The Team Hill Foundation is inviting all former New Jersey high school and college basketball players, coaches, and fans to join it at the Prudential Center on Monday, April 4, to watch the NCAA Championship game and honor a former Verona High School basketball coach, Doug Gaffney.
Gaffney, who graduated VHS with the class of 1960, was a 1,000-point scorer in basketball and played on the 1956-1957 state championship team. He would go on to lead a successful varsity basketball program in Verona for more than 25 years and serve as VHS’ director of athletics.
The event, dubbed The Basketball Reunion, will also induct the Final Four men’s basketball teams from Princeton (1964-65), Rutgers (1975-76), and Seton Hall (1988-89) into the newly created New Jersey Basketball Hall of Honor. (If there is someone you want to nominate for a future induction, you can do so here.)
Tickets are $100 per person, and include beer, wine and food, and watching the game. Proceeds benefit the Team Hill Foundation‘s programs for at-risk youth. You can purchase a ticket here.
The Team Hill Foundation was created more than a decade ago by the Hill family of Verona, including the late Fred Hill, former head baseball coach at Rutgers University, and his wife Evelyn, a former Verona town clerk. Their son Fred Hill, the former basketball coach at Rutgers, now runs the foundation. Other Hill family members have shaped business and education in Verona. Nancy Hill Apisa was a long-time first-grade teacher at Laning Avenue elementary school, Karen Hill Jandoli owns the Dekko & Co. salon opposite Verona Park, Jimmy Hill is the co-owner of Lakeside Deli and creator of the Fred Hill Sports Academy, where Linda Hill Boyd has worked. Tracey Hill owns Academy Apparel.
