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NJ Thanksgiving HS Rivalaries (go Lions)

I remember when I was kid the Green Brook Vs. Dunellen football rivalry was a lot of fun
Were you a Bengal or a Destroyer? Dunellen class of 86 for me. You are right it was a great rivalry.
 
Don Bosco Prep and Bergen Catholic used to play each other on Thanksgiving Day back in the '70s and '80s. Not sure why they stopped. That was (and still is) a great rivalry!
 
Yes they have attended Watchung Hills since the early 90's but before that Green Brook had its own HS. It was the smallest in the state at the time.
They had a solid football program for their size when I was growing up. They were coached by Ted Amo.
 
OT but isn't Long Hill on the western edge of the Great Swamp, west of Chatham? Nice town.
Yes on the Great Swamp, not sure if East or West. It used to be called Passaic Township before the name change. People in that area still strongly identify with their section of the township: Gillette, Stirling, Millington, Meyersville, etc. You don't see that with other townships as much.
 
North Plainfield vs. South Plainfield. Long-time rivalry interrupted for a while, but back on for many years now. Go Canucks.
 
In North Jersey, there are sadly only a handful of long time rivalries left on Thanksgiving morning.

Paterson Eastside vs Paterson Kennedy
Newark Barringer vs East Orange
Newark Weequahic vs Newark Shabazz
Passaic vs Clifton
Hackensack vs Teaneck

The Weequahic vs Shabazz game always draws a large crowd.
The Eastside vs Kennedy game used to draw near 10k at Hinchcliffe Stadium.

Ridgewood - Fair Lawn has been gone for around 20 years
 
Midd North/south rivalry took a hit while I was there. A group of North players decided to cut down the sign in front of south and bring it to north. The jug heads cames down kings highway onto 35 south, cut through dunkin donuts to go back north on rt 35. Not joke a cop sitting in the donut shop saw the sign and nailed them. A whole group was suspended......but again cutting through a donut shop....getting caught by a cop......too funny.
 
Philly Inquirer
Football an integral part of Thanksgiving
"Interestingly, the custom of joining football and Thanksgiving started in Philadelphia, a mere two weeks after Rutgers and Princeton had introduced this new, hybrid sport to the world. At noon on Thanksgiving Day, 1869, 11 men from the host Germantown Cricket Club met the Young America Cricket Club's footballers."​
 
JP Stevens vs Edison since the mid 60s. Not the same because my alma mater Stevens has fallen on hard times.
 
OT but isn't Long Hill on the western edge of the Great Swamp, west of Chatham? Nice town.
Long Hill Twsp was formerly called Passaic Township. It changed its name sometime in the 90's. It is comprised of Meyersville, Millington, Stirling and Gillette. It is on the south side of the great swamp and borders Chatham/Berkeley Heights to the east, Basking Ridge to the west and Warren and Watchung to the south. It is the southernmost point in Morris County, dipping down near Rt 78. The town is a mix of suburban and somewhat rural.

Watchung Hills feeds from Warren, Watchung, Greenbrook and LongHill.
 
New Providence and Governor Livingston (Berkeley Heights & Mountainside) play each year on Thanksgiving. Good rivalry between 2 schools that are just over a mile apart. The kids from NP & BH grow up playing each other in all sports. NP has dominated the series but GL won last year at NP. I'll be at GL tomorrow for the game. NP travels better than GL so there will be a strong contingent on the visitors side. Much of NP is actually closer to GL than Mountainside and a good portion of BH's.
 
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What year? (VHS 90 here). One of these years I'm going to take my kids down to the bonfire to show them what a pep rally is supposed to be like.
2002... Not sure if they still do the bonfire...I remember the explosion in 2009
 
New Providence and Governor Livingston (Berkeley Heights & Mountainside) play each year on Thanksgiving. Good rivalry between 2 schools that are just over a mile apart. The kids from NP & BH grow up playing each other in all sports. NP has dominated the series but GL won last year at NP. I'll be at GL tomorrow for the game. NP travels better than GL so there will be a strong contingent on the visitors side. Much of NP is actually closer to GL than Mountainside and a good portion of BH's.
Underrated and sometimes overlooked rivalry.
 
I don't like the names of these high schools.

Gov Livingston, David Brearly, Jonathan Dayton.

They should be called Mountainside High, Kenilworth High and Springfield High.

No one around the state knows where they are located without using a Google search.
 
I don't like the names of these high schools.

Gov Livingston, David Brearly, Jonathan Dayton.

They should be called Mountainside High, Kenilworth High and Springfield High.

No one around the state knows where they are located without using a Google search.
I think when they went regional and took in several different towns they had to go with one name. My school (North Plainfield) played Kenilworth back in the 80s when they had guys like Tony Siragusa, Miller, Mike Chalenski and Brett Hubbinger. I don't know how they had so many big kids. Siragusa played both ways and kicked and punted. He straight-armed one of our guys on a fake punt TD run and I don't think we found the guy until graduation.
 
Way back when it was Paterson Eastside vs Paterson Central (now Kennedy) at Hinchcliff Stadium. It looks like they are still playing each other but I don't know where.
 
Oldest continuous public high school Thanksgiving rivalry is Wellesley vs. Needham (Massachusetts); series started in 1882. Oldest in NJ is Vineland-Millville.

I grew up as a kid when the Weequahic-Hillside rivalry (the Philip Roth Bowl)was going strong.
 
Not a lot of Asian football players. Hard to field a team when 95% of the school is Asian.
I went to Woodbridge High School and in the late 1950's we didn't have a Thanksgiving rival (The short lived WHS- Edison rivalry started in 1960). I believe it was 1958 and Woodbridge played a team from Bridgeton on Thanksgiving and they absolutely smoked our ass. Their qb and a few of their linemen were Japanese-Americans and they were outstanding. We didn't know much about Bridgeton other than that it was in the Jersey farm belt. . We learned a lot more than geography and farming that day.
 
Since 1927, Carteret vs Perth Amboy. Perth Amboy leads the series by a small margin at 45 - 41- 2. It's the oldest rivalry game in Middlesex County.

The Carteret Ramblers got their nickname when they didn't have their own field in the 1920's and had to "ramble" off to play their games on the road.
 
Raritan HS (Hazlet) used to have a rivalry with Matawan. That was pretty lopsided in my day. I think realignment spilt this up some years back.
 
Live up in North Jersey now, Bergen does not have the tradition of the Thangsgiving games that the Shore has. One yr our HS played on Thanksgiving (due to a hurricane postponement earlier in the ye) everyone came out, the next yr it was back to the okd ways. I miss the game in Middletown, it was the highlight of the season.



As was last week, this is not the year the South streek ends. Eagles by 14
 
Way back when it was Paterson Eastside vs Paterson Central (now Kennedy) at Hinchcliff Stadium. It looks like they are still playing each other but I don't know where.

I think they play at Baruele (sic) Field by Eastside HS. Both schos have been playing there since Hinchliffe was condemned in 1997.


Joe P.
 
State playoffs have killed most of them here in PA also. Stroudsburg v. E. Stroudsburg finally ended last year after many years of playing twice per season.

My first football game at Rutgers stadium was the South River - New Brunswick Thanksgiving game in 1968. (Drew Pierson at QB for SR... Ended in a 7-7 tie.)

Will have to watch Easton - Phillipsburgh on TV tomorrow morning.
 
This reminded me Manasquan is likely having their annual bond fire in a little whie so there'll be street closures. Need to go to the store now. Buh Bye.
 
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