Fisher selected to Mercer Soccer HoF
If there is a sport that is deeply etched into the tradition of Mercer County, it’s soccer.
The game has made names like Mooch, Ping Pong, Ziggy, Oge and Pivo household names to so many in the area.
So, it’s no surprise that one of the greatest honors one can receive is induction into the Mercer County Soccer Hall of Fame.
“When John Wagner called to tell me, I couldn’t fall asleep all night I was so excited,” said sports writer Rich Fisher, an inductee into the Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
Joining “Fish” in the Hall will be Debbie Marks, Mike Luciano, Pat Murphy and Dr. Bill Hawkey, Ted Kinter and Artie and Cliff Kearns along with the 1963 Trenton Junior College national championship team.
The induction ceremonies will be held on April 7 at the Hibernian Club in Hamilton. Cocktails will be served at 5 p.m. and dinner will follow at 6 p.m. Tickets may be purchased by contacting Bruce Angebranndt at 609-7315906 or e-mail him at bruce@mercercountysoccerhof.com
“Having grown up in Mercer County this is truly the greatest honor I could ever imagine,” added Fisher. “Names like Bobby Smith, Ping Pong Farrutto, Glenn “Mooch” Myernick and so many others meant as much to the Trenton area as Berra, Mantle and DiMaggio meant to the Bronx.”
Charlie Inverso, the highly successful coach at MCCC and now Rider University, is thrilled to see Fish enter the Hall.
“He really deserves to be honored,” said Inverso. “He never takes himself too serious and it would be easy to take him for granted. But the soccer community is well aware of what he has done for our sport. George (O’Gorman) made Mercer County into one of the truly unique soccer communities in America and Fish is not far behind in what he has done for the game.”
The Pennington School girls program is one of the most successful in Mercer County and Hawkey and Murphy are the architects, turning out AllAmericans on a regular basis.
Cliff and Artie Kearns grew up in East Trenton in the shadows of Hetzel Field.
Cliff played at Trenton High and with Olden AA and later coached. He is credited with beginning the Columbus Day tournament, which still today is one of the biggest tournaments in the country.
Artie was an All-County and AllState player at Notre Dame and then played on Mercer County College’s national championship team of 1968. He also was a member of the famed Extension Tavern teams.
Ewing’s Debbie Marks Lake, who was The Trentonian Player of the Year in 1989, left us way too early in 2015 aftter losing a battle with cancer at age 43.
The Trenton Junior team was led by Hall of Famer Jim Dill and Joe Bianchini. Ted Kinter was the man behind the scenes of many of those great Steinert teams of the 70’s and 80’s as the Spartans Junior Varsity coach.
The referees are being represented by Mike Luciano.
“Soccer was the absolute soul of Mercer County for so many years and the group of stars in the Mercer County Hall of Fame are staggering,” said Fisher. “You never think about something like this as you go along. You just hope to get a good game and some good quotes afterwards. To be told that your contributions to the game are in some small way comparable with what those people have done blows my mind.”
However, Fisher knows the real reason he’s being inducted.
“I think the real reason for this is I’m one of just five people, who can name the Fink brothers, in order, from oldest to youngest, along with their corresponding nicknames.”
It’s not really Mercer County soccer without nicknames, right “Fish.”