Former EBHS Track Coach Gets Much Deserved Recognition
The first and only head coach of the East Brunswick High School Boys Track Team for 35 years; he positively impacted thousands of student athletes from 1959 to 1993. Fourteen years later, during track season, you can still find him cheering on the Bears. It is certainly fitting that the district’s Recognition Committee recommended to the Board of Education that the East Brunswick High School track be dedicated to William Dudley Tighe. Dr. Magistro stated, "Not only was Dudley truly a great teacher and a great coach, instructing thousands of students in the necessary physical skills, but he helped to make each one of them a better human being and a positive member of the community. We are honored by his ongoing presence on the track, where he continues to encourage our young athletes to be the best that they can be."
During his 35 years as Track and Field Coach, Dudley’s teams compiled an unrivaled record of 238 wins and 52 losses…an incredible 82% winning record! He had a hand in the development of six individual State Champions and earned many team titles. Recognized as Middlesex County’s Track Coach of the Year four times and honored with the NJSIAA Award for Service to Coaching, Coach Tighe was and still is highly respected by his peers. Just prior to his retirement from coaching he was named the New Jersey State Track Official of the Year and he continued to officiate at track events until as recently as the spring of 2007.
Humble and modest, the longtime coach gives much of the credit for the track teams’ successes to the assistant coaches and the great athletes with whom he worked. “The great kids made it worthwhile. I enjoyed teaching them the skills of the sport and learned as much from them as they did from me. I enjoyed watching them mature as athletes and as people.”
East Brunswick High School, the home of the Bears will turn 50 in September of 2008. The current track project is the second renovation to occur in those fifty years. In the mid-1980s the original cinder track was replaced by an all weather surface. For years poor drainage on the adjacent field caused that surface to bubble and crack. From then until he retired, Dudley made many of the repairs himself. Finally, the track was no longer repairable and was deemed unsafe.
How does Dudley feel about the new track, the one that he cared for as if it was his own? He is thrilled with the prospect of the new track and agrees that it was much needed, that the old one was falling apart. “Track and Field (the sport) is all about records. The teams of the past have established some great records. It is my hope that every one of those records gets broken on the new facility.”
In the spring of 1998 “Dud” Tighe and Jay Doyle, two of East Brunswick High School’s great sportsmen were recognized for their contributions to the students and the district’s athletic program and placed on the Wall of Honor that is displayed in the Board of Education’s public meeting room. They had much in common, not the lease of which was their love for the students and, though they both liked to win, win or loose, the kids always came first. The William “Dudley” Tighe Track will surround the Jay Doyle Field and the newly renovated facility will serve the East Brunswick’s students for many, many years to come.
