By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores
Nov. 3: When the final whistle blew on the Steinert football team’s 18-0 win over Hamilton West on Thanksgiving Day, 1966, it not only completed the first winning season in Spartan history, but the first undefeated season.
And the last.
Fifty autumns of football have passed since that remarkable campaign and no other Spartan team has run the table. Only one – the 2011 state finalists — ever equaled the ’66ers mark of nine wins.
That group of history makers will be honored this weekend prior to the Steinert-West Windsor-Plainsboro North game. On Friday night a dinner will be held in the high school gym, which guests can attend for $10. The team will then be introduced prior to the Steinert-WWPN game, which kicks off at 2 p.m. For more information call 631-4150.
A half-century later, the players on that squad are amazed they are the lone Spartan team to be perfect.
“I would not have believed we would have been the only undefeated football team at Steinert in 50 years or whatever,” said Gary Hohman, the senior quarterback and heart and soul of the squad. “In a way it is disappointing. I have followed the Spartans every year since, even being way out here in Minnesota. I always want them to win.”
“I did not imagine we would be the only undefeated team,” said Bruce Garland, a senior running back in 1966. “There were too many quality athletes and coaches at Steinert to ever think it.
That absolutely makes the accomplishment more significant.”
Hohman isn’t sure about it’s significance, but did say with a chuckle, “I guess it shows how hard it was to do . . . or how lucky we were!”
It was hardly luck. Steinert had one close game the entire year – the season opener with Sayreville that it won, 13-7. The closest game after that came on Thanksgiving, as Steinert posted six shutouts and allowed just 21 points the entire season. The team was inducted into the first Steinert Hall of Fame Class in 2006.
“As I recall, we dominated Sayreville, but quite honestly the refs kept the game close with phantom penalties,” said Hohman, who also played safety. “We also had touchdowns called back on interceptions and punt returns for stepping out of bounds when I was nowhere near the sideline.”
The Spartans were coming off a mediocre 1965 season. “We were 4-5, something like that,” Garland said. But over the summer, Hohman and Garland both got to experience big-time success as they starred for a Hamilton Post 31 baseball team that won the program’s first state title.
“Coach (Pete) Brescia asked Gary and I to address the team before the first game and tell what it had been like to win the state championship,” Garland said. “He also took us to camp before the season for the first time. We wanted to win for him.”
Hohman recalls hopes were high with 19 close-knit seniors returning. There were just two junior high schools then, so the entire Spartan team had been going to school together since seventh grade.
Steinert’s experience was one of three things that jumped out at the quarterback prior to the season.
“We all stuck together since starting football at Reynolds,” Hohman said. “We had some really good, smart football players. The second thing to stand out, was our defense. We gave up 21 point the entire year and seven of those were against our JV in the fourth quarter when we were so far ahead of the other team.
Hohman leads the team on field in 1966
“And the third thing, which you could put first was our coaching staff. They gave me unbelievable confidence. They let me do things at quarterback that were outside the normal football disciplines. In passing situations they encouraged me to scramble around. It created a great deal of confusion for the defenses and worked out really well.”
Hohman rushed 90 times for 615 yards, while Mike Rakoski ran 94 times for a team-high 648 and Garland had 54 carries for 340. All three averaged over 6 yards per rush. Ralph Ridolfino gained 328 yards and had a 4.9 average. Hohman completed 26 of 56 passes for over 600 yards, with Vince Matuza catching 14 for 200 and Rakoski nabbing nine for 349.
“Stats weren’t important to us,” said Garland, who also returned kicks. “All we cared about was winning.
It was fitting that the only thing standing between Steinert and perfection was Hamilton. The East-West rivalry was only in its ninth year but the rivalry had already become fierce and the entire township turned out to watch.
The game took place at the original Steinert, which is now Nottingham High School. Disaster appeared to have struck the Spartans the first quarter, when Hohman got hit and suffered a separated collarbone. He figured if his season was over, he had nothing to be ashamed of at that point.
“I went to the locker room where the doctor looked at it, and I knew I was done when it happened,” Hohman said. “I was most certainly disappointed but all year long I left everything I had on the field for every play of every game so I felt OK with that. I also knew we had a lot of good football players on that team. They were going to have to do it without me.”
Indeed, they had to seal the deal without their unquestioned leader. Rick Ritter was called on at quarterback and the Spartans never blinked.
“No one worried that I knew of, because we had a great back-up,” Garland said. “Rick Ritter practiced against our defense everyday, and probably was one of the best quarterbacks they faced.”
Steinert led 7-0 at half and Garland figured with the Spartans outstanding defense, one more score would do it.
“I didn’t think any team could score twice against us,” he said. “Gary usually did the returns, but I told (assistant) coach (Frank) Lugossy not to worry at halftime because I was going to run the second-half kickoff back for a touchdown.”
The beauty of youth always allows for such optimistic fantasies. Meanwhile, Hohman was still being looked at in the lockerroom at the outset of the second half, when he heard a giant roar explode from the crowd.
Did we say fantasy?
“A few minutes later,” Hohman said, “someone came running into the lockerroom and told me Bruce Garland had just returned the kickoff 90 yards to open the second half.”
Hohman finally returned to the sideline midway through the fourth quarter with the Spartans having the game well in hand.
“Rick Ritter took my place and that changed our offense because I ran the quarterback option and he didn’t,” Hohman said. “He came in and did a great job of managing the offense and the rest is history.”
History that has yet to be repeated, thanks to the efforts of an entire team. Hohman and guard/linebacker Sam Steinert, a first-team All-State pick, were the only two-way players.
“We wound up having complete trust in everyone to do their job,” Garland said. “There were no egos and everyone contributed.”
There were no state playoffs then, so Steinert had to be satisfied with its perfect record, which it is.
Rounding out the roster were Dave Burchell, Clarence Morris, Ross Edwards, John Kamrad, Bob Monyer, Tom Decker, Tom Bartlett, Frank Annalorro, John Vig, Russ Beilieu, Rich Maffei, Wayne Bartolone, Ken Harris, Phil Brushi, Leon Warner, Tim Long, Tom Sereni, John Conte, Bob Hart, Dave Powell, Jay Weigel, Bob Watson, Darrel Waytes, John Hyatt, Bob Decker, Pat Stein, Jim Pattitucci, Tom Harowski, Jay Van Horn, Vince DiLiberto, John Edwards, Russ Kivler, Fred Hartshorn and John Bernhardt.
Tying it all together was Brescia, who is scheduled to be on hand for the weekend events along with a sizeable amount of players.
“Coach Brescia was great, he adapted every year,” Garland said. “We worked hard but had fun. We learned how to win and took it seriously.”
“Coach Brescia was great,” agreed Hohman, who went on to star at the University of Minnesota, where he made his home. “He was a no-nonsense kind of coach. He knew how to get in our minds. Tough practices, great offensive and defensive schemes that year that matched our talent.
“Coach Brescia believed in us as did coach Lugossy. Personally, the confidence coaches Brescia and Lugossy instilled in me right from the start of my senior year was the turning point in my football life.”
A life that includes being part of something that has been done just once in Steinert’s 58 years.
Fifty years later, it certainly deserves to be celebrated.
