Public Invited To Celebrate Completion of
THE DON MILLER PROJECT. Don Miller is a MHS graduate, from the Class of 1941 and a member of the MHS Hall of Fame.
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Wednesday, June 11, 7 p.m. at The Montclair Art Museum
The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) and its African American Cultural Committee, in coordination with The Rutgers University Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and The Modern Experience, will present an evening of art, performance and remembrance to celebrate the completion of The Don Miller Project on Wednesday, June 11 at 7 p.m. The Don Miller Project is a screenplay by Jason Lemire based on the life and times of the late Montclair artist, civil rights activist and MHS Hall of Famer Don Miller (1923-1993), who lived during a critical time in race relations in the United States.
The event is free and will be held at the Museum, 3 South Mountain Avenue, Montclair.
As a film hero, Don Miller stands as a quiet revolutionary, whose lifetime as a black man in America traces the arc of the tumultuous 20th century. As an artist, Miller created positive depictions of black peoples that were years, sometimes decades ahead of their time. As a man, he challenged racial intolerance in his hometown by moving his family across the "redline" that had separated Montclair's black and white neighborhoods for generations. Miller's greatest achievement, The King Mural, (on permanent display in Washington, D.C. at The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library), brought many of the luminaries of the American Civil Rights Movement to Montclair, including the legendary Rosa Parks.
Lemire has been researching and writing Miller's story as a writer-in-residence with The Rutgers University Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and The Modern Experience under the direction of the New Jersey historian Dr. Clement Price. The Don Miller Project has received wide ranging support from the Montclair community with dozens of individuals participating in interviews to share their stories as well as making donations to keep the project moving forward.
For more information on The Don Miller Project visit www.donmillerproject.com.
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You are cordially invited to attend:
Gibbs-Robinson Recognition Ceremony Day
Where: Anderson Park, Upper Montclair.
When: June 14, 2008.
Time: 1 p.m.
What: The unveiling of a memorial for former Montclair High School lacrosse coach, Gil Gibbs and his assistant, Homer Robinson, who teamed to build the first lacrosse dynasty in the State of New Jersey. In the Gibbs Era, Montclair’s home field was Anderson Park, part of the Essex County Parks System.
FROM 1969-1978, GIBBS AND ROBINSON led Montclair to a 144-10 record, elevating their teams to national distinction. Included in the 10-year run were seven state championships, a 42-game winning streak, a 31-game winning streak and eight consecutive junior varsity state championships.
*At a time when players from Baltimore and Long Island stocked Division I college rosters and New Jersey produced few collegians, Montclair sent more players to national lacrosse powers Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Navy than any other program in the state. As collegians, six Montclair players went on to win Division I championships and 10 were selected to All-American teams.
*Today, 10 former Montclair players from the Gibbs Era are enshrined in the New Jersey Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame, the largest contingent from any high school in the state. Among the members are current Montclair High coach Peter von Hoffmann, and Paul Edwards, coach of Montclair-Kimberley Academy.
*Gil and Homer are members of the New Jersey Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame.
Coach Gibbs was also a long time basketball and soccer coach. All former members of these teams are welcome as well.
All Homer’s former MHS football players are extended the warmest welcome.
Speakers
*Joyce Halper-Essex County
*Ed Remsen-Mayor Montclair
*John Porcelli-AD MHS
*Ed Lebida-MHS Football Coach
*Bob Curcio-Columbia High
*Peter von Hoffmann-MHS Lacrosse Coach
Master of Ceremony
*Paul Edwards-MKA Lacrosse Coach
DO YOU FEEL LIKE BUMPIN’ TO SOME OLD SCHOOL?
Then get your groove on at the Montclair High School Gary F. Whitlock Memorial Scholarchip "Back in the Day" Fundraiser party on Saturday, November 3rd, 7:30 pm to 11:30 pm.
Mounties in Print
Revised and Updated Thru 2005!
"Montclair High School Football History"
Is now available again.
"Close your eyes. Let your mind take you back to a glorious autumn afternoon as you visualize a football game at Woodman Field. Tune your senses to the sights and sounds all around and remember what it was like to be there. The stands are crowded with excited fans and the band can be heard marching into the field to a drumbeat cadence. Hear the cheerleaders as they entreat the crowd of thousands to "stand up and holler" for Montclair. And see the boys in blue and white as they walk onto the field, in good Mountie tradition, eager to take on the opponent in another contest for gridiron glory. The anticipation is high because it's a Montclair High School football game."
That sets the mood for "The Glory Years," a new book by local author Robin Hodgson, which is about Montclair High School football in the Clary Anderson/Butch Fortunato era. The book spans the time from the late 1920's when Clary played for MHS, through the 1983 season when Montclair won its first "official" State Championship (in the State Championship playoff format) and Butch retired from coaching. The years in between are about how Clary and Butch created legendary gridiron success and the athletes who made it happen.
More than two dozen people were interviewed for the book and it gives an "up-close" account of Montclair football as told through the eyes of those who played for MHS over the decades --- their stories in their own words. Do you know why the Mounties have traditionally walked onto the field before a game, instead of running? Do you know the story of Clary's winning "Bloomfield game tie"? Are you one of those hundreds of kids who used to "jump the fence" to get into Woodman Field on a Saturday afternoon? This book is about the people, the games, the traditions and the aura surrounding Montclair football. So get ready to sit back, curl up with this nostalgic book, and re-live your "glory years" at Montclair High School.
To place an order, please call or e-mail: 828-698-4517 or rwh577@yahoo.com or send regular mail to me at:
1005 Fleetwood Plaza
Hendersonville, NC
28739
Montclair High has an enviable record to defend in the national Fed Challenge Competition, in which students from different schools present 15 minute oral arguments before a panel of judges on economic issues such as combating inflation and whether or not to raise interest rates. MHS teams have won six of the past seven years' regional competitions, and advanced to the finals in Washinton, DC five times since the competition began ten years ago. The 2001 team even captured the national championship.
That might well have been the case in late April too --Montclair's team defeated the one that ended up advancing to the finals in Washington, DC and winning--were the MHS competitors not victims of their own past triumphs. To increase wider participation and the likelihood of success in a greater number of schools, the Federal Reserve instituted a scoring system in which winners receive a handicap of one point, with points accumulating each year. Entering the regional rounds, Montclair's team came away victorious in a field of roughly 100-110, but their two-point lead couldn't overcome their three-point handicap. Presumably, they'll start next year with a fresh slate, says Tom Manos, who along with Tom Clifford and lead instructor Jack Weber, is one of three MHS teacher/coaches who help prepare the team.
Tryouts for the team are rigorous. Held in the fall or winter, they determine the five student "presenters," two alternates and 10-15 student researchers who will spend hours daily and on weekends over the next several months studying, writing potential scenarios and debating in preparation. Community volunteers with expertise in economics and market principles help the students practice by grilling them as bank presidents and Reserve members will at the competition.
(Montclair High School Connections, Volume 2, Issue 2, June 2004)
