Two Decades Later, New Jersey Teams Play 'Greatest Game Never Played'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Every day, there is a column on the front page of The Wall Street Journal., below the fold, with an offbeat story of some sort. This is from yesterday's paper, and it's just a great story.

Read it and smile.

Two Decades Later, New Jersey Teams Play 'Greatest Game Never Played'

Aging Skaters Get Back on Ice to Settle Foiled Hockey Championship of 1989
By Sophia Hollander

Morristown, N.J.— On a Friday in 1989, before the biggest hockey game of his life, James Olsen walked into his school gym expecting a pep rally.

He'd waited months for this moment. The Delbarton School senior played for one of two powerhouse hockey teams set to compete the next day for the New Jersey high-school championship. Delbarton and St. Joseph Regional High School, known as St. Joe's, boasted athletes who would play in college and eventually go pro. Ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the state, the teams hadn't faced each other all season. Neither group of players had ever won a state crown.

The 1989 squads never got their shot. Mr. Olsen stepped into the gym and was hit with a reality check: A measles outbreak at Delbarton forced officials to cancel the game. It was never rescheduled.

The New Jersey teams dubbed it "the greatest game never played." For the next 20 years, the decision would weigh on the players, who always wondered if they could have been champions.

On April 3, that weight will be lifted. Virtually every player and coach from the 1989 teams will finally face off at the same Morristown arena where the title contest would have taken place.

Players, some of whom haven't talked to one another in more than 20 years, are coming from California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Massachusetts and Maine to compete and raise money for charity.

[era veteran]

1. Not a fan but this would make a good movie.