COLLINGSWOOD CLASS OF 1971 

 

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Michael Landon’s childhood in N.J. was hard. Local fan says it’s worth commemorating.

July 1, 2021

 By Rob Jennings | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Abbe Effron has a mission: To make sure Collingswood never forgets Michael Landon grew up there.

That’s even if Collingswood for decades seemed wary of embracing the beloved TV icon who often spoke of his difficult childhood in the 1940s and 1950s, back when he was known as Eugene Orowitz, shining an awkward spotlight on what today has evolved into a trendy, inclusive suburb five miles outside of Philadelphia.

“I think the town was quietly proud of him. They just didn’t want to admit it,” said Effron, 61, a former Collingswood resident who got a memorial plaque installed and touts Landon’s local legacy at every opportunity.

Landon was 54 when he died 30 years ago, on July 1, 1991. He was among the biggest TV stars of the 1960s, 70s and 80s — an actor, writer, director and producer who starred in “Bonanza,” “Little House on the Prairie” and “Highway to Heaven.” All three shows remain popular in reruns, especially Little House, which drew notice last year for two episodes involving 19th Century plagues with similarities to the coronavirus pandemic.

Landon picked the name under which he became famous a few years after graduating from Collingswood High School, on the advice of a talent agent. He was born in Queens, New York, and moved with his parents at age 4 to Collingswood.

Landon often discussed his Collingswood childhood in unsparing detail, and how it shaped his interest in developing shows that emphasized close-knit families and communities — in many ways the opposite of his experience growing up. “Sam’s Son,” a 1984 film directed and written by Landon, was based in part on his childhood in Collingswood.

In his final interview, published by Life Magazine two months before his death, Landon recounted the anti-Semitism he experienced growing up in Collingswood. Only two or three Jewish families lived there, he recalled, and motorists shouted slurs when driving past his home. He was skinny and struggled to fit in at school.

Landon discussed his mother’s mental illness, and how as a young boy he saw her make attempts at suicide. His 1976, semi-autobiographical movie, “The Loneliest Runner,” drew inspiration from another painful memory. Landon wet his bed until he was a teenager and his mother hung the sheets out of his bedroom window to humiliate him.

Then, in high school, he had a breakthrough. A coach discovered his skill at throwing a javelin. He became muscular and set a state record in 1954, not long before he left for Hollywood and launched a career that, only a few years earlier, would have been unthinkable.

An admirer since “Little House” debuted in 1974, Effron remembers where she was when she heard that Landon had died, following a brief and very public battle with inoperable cancer.

“I was home sick with a cold. It came on over the news. I just sobbed,” said Effron, a Philadelphia native who had moved to Collingswood two years earlier.

Michael Landon

Michael Landon's yearbook photo at Collingswood High School (Edited to remove address)

Not long after, she sought support for installing a memorial plaque in a local park, but encountered resistance.

“Nobody wanted to help. It was met with such animosity. People would say, well, my uncle went to school with him, or he knew my father, and they say he didn’t like Collingswood. So I said, fine, I’ll do it myself,” recalled Effron, who raised $1,400.

The plaque was dedicated in 1997, on the same day as a new playground called the “Little Treehouse on the Prairie,” one year after Effron moved to neighboring Cherry Hill. Landon’s widow, Cindy Landon, provided more than $6,000 for the playground, at Effron’s request.

Cindy Landon, along with three of his children, visited Collingswood to see the plaque, playground and also attend Landon’s posthumous induction into the high school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Effron tagged along in the limo, along with two of Landon’s classmates — both since deceased — as the family took a tour of his hometown.

The group swung by Landon’s childhood home — the woman who bought it from his parents were still living there — and all were invited in to see his bedroom. Effron also directed them to a Wawa on the border with Haddon Township, formerly the location of the Collmont Diner.

“He would get cheesesteaks there,” she recalled telling them.

“They just wanted to be in the same space where he was as a kid,” she explained.

Fourteen years later, Landon’s still-extensive fan base was in an uproar when the plaque was quietly removed.

“It was literally sitting in the dump. They didn’t even call me. Apparently, they were concerned someone would run into the plaque and trip over it, but no one ever did,” Effron said.

Landon’s widow was among those expressing concern, and Effron said she offered to call Mayor Jim Maley. It’s not clear if that happened but the plaque was soon returned to the park, where it remains to this day.

Maley, in office since 1997, did not respond to requests for comments on Landon.

