30 April 2010

Somerville vs. Manville 1958

What is the Somerville High School football program for their game against Manville on September 27, 1958 doing on the Hillsborough Blog?  Most readers will know that in the decades prior to our own high school's 1969 opening, Hillsborough students went to Somerville.  What you might not know is that, despite splitting from Hillsborough in 1929 to form their own municipality - largely over school-related issues - by the mid-50s Manville had still not built a high school of their own, and were sending their students all over Central Jersey - to Bound Brook, New Brunswick, and Dunellen!.


So what we have here is the nearly new Manville High School footballers not only taking on their new Somerville rivals, but also, in a sense, taking on their long-lost Hillsborough brethren, wearing the orange and black of Somerville.


How many familiar Hillsborough names can you spot in the 1958 Somerville squad?

2 comments:

  1. Two names sound familiar.

    Joseph Delrocco, while not from Hillsborough I don’t think…wasn’t he the mayor of Raritan Boro years back?

    Walter DeWitt- I’m guessing owned the land that is now the girl scouts “Camp DeWitt”?

    Funny story somewhat related…
    My mother was visiting us here in Hillsborough a few weeks ago. She grew up here in the 50s and 60s. We were driving down Hillsborough Road, 206, Amwell, etc. and she was telling me about how this wasn’t here, that wasn’t there… We got to the corner of Amwell and 206 and I looked over at ShopRite and said, “I remember when this shopping center was being built.” She one upped me by saying, “I remember being bused all around here. Right where the bank sits is where the Nelson brothers would get on my bus.”

    She mentioned it took over an hour for her to get to Somerville High School.

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  2. Hi Mike - I don't have any old-time family connection to Hillsborough. We've been here 17 years now, but I would still, consider myself a newbie.

    The name that jumps out at me is the current Chairman of Hillsborough's Zoning Board of Adjustment, Walter Dietz. When I asked Walter if he was a football star at Somerville, he told me he was just good enough to not get himself seriously injuured!

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