Football Super Bowl Week
This Sunday will be Super Bowl 55. In honor of the Super Bowl, we are featuring some of our past local football heroes. We thank Marty Rittenberg, a former treasurer of the JHSNJ, for contributing these photos and for identifying many of the players.
Twelve-year old Marty Rittenberg standing with his father Mort Rittenberg, prior to the 1944 Eastside-Central Thanksgiving game at Hinchliffe Stadium. Mort Rittenberg coached Central High during 1944 and 1945. Eastside won 6-0 in 1944 and Central won 12-0 in 1945.
On the left is Mort Rittenberg pictured in his 1923 Paterson High School football uniform. Marty is pictured on the right in his 1948 Eastside High School uniform. In that year’s Thanksgiving Day game, Eastside beat Central 48-0. We believe that score still stands as the highest score ever in the annual game.
YMHA Football Team 1925. Sitting with helmet is Henry Rosenberg. First row 4th from left: Stan “Solly” Phillips; 5th from left, Ted Rosenberg (lawyer and Passaic County judge); 6th from left, Johnny King. Middle row 3rd from left, ? Nachimson; 4th from left, ? Jacobs; 5th from left, Phil Chessin; 6th from left, Mort Rittenberg; 10th from left, Hap Tobin; 11th from left, ? Brooks. Back row, 1st from left, coach Eddie Brill; 5th from left, Willie Singer.
Paterson High School Football Team. Front row L-r: Robert Labraico and (?). Seated in second row from l-r: Edward O’Byrne (former mayor of Paterson); (?), Joseph Abbott, Mort Rittenberg and Ted Rosenberg. Standing from L-r: John Bakos, Willie Singer, Claude Van Stone, (?), (?), Charles Mosca and (?).
The Arrows AC Football Team 1920-22. This was a neighborhood team consisting of players living in the Main St., Slater St., Marshall, St., Green St., Jackson St., etc. area of Paterson. Sitting at ground level, L -r is Robert Labraico and Herbert Denn. In the middle row, 3rd from left holding the ball is James “Hope” Brophy who in 1944 and 1945 was Mort Rittenberg’s assistant coach for the Paterson Central High School football team. In rear row, 3rd from left is John Bakos, 5th from left is Mort Rittenberg, 6th from left is Ted Rosenberg.
Beginning in 1961 and for the next approximately 25 years there was an annual Arrows A/C dinner wherein a volunteer coach of Paterson kids was named to receive the James “Hope” Brophy Award. Mort Rittenberg was the first recipient.
If you enjoy what you're reading, you might want to visit our archives on the following webpage of the Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey.