ROSELLE PARK, NJ — This will be it.
Not only will this be the final Roselle vs. Roselle Park football game to be played on Thanksgiving, but it will be the final Thanksgiving Day football played altogether in Union County.
Period.
The year is 2025 and in New Jersey we now, since 2022, play down to a single group state champion.
As a result, with the season starting much earlier, slowly but surely, most of Thanksgiving Day football has been phased out.
No more Linden vs. Union, Rahway vs. Arthur L. Johnson, Governor Livingston vs. New Providence.
Last year was the final Plainfield vs. Westfield clash on the holiday, a series that lasted 120 games and was second in New Jersey only to Millville vs. Vineland, which is still intact.
The final 2025 Union County football game will be Roselle’s Abraham Clark High School at Roselle Park High School on Thursday, Nov. 27, at 10 a.m., at Roselle Park’s Herm Shaw Field.
Roselle Park is 5-4 and seeking a second winning season in three years, while Roselle is 2-8 and out to beat the host Panthers for a second year in a row.
Westfield and Plainfield opened with each other this year and beginning next year will play on Week 8. Roselle and Roselle Park will do the same beginning in 2026.
Before next week’’lash pre-game festivities will take place to honor the final Thanksgiving Day game played between Roselle and Roselle Park.
Roselle Park leads the series 52-45-8, with this being game No. 106. The series began in 1915 and the only years the game was not played were in 1916, 1917 and 1918, because of World War 1; 2018, because Roselle Park only fielded a junior varsity team that year; and in 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roselle–Roselle Park Thanksgiving traditions include the Signorello Family Bonfire, the Roselle Park Dad’s Club-sponsored sausage and peppers at Frenchy’s Bar & Grill on the Wednesday night before the game and the UNICO-sponsored Thursday morning breakfast, which includes Roselle and Roselle Park dignitaries and captains of both teams.
Roselle has been led by head coach Tyrone Turner since 2024, with his record at the helm of the Rams 6-15, including 1-0 vs. Roselle Park.
Roselle Park has been guided by head coach Greg Dunkerton since 2020, with his record at the helm of the Panthers 22-35, including 1-3 vs. Roselle.
Roselle Park has a 27-24-2 record against Roselle in games played at Roselle Park’s Herm Shaw Field.
Roselle has a record of 21-25-6 in games played at Roselle’s E. Ralph Arminio Field.
After Roselle Park won the 100th game played in 2017 by the score of 7-6 at Roselle Park, Roselle has won four of the last five.
Since 1915 – for more than 100 years time – the Roselle Park and Roselle high school football teams have looked forward to battling against each other on Thanksgiving.
Annual late Thursdays in November in that section of Union County take on the meaning of passing the ball early in the morning to passing the turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce later in the afternoon.
In 2017, the 100th game was played.
For the first time in the series, the game was played at the same venue for the second consecutive season. It was Roselle’s turn to host that year, but Roselle’s E. Ralph Arminio Field was under renovation.
Since Roselle got its field turf and then lights, the game has twice been played at Roselle, in 2022 and 2024, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. The last time the game was played at Roselle on Thanksgiving Day was 2019.
Roselle won the first five games in the series. The school that wins three games in a row claims possession of the Golden Shoe.
Roselle was the last team to win three in a row, doing so in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
Roselle’s 42-20 win at Roselle Park in 2016 enabled the Rams to produce their first-ever 10-win season. Roselle finished 10-1 that year after reaching the Central Jersey, Group 2 semifinals for the second time in three years.
Coaches that led their teams in 25 games each were John Wagner of Roselle Park, who is Roselle Park Class of 1969, and Lou Grasso Sr. of Roselle, who is Roselle Class of 1968.
Wagner, the head coach at Roselle Park from 1981 to 2005, had a 14-10-1 record in the game. Grasso Sr., the head coach at Roselle from 1979 to 2003, was 11-13-1. The lone tie was the last one in the series, a 0-0 deadlock at Roselle in 1985.
Wagner, who is the winningest football coach at Roselle Park with a record there of 150-92-2 or .620, attended 51 of the games, beginning at age 10 when he was a student at Aldene Elementary School. Wagner was also an assistant coach on Geoff Hill’s staff for five seasons from 1976-1980.
