I saw the All Valley pic Reggie posted and I was reminded how two kids from our grade school class at St. Joseph's were included — our own dearly departed Denny O'Brien who became a Saints legend and Tolman's Gerry Philbin who became a pro football All Star for the New York Jets. I think he may have been an All American defensive end at Buffalo before that. The two of them,Denny and Gerry, along with Ronnie (Togo) Palagi, who also went to Tolman where he played basketball, were the tough guys in our grade school class. Gerry and Ronnie were outwardly tough, Denny less so. But I learned early in life to respect Denny's strength. It was in the third or fourth grade. My older brother, Andrew, had taught me a couple of wrestling moves. I tried them out on Denny one day on North Bend Street. He flattened me in a in a nano-second. Life lesson learned. RIP, friend.
Philbin moved into our neighborhood on Arch Street probably in sixth or seventh grade. He was from a large family. I had a crush on his younger sister Doris and I took over his older brother Terry's paper route. Gerry and I were never tight but we got along well. I don't remember if he ever played pick-up football games with us in the Memorial Hospital yard but we had so many of them that I think he must have. In any event, strong though he was, I don't remember thinking of him as being that big or being destined for athletic greatness. So I'd like to get the impressions of you guys who actually played against him in high school — Paul, Reggie, Tom, Bill, Chuck, others on the team. I believe he was All State as a senior, maybe before, right? Was he thought then to be as fearsome a player as his later career proved him to be? Has anyone stayed in touch with him?
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I first met Gerry at a supposed Rumble in the Streets long before High School. The event never took place and we all kind of just walk away from the situation. I remember dating Dotti his sister for a period of time in H.S. but don't remember how long. After that the next time I saw him was in High School. He was a hell of a Football Player. I remember that his coaches would put him in as a fullback once in a while and where I played Center on offense and Middle Linebacker on defense he ran right over me. The times I did hit him good he carried me another 5 yards before he went down. If fact I had an email conversation with him just before we started our reunion work. Don't know what the reason was just one of those things. Ah! I remember I was looking for that All Valley picture and Dotti Palagi got wind of it and sent me a copy of what we have on these pages. I visited Philbin's Goalpost in Pawt. a few times with Denny O'Brian. He and Gerry were good friends. That's all I have to add.
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