By Andy Loigu

Led by two touchdown passes and a 10-yard run into the end zone by Luke Dugan, the Warren Hills football team blanked Voorhees in impressive fashion, 40-0, on opening night on September 2. The Blue Streaks got off to a red-hot start and never looked back as they took a 33-0 lead at the halftime intermission.

This columnist is part of a generation which remembers when Dugan’s bread was delivered to people’s homes bright and early in the mornings in New Jersey. Dugan delivered the goods on Friday at Warren Hills Stadium with a four-yard scoring pass to Anthony Buchanan in the second period and a 20-yard touchdown toss to Jahmir Brewer in period three.

On the ground, working from multiple formations to keep the defense on its heels, the Blue Streaks also got touchdowns of 64 and four yards from Jon Lainez and a one-yard finisher from Cody Miller.

Second-year head coach Marcus Gurdineer said the team aims for strength in togetherness. Warren Hills, which proudly holds the Beater Board in its possession after last year’s win over Hackettstown, is seeking its first winning season since 2014. With four and five-man defensive fronts and the return of defensive back Tyler Michalski, who missed 2020 due to injury, the Streaks hope to whitewash another opponent or two. In senior wideout Lucas Fritton, the Blue Streaks have a breakaway threat who may make a difference in a close game. Last year he caught 21 passes for 544 yards and nine touchdowns.

THE BEST OF HUMANITY

Hopefully, dear reader, you had a chance to see some of the action in the recently completed Paralympics and get inspired. After suffering pain and loss, those athletes turned to sports to put spirit and achievement back into their lives.

If you missed their performances, you may wish to look up Tatyana McFadden, Jessica Long, Sam Grewe (who shouted “Why not me? Why not now?” just before winning the high jump), and fast finishing swimmer Morgan Stickney and get some positive vibes from their stories. And, there were many others.

Back in the 1980s I was involved in the wheelchair sports program at New Jersey’s Children’s Specialized Hospital. Those youngsters did not want any pity or sympathy. They focused on their ability, not their disability, and had a lot of fun doing it, too.

500 HOME RUN CLUB

There are 28 players in Major League Baseball’s 500 home run club. I was fortunate enough, 50 years ago on Monday, September 13, 1971, to be in the house to see future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson become the 11th player to join that legendary group.

Frank and the Orioles rained out on Saturday and Sunday, September 11 and 12. Because the O’s were in first place and hopeful of becoming the first major league squad in 51 years with four 20-game winners on their pitching staff, the Orioles decided “let’s play two” on Monday. My buddy “Skip” and I decided it was a great day to drive down to Baltimore from Trenton (where we were college students) to see some baseball history.

As game one began at 5:30 p.m., there were about a dozen fans in the stands as Frank hit number 499 in the first inning of a 9-1 win. The fans started filling the lower deck stands as game one went on, most of them probably commuters who heard the play-by-play of the homer on their car radios and decided to head for Memorial Stadium. I saw a lot of men wearing suits as the first game played on.

The announced crowd of 13,000 (it felt and sounded like a lot more than that) was disappointed as Frank was retired time after time. In the bottom of the eighth of game two, with the Orioles trailing 10-1, Frank made the last out (a pop up to the catcher) and the crowd started to exit as the clock approached midnight on a school and work night.

We went to the restroom and then decided to stay, to the bitter end, since the traffic was going to be jammed up getting out of the parking lot, anyway. Besides, I was 20 years old and inexhaustible. 

You never know in baseball. The Orioles batted around and here’s Frank at the plate, once again. With the stands practically empty, bam, there goes number 500 into the left field bleachers! A group of kids way too young to be up at that hour scrambled after a most valuable souvenir.

Skip and I laughed about it all the way back to Trenton, and I’ve got a poster which commemorates the occasion. It’s a good thing they did not play seven-inning games in doubleheaders in those days.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.