Remembering Frank Bennett   By Dick Engelhardt Fair Lawn High School opened September 13th, 1943. Coach Marty Fischbein led the new football team to a remarkable 9- 4 - 2 (.692) record in the first two seasons, 1943 - 44 with the CUTTERS playing independently after opening with a few "JV" games. FLHS had no seniors as the Class of 1944 was allowed to finish high school at Paterson Eastside, Hawthorne and Ridgewood. Virgil "Virge" Sasso came to Fair Lawn High in 1944 as Athletic Director. "SASSO FIELD" is named after this great educator. When Coach Fischbein left to coach the FLASHES of Florence High in Burlington County beginning with the 1945 season, Sasso brought his friend Frank Bennett to Fair Lawn. The two had known each other growing up in Pennsylvania. An outstanding wrestler himself, Bennett put the wrestling program on the map at FLHS and recently was elected posthumously to the National Wrestling Hall Of Fame. However I knew him best and Fair Lawn fans might remember him best as the football coach 1945 - 60. Sasso brought Fair Lawn High into the fledgling Bergen-Passaic Interscholastic League (B-PIL) for that '45 season. The league had been founded in 1943 with Bergenfield, Bogota, Hawthorne, Lyndhurst and Ramsey as charter members. Ridgewood joined in 1950. In 1956, when Hawthorne, then the only Passaic County school, dropped out, the league changed its name to the Northern Bergen Interscholastic League (NBIL). After playing the 1959 - 83 seasons in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) Fair Lawn returned to the NBIL in 1984. Bennett took our CUTTERS to the B-PIL championship that first year! His CUTTERS shared the 1946 title with the BUCCANEERS of Bogota and the 1947 title with the GOLDEN BEARS of Lyndhurst. Charlie "Choo Choo" Motta became the first big Fair Lawn star at running back. Then in 1953, led by Dave Sime, who later became the "World's Fastest Human," Bennett's CUTTERS took the B-PIL title again and shared the North Jersey, Section 1, Group III title with the COMETS of Hackensack, coached by the legendary Tom Della Torre. In 1955 my twin brother, Bill, and I were juniors. We came to love Frank Bennett as we earned our football letter serving as managers (at that time we were called "water boys") for the CUTTERS. With running back Ed Bucher bowling over opponents, Bennett's CUTTERS won another B-PIL championship. Bill and I were privileged to work with him! In 1959 Fair Lawn moved up to the tough NNJIL. Many expected our CUTTERS to take their lumps but, led by running back Bob Wright, who later played for Army, they upset Teaneck and Hackensack in early games. Going into the Tenafly game undefeated, our heroes looked like they were cruising for an NNJIL title. The TIGERS, knowing that was their only chance to win, refused to call the game off and, in a hurricane fed torrential downpour, edged Fair Lawn 6-0. The MAROONS of Ridgewood upset our CUTTERS 12-7 on Thanksgiving and Hackensack took the championship with a loss and a tie against Fair Lawn and Ridgewood, the "new kids on the block," versus two losses for our CUTTERS. Bennett retired as coach after the 1960 season with a record of 71 - 55 - 6 (.563) with 3 outright B-PIL titles, 2 co-championships and a co-State championship. His 16 seasons at the helm are the most in FLHS history followed by Mike Alberques' 14 year 1988 - 2001 tenure and Pete Natale's 10 year 1978 - 87 reign. He retired from teaching in 1976 and the Fair Lawn High main gymnasium is named after this great coach! Our association with Frank Bennett came near the beginning of a nearly life-long love of FLHS football for my brother and me. After many years of "spotting" together for popular Fair Lawn announcer Joe Hausmann, Bill "spotted" for me as I was privileged to become "The Voice Of The CUTTERS" in 1997. My son, Rich, "spots" for me now as Bill has moved to Glenville, PA and roots for the MUSTANGS of South Western. Born in 1911, Frank Bennett lived well into his 80s. He will always be remembered as one of the pioneers on the early FLHS teaching staff and as a great coach. I remember him fondly every time I enter the "Frank Bennett Gymnasium" for the pep rally the day before the Thanksgiving game.     Dick Engelhardt in the announcer's booth at Fair Lawn's Sasso Field.