April 4, 2010

Tom Bergeron
RivalsHigh Senior Editor

MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. - It was obvious this wasn't an ordinary game right from the pre-game speech.

The head coach of the St. Joseph Regional High School hockey team didn't address the players in the locker room. Instead, the job fell to one of the players, Scott Williams.

But that was fitting.

Williams was one of the driving forces behind an idea to finally play the 1989 New Jersey state hockey final between St. Joseph's and Delbarton - a game that was canceled 21 years ago due to a measles outbreak.

What started as an exchange of a crazy idea for closure had turned into a huge fundraiser for charity. It finally was game time.

"We've been waiting to do this for a long time," Williams started. "We each get 90 minutes to live in the moment."

His teammates nodded in agreement.

"This is the last time we are going to be together as a family," Williams continued. "And there are a lot of people out there supporting us. Parents who have trained us all these years. They are getting a chance to watch us one more time."

His teammates, fully revved up, started up as if they were in high school once again. There were calls of 'blue collar, blue collar' - their motto all those years ago. There was an even an expletive-laced exultation.

And with that, a group of what some would call middle-aged men took the ice in their old high school jerseys to take on their rivals in what was being dubbed Saturday as the Frozen Flashback.

For years, however, the matchup was known by a different name: The Greatest Game Never Played.

Delbarton and St. Joseph are located a handful of miles from each other in North Jersey. The schools have long been hockey powers. In 1989, their road to the state final seemed destined from the start.

St. Joseph's was No. 1; Delbarton was No. 2. But everyone knew they were going to settle it on the ice.

Then, the day before the final was to be played, there was a measles outbreak at Delbarton. The game was off.

Players, families show emotions at Frozen Flashback

"You have to remember, this was pre-Internet, pre-cell phone," Jim Brady, the Delbarton coach that year who returned to the lead the team for this game.

"I remember the day. We had practiced that morning and we were ready to go. I had things to do during the day but that night I went to the restaurant where we always went. One of the guys told me out front that the game was off.

"I thought he was joking. Then I walked inside and saw it wasn't a joke."

The Delbarton campus had been exposed to measles. Local legend - which many confirmed Saturday - was that the campus minister who gave communion to the team had the measles and didn't know it.

The game has bothered both teams for years - but perhaps more on the Delbarton side.

"We had measles, they didn't," Father Giles Hayes of Delbarton said.

It was hardest on the seniors, who knew this was to be their final game.

"When the word came down, the kids were devastated," said Hayes, who worked at the school then and still does today. He was asked by the players to give the pre-game prayer, just as he did 21 years ago.

Logistics made it impossible to reschedule the game. By the time the Delbarton players would have been cleared to play, the spring season already had started. In addition, as Brady pointed out, the teams had used up all of their allotted practice time.

The schools were declared co-champions.

Jenny Nelson wasn't born in New Jersey. And she knew little about hockey growing up in San Diego.

So when she met her husband Peter in college in Minnesota, they didn't talk a whole lot about the big game that wasn't.

And though she's now a hockey mom, courtesy of her two young boys, she wasn't exactly thrilled when she heard about the reunion game.

"My first thought was, 'Well, go and have a good time,' " she said with a laugh.

She eventually came around - and seeing the interaction with all the families and friends - made her glad she and the boys came along.

And while many of the players are still in the Northeast, others came from as far away as Ohio, Texas and even California.

More than 2,000 watched the game. Marian Waite wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Of course, she has never missed her son Jason play. But as she stood in the stands at an arena that was once a second home - she marveled at how long it had been since she had watched a hockey game.

"Since 1991, his senior year," she said.

And while the game was meant for fun and charity, Waite was surprised when all the old emotions came back - especially when she saw her son called on to make save after save in goal.

"It's nerve-racking," she said.

But a feeling she never thought she'd have again nonetheless.

"It's a wonderful experience," she said. "And to see all the old families again. And all of the boys ..."

