Russ Rogers, noted S.J. High School Soccer Fan, dies

Another fan just took a seat in Heaven's grandstands.  I just learned that Russ Rogers, a fixture at South Jersey high school girls sporting events for many years, passed away on July 28 at age 88.

Russ was a retired tool and die maker with a distinctive gravely voice that frequently mentioned Jesus.  As in the time I was sitting with him in a packed Haddonfield High School gym before the Haddonfield - Sterling girls basketball game back in the '90s.  You had to arrive by halftime of the JV game to get a seat, but Russ had already watched the freshman and JV games.  As he looked around at the crowd, the excitement building as game time neared, he said to me, "Jesus Christ!  This is great!  This is great!"

Or the time Strikers coach and president Len Imielinski was busting Russ about how many games he saw every week between high school and club teams and said how difficult it must be to keep track of it all.  Russ took the remark very seriously and replied, "Jesus Christ, yes."

Russ was well-known by parents, coaches and officials at girls high school basketball and soccer games and club soccer games over the years, and I think he watched softball, too.  One year a freshman parent wondered how some old guy knew so much about his daughter and should he be worried and was assured by another team parent, "It's just Russ."

Back when I was coaching the '79-'80 Medford Strikers girls with Jerry Ciser and then Len and Dave Rauer, it was not unusual for me to get a phone call the day before a game that would start out with, "This is Russ.  From soccer."  Like a) I wouldn't recognize the voice; and b) would not know who he was.  He was usually calling to check a game time and location.  Len and I and others used to bust on him about reading about him on some of the on-line forums, and he would rise to the occasion with something like, "Jesus Christ.  You guys and that internet!" 

As often as I saw Russ at Strikers and Haddonfield games, I never knew much about him other than he was retired and lived in Pennsauken.  My late wife, Louise, once asked if there was a "Mrs. Russ" and I never knew until I read his obituary today that he was married at one time and had three kids.

I also never knew how Russ began watching the Medford Strikers, why he seemed to confine his high school following to Shawnee and Haddonfield girls and why he eventually switched allegiance to Haddonfield's big-time conference rival, West Deptford.  But none of that mattered.  He was enjoying himself at all the games and we should all be so lucky to relax and enjoy life.

I hadn't seen Russ in a number of years - probably was at a Haddonfield - West Deptford girls soccer game a few years ago - when he told me he didn't like to go out at night much any more. 

Russ probably never knew that he lent his name to a breed of older sports fans who follow teams.  I think it was the summer of '93 when a Strikers girls team played in a tournament up in Ottawa and their coach, Hank Roberti, told us of an older local gentleman who somehow began following their team at the tournament.  The next summer our team played in the same tournament and this guy recognized the club name in the program and came out to root us on.  Thus was born "Canadian Russ."

My friend, Mark Adlen, whose daughter played on that same '79-'80 Strikers team then went on to Ferrum College, told me of meeting "Ferrum Russ" at her games down in Virginia.  So of course when I met an older gentleman at a women's college soccer game in Brunswick, Maine, and he told me how he followed the college teams, he became "Bowdoin Russ."

I am sure wherever Russ is he will be cheering for his favorite teams in the upcoming soccer season and there will be another generation of Russes just like him in the stands at games around the country.