ROSELLE, NJ — On April 23 and 24, 1965, six young men from the Roselle Catholic High School track and field team, in the year of its first full graduating class, traveled to the renowned Penn Relays in Philadelphia and returned home with two Championship of America relay titles. The team was coached by a 28-year-old teacher at the school, Frank Gagliano.
On Saturday, March 29, Roselle Catholic honored the 60th anniversary of these races, its first coach – the famed “Gags” – and the 1965 team with a full day of activities beginning at 9:30 a.m.
The morning program featured the Coach Frank Gagliano Team Challenge, a six-school track and field meet. The team-scoring meet format, more common in the 1960s than today, included head-to-head races and field events by grade level, with boys’ and girls’ team scores recorded. The participating schools were Roselle Catholic, Roselle; St. Benedict’s Prep, Newark; St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Edison; Mount Saint Dominic Academy, Caldwell; Beloved Community Charter School, Jersey City; and University Academy Charter School, Jersey City.
An alumni reunion lunch will follow in the school cafeteria, featuring guest speakers from the 1965 team and a recently taped interview with Gagliano. The interview took place in the North Jersey apartment he shares with his wife of 64 years, Roberta. Gagliano, who turned 88 on March 20, began his storied coaching career at Roselle Catholic from 1961 to 1969 and progressed to even greater achievements at the Division 1 college level, at Manhattan College, Rutgers and Georgetown. After retiring from Georgetown in 2001 and founding the world-class Reebok Enclave club team, coach “Gags” was hired by Nike to coach its Olympic-level middle-distance athletes at Stanford, California, and Eugene, Oregon, for nearly a decade. He eventually returned to New York/New Jersey, where he established a track club for post-collegiate Olympic-level athletes.
Alums from the 1965 team and other years traveled from Florida, Arizona and other states to reunite and share memories. The six young athletes who comprised the winning Distance Medley Relay and Two-Mile Relay teams were Mike Garvey, Bob Hoffman, Bill Klimas, Rich Shaffer, Jim McCue and Pete Billia. Garvey, who anchored both teams, was in attendance. Hoffman, who ran the third legs on both relays, passed away in 2016 but will be represented by family members.
The reunion was organized by the Roselle Catholic’s Spiked Shoe Club, led by its president, Joseph Savage, Class of 1970. “The success of the 1965 team gave the RC teams that followed the confidence to aim for national excellence and more Penn Relays titles,” said Savage. Within a few years of 1965, Savage was anchoring Roselle Catholic to victory in the same two-mile relay at the Penn Relays in both 1968 and 1970.
“We are so excited to welcome so many alumni back to campus on March 29. The reunion aligns with a year-long fundraising effort which has already resulted in investment in new track and field equipment for the high school team,” said Savage.
Photo Courtesy of Rhianna Jones