GLEN RIDGE, NJ — In 1982, the Glen Ridge High School football team had a senior-dominated roster. The seniors were all close friends who had played sports together since they were young children.
That season, with Rich San Fillipo as the head coach, the Ridgers won the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 state playoff championship for the second time in three years, after winning it in 1980. It was also the last time the GRHS football program played in a state sectional tournament and won a state sectional title. Glen Ridge and New Providence were the only two teams that qualified for that sectional playoff, and the Ridgers defeated New Providence in the final.
Forty years later, a few players from that GRHS team — Jim Cowan, Mike Stanisci and Greg Ortman — and San Fillipo reminisced about that glorious season in separate interviews with The Glen Ridge Paper.
To this day, most of the football players from the Class of 1983 are still very close friends, they said.
Cowan, the current Glen Ridge recreation director and a former GRHS football head coach himself, was a three-year starter as an offensive guard and defensive end. Cowan remembered that youth sports weren’t really huge at the time, except for summer baseball. But his buddies in his class were exceptional athletes.
“We had some really good athletes,” said Cowan. “We had some athletes that we thought were really special, guys like Robert Zeuner, Mike Stanisci and Greg Ortman. They were very, very good athletes, and I was lucky to be around those guys.”
Stanisci, the starting quarterback and linebacker, echoed those sentiments.
“We were a really, really tight-knit group, friends since middle school and beyond,” said Stanisci, who lives in Verona. “The only thing we really wanted to do is win a state championship together. We had a group of guys who were more like brothers than friends. All we did back then was play sports together.”
“It was a real good team,” Ortman said. “It was senior heavy, but the underclassmen contributed, too. It was a good mix of senior leadership and enough of the young guys contributing. Some of us played on the team that won the state championship two years earlier.”
“Some of those kids were talented enough to play on that ’80 team,” San Fillipo confirmed. “In ’79, we just missed the playoffs, and in ’80 we won it, and then we went on a run of making the playoffs four (years) in a row, and my last year there, we were 8-1 and didn’t make the playoffs.
“As I can see, as we progressed, that it wouldn’t surprise me that the kids that played a little bit on that ’80 team were now going to be (strong) seniors, and we had skill players. For a Group 1 school, we were blessed to have those skill kids. It wasn’t surprising, given the level of talent that we had.”
The 1982 team’s one loss came toward the middle of the season, on the road against rival Mountain Lakes.
Cowan remembered that the Ridgers felt too confident. They “showed up and laid an egg,” he said. “It’s something that I still talk to my teammates about to this day.”
The Ridgers were hoping to meet Mountain Lakes again in the playoffs, but Mountain Lakes failed to make the playoffs.
“We were dying to play them,” said Ortman, who was a tailback and safety. “We really wanted to see them again.”
San Fillipo took over the program in 1979, replacing legendary coach Bill Horey, who had led Glen Ridge to its first state sectional title in 1977. Horey’s offenses were run oriented. But under San Fillipo, the offense became more innovative.
“It was amazing,” said Cowan about playing for San Fillipo. “I’ve coached for 30 years, and every day, I thought about Coach San Fillipo. He was an unbelievable motivator. He was innovative. At the time, Coach Horey (ran) old-school offense, didn’t throw the ball a whole heck of a lot; he liked the run game, base defense. He preached the fundamentals. There is no denying he is the greatest coach in Glen Ridge history, but Coach San Fillipo, when he took over, he changed everything. He changed the defense, he changed the offense. We had Stanisci and Zeuner, who were the best quarterback-receiver tandem in the county without a doubt. So we did a lot of innovative things under Coach San Fillipo. His leadership, his motivation was all tremendous.”
Stanisci also was grateful for San Fillipo’s guidance.
“The teams before us were very run oriented,” Stanisci said. “They just ran, ran, ran, and didn’t really throw a lot. We had a bunch of good wide receivers that could really catch the ball, and that helped us, because if they could stop the run, we could throw the ball.”
Stanisci finished with 1,450 passing yards and 13 touchdown passes, 535 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns, and had 78 tackles, 50 unassisted, with three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. Stanisci was named first team all-state Group 1, first team all–Essex County and first team all–Colonial Hills Conference quarterback.
Cowan noted that the 1982 team’s victories were convincing.
“We didn’t really blow anybody off the field,” said Cowan, who was the GRHS head football coach for six seasons, from 1997 to 2002. “We had control, except for the Mountain Lakes game. We may have won by a couple of scores, but we really had (games) in control. There were a few opponents that were tough.”
Cedar Grove was a tough opponent, Cowan said. So was Bayley-Ellard, a nonpublic school in Madison that joined the Ridgers’ conference that season. The game took place a week before the state championship game. The Ridgers won, but it was tough.
“Boy, they were real tough,” Cowan said of Bayley-Ellard, which closed in 2005. “We played them at home. We won the game, but it was a real tough ballgame.”
In that game against Bayley-Ellard, Stanisci suffered a concussion. He finished the game but had to sit out a few practices before being cleared to play in the state championship against New Providence.
“I wouldn’t miss that for the world, no way,” said Stanisci.
San Fillipo noted that the week before the championship game, New Providence lost to Middletown North High School, a solid Group 4 school, by a competitive score of 13-9. “We were looking like, ‘Geez, we don’t play teams like Middletown North,’ and New Providence was awfully good,” said San Filippo, who lives in Morristown. “We were waiting on Stanisci’s injury, and we finally got the go-ahead on that Thursday that he was going to be able to play, which was a big relief.”
The Ridgers beat New Providence, 28-14, to win the sectional title. Stanisci had a great performance, as he completed 14 of 20 passes for 220 yards and three touchdowns.
“Stanisci was an exceptional quarterback at any level,” said the 72-year-old San Fillipo, who also refereed college basketball for 22 years, until he was 54.
Cowan vividly remembers the state championship game.
“It was an amazing event,” Cowan said. “I think there were over 5,000 people at Hurrell Field. New Providence was a very highly rated team at that time. They had knocked off Summit, and Summit at that time was ranked in the top five in the state, so we knew we had our hands full. … Although there wasn’t any question as to whether (Stanisci) was going to play, we didn’t know how much we were going to be able to rely upon him. But we kind of laid the hammer right from the start, and the game wasn’t really in question and we were able to beat them.”
Said Ortman, “They were very good and were favored to beat us solidly, but we had a real good day. Things went our way. and it was a good way to go out.”
Yet it wasn’t the final game of the season. The Ridgers played their first-ever Thanksgiving Day game just five days later against Montclair Immaculate Conception. They won a low-scoring game to complete the 9-1 season.
“I think we were still sore from the New Providence game,” Cowan said. “It was an incredible year, and we were so fortunate as kids to have the coaching staff that we did.”
“That was probably one of the highest points in a long period,” said San Fillipo.
After being on Horey’s coaching staff for eight seasons — three as a freshman coach and five as a varsity assistant coach — San Fillipo, a 1967 Belleville High School graduate, became the head coach at the age of 29 and coached the Ridgers for six years. He guided the program to a 42-14 record. He left Glen Ridge and was then the head coach at Verona. After Verona, he became the head coach at Nutley High School for eight seasons, from 1990 to 1997. San Fillipo led Nutley to the 1992 North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 title, which was also the last time Nutley won a state sectional title.
Looking back, Ortman said winning the championship now feels bittersweet. Two key players — Danny Gleeson and Zeuner — have died in the last few years. Gleeson, Ortman and Zeuner played together in the defensive secondary. On offense, Gleeson was a receiver, and Zeuner, who later became a Glen Ridge police officer, played tight end.
“I speak for Mike and Jimmy and the rest of the team and coaches in saying we would sign up tomorrow for an 0-10 season if it meant getting Rob Zeuner and Danny Gleeson back in our lives,” Ortman said. “They were two great players but even better friends and fathers. That’s how much they meant to all of us.”
Zeuner finished with 39 receptions for 650 yards and five touchdowns, and was one of the leading tacklers on the team as a cornerback in 1982. In the New Providence state championship game, Zeuner had six receptions for 130 yards and also had 10 tackles. He was named second team all–Essex County and first team all-state Group 1.
Ortman, who lives in North Caldwell, was a three-year starter in football and baseball, and earned all-conference recognition in both sports and all-county honors in baseball. He was a standout football player at the University of New Haven, where he set the single-season pass reception record and was elected sole captain of the team as a senior.
To many people in Glen Ridge, the 1982 Ridgers state championship football team will always remain special.
Photos Courtesy of Jim Cowan and Mike Stanisci
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