When Greg Tufaro, the longtime Middlesex County sportswriter, passed away this Monday, the news was a shock to many.
But it really shouldn’t have been.
Not to say we all expected it. No one did.
But that was the point. There were so many text messages I received from coaches, friends and acquaintances who didn’t even know he was ill.
And that’s the way Greg wanted it, because in his world, nothing was about him.
I truly believe much of that came about from his family, and the battles that his brave daughter Marisa fought all her life, with her father Greg and mother Cyndi alongside her every step of the way.
When Greg and I spoke exactly a week before his passing, when I called him to talk about him ending the charitable mission of the Marisa Tufaro Foundation, founded with his wife Cyndi in memory of their amazing daughter, who died all too young from cancer herself nine years ago, a complication of multiple heart surgeries, his voice was weak and raspy. He wasn’t comfortable talking about the shutdown. It was too emotional.
That’s the way Greg Tufaro was, because it was never about him.
It was about the Foundation, or the kids and coaches he interviewed for his stories for over 30 years with the Home News, Home News Tribune and MyCentralJersey.
I first met Greg sometime in the late 1990s when he was on the Rutgers beat, and I was a student, covering the Scarlet Knights as well. We shared dinner once – with my WRSU broadcast partner and our Targum colleagues – out in Portland, Oregon, covering the NCAA Women’s West Regional Final, where the Scarlet Knights clinched their first Final Four berth, beating UAB and Georgia en route to Philadelphia.
Not a lot of guys would hang out with student reporters. Greg did.
Later, we crossed paths often on the high school sports scene after I graduated and made the jump over to WCTC in New Brunswick, where I covered football and basketball.
Greg actually interviewed me once. It was 2018, and with the help of Piscataway football assistant John Thompson, we had “cracked” the Born Power Index, a new part of the NJSIAA football playoff formula, which was top secret. We learned it was rewarding teams with better seeds for winning by large margins. Seeing this injustice, he wanted to cover it, and gave me a ring.
He was so meticulous, didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. He read the story back to me and my quotes, too, wanting to make sure he had everything right, down to the letter, and every dot on an i and cross on a t. It had to be right.
Ask any coach he talked to and they’ll tell you the same kind of story.
That’s how Greg was.
Another time, I don’t remember if it was before or after that, we had a Friday night football show for a couple of seasons on WCTC called “Friday Night Football USA,” an offshoot of the long running Saturday show we did after Rutgers games.
The topic was a coach who got DQd for leaving the bench area to break up a scuffle. Now it was my turn to interview Greg, and I got him on the air live to talk about it. And his observation was that the officials could have handled it better, because the coach was not the problem, but rather trying to get his kids out of it. The officials didn’t have to write him up, but they did. It was great radio.
Then I headed off to cover a game, as a reporter, to get a story and tape for the next day’s show. I got to the sideline, and my phone rang. It was Greg.
“Mike, I gotta to apologize, I feel awful…” and he went into the most rapid-fire I-dont-even-know-what-to-call-it about how he felt like he threw the officials under the bus, these are good people, who am I to criticize? What if they heard me in the car on their way to a game, I feel terrible, etc., etc. It took a couple of possessions as the game played out in front of me to talk him down.
“Greg,” I told him. “You did nothing wrong. You told me what you saw and gave your opinion. That’s why I had you on. Because you’re respected. Don’t worry about it.”
After about ten minutes of back and forth, he took a deep breath, and I promised him it would be okay. And it was.
That’s how Greg was.
When I started Central Jersey Sports Radio, he was so supportive of our venture, even though we might be competing for stories. Told me this was a great thing I was doing. I don’t tell a lot of people that. Probably because of how he rubbed off on me.
Even when he got out of the sports reporting business and went to work with his good friend, Senator Patrick Diegnan of South Plainfield, we spoke occasionally.
Mostly, I’d ask him advice. How he’d handle something. Should I even write this? Am I on the right track? He’d compliment my work.
I was a radio guy, but now I was writing more than I ever imagined. I took it to heart. Coming from him, it really and truly meant the world.
The amount of people Greg Tufaro has touched, influenced, mentored, and helped, whether in sports writing, investigative journalism, with the Foundation, or in his legislative work is beyond even what you and I all know, and will ever know.
Because that was Greg Tufaro. He wouldn’t tell you what he did, he just did it.
He didn’t ask for the honors, even though he was honored often.
He just did what was right.
Because that’s how Greg was.
Our deepest condolences to Greg’s wife Cyndi, his family, friends and colleagues.
Details on services for Greg Tufaro…
Relatives and friends may call from 1:00 – 5:00 PM on August 16th at the Costello-Runyon Funeral Home, 568 Middlesex Ave. (Route 27), Metuchen. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:15 AM on August 17th at The Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, 548 Main St., Metuchen. Interment will follow at Hillside Cemetery, 52 Lincoln Ave., Metuchen.
