Petrone honored to be among PHS’ honored

Graduate slated for induction into Hall of Fame

By: Bob Nuse
   Jack Petrone realizes sports are different now than they were when he was young.
   In fact, a lot of things are different now than when Petrone was young.
   A 1945 graduate of Princeton High School, Petrone is one of the members of the 2005 induction class into the PHS Athletic Hall of Fame. And while quite a bit is different now than it was when Petrone played 60 years ago, one thing hasn’t changed — his desire to see young athletes learn to play sports the right way.
   "Before I went to Princeton High, I had no concept of what organized sports were all about," said Petrone, a lifelong Princeton resident who along with his wife, Jean, raised five sons in Princeton. "I never had a coach other than when I played basketball at St. Paul’s. Going into high school, I had never been coached in football or basketball. For basketball, all I had was a peach basket on a telephone pole.
   "Back when I played it wasn’t a game of statistics. All that mattered was your won-loss record. If you won more than you lost, that was what made the program. When I played basketball, we had scores like 22-21 and everything was all two-hand set shots. It was a different era."
   On May 14, Petrone will join several other Princeton alumni for induction into the school’s Hall of Fame. This year’s 12-member class includes two former coaches and 10 former athletes, as well as two teams that will be inducted. The event will be held at the Doral Forrestal in Plainsboro.
   "I am very excited about it," Petrone said. "It’s an honor for me to be part of the second induction class into the Hall of Fame. We’re having our 60th high school reunion this year in three weeks. So it is right about the same time they’re having the Hall of Fame ceremony. I’m looking forward to it. I think it should be a great event and it’s nice that they take time to honor some of the former athletes."
   Petrone attended Princeton at a time when high school sports took a backseat to World War II, which curtailed the amount of time the school put into the sports program.
   "I went into high school during a war year," Petrone said. "The war started in 1941 and during 1942 and 1943, they decided there would be no more programs. So we had intramurals and that was my school sports involvement for two years, intramurals. My senior year they started to bring back some of the programs. We played four football games and seven or eight basketball games and maybe seven or eight baseball game.
   "We got back into it, but it was abbreviated. We all felt pretty bad about the situation. I felt like I was a pretty good athlete, but I never really got a chance to compete because we pretty much just had intramurals while I was in school."
   After graduating, Petrone went into the military, where he was able to continue to improve on his athletic skills.
   "I went into the service in 1946 and I was fortunate that I got a chance to play a lot of sports," Petrone said. "I was with the medical unit and special service and we got to play a lot of sports. I excelled at basketball and football."
   When he returned home, he found his sons — Jack, James and Jeff, who attended The Hun School, and Judd and Jason, who attended Princeton High, needing a place to learn the basics of sports. It didn’t take long for the eldest Petrone to get involved.
   "We started the Princeton Midget Football League and the Princeton Youth Baseball Association," he said. "There were a lot of kids that needed an opportunity to play before they got to high school. They needed a place where they could learn the fundamentals of the game. Kids needed a place where they could learn the game before they got to high school. I felt like they needed some coaching. When I was a kid, all we had for football was games going from telephone pole to telephone pole.
   "I got into police work and found an organization that was willing to sponsor our programs, the PBA. I went out and got the Fire Company and the Lions Club and the Rotary Club. They would all donate $200-$300 so that we could get uniforms for the kids. I felt like the kids wanted to have that foundation and we tried to teach them the fundamentals so that they would not go into high school cold."
   Sixty years later, PHS isn’t leaving Petrone out in the cold. He will be inducted into the Hall of Fame next week, capping off a pretty nice month of May. He and his wife celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary on Sunday, and he’ll also be heading to his class reunion. He and his classmates should have plenty to talk about, including the induction of one of their own into the Hall of Fame.
   Tickets to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony are still available. For more information, contact the Princeton High Athletic Department at 806-4290, or call Bob James at 921-0946.