If a demolition crew tears down a nearly century-old stadium, but no one is around to see it, did it really happen?
In South River it did.
Demolition crews started tearing into historic Bill Denny Stadium around 8 am Tuesday morning, after the venue closed for good last Spring due to deteriorating conditions and safety concerns following years of patch-up repairs. Over the summer, the district decided the Band-Aids weren’t enough, and it would have to come down.
Thirty years ago, there might have been more fanfare. Maybe a ceremony. Heck, in 2023, a live webstream on YouTube might even have been in order.
None of that happened Tuesday when the first crews rolled in and a Case backhoe set up shop. It poked and prodded and the old structure, with wood splintering, sheet metal bending and pieces falling inside a chain link fence in the parking lot, some left there, some loaded into a dumpster.
A couple of cars slowed down to watch.
A few people walked dogs past, some barely looking up as they listened to whatever was coming out of their earbuds.
Maybe a few nearby residents watched from their houses, but no one really came out to gawk on a 40 degree morning , with grey skies that would have fueled the melancholy of any longtime South Riverite.
It was as if no one had noticed.
Then, after the back rows of the bleachers had been demolished to about the 30 yard line, a maroon (what other color would you expect) SUV pulled in, and out came Rich Marchesi, the long time South River coach who also played on that field and was a state champ his senior year, and saw his first game there when he was five years old with his mother.
Asked about his memories, he started to Central Jersey Sports Radio about his first time at Denny’s Stadium, pointing to the south end of the bleachers, saying “I was probably five years old, up in the corner” Marchesi stared at the section, shook his head, and never finished the thought.
After a few minutes, as he walked to his car, he turned around, and choked up. “I sat there with my mom,” as he pointed to the same section he did a few minutes prior, lingered for a moment, then got in his car and drove off. He came back later with his sons, Michael and Matthew.
It’s an inauspicious ending to a venerable high school football venue, one that opened in 1934, and saw nearly all the greats to wear the Rams jersey. While stars like Drew Pearson, Alex Wojciechowicz, Joe Theisman (pronounced “THEEZ-man” if you knew him when) played on the grass field, which remains, one could reasonably surmise they also sat in these bleachers many times, cheering on their heroes, the ones they aspired to be someday, just like Marchesi.
Very little appears to have been kept from the Stadium, though the booster club is auctioning off what it describes as “vintage” metal yard markers, as well as the maroon letters that spelled out “Bill Denny Stadium” on the big grey facade facing the smattering of homes on the other side of David Street.
One of the workers said they expect to be on site the full week, demolishing most of the stadium over the next day or two.
The remaining days are earmarked for cleanup, to haul away all the rotted, splintered wood, metal, rusted tackle sleds, and broken-down groundskeeping equipment that had been sitting under the aging stands, along with all the memories of no doubt tens of thousands of players, coaches, parents, fans and townspeople alike, now sitting in dumpsters with all that scrap, waiting to be hauled off.
Watch video of the Bill Denny Stadium demolition, including head football coach Rich Marchesi talking with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko and Marcus Borden:
