MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Columbia High School legendary lacrosse player Bob Bianchi will be posthumously inducted into the latest New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame class.
Bianchi is among the seven former student-athletes and administrators who comprise the induction class. The inductees will be honored at a luncheon on Sunday, March 19, at the Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village, located in Princeton.
Bianchi, a 1979 CHS graduate, earned all-state honors three times from 1977-79 and was an All-American in his junior and senior seasons. In his sophomore and junior seasons, he led CHS to state runner-up finishes. In his senior season, he scored 104 points, a state record that stood for 19 years, leading the team to a 17-0 state-championship campaign. In his career, he posted 116 goals and 112 assists for 228 points.
In December 2000, Bianchi was named the Star-Ledger Boys Lacrosse Player of the 20th century.
Bianchi earned an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he was a lacrosse captain. He graduated in 1983 and reported to flight school in January 1984. Bianchi graduated, earned his “Wings of Gold” and became a naval aviator in 1985.
As a Navy lieutenant, he was tragically killed in March 1987 in a pilot crash on a mission in the Philippines.
Upon his death, the Naval lacrosse Most Valuable Player award was named in his honor. Bianchi was enshrined into the CHS Athletic Hall of Fame and was also a member of the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame’s initial class in 1997.
Bianchi had the distinction of being the first non-coach to have one of the state’s high school lacrosse divisions named in his honor.
Bianchi’s brother, Kevin Bianchi, was another athlete who also became a helicopter pilot like his brother. Kevin Bianchi also died in a training mission crash in Sicily in 2003.
Bob Curcio was the legendary head lacrosse coach for CHS for nine seasons from 1975 to 1983. In a phone interview with the News-Record on Sunday, March 12, Curio shared fond memories of coaching Bianchi and his brothers.
“He was one of my favorite kids,” said Curio of Bob Bianchi, “and not because he was a great player, he was a great kid. Everybody on the team looked up to him. He was confident, but I never considered him to be cocky. He was extremely coachable for a kid who was as good as he was. It was fun (to coach) that whole family – all four brothers played for me, so I knew the family pretty well. (Bob) was the second brother. He started for us as a sophomore; and his older brother, Jimmy, who went to the (naval) academy, was a senior that year; that was the first year we got to the finals, in 1977. We always managed to get knocked out of the semis by either Boonton or Montclair, so 1977 was the first year we got to the final. I think the world of the kid and I think the world of the whole family.”
Curcio mentioned that Jimmy Bianchi was going to fly in from Michigan to attend the induction luncheon, and will be staying with Curcio’s family. Curcio lives in Monmouth Junction, which is about a mile from Westin Princeton, the host of the luncheon.
Curcio served as the athletic director at CHS for 19 years from January 1984 to 2003. Curcio stepped down as the lacrosse coach due to the board of education’s policy regarding administrators not being not allowed to coach. That rule has since changed.
One of the lacrosse division’s in the state is also named in Curcio’s honor.
The other NJSIAA Hall of Fame inductees are Frank Tripucka (posthumously) of Bloomfield High School for football; Lou Creekmur of Woodbridge High School for football; Jack DuBois, a retired NJSIAA assistant director; Mike Grey of the Delbarton School for wrestling; Larry White, a retired NJSIAA executive director; and Ajeé Wilson of Neptune High School for track-and-field.
“Every year we have a new class of inductees, and every year we’re collectively amazed by the achievements of the individuals who’ve been selected,” stated NJSIAA Executive Director Colleen Maguire. “That there’s this seemingly inexhaustible supply of talent and commitment speaks to the long, proud history of scholastic sports in New Jersey.”
In addition to the newest Hall of Fame members, the event also will feature presentations of several annual awards. These are: Award of Honor – Mary Liz Ivins, NJSIAA past-president, Notre Dame High School; Service Awards – Chris Faytok of NJ Advance Media; athletic director Jen Fleury of Villa Walsh Academy; and Dr. Chris Mendler of the NJSIAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee.
Reservations may be made online at enodeland@njsiaa.org or 609-259-2776.
Established in 1918, the NJSIAA is a voluntary, non-profit organization of approximately 435 accredited public and non-public high schools. A member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the NJSIAA conducts tournaments and crowns champions in 33 sports.
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