She paused.

"I guess they're men now."

The men were in pretty good shape.

While the second and third periods were shortened by five minutes, the shifts weren't. Both sides seemed physically up for the challenge. That's not the way it was when the game was announced.

Delbarton assistant Alec Walsh said the players who still participate in men's leagues were close to being in game-ready shape but many were not.

"We had some guys who literally had to go out and buy equipment because they hadn't played in 15 years," he said. "This is a tough sport. You have to be game ready. It's not like tennis where you can just pick up a racket."

Delbarton's Peter Ramsey explained how his team got ready.

"I guess I can say it now," he said. "It was just like in high school. There's an outdoor rink that we used to go early in the morning and play while the sun came up.

"That's what we did. Every Wednesday morning we got up at 5:45. It was tough but it was worth it. And it wasn't so bad. We played for an hour and I could still get into New York City on time."

It seems like everyone was back in the '80s, including the person working the music.

Stops in play were like an advertisement for a Time-Life music collection. Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2, Guns N' Roses and Phil Collins blared from the loudspeakers. They even played the theme from 'Ghostbusters.'

St. Joseph got the better of the play early on. It got all of it, in fact. Ten minutes into the game, it had outshot Delbarton, 10-0, but had yet to score thanks to some amazing play by Waite in net.

Delbarton ended the period with a flourish and scored the game's first goal when Mike Pendy - a former All-Stater who went on to play in college and professionally in Sweden - looked the part with a low slap shot that beat St. Joseph goalie Brad Pearson with just over a minute to go in the period.

The play was pretty even in the last two periods. Delbarton seemingly took control when it added two goals in the second, but St. Joseph came back with an early goal in the third - then a late one to make it interesting before falling short, 3-2.

The effort and intensity was evident throughout.

A few more turnovers than would have occurred 21 years ago? Sure. But there was also strong passing, terrific goaltending on both sides and extra effort on defense (players on both teams went down to the ice to block shots).

And there was plenty of chippiness, too. This wasn't all about fun.

Linesman Pete Caggiano, who called high school games in 1989 and still works today, was asked by some of the players to work the game. He said he was honored. He didn't know what he was in for.

There were a handful of penalties and complaints from the players throughout. The officials had to separate the players on a few occasions, including a late-game scrum that resulted in a pair of double-minors.

And then there were the face-offs. Both teams repeatedly had guys getting thrown out of the circle for gamesmanship.

"I was surprised by the level of the play, but not by the intensity," Caggiano said. "I know these guys.

"They had a rare opportunity to re-live their youth and they took advantage of it."

When it was over, the postgame handshake took longer than normal as over-enthusiastic kids had returned to level-headed adults. All took extra time with each opposing player.

In fact, it became an on-ice party as families and friends came onto the ice after realizing the players weren't quite ready to come off it.

When it came time for a team photo, there was only one. Players from both teams, some holding their own kids, came together with the trophy. It went to Delbarton, finally, but few cared at the final horn.

"If I didn't realize it before, I certainly realize it now: These are some of my best friends in the world," St. Joseph's Ryan McKenna said.

Organizers said the event has raised more than $200,000 already for a number of charities, including The Valerie Fund. That number will only increase. An off-ice auction, including autographed jerseys from Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby is still going on at www.frozenflashback.com.

James Olsen, who was the key person at Delbarton in organizing the game, said it was everything he wanted and more.

There was a sense of finally playing the game, but Olsen said it was more than that.

"Our objective was just to get everyone together," he said.

Williams' side came up short in the game but he couldn't have been happier - especially for the money raised for charity.

"Those kids (from the Valerie Fund) who dropped the opening puck," he said. "They're the winners in all of this."

As for finally bringing his high school hockey career to a close, Williams just laughed.

"Closure is not the word that describes this," he said. "This event gives all of us a sense of purpose and that's something a hockey game could never do."

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