Michael Landon's legacy in Collingswood, June 23, 2021

A plaque and playground are dedicated to Michael Landon at Knight Park in Collingswood, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media

Collingswood Commissioner Rob Lewandowski told NJ Advance Media the borough is a much different and more inclusive place than in Landon’s childhood.

“We need to reconcile our past with our present set of values. To look at what he went through, and see what he accomplished, I think that people would sort of appreciate that Horatio Alger story,” Lewandowski said.

He spoke of attending his son’s high school graduation last week, and how “you could see sort of the rich tapestry of families and background” in Collingswood.

Today, the focus in Collingswood is on fostering inclusion, he added.

“That certainly didn’t exist then for Michael Landon,” he said.

Michael Landon

Michael Landon, then known as Eugene Orowitz, as seen with his javelin in a Collingswood High School yearbook.Photo courtesy of Collingswood Public Library

Effron continues to offer tours to Landon’s legion of fans who typically contact her via any number of Facebook fan groups. She is encouraging other tributes, including an ongoing fundraising effort by three admirers from out of state who want to install a memorial bench near where he used to go fishing as a child.

No detail about Landon’s childhood appears to escape her. An office building in Haddon Heights used to be a synagogue and it was there that Landon, whose father was Jewish, received his bar mitzvah.

“Until two years ago, it still had the stained-glass windows,” she said.

Abbe Effron, points out a small dock where Michael Landon would fish with his father at Newton Lake Park in Collingswood, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media

Lewandowski, 51, grew up in Old Bridge and moved to Collingswood around two decades ago. He recalled watching “Highway to Heaven” reruns while in college.

While Landon remains by far Collingswood’s biggest celebrity, the passage of time has diminished the connection, he acknowledged.

“I don’t know that there’s anyone more endearing or more talked about than Michael Landon, and on the other hand there are young folks who have no idea about him, in the same way they don’t know about Clark Gable,” Lewandowski said.

Effron is moving to Marlton in a couple of weeks, but said she will remain Michael Landon’s local ambassador in Collingswood.

“I’ll still give tours. Not a problem,” she said.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism you rely on and trust.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.

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(Email New Items to joed@jwdonohue.net)

Classmate and Artist Maureen Drdak Profiled by ABC News on February 3, 2021

https://abc7ny.com/art-sheet-metal-artist-philly/10218136/

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NJ Wrestling Championships: Collingswood's Clark finishes on top- First State Champion from Collingswood since 1992

 Tom McGurk, Cherry Hill Courier-Post Published 8:06 p.m. ET March 7, 2020 | Updated 5:44 p.m. ET March 8, 2020

ATLANTIC CITY – Andy Clark wanted just one thing in his scholastic wrestling career.

He spent countless hours working on his skills, strengthening his mind and body — all so he could have the nine letters of his name etched forever on the board inside the Collingswood High School wrestling room.

Andy Clark’s dream was fulfilled on Saturday — the senior is a state champion.

Clark turned Delbarton’s Andrew Troczynski to his back in the second period and carried the momentum to an -5 victory in the 145-pound state final at Boardwalk Hall.

The pro-Andy crowd launched into a frenzy as Clark celebrated the best day of his young life.

“Ever since I put on the shoes, this has been my goal to win a state title,” said Clark, who finished his career with 161 victories. “I’m going to look up at the wall at Collingswood and see my name on the board. It’s been my goal ever since Day 1 and I finally did it.”

Andy Clark’s greatest moment on the mat@TheMatPackpic.twitter.com/yBcReSuQcf

— Tom McGurk (@McGurkSports) March 7, 2020

Clark was mobbed by his teammates shortly after the match, the majority of them with bleached-blond hair, a postseason tradition for Colls grapplers. He became the first state champ for Collingswood since John Koss won his second state title in 1992. Koss’ mother sat with the Clark family in the stands.

“It’s a lot of hard work from Andy and his family,” said Collingswood coach Dechlin Moody, who caught a leaping Clark in his arms after the bout. “Talking to Coach (Ken) Chambers earlier and he said that Andy’s got to finish on top, that’s the only way his career can end. I’m superstitious but I had to agree with him.”

While Clark will be donning the Rutgers’ scarlet next season, it’s obviously that he will always bleed Collingswood blue.

“Collingswood is my life, Collingswood is my hometown,” Clark said. “I love it. It will forever be my home.”

Clark wrestled tentatively in his semifinal win over Paulsboro’s Gabe Onorato, but he looked like the old Andy in the final.

 “We had a long talk after that match,” Moody said. “He needed to show the crowd what he’s all about. He came out a little cold and when he got taken down, it kinda woke him up. That’s Andy Clark, we saw the real Andy Clark in the end.”

