By Andy Loigu

Going back in time, to 2005, the Hackettstown versus Warren Hills football rivalry was close to being ended because some felt that it had become noncompetitive.

The Warren Hills Blue Streaks had won “The Beater Board” 12 years in a row under Bob Lockhart, (an offensive innovator) who had a larger school enrollment from which he could select his key players.

The scores were becoming lopsided and school officials were seriously considering ending the rivalry. Warren Hills was a Group 3 while Hackettstown was a Group 2.

But then along came “Rootin Tootin” Max Newton, a quarterback who ran the veer with uncanny timing and skill. Coach Art Piancone dialed up all the right defenses and the Tigers shocked the pundits with a win in the 2005 game, at the old Warren Hills Middle School field.

The rivalry had been given new life. It was a really enjoyable game for me to broadcast on WRNJ radio, the one I’ll remember most as the years roll on and on.

It has been a lively rivalry since then and, last year, Hackettstown won the 94th meeting, 48-21. Even though the Blue Streaks still lead the all-time series 45-43-6, somewhere, the legendary Chot Morrison is smiling.

Morrison lost that smile briefly last week when it was announced that the Tigers and Streaks would not be clashing on the field tonight due to COVID issues involving Hackettstown. At the time, it seemed that the 95th meeting between the two teams would have to wait until 2021. But the two schools came up with a new plan. And as long as there are no unforeseen hiccups, the rivalry will resume on Thursday, Nov. 19.  

One would need to go back through the record books to 1939, the peak of the Morrison era, to find a year in which the Tigers and Blue Streaks have not played. 

The Tigers were roaring in the 20s and 30s. They beat the Washington Blue Streaks 39-6 in 1928, after the two neighboring squads had played low scoring ties in 1926 and 1927. In 1929, the 9-0 Tigers did not play Washington. In an 11-year span in which the two teams did not play each other, the Tigers had five undefeated seasons and five seasons in which they only lost once.

People old enough to remember those years told me Hackettstown scheduled the toughest teams in the state, regardless of enrollment numbers, and beat them, proving the Tigers to be one of New Jersey’s truly elite squads.

However, they resumed the rivalry in 1940 and Hackettstown won 19-6, The Tigers won the next three meetings, as well, but then Washington won 35-7 in 1944 and won by a shutout the next year. The rivalry was hot again.

The series began back in 1906, when the Tigers only played three games, splitting a pair with nearby Washington. Hackettstown also played to a tie with Dover. The Tigers did not even have a program in 1910, 1916, and 1920. The Blue Streaks won eight of the first 10 meetings, with Hackettstown finally winning 37-0 to finish its undefeated 1925 season, the year in which H-town football became a really big thing.

The best decade for the Tigers was the 1950s, when Hackettstown beat their rivals for local bragging rights seven times by one-sided scores. Warren Hills Regional was established in 1967 and the Blue Streaks have held an enrollment advantage ever since.

This is the oldest rivalry between two Warren County schools and it has been a resilient one. Just like Elvis, it will continue on and on. 

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.