During their finest days as athletes, Jim Connors and Phil Baccarella represented the best two-sport athletes of their time at Bayonne High School, both excelling in basketball and baseball at Bayonne and into college.
Now, the two have another distinction in common. They are both members of the Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame.
Connors, who played at Bayonne High in the 1950s, and Baccarella, who was perhaps the greatest athlete of his era in the 60s and still currently works at the school and coaches the baseball team, were among 15 former great athletes and coaches to receive their awards at the 18th Annual Induction Dinner last Thursday at the Casino-in-the-Park in Jersey City.
Connors, who was also known by the nickname of “Red,” was a terrific two-sport standout at Bayonne High School and later Fordham University.
Connors was an All-County performer in both baseball and basketball at Bayonne High (1948-51) and also helped the Bees to win a state championship in baseball and a state championship in basketball, becoming the first Bayonne athlete to win state titles in both sports.
Connors then went to Fordham University and helped the Rams to reach the quarterfinals of the 1953 NCAA Tournament. Upon graduation from Fordham, Connors enlisted in the United States Air Force for three years, eventually reaching the rank of Captain.
After his tour of duty ended, Connors went to Fordham Law School and practiced law for more than 40 years. He remains active working at his daughter’s law firm in Boonton part-time. Connors and wife Ellen have four children and 12 grandchildren.
“I got out the old scrap book that was in the back of the garage,” Connors said. “I guess I was just lucky to play with some great players and a great coach [the late Billy Lee, who was a coaching immortal at Bayonne]. He was like a father to me. This is a great honor and I am completely humble. I can now answer my grandchildren when they ask me when I was an athlete, was I any good?”
Baccarella, who stole the evening’s festivities with his touching moments and his humorous side, was a standout basketball and baseball player at Bayonne High (1965-68), earning All-County and All-State honors in both sports.
As a basketball player, Baccarella scored 1,386 points, still the highest point total in the history of the school. He helped the Bees reach the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group IV finals as a sophomore, then averaged 22 points per game for the Bayonne team that spent most of the season ranked at No. 1 in the state. As a senior in 1968, Baccarella averaged 24 points per game, leading the Bees to the HCIAA championship, earning First Team All-Hudson County and Second Team All-State.
As a baseball player at Bayonne, Baccarella led the Bees to two straight South Hudson championships in 1966 and 1967 and the HCIAA title in 1968. In fact, Baccarella led Hudson County in scoring in basketball and batting in baseball his senior year and was the only athlete to be recognized as First Team All-County in both sports.
Upon graduation from Bayonne High, Baccarella went on to Montclair State College (1969-72), where his athletic prowess continued. He was a three-year starter in basketball at Montclair State, where he scored 1,085 points and grabbed 634 rebounds. He scored the 1,000th point of his college career at Madison Square Garden against FDU. Baccarella was twice named to the All-New Jersey Athletic Conference team and All-Metropolitan.
In baseball at Montclair State, Baccarella batted better than .333 in each of his seasons, leading his team to two conference championships. In 1986, Baccarella was inducted into the Montclair State College Hall of Fame for both basketball and baseball, the only two-sport inductee in the school’s history.
After graduating from Montclair State, Baccarella came home to Bayonne High School, where he’s been a teacher and coach for the last 35 years. In his tenure as head baseball coach at Bayonne, Baccarella has won more than 325 games and won two NJSIAA state sectional crowns and three HCIAA titles.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to coach doctors, lawyers, policemen, firemen, pizza makers,” Baccarella said. “Those are my favorites. But I get to watch them grow into young men, have their own families. It’s great to see. Coaching is about the people. I treasure and value the friendships I’ve made over the years in sports. Getting an award like this is about you as much it is about me.”
Baccarella made a comment about his brother, Richard, who is also the principal at Bayonne High School.
“There’s not a man I love more than my brother and if there ever was a Hall of Fame for brothers, he would be on the first ballot,” Baccarella said. “Having said that, I don’t want cafeteria duty ever again for the rest of my career.”
Baccarella credited his two children, who he said were not only his kids, but his best friends. The comment moved his son, P.J., an assistant coach with his father on the Bayonne varsity baseball team, to tears.
He then mentioned his wife, Christine.
“She’s the real Hall of Famer,” Baccarella said. “She’s from Toms River and when we got married, she said she wanted to live in the suburbs. So I took her to Bayonne, a suburb of Jersey City. I’ve always said that if I ever were in a foxhole, she’s the first one I want there with me.”
The induction of Connors and Baccarella brought the total to 24 inductees from Bayonne since the Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame’s initial induction class in 1991.
Jim Hague can be reached via e-mail at either OGSMAR@aol.com or jhague@hudsonreporter.com