It was a team and season to remember with one unforgettable game. As Red Bank Regional High School celebrates its undefeated 1975 state championship football team, memories of that season are fresh in the minds of those privileged enough to be part of that team that brought Red Bank, Little Silver and Shrewsbury together.
“It was a great team to be a part of,” said Chuck Bruno, a lineman on the 1975 Buccaneers. “The camaraderie was unbelievable.”
Another lineman on that championship team, Bill Noglows, remarked that the season and championship were indeed something none of the players will ever forget.
“It stays with you,” he said. “It was a great group of guys.
“We were a bunch of better-thanaverage players who gelled,”
On Oct. 2, Red Bank Regional will honor the 1975 Buccaneers football championship with a special ceremony starting at 6 p.m. in the new fitness center by the football field. At halftime of the Buccaneers’ game with Neptune High School (kickoff 7 p.m.), all the players from the team attending the reunion will be honored on the field.
Athletic director Del Dal Pra has invited everyone who played on the team to attend the ceremony. He can be contacted at 732- 842-8007 or at ldalpra@rbrgs.org.
“I’m very much looking forward to it,” said Noglows, who is coming back to Red Bank from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he now lives. “It’s been a while [since I’ve seen some of my former teammates].”
Bruno said that players from that team who live as far away as Florida, Georgia and Louisiana are coming to the reunion.
Both players pointed out that Red Bank Regiona’s success started at the top with head coach Bob Strangia. “Coach Strangia was someone who could get everything out of you,” Bruno said. Heading into the 1975 season, Red Bank Regional had won 17 consecutive games. They went 9-0 in 1974, won their division but did make the state playoffs. They would get their chance to show just how good they were in 1975 when again they went through the regular season and this time made the state tournament. That, in turn, produced one of the greatest games in state playoff history — the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II finals between Red Bank Regional and Hightstown High School, which were both 10-0.
The Buccaneers’ win, 46-44, is still talked about to this day as Red Bank Regional withstood the pure excellence of Hightstown running back Dana Shelton (Mercer County’s first 2,000-yard singleseason rusher) to finish the season 11-0 and run their three-year win streak to 28.
The 1975 Buccaneers will have the chance to take a curtain call and receive adulation of the community.
“We will proudly re-introduce them to the community as a commemorative banner is placed on our stadium field,” Dal Pra said in a prepared statement from the high school.