In my last column a few weeks ago, I mentioned my old baseball cards stored in New Jersey that my sister brought me on her cross-country trip in late May.

There were other items in boxes she brought me. One box had some high school memorabilia that I didn’t even know I still had. That box had some high school letters I won for track and cross country. And in the bottom of the box was a handful of high school newspapers I had saved.

I went to Hudson Catholic High School, and our school newspaper was called, The Commentator, published  monthly during the school year.

Once I found those issues in the box, I couldn’t help but spend a few hours reading about things that happened during my high school years a long time ago (1971-1974).

In one of the earlier issues, (June, 1971), the back page was all sports. It was there  I saw the headline: “Trackmen Ponder State Meet”. It was a recap of how the track and field season had gone up to that point, and it focused mainly on how well the freshman squad had done.

I was on that freshman squad, and if I remember correctly, we were pretty impressive that season. Back then, each school had a varsity team and a freshman team, and those athletes didn’t compete against each other in meets. 

Our coach at the time, Don Ruby, was quoted in the article as saying: “Most of the freshman who do well never come out in their sophomore year because they feel the competition is so great for them. But they don’t realize that this competition against juniors and seniors will make them better when they become juniors and seniors themselves.”

Well, our freshman team didn’t have to worry about coming back the following year because a few of us could already compete against the upper classmen. In fact, our freshman team not only won the city championship and the county championship, but we did it with seven guys. Yes, our entire squad consisted of seven athletes. We competed against a dozen schools in the city (Jersey City)  and at least 15 in the county (Hudson County).

Even though we didn’t have the depth of all the other  schools, everyone on our team competed in multiple events. Many were first-place finishes.

Coach Ruby called us the “Second Seven Wonders of the World” because of our versatility and success.

Mark Dorsey, Frank Ford and Bruce Bevaqua were the shot putters. Dorsey won the city and county individual title with  throws of over 50 feet. Ford and Bevaqua placed in the event for more points.

Dan O’Connell, Jerry Napiorski and Jeff Regan were long jumpers and sprinters. O’Connell set freshman records and won the long jump with close to 20 feet in every meet.

I was a high jumper along with Regan and Ford. I set a new freshman record earlier that season and went on to win the city and county title, with  Ford also picking up points.

Regan and myself also ran the half mile. Neither of us won, but we scored more points for the team. 

With only seven members, we couldn’t compete in many relay races, distance events or more than three individual events in a meet. O’Connell scored more points in the individual 220 -yard run, winning with times near 24 seconds. Napiorski also scored points, finishing in the top three spots.

Then our team really showed its versatility when shot putters Dorsey and Bevaqua teamed with sprinters O’Connell and Napiorski to win the freshman 880-yard relay in 1:43.4. I’m told that freshman school record stood for a while.

Ever since I started writing for the newspaper, I’ve gotten to see my name many times on each article I write. But that 1971 issue of The Commentator was the first time I had ever read my name in any newspaper, and it brought back a lot of fond memories.

I was glad to discover I had saved it.