Lifelong friends and former West Orange cheerleading teammates, from left, Ellen ‘Tweeny’ Coleman Hefter and Jill Diener Steiner, in front of Coleman’s cheer sweater.
On display in the lobby of the Tarnoff Gymnasium at West Orange High School today are many artifacts relating to the school’s history.
The exhibit showcases memorabilia from two former high schools in town that merged to become the high school of today. In 1984 the West Orange Cowboys and the West Orange Mountain Rams came together to form today’s West Orange High School Mountaineers.
When the Mountaineers began in 1984 the Cowboys and Rams school mascots were incorporated into the school’s new logo. The school memorabilia however from the Cowboys and Rams slowly vanished. Many items were unfortunately discarded over the years and no long-term thought was given to preserving the school’s artifacts.
West Orange Township Historian Joseph Fagan graduated from Mountain High School in 1975 and began realizing what was happening about 20 years ago.
Since then, he has been on a mission to locate and gather as much as the Cowboys and Rams uniforms, memorabilia, and other school related items he could find. Fagan has been very successful in that endeavor and has amassed a very large collection that continues to grow.
Many former students from both schools began donating items to Fagan’s collection. It has grown in size and now includes hundreds of items including Varsity jackets, sports and band uniforms, gym uniforms, school banners, programs, commencement announcements, school newspapers, and other important artifacts relating to both the West Orange Cowboys and Mountain Rams.
Some items date back to the 1930s.
On Feb. 21, two former cheerleaders from the West Orange High School (Cowboys) Class of 1962 came to see the display at the Tarnoff Gymnasium.
Ellen “Tweeny” Coleman Hefter accompanied by her former classmate and long-time friend Jill Diener Steiner met Fagan, Principal Oscar Guerreo, Football Coach Darnell Grant, and Trish Dellosso in the lobby. The meeting was arranged by the school’s Athletic Director Stephen Zichella.
Several years ago Coleman had donated her West Orange High School cheerleader sweater to Fagan’s collection that was specially embroidered with her nick name “Tweeny” on it. She was delighted to finally see it on display while reminiscing with everyone about her high school days on the cheerleading squad. Her and Steiner not only served on the same cheerleading squad they have been friends since they were 12 years old.
Fagan began working on the display in the fall of 2022 to provide a visual insight into West Orange High School history.
The items can be viewed inside the lobby of the Tarnoff Gym when it is opened to the public during school sporting events.
If anyone has any items, they would like to donate to Fagan’s collection please contact Joseph Fagan at: jfagan@westorange.org.
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