Smarter than your average Bears, the trio set rule one – and maybe the only rule – to be that the movement was to be in slow motion.
Two of the three original “commissioners” participated in this year’s game in the field next to Absecon Presbyterian Church: Absecon Mayor Peter Elco and longtime local resident Jerry Savell.
The third original player, Ed Jerome, has moved to Martha’s Vineyard, an island just south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Jerome’s loss, in retrospect, may represent a trade of sorts: the 2012 rookie of the year was former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, a son of Ted Kennedy who recently moved to South Jersey after becoming Jerry Savell’s son-in-law.
“The game is always a tie,” Savell said. “This year’s score was 49-49.”
Savell mentioned some of the other participants Sunday, Jan. 1.
“We had longtime referee Paul Palmisano and longtime fullback Joe Brown,” he said. “There was John and Jake Glassey, Don Shur and Frank and Joe Mazzone. Over the years we’ve had Henry ‘Bud’ Broome of Linwood, Dick Squires of Egg Harbor Township, Lou Wagenheim of Brigantine, Dick Hudson of Absecon, Jim Ruffu of Egg Harbor Township and Jimmy Copsey of Northfield.”
The games have been a lot of fun over the years, Savell said.
“We’ve played in the worst weather conditions you can imagine,” he said. “I’ve only missed two games – one year we went to Vermont; the other time we went to Pasadena for the Tournament of Roses Parade.”
Other groups have picked up the idea – including Wichita State University in Kansas, which has grown bigger than its South Jersey model.
“We got tired of all the bowls and decided we’d take a break – we went outside to mess around,” Savell said. “That first year there were just three of us. Then others joined in. Some years we’d have as many as 50 players.”
Elco said the three original players lived in Pleasantville or Absecon.
“We all played football at Pleasantville High School,” Elco said. “John Glassey has been a major promoter of this event these many years. He went to school with us. We were all involved in a lot of acts together during those years after graduation.”
It’s been fun, he said.
“Over the years we’ve gained new friendships,” Elco said. “We’re all thankful to participate in such a wonderful tradition.”
Attorney Don Shur of Galloway said he’s only played for a few years.
“Frank Mazzone was a state trooper in Maryland for 25 years,” Shur said. “I was a police officer for a couple of years. It was shift work. They made me become an attorney. But then I joined a retired police and firemen’s organization and I met Frank.”
He started going to the New Year’s games with his friend.
“It’s just so silly for a bunch of us to be playing in slow motion with no rules,” Shur said. “But you know something – as the year nears its end you start looking forward to the game. I hope that my granddaughter who played Sunday is still playing in that game in another 50 years.”
Shur’s granddaughter, Katelyn Howey of Port Republic, appears to already be carrying on a longtime tradition. One of her plays involved stepping onto the field near the goal line after a play had started at midfield. The pass went to her for a touchdown.
Savell said the first games were played on an empty lot next to his home in Pleasantville in the early 1960s.
“My father, Howard Savell, played for a couple of years and he had a signature play,” said Savell, who had three generations of Savells in Sunday’s game. “He’d go into the back door of our pool enclosure – he’d disappear – and run through there, into the house past the living room and kitchen and come out the front of the house and catch a pass.”
And that's how some traditions start.
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