'It all started right here': Football Hall of Famer Drew Pearson returns to South River
SOUTH RIVER – An administrator passed out stickers for Teacher Appreciation Week. Students flipped through their phones, some catching extra shut-eye.
Then “Mr. Clutch” walked into the auditorium, a slender man wearing a maroon sports jacket, and the teenagers clapped at just his sight.
“Good morning,” he said. “Everybody good?”
After replies of yes, he replied, “All right. Go Rams go.”
“Mr. Clutch” Drew Pearson, South River High School Class of 1969, went on to star for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in its 2021 induction class.
Friday, Pearson, now a Texas resident, returned to the high school for an assembly with upperclassmen.
“You all feel good?” he said. “I feel good, I’m back at South River High School. You know, you can go here. You can go there, but there ain’t no place like home. And all for me it started right here at South River High School. Back in 19, ehhh, don’t worry about that.”
After laughs, he continued.
“But it all started right here,” he said. “We grew up on Prospect Street. Daley’s Pond across the street. And all I ever wanted to do was play football for South River High School. Why? Because they had a tremendous tradition.”
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Those names bringing national fame to the small town include fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Alex Wojciechowicz, a member of Fordham University’s famed Seven Blocks of Granite in the 1930s, and Pearson’s South River teammate Joe Theismann, who played at Notre Dame and for Washington in the NFL.
Pearson is as much a part of that tradition as anyone, and that oozed Friday morning. Athletic director Carl Buffalino kicked things off, and longtime head football coach Rich Marchesi noted some of his accomplishments.
Among them, Pearson played in three Super Bowls and in 1977 led the NFL with 870 receiving yards. For his career, he caught 489 passes for 7,822 yards and was selected to the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade Team.
More: 'I did it my way' Drew Pearson says of Pro Football Hall of Fame journey
Friday, Pearson spoke for about 13 minutes and fielded question for another half hour. He lingered posing for pictures and signing autographs, joking and giving inspiration to the students. He then met with students with functional needs.
In the front row was his sister Sandra Hill, an East Brunswick resident, and some nieces and nephews. Others know him as a Hall of Famer, but here he’s Uncle Drew, or just Drew. A local kid who made good, and that was his message — if I did it, you can too.
Pearson gave inspiring words sprinkled with humor. For example, he said growing up in South River people called him "Drewski" because of the big Polish population in town.
And he revealed a new detail about his famous 50-yard touchdown catch from Roger Staubach with 24 seconds left to win a 1975 NFC playoff game against Minnesota.
The term “Hail Mary” was coined from that play and has been a part of sports vernacular ever since. But did you know that on that play Pearson performed a famous dance move?
“I caught it on the 5-yard-line," he said. “And you know Michael Jackson gets credit for the moonwalk, God rest his soul, but I was moonwalking at Metropolitan Stadium in 1975 when I caught the Hail Mary.”
Pearson then turned around, and glided backward, much to the delight of the students.
“I moonwalked from the 5-yard line right into the end zone," he said on top of the laughter. "I moonwalked in 1975, so Michael Jackson got that from me.”
He’d also occasionally say, “Hut-hut” followed by the students saying “hut-hut.”
But he had their attention, able to resonate with the students who are many generations removed from his days starring in the NFL. One change — when Pearson learned he made the Dallas Cowboys in 1973, he went home and used rotary phone to call family.
Friday, he told the smartphone generation that they’re building chapters to their life. While they may not be pro football players, they can have success in their passion.
“So you got to get motivated by doing something,” he said. “You got to find out what your talent is. All right, whether your talent is to be a doctor, a lawyer, electrician, mortician, whatever ¡ a coach, it doesn’t matter. Find out what that talent is and then when you realize what that talent is, you got to cultivate it.”
Pearson explained that he cultivated his talent “through the tools of education” that started at South River High School and it made him a better person.
More: Ranking Middlesex County's greatest football players ever
“We all have a talent to do something,” he said. “You just got to realize what that talent is and make it work for you. Make it work for you and along the way, you’re going to run into obstacles.
"You’re going to run into adversity. You’re going to run into challenges, but you use that adversity, you use those challenges and obstacles as steppingstones, all right. Don’t let those bring you down. Use them as steppingstones to step on to bigger and greater things and that’s what it’s all about.”
He noted an inspiring creed he learned as a South River player about thinking positive that he continued to say in pro locker rooms.
“It all started right here, South River High School,” Pearson said. “That’s why I wanted to come here this morning so you could see me. OK, I ain’t no different than you. I didn’t do anything different than you’re going to have the opportunity to do. If you can see me, you say hey, if he can make it, then I can make it too. Not just being in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but success is different to everybody.
He continued"You can see me and say, ‘Hey, if he could reach that level, then I can reach the level of success I’m trying to achieve myself.' And that’s what it’s all about. Then along the way, don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it. All right?”
Email: amendlowitz@njpressmedia.com
Andy Mendlowitz is a sports reporter for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to local news throughout Central Jersey, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Drew Pearson, Pro Football Hall of Famer, returns to South River NJ