“The 1985 game stands out because it was a rare year that the game was not played on Thanksgiving,” said Wagner, who also guided Point Pleasant Beach to its only sectional state championship in the playoff era when the Gulls captured Central Jersey, Group 1 in 2013.
Wagner guided Roselle Park to the 1992 and 1993 North 2, Group 1 sectional state championships, the Panthers going 11-0 both of those years.
“It was rained out on Thursday and again on Friday and finally played on Saturday,” Wagner continued. “At the end of the game, because of the rain and all the mud, players from the same team were tackling each other.”
That game resulted in the eighth and final tie in the series and the seventh tie that was a 0-0 final score.
“The game was always popular and, in the late 1980s, the Roselle Park and Roselle Pop Warner teams combined,” Wagner said. “That drummed up more interest.
“It went in cycles with the kids that we both had. It was still a great thing, with the college kids coming home and what took place at Frenchy’s the night before.
“It was an annual thing, where the kids played the game and then, afterward, we pulled the equipment signaling the end of another season.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, both Roselle Park and Roselle played in state championship games that took place after the Thanksgiving Day game. That was the case for Roselle in 1981 (North 2, Group 1), 1989 (North 2, Group 2) and 1990 (North 2, Group 2) and for Roselle Park in 1980, 1985, 1986 1992 and 1993, all in North 2, Group 1.
“Lou (Grasso Sr.) and I made it a point to keep the game on Thanksgiving the years we had championship games that followed,” Wagner said. “It was important to both of us for the game to remain on Thanksgiving morning and keep the tradition going during those years.”
The three times Wagner played in the game – his sophomore, junior and senior seasons of 1966, 1967 and 1968 – Roselle won in 1966 and Roselle Park in 1967 and 1968.
“They were all exciting,” said Wagner, who also said that freshmen did not play varsity back then. “That was before the playoffs, so you knew it was always going to be the last game of the season. It was a big rivalry game for everyone involved.”
The three games Grasso Sr. played in were 1965, 1966 and 1967. Roselle also won the 1965 game, which was played at Roselle. He played for one year with his older brother, Jerry, Roselle Class of 1966.
In the same manner as Wagner, Grasso Sr. was also an assistant at Roselle before he became the head coach. He was an assistant in 1976, 1977 and 1978, before succeeding Kenny Holmes.
“It was the type of game that, no matter how your season went, you always looked forward to it,” Grasso Sr. said. “It was tradition. It was the end of the season.
“We had quite a few exciting games, me and John. It was a battle every year.”
The first time Roselle reached a state championship game was in 1981, when the Rams got to the North 2, Group 1 final against David Brearley High School. In the Thanksgiving Day game that year, Grasso Sr. lost senior quarterback Tim Hansen to a broken arm, with Hansen unavailable to play in the sectional final vs. David Brearley.
“Some teams now play on Wednesday night and don’t play everyone,” Grasso Sr. said. “Back then, we played as hard as we could on Thanksgiving vs. Roselle Park, despite what the circumstances were. That’s just the way it was.”
Top-seeded David Brearley went on to win North 2, Group 1 for the first time in the playoff era in 1981, edging Roselle, 17-15, in the final.
“At Roselle, we played every game like it was a championship game,” Grasso Sr. said.
When you pit neighborhood rivals against each other, especially on the same holiday every year, you can usually put everything aside. The Panthers simply wanted to beat the Rams and the Rams simply wanted to best the Panthers.
“It was always a big deal for us and for me, as a player and as a coach,” Grasso Sr. said. “It was for bragging rights.
“You went across the railroad tracks to play a big game every year.”
Matthews legacy for Roselle Park continued
In 2017, Roselle Park senior captain Sean Matthews, a three-year starter and mainstay on both lines for the Panthers, was one of four Matthews to have played against Roselle on Thanksgiving.
His uncles, Steve and Rob, played for Roselle Park in the 1990s and his older brother, Brian, helped lead the 2012 team to the North 2, Group 1 sectional state championship game. Brian went on to play collegiately at Kean University.
“It means a lot to be part of the 100th game,” Sean Matthews said eight years ago. “I’m just happy to be a part of it. There’s a lot of tradition.”
Photos by JR Parachini
