In a rush and can't read the article? Just play the audio file above to listen instead.
Following my original post, I received a message from Mr. Hank Gola providing me with detailed information on how we became the Boilermakers. For those of you who do not know him, Gola is a graduate of Garfield High School (GHS) and the author of “City of Champions”. As the cover reads: AN AMERICAN STORY OF LEATHER HELMETS, IRON WILLS AND THE HIGH SCHOOL KIDS FROM JERSEY WHO WON IT ALL, this book tells the story of our national championship football team. Additionally, several years ago, the GHS Drama Club created a re-enactment of this story.
The story of becoming Boilermakers is as follows:
Argauer put his imprint on the school quickly in each of the sports he was hired to coach. His 1930 football team opened with an upset win over defending Class B state champion Dover and went on to a 7-2 record and Garfield’s first outright Bergen County Interscholastic League title. His 1930-31 basketball team won its first 22 games and, while upset in the third round of the state tournament, was invited to the prestigious Eastern States Tournament in Glens Falls, New York, where it made the championship game before losing to Hun, a New Jersey prep school. He was changing Garfield High School sports, right down to the nickname.
Argauer really didn’t like the Comets moniker. Hackensack High School called itself the same, and he didn’t like sharing. In that era, it was customary for players to print their favorite college team on their hip pads. When the 1931 team got together for the first time, there stood Purdue fan Larry Grinch with BOILERMAKERS on his equipment. It was, to Argauer, a sign from God.
“I’m not the Pope,” Argauer said. “But I christen you all Boilermakers.”
The new mascot fit the blue-collar city well, even if there wasn’t a boiler plant in all of Garfield. Argauer liked the hard work implications of the name and, while it took years for the papers to stop calling them the Comets, by 1939, the Boilermaker nickname was firmly established.
Gola and I attended Garfield High School just one year apart, sharing many of the same experiences. If anyone embodies the spirit of a true Boilermaker, it's Hank Gola. I want to express my gratitude to him for his unwavering dedication to GHS and for writing a book that commemorates our journey to becoming the City of Champions.