous people there. As Burt Sugar once said a few years earlier, of the first Ali-Frazier fight, ‘everybody who was anybody was there’.
The media was well represented, too, including the New York Times.
Why was this such a big game?
Both teams were off to 5-0 starts. Nutley and Westfield generally played on the sixth game of the season, and in 1973, it took on a significant meaning. Westfield was riding a 36-game winning streak, and 47-game unbeaten streak (46-0-1), the longest in the state, at the time. The Union County school was ranked first in the state while Nutley had made its way up to the second-ranked team in N.J.
The head coaches were outstanding. Gary Kehler was in the midst of a legendary career at Westfield while Mario Cocchiola was in his first season as the Raiders’ coach.
Westfield had controlled the rivalry with Nutley, but the games were close. Westfield won, 7‐6, in 1969, 14‐8 in 1970, 7‐0 in 1971, and 10‐0, in ’72. Nutley’s eventual lone win the rivalry came in 1967, by a score of 20-13. (The rivalry ended in 1981, with Westfield holding a 13-1-1 advantage).
The Nutley defense in ’73 was led by Vic Cucci, Barry Maurillo and Charley Potter.
The team had recorded three shutouts and gave up just 16 points in its first five games, leading into the Westfield encounter.
Nutley had strong runners in Mark Cafone, Don Kiwor and Dave Moscara. The passing game was pretty good, too, led by Bob DellaLuna.
Westfield was missing two key defenders, Iran Thorne and Gene Maresca, but they were still loaded. The ground game was paced by Glen Kehler, the coach’s son, and the state scoring leader with 108 points, and the passing of Bob Davis also had to be respected.
The respective team defenses controlled the game, as expected. Late in the fourth quarter, with the game scoreless, Nutley would drive to the Westfield one yard line, as the crowd noise reached near delirium.
On fourth and goal, DellaLuna attempted a quarterback sneak, but the officials ruled he came up short. Many who were there said DellaLuna had indeed crossed the goal line, but to no avail.
Westfield would then threaten in the game’s final seconds. Taking over on its own 6 inch line, the Blue Devils drove quickly into Nutley territory, but came up short on a field goal attempt as the final gun sounded.
Fittingly, the final score was Westfield 0, Nutley 0.
Of course, back then, there was no overtime rule, so a tie was just that, a tie. Westfield’s unbeaten streak reached 48 games. Both teams were now 5-0-1.
A week later, Nutley would travel to East Paterson, where the name of that town had just been changed to Elmwood Park. The game would be aired on WPIX-TV, which, back then, aired a high school game-of-the week, every Saturday morning. The legendary broadcaster, Marty Glickman, provided the play-by-play.
Nutley lost that day, to a good Elmwood Park team, 18-6, for its first loss. A week after that, the Raiders were defeated by a powerful team from Bloomfield. (The Bengals finished 8-0-1 that year).
Nutley finished the ’73 campaign with a win on Thanksgiving Day, to conclude a 6-2-1 season. It would be Nutley’s best record for a decade, before the 1983 Raiders made its first NJSIAA playoff appearance and finished 7-2 in the regular season, 7-3 overall.
A half century has passed since that game on Oct. 27. But the memories for those who experienced that day are still vivid, including that 15-year-old kid, from Belleville, who was there with his dad, and that wonderful 12-year-old, who would later coach Nutley High football.
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