A Shore football Thanksgiving Day rivalry turns 100. Here's why it has lasted

Eric McCoo played running back at Penn State, and was on the field in a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles. But there’s something about the Red Bank-Long Branch Thanksgiving Day rivalry he was a part of that ranks high on his list of gridiron memories.

Like the 1997 renewal, when McCoo ran for 366 yards for Red Bank, and Long Branch’s Tidy Corbett ran for 222 yards, as Red Bank Regional came away with a 26-19 victory.

“I remember it was a great day for football, brisk, Thanksgiving weather,” McCoo said. “I just remember being with my family in the morning, how excited everyone was. And at the game most of the outside noise is a blur, but I remember there were so many people at that game, standing room along the fence, the stands packed. It was fun. It was euphoric, knowing it was the last time we were going to be on the field.

“I think about Tidy and I, we had battles all three of our varsity years, and everybody wanted us to be rivals. And the reality is we’re good friends, and we always have been.”

The Bucs and Green Wave meet for the 100th time Thursday (10:30 a.m.) at Long Branch’s Bresett Stadium, joining Toms River South-Lakewood as the only area rivalries to have reached the century mark, although those two former Thanksgiving rivals no longer play annually.

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There are only three games being played at the Jersey Shore Thursday, including Middletown South at Middletown North (10:30 a.m.) and Manasquan at Wall (10 a.m.), as factors including the push for power points and expansion of the NJSIAA playoffs have altered the landscape.

But there are countless examples of how the Long Branch-Red Bank rivalry has become inexorably intertwined in the communities.

The 1981 game saw Long Branch quarterback Dan George, who would go on to coach the Green Wave for 23 seasons (1999-2021), winning three state sectional championships, and Red Bank quarterback Dan Clapp square off nearly 30 years after their fathers had played against each other in the game.

“Red Bank was (6-2) and they had Danny Stubbs. And Danny Clapp’s father and my father were best friends,” said George, with his family boasting five generations worth of participation in the game. “We grew up going to each other’s houses. Danny was a heck of a sailor and we used to sail against each other in the summer, and our fathers raced ice boats in the winter.

“There was a big article how Red Bank was going to really beat us up. We were running a wing-T and were not known for our throwing prowess, but we won 14-0 and I threw two TD passes, so that game, I remember.”

Long Branch vs Red Bank Regional: A century of high school football drama

It all began on Nov. 3, 1923, some 13 years before the formation of the Shore Conference, at Oriole Field in Red Bank, when Chattle High School, the predecessor to Long Branch High School, emerged with a 13-0 victory over Red Bank.

An account of the game from the Long Branch Daily Record noted “a large and enthusiastic crowd was at the field before the opening of the game and both schools showed much sportsmanship and spirit throughout.”

Nick Scerbo, a former football player at Donovan Catholic, wrote 48 Minutes Forever, with the book tracing the early history of Shore Conference football.

“Long Branch plays a significant role in the book,” Scerbo said. “Army Ippolito had played in the Long Branch-Red Bank game as a player and then came back as Long Branch’s head coach from 1944-63. He lost his first Thanksgiving game as a coach, and then never lost to them again. That was Long Branch’s best run during the rivalry. They went from 1945 into the middle of the 1960s without losing to Red Bank. Then in the late 1960 and 1970s it was a very competitive rivalry.”

Like the 1970 game, when Frank Mazza threw a 29-yard TD pass to Ed Gilmore with 25 seconds to play to give Long Branch a wild 25-22 victory. A year later, Red Bank capped off a 9-0 season, the first of three unbeaten seasons in five years under coach Bob Strangia, with a 16-8 win at Long Branch, as emotions boiling over when a wild melee broke out on the field as the game ended.

Wes Mayo’s father, brothers and cousins have played for Long Branch over the decades. He was a junior on the 1977 team that included Pro Football Hall of Famer Sam Mills. But it was Red Bank, coached by Lou Vircillo, who now has 312 career wins, having spent the past 43 seasons at Lacey, coming away with a 14-0 victory to improve to 10-0.

“Back in those days, it was everything to go to a Thanksgiving game and pretty much see all your heroes play, guys you knew in the neighborhood, then going to high school and playing, it was a great time,” Mayo said.

And like so many great rivalries, they play for a trophy with a lot of meaning.

The Ty Lewis Memorial Trophy was named in 1991 after the late Red Bank football coach, who was an All-Shore football and baseball player who graduated from the school in 1967, and returned to coach the team in 1987 after serving as the head coach at Howell. He was among the Shore Conference’s first Black head coaches,

“One of the coolest things in the world is we are playing for that trophy,” said George. “Ty Lewis was an icon in the coaching world, and really in the caring about kids world, where the child matters most. That was Ty’s life.”

Throw out the records when it comes to the Long Branch and Red Bank Regional Thanksgiving holiday rivalry

At a time when geographic rivalries have become less of a priority, with strength of program dictating how Shore Conference divisions are constructed, moments like this holiday tradition are fleeting these days.

“You can see how much this game means to the communities," said Red Bank head coach Shane Fallon, whose remembrances of the game trace back to the late 1970s through the 1980s, with his father the long-time athletic director at Red Bank.

Could the game eventually go the way of other Thanksgiving rivalries?

Asbury Park and Neptune played for the 95th time last weekend, with game having been moved off Thanksgiving Day. Rumson and Red Bank Catholic now play during the regular season, as do Toms River North and Toms River East, and Raritan and Holmdel.

More: 'This rivalry is everything': Asbury Park football gets another win vs Neptune

“I am a traditionalist and I love the rivalry,” George said. ”Because it’s based on tradition, 100 years, so many family members have played on both sides. It never gets old. We still have families that come through our doors and put on our helmets that their grandfather and father and uncle played. They’re getting razzed at the holidays. To me, I believe in that. I believe in why we started the game and why it continues to be circled on the schedule.”

Last year was a thriller, as Long Branch emerged with a 35-28 victory, with the Green Wave holding a 64-32-3 edge over the previous 99 meetings.

What hasn’t changed over the past century is the fact that you can throw each team’s record out when they take the field Thanksgiving morning.

Stephen Edelson is a USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey sports columnist who has been covering athletics in the state and at the Jersey Shore for over 35 years. Contact him at: @SteveEdelsonAPP; sedelson@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jersey Shore Thanksgiving football: Long Branch, Red Bank play 100th game