After surrendering a takedown in the first period, Clark set the tone for the rest of the bout by turning Troczynski in the second period with a nasty arm bar that gave him a 4-3 lead.

“I knew I had his arm, once I get that bar locked up, it’s game over,” Clark said.

It wasn’t game over just yet. Troczynski battled back, landing a match-tying takedown with 22 seconds left in regulation.

Then, Troczynski surprisingly cut him loose, figuring he would have a better chance at getting a match-winning takedown.

It didn’t happen.

“I think it was smart by him (to let me go), he took me down twice, he tried to get one more,” Clark said.

Clark fought off one last-ditch attempt by Troczynski before getting a clinching takedown himself, leaving just one thing left to do for any one wearing the Collingswood "C" on their attire.

“It’s going to be a party in Atlantic City tonight,” Moody said.

Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter for the Courier-Post and The Daily Journal, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years

 

A look back at the most famous Thanksgiving Day game in South Jersey football history

Posted: November 16, 2018 - 10:50 AM

Philadelphia Inquirer

http://www2.philly.com/philly/sports/high_school/howard-skeets-irvine-collingswood-high-school-football-thanksgiving-1948-20181116.html

 Phil Anastasia | @PhilAnastasia | panastasia@phillynews.com

Seventy years later, Gordon Leslie still remembers walking around the corner and telling his best friend, the team's star quarterback, that their coach was dead.

It seemed surreal at the time to Leslie, who was a 17-year-old halfback for Collingswood's undefeated 1948 football team.

It still belies belief today, as Leslie looks back across the decades to the most cinematic Thanksgiving Day in South Jersey football history.

"It was such a shock," said Leslie, 87. "Nobody could believe it."

When high school football teams and their fans gather Thursday morning for a Thanksgiving tradition as much a part of the holiday as turkey and stuffing, they also will mark an anniversary: It will be 70 years since Collingswood played a game that still seems like something out of a storybook.

In a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction scenario, Collingswood beat Woodbury, 20-6, before 12,000 spectators that day to finish the season with a 10-0 record.

But here's the dramatic twist: The Panthers won the game as their legendary coach, Howard "Skeets" Irvine, lay on his death bed in a local hospital. Irvine, whose record of 223 victories stood atop South Jersey's all-time list for another 45 years, passed away that night.

Irvine’s obituary on the front page of the Camden Evening Courier on Nov. 26, 1948.

"I scored the last touchdown," said 86-year-old Ben Addiego, then a junior halfback for the Panthers. "They said he heard it on the radio, smiled, and died right then."

Leslie has much the same recollection: "The story we got is that they told Skeets we won, he smiled, and then he died."

Regardless of the details, Irvine's death on the night his final team completed a perfect season stands as perhaps the most compelling story in the history of South Jersey football.

His passing sent an entire region and football community into mourning, as it's almost impossible to overstate the coach's influence on the town, the sport, the school, and the Panthers program during his 30 seasons from 1919 to 1948.

Irvine's record was 223-56-19. His teams won 16 championships. He had six undefeated teams and 11 one-loss teams.

Beyond the wins and losses, Irvine was a coach out of central casting. He was the personification of that bygone era, a perfect gentleman who rarely raised his voice but still brought out the best in his players.

Collingswood legendary coach Howard “Skeets” Irvine won 223 games from 1919 to 1948, a mark that stood atop South Jersey’s all-time list for more than 40 years.

"He was a beautiful man," Addiego said. "He inspired me. He inspired so many people."

Said Leslie: "He was so idolized. You couldn't wait to play for him. Growing up, going to games, jumping the fence when you're a young kid, that's all you want to do, play for Skeets Irvine."

Donald Douglass, a sophomore on the 1948 team, said his family's backyard was adjacent to Collingswood's practice field during his youth.

"I would watch them practice," Douglass, 85, said. "I always wanted to play for him. Everybody wanted to play for him."

Irvine was so widely respected that earlier that season a banquet held in his honor at Collingswood's Masonic Hall just after the team's 6-0 win over Bridgeton – the defending South Jersey Group 4 champion that entered with a 16-game winning streak – was attended by more than 1,000 people.

A table was set aside for players from each of Irvine's 30 teams. At the end of the night, the coach was presented with keys to a new Oldsmobile.

When Irvine died, a fellow Collingswood teacher named J. Arthur Ferner sent a letter to the editor of the local newspaper that read, in part: "There will be many more games played at Colls High, and many a victory gained by the Blue and Gold. But there will never come a day when someone won't remark, 'Wouldn't Skeets have loved to see that run?' "

Irvine was 51.

