Click for bigger picture
	Ira's dream

There were lots of kids. Organized baseball and softball started right away. The Rochdale Village Athletic League then decided to enter into the bantam division of the Queens Pop Warner Football League. We joined in 1967 as the Rochdale Jets.

I think it was a 10 game season. We lost our first game 58-0. We were about as bad as you could get. Actually we had some talent, but the coaches had no sense how to train us. Each week was the same, 72-0, 66-0; a massacre - never scored, never close (except in that nailbiter 29-0 loss to Broad Channel).

Finally, on the second to last game of the year, we were matched against a team from South Queens that had only one win. This was our chance. With high hopes we prepared for the showdown.

It was a tight defensive struggle of epic proportions. We finally sustained a power drive, got close to the goal and scored on a two yard run from the fullback (that team workhorse), me - Ira Mevorah. Smitty, our halfback ran the two point conversion. We won the game 8-6!

A 38-0 loss on the final week assured my role as the team's high scorer. The next year under a real coach the same team ended up with a 6-6 record and I think they topped the division after that. Not bad, but I'm proud to have been the main offensive weapon for the 1967 team, providing 3/4 of our total points. I'll never forget that sweet feel of victory. What a team, 8 points for, 478 points against!

I saved the Long Island press article that eternalized my moment of glory.