George Maguire, the Hoboken gridiron great who died last week, didn’t realize his attempt to play college football in 1979 would eventually become national headlines.
Maguire had left the University of Oklahoma way back in 1956 to come home to Hoboken to work, and somehow managed to return to school 23 years later.
“I had to leave after my junior year to come home to Hoboken and get a job,” Maguire recalled in a 2006 interview. “I didn’t graduate. It was part of life’s twists and turns. I had to work.”
Maguire’s junior year at Oklahoma had been back in 1956, when the national champion Sooners were in the middle of their NCAA record 47-game winning streak. Maguire was at the school on a football scholarship.
By the time Maguire went back, he was 44 years old.
“I went to visit the school in the middle 70’s and I told my wife that I had some unfinished business,” Maguire said. “I wanted to go back and get my degree.”
And one last thing as well.
“I wanted to play football,” Maguire said.
The determined and unwavering Maguire was so insistent upon finishing his playing days at Oklahoma that he filed a clearance with both the NCAA and the Big Eight Conference, seeking permission to resume his playing career.
“I asked them to interpret the rules to see if I had any eligibility left,” Maguire did. “I found out that I did. They both said it was fine with them, as long as Oklahoma approved it.”
Maguire then contacted then-Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer to see if he could return to the Sooners.
Switzer thought that Maguire needed to have his head examined. So did many of Maguire’s friends. This wasn’t just any football team. This was the University of Oklahoma, which had the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims on its roster.
“A lot of people told me that I was nuts,” Maguire said. “But Barry Switzer allowed me to come out for preseason camp [in August].”
Sure enough, there was Maguire, at the tender age of 44, heading out to preseason training camp with players less than half his age. National sportswriters picked up on the story and quickly catapulted Maguire into the college football spotlight.
“I think at the time, I was older than Barry,” Maguire said. “It started with the local papers in Norman and then the wire services picked it up. I just wanted to play. I wasn’t doing it for my 15 minutes of fame.”
After Maguire practiced daily with the Sooners for three weeks, Switzer pulled him aside.
“He told me that I wasn’t going to make the team, and that he hated to see me go through everything and not make it,” Maguire said. “I appreciated that he was being honest with me. I stayed around that year and was able to collect my degree.”
Maguire, a member of both the Demarest/Hoboken and Hudson County Sports Halls of Fame, was a standout football and basketball player at Demarest during his heyday, graduating in 1951.
In his later years, Maguire was perhaps the most avid supporter of Hoboken athletics, mostly with the football teams. He was embraced by the football coaching staffs and became one of their own.
“The man was chiseled out of stone,” said Ed Stinson, the former Hoboken head coach and long-time Maguire close friend. “He had that perfect athletic physique. He had the typical football player face. He had such a great reputation from his playing days in high school.”
When Stinson returned to his alma mater in 1987 to begin his storied tenure as head coach, he quickly embraced Maguire.
“George was always there,” Stinson said. “After games, we’d have team meetings with the coaching staff, going over game films until 1 a.m. and George was part of that. He was an absolute pleasure to be around. He was super supportive. There were many times that he went into his own pocket to help pay for kids to go to summer school.”
Former Hoboken assistant coach and Union Hill and Union City head coach Joe Rotondi had a good relationship as well with Maguire.
“I knew him from when I was a player, then as a coach, from a kid to an adult,” Rotondi said. “He was an all-around great guy. No one had more passion for Hoboken football than George. He was the legend that we grew up talking about.”
Current Hoboken head coach Lou Taglieri paid a special tribute at Maguire’s wake last week, placing a mini-Red Wing helmet in his coffin.
“He always thought about Hoboken and Hoboken football first,” Taglieri said. “It was always on his mind. Even in his passing, there are friends of George from California who are going to donate to our program in his honor. His biggest thrill was to be on our sidelines.”
Fellow Hoboken native Tom LiCalsi, a huge Oklahoma football fan, had the pleasure to accompany Maguire on trips to Norman over the years.
“They don’t make them like George anymore,” Taglieri said.
Stinson said that he enjoyed one final time with his buddy Maguire recently.
“Three weeks ago, we went together to see ‘Lombardi’ on Broadway,” Stinson said. “We saw the show and met Dan Lauria [who plays Vince Lombardi in the play]. As it turned out, George knew him. It’s like George knew everyone.”
And anyone who knew George Maguire truly loved him dearly. Hoboken football games just won’t be the same without him roaming the sidelines and being larger than life, a permanent presence among the Red Wings…
There is a Union Hill football reunion on tap for Sunday, April 10, at the Graycliff in Moonachie from 12 noon to 4 p.m. It should be a fun day for all whoever wore the blue and orange of the Hillers. There is a website set up with more information, including an interview with event organizer Julian Romero and former Hiller head coach Carl Holbig on www.unionhillfootball.com. The website has a link where you can buy tickets for the reunion online…-Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.
To read more from Jim, log onto his blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com