Kelly Williams can still hear the sound of the final buzzer that marked the Ewing High School boys’ basketball team’s first-ever state championship. He can still recall the moment he looked over and saw his head coach, Emil Wandishin, smiling and hugging his wife, celebrating their historic victory.
“That energy at Rutgers that night was probably something that will stay with you, and you always remember it to this day,” Williams said. “Every March you think about winning the championship.”
The 1986 Blue Devils made history when they beat Clifford Scott High School 70-59 to win the New Jersey State Group III championship, the first state title the school had ever won.
To celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the team’s championship victory, Williams, his teammates and coaches were honored at the Jan. 29 high school basketball game—inside the Emil Wandishin Gym.
“The fact that the high school and the current high school basketball team and their head coach recognized us it really made it special,” Williams said.
Old newspaper articles and videos of the state championship game were on hand during the ceremony to take players, coaches and fans down memory lane, although the former teammates didn’t have any trouble catching up with each other.
“Just to look at what we accomplished over 30 years ago, and to just talk about how much it meant back then—and even today—how special it is to be the team that was able to win the state championship, it was just really, really nice,” Williams said.
His former teammate Donald Meekins agreed, saying it was exciting because he hadn’t seen the guys in a while, and being able to talk to them about their different life experiences and memories was a great opportunity.
Ewing often had talented players on their team each year, and many people in town thought a championship would come much earlier than 1986.
“Prior to [1986] Ewing had so many great teams before us,” Williams said. “In ‘83 they lost and I think they were probably No. 1 or 2 in the state.”
All of the players knew the history of Ewing’s talented teams that took a shot at the state championship and missed, and they felt the pressure to win the title for their hometown.
“That was a little heavy on us as well, in regard to wanting to win and wanting to get that monkey off of the township’s back,” Williams said.
Unlike Ewing teams in the past who were favored to win, the 1986 team was the underdog of the tournament.
The championship game against Clifford Scott High was an important game, but it was perhaps the semifinal game against Camden’s Woodrow Wilson High School that was the team’s most crucial that season.
“They were highly rated the entire season, I think the only team they lost to was Camden High School who were number one in the country,” Williams said. “So for us to step on that court and to play the type of game that we played—it really, really just took us to a whole other level in regards to getting that momentum going.”
Meekins recalls getting off of their modest yellow school bus when they arrived at Rutgers stadium to play Woodrow Wilson high and seeing their opponents getting off a higher-end charter bus. The difference in the expectations for the teams was clear. No one thought Ewing would win that game—expect the Blue Devils themselves.
“Nobody expected us to make it this far because of the past Ewing teams,” Meekins said. “We had nothing to lose, and we just went in really confident.”
Woodrow Wilson High School was one of the only teams to average 100 points a game that season, but Wandishin made sure to tell his players that they worked hard all year and deserved to be out there on the court.
“He told us keep our heads up, stay confident.” Meekins said. “We didn’t get this far for nothing, just stick to our game and we’ll be okay.”
Wandishin’s coaching style helped guide the team through the season, both on and off the court.
“He was an individual that did not have to do a lot of yelling or screaming to get his point across,” Williams said. “He’d talk to you in a professional manner… He has such a calm and relaxed demeanor, but he was so competitive that you wouldn’t know it until you got into practice and see how he worked.”
For many players on the team, Wandishin was more than just a head coach.
“He really taught you how to be a man and about life, dealing with situations even when things go your way or don’t go your way,” Meekins said. “That’s what I remember most about him.”
Their teammate Jeff Gamble echoed their praise for Wandishin, saying, “He would take you aside, and he knew exactly how to press the buttons and get the most out of our individuals based on their personality—and that was a good thing—but like they said he was a mentor.”
“I had conversations with him that didn’t have anything to do with basketball,” Gamble said.
Wandishin’s coaching and the players’ dedication to winning payed off, as the Blue Devils upset Woodrow Wilson high to go onto the state championship game.
“That was a real defining moment,” Meekins said. “As the clock ticked out, all I remember thinking was ‘Don’t turn the ball over.’”
Once they upset Woodrow Wilson high, they knew they could bring a title back to their town.
Williams said everyone was excited to get on the court and win the championship for their town, but he described the game against Clifford Scott high as an emotional rollercoaster. After jumping out to a 17-2 lead early on, Clifford Scott high came back and took the lead. But the Blue Devils fought back, and won the game 70-59.
Playing together as a team was a big factor that helped the team win all season long.
“Everybody—even the five guys that weren’t the starters—everybody had the talent to start,” Gamble said. “So basically if one guy was having a bad game somebody would come off the bench, and next thing you know that guy is putting out 15 points more than he usually averaged.”
Not only did everyone on the team have the talent to jump in when needed, but the team had great chemistry as well.
Williams, a sophomore at the time, was one of the youngest guys in the team, but the older juniors and seniors embraced him and always were sure to look out for the younger guys.
“We loved practicing, we loved being around each other off the court as well, so it was a really really special group of young men at that time,” Williams said.
Even though most of the former teammates haven’t seen each other in years, when they went to the ceremony at Ewing High School, they immediately began to reconnect and joke around with each other. All of the players interviewed said being able to catch up with their former teammates was one of the best things about the 30-year anniversary celebration.
“There’s a special bond when you become a champion,” Williams said.
It helped that most of the players knew each other, and other basketball players in town, way before they were champions.
Williams, Meekins and Gamble all share fond memories of growing up playing basketball in Moody Park, with Williams adding that the championship team is “homegrown in every sense of the word.”
“Just to know that every kid probably from Ewing played in that Ewing summer league, and just played to rep Ewing across the chest…that’s why it meant so much [to win the championship],” Williams said.
Most of the players interviewed continued to play or enjoy watching basketball after high school. A knee injury prevented Meekin from playing basketball at Fairleigh Dickinson, but he still lives in Ewing with his family. Gamble played basketball for two years at Husson University in Maine, and now lives in Glassboro with his family.
Williams moved to Somerset with his family, but he spent nine years as the head basketball coach at Mercer County Community College and seven more years as the head coach at The College of New Jersey. He is currently the senior associate athletic director for TCNJ.
The transition from playing to coaching was a fun challenge for Williams, who said playing as easier because you had more control of what was happening throughout the game.
No matter where they are now, all of the players on the 1986 championship team still hold onto everything they learned throughout that historic season.
“Even coaching nowadays, I think sometimes some of the players think that you have to be the best player,” Williams said. “They don’t understand that it’s great to be just a great teammate. You don’t have to be the best player, you could be an unbelievable teammate and you could have an experience and you could have an impact on their team.”
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