"When you're 17, you think 51 is old," Douglass said. "Now I realize how young he was."

Irvine coached three more games after the midseason banquet. His last appearance on the sideline was a 20-6 win over Haddonfield on Nov. 13. He was hospitalized that weekend with a kidney ailment.

"When you're young, you go out and practice and you're like, 'Oh, he's sick. He'll be back next game,' " Leslie said. "But it went on."

Assistant coach Cliff Rubicam directed the team to a 19-0 win over Audubon on Nov. 20 and into the annual Thanksgiving Day clash with Woodbury, set for the afternoon of Nov. 25.

More than 12,000 spectators packed Collingswood's Shields Stadium for the season finale. Those kinds of crowds were typical in those post-World War II days, when high school football's popularity was at its peak.

"High school football was the only thing going," Douglass said. "There was no TV, no nothing."

Leslie and Addiego scored touchdowns in the victory, as did quarterback Ted Narleski, who in the early 1950s became the last single-wing tailback at UCLA.

It was the perfect end to a perfect season. Collingswood outscored 10 opponents by a combined 240-32, with six shutouts.

But that team's flawless mark forever will be accompanied by a sad footnote: Those athletes were the last to play for Irvine, and their final victory came on his final day.

That night, Leslie heard the news and walked around the block in his Woodlynne neighborhood to Narleski's house.

"I told him and he didn't believe it," Leslie said. "He said, 'Gordie, I didn't know he was that sick.'

"I said, 'I didn't either, Ted.' "

 Collingswood 1948 results

Sept. 25: Gloucester 59-0 W

Oct. 2: Woodrow Wilson 33-0 W

Oct. 9: Vineland 20-7 W

Oct. 16: Atlantic City 25-0 W

Oct. 23: Bridgeton 6-0 W

Oct. 30: Camden 12-0 W

Nov. 6: Phillipsburg 26-13 W

Nov. 13: Haddonfield 20-6 W

Nov. 20: Audubon 19-0 W

Nov. 25: Woodbury 20-6 W

 

GOODBYE, OLD STADIUM

September 29, 2018

Hi, Joe.

After tennis this morning, I watched the first half of Colls home game against the Rams of Gloucester Catholic. With the old stadium gone, fans could only find seating in two aluminum bleachers set up on the visitor side of the field.

The team and coaches still lined up on the Colls side, in front of the rubble of the old stadium. The commentary of “the Voice of the Panther” was broadcasting from a scissor lift that hoisted him above the field, considering that the remains of the old broadcast booth were lying among the broken bits on the ground.

The cheers are updated, but still familiar. The CHS marching band is smaller, but the fight song is the same as it was when we played it proudly back in ‘71. Even with the stadium gone, the echoes of that tradition were unmistakable.

Mark (Lohbauer, who also supplied photos)

PS—Colls was leading 14-0 when I left.

Group names Collingswood NJ's top town

Phaedra Trethan

May 3, 2016

COURIER POST

 COLLINGSWOOD - Citing its mix of historic architecture and modern, eclectic shops and restaurants, a financial services group has named Collingswood as the best "Main Street" in New Jersey.

National Life Group's Main Streets Across America noted the borough "is alive with appealing restaurants, art galleries, stores and history. Collingswood is a small community, a borough with almost 14,000 residents, but it has handsomely blended its historic features with modern-day growth and contemporary uses."

The towns were chosen on the basis of strong local businesses; community gathering spots and scenic vistas; celebrations of history and civic pride; and diverse social and cultural events.

To view the map of the 2016 Main Streets Across America, visit https://blog.nationallife.com/main-streets/

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Coach Dick Ridinger has passed away at 92


George Richard Ridinger, "Coach Dick", 92, of West Deptford, NJ passed this life, on February 12, 2015 peacefully at his home, with his wife and Granddaughter, Amanda, at his bed side . Dick was born on June 23, 1922 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Howard and Amy Sheads Ridinger along with 4 brothers and 2 sisters, with surviving siblings Phil Ridinger and Peggy Paris. He is survived by his wife and soul mate of 68 years, Tommie, his 2 sons, and wives: Jim "JR with Loren and Tom with Susan, and 4 grandchildren who he adored: Amanda, Amber, Andy and Alex and a great grandson Ayden.

Dick graduated from Gettysburg College and held a Master's Degree in Education.

Click here to read more:DickRidingerObit.htm