A Look Back
By Fred Miller
I met with Bill Halkes twenty-four years ago while researching for an article about the history of the Ocean City vs Pleasantville football game. Halkes wrote the book, South Jersey Scholastic Football Scores 1880 to 2000, so I knew I would get all the information I needed.
The first game was played on Nov. 3, 1917, in Pleasantville. The home team won 106-7. The Ocean City Sentinel reported the loss in the Nov. 10, 1917, newspaper reporting, “The football team of Ocean City High School played the Pleasantville High School team last Saturday afternoon on the Pleasantville grounds and lost.” There was no mention of the score. Halkes said this was typical in the early days. He called it “hometownish.”
Halkes told me 1917 was not the first year OCHS fielded a football team. He said the first year was 1904. They played four games: Baron de Hirsch (lost 45-0), Atlantic City (0-0), Cape May (0-16, and 0-12). He didn’t know why they didn’t field another team until 1917.
“OCEAN CITY LOST TO WOODBINE BOYS; Local Football Players Didn’t Have Much Show With de Hirsch School,” was the headline in the Nov. 3, 1904, Ocean City Sentinel. All the OCHS players were mentioned: Morey, Goorley, Wardell, Van Tine, Hand, Carlson, Smith, Johnson, Corson, Schock, Darby. They traveled to Woodbine aboard horse-pulled wagons.
William Halkes Jr. died Dec. 4, 2009, at the age of 81. He worked 29 years for the U.S. Postal Service in Absecon and Pleasantville.
