DEL.ICIO.USKnowshon’s hometown rallies behind Bulldogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Middletown, N.J. — Here near the shore, where Jersey rocks particularly loud and proud, there is blasphemy afoot.
Knowshon Moreno: Bigger than Bon Jovi?
Jason Getz/Staff
Two far-flung relatives of UGA running back Knowshon Moreno — uncle Milton Brown of Douglasville and grandmother Mildred McQueen of New Jersey — attend the Alabama game.
AP
Moreno says of his grandmother Mildred McQueen: ‘She taught me things, gave me knowledge. Like how to carry myself, how to stay humble.’
Pouya Dianat/pdianat@ajc.com
New Jersey native Knowshon Moreno has a huge following in the state, rivaling that of other local celebrities.
“I’d say so,” said Al Bigos, the defensive coordinator at Moreno’s old high school, Middletown South. And he was only half-smiling.
Bigos has evidence. When assigned an essay on “My Brush with Greatness,” his health class students used to write more about bumping into Jon Bon Jovi. He, like Bruce Springsteen, is from these parts. Now, Bigos said the papers tilt toward chance encounters with a certain University of Georgia redshirt sophomore running back.
Weighing favorite sons is imprecise work. Leave it at this: Around here they like their musicians the same as they like their football players — hard-driving and built to last.
You think the fans in Georgia have a bad case of Knowshon fever? You think the sight of the Bulldogs getting kneecapped by Alabama Sept. 27 was tough for just the home crowd to digest?
The hangover was felt nearly 700 miles to the north, here where Moreno had his beginnings. Just south across the Raritan Bay from New York City, the Bulldog Nation has one very loyal colony.
“I waited all day to watch the game, and moments after turning it on, I was as shocked as anyone,” said Steve Antonucci, Moreno’s head coach at Middletown South.
“I’d say there are more people following the University of Georgia in Monmouth County [New Jersey] than anywhere outside of Georgia,” said Tom Bunge, whose son Chris is a present-day running back at the high school.
When Moreno came south to run the ball for Georgia, he brought a lot of Yankees with him. In Tinton Falls, N.J., when Jean D’Arcy Maculaitis gets a phone call in her educational consulting office, the ring tone on her cell blares, “Gooooo Georgia Bulldogs!”
When it’s a rainy Friday night at the Middletown South game, Burke Murphy shields himself with a red hat with a big, black “G” on the front. He’s just a fan from town who adopted Moreno and his team from afar.
At the Lincroft Inn, where parts of the foundation date back to 1697, the talk at the bar not surprisingly turned old school. The subject was the flair Moreno has exhibited in the end zone lately. “I don’t like that he showboated a little. That wasn’t him,” said Paul Flaim, whose sons went to Middletown South.
Five years ago, Moreno worked briefly at a Modell’s sporting goods store near school. Now, they’re selling his No. 24 Georgia jersey there, when they can keep it in stock. Only one remains on the rack from the original batch of 50. More are on order for the approaching holidays, along with additional Georgia hats and shirts.
Come to think of it, who else are these people going to get behind up here, a college football desert — Rutgers?
These are the folks who know Moreno best. Given that he reveals so little of himself off the field, they at least have the benefit of a long history together.
“We Know ‘Shon,” read the new T-shirts Maculaitis had printed up for the next mass migration south to watch Georgia play. Dr. Mac, as she’s known, runs a testing and academic consulting business that has helped Moreno, fellow Jersey-born Bulldog Kade Weston and hundreds of other high school kids make the cut in college. Athletes comprise about 50 percent of her clients.
She also started the Jersey Shore Dawgs, a loose confederation of Moreno’s family, coaches, friends and advisers. About 20 of them paid a call on Athens for the season-opening game against Georgia Southern. Dr. Mac is uncertain when the next big road trip will be.
Woof, woof, youse guys
From the absolute beginning, Moreno’s grandmother, Mildred McQueen, was there. For the first few years of his life, young Knowshon Rockwell Moreno was cared for by both his mother, Verashon, and his grandmother. “But his father and mother were young, and they knew he would have stability here,” McQueen said.
She assumed full guardianship of Moreno by the time he was 10. You’ll find her now in the neat little house in Belford, N.J., with the red UGA mailbox out front. Inside, she’s transformed a kitchen wall into a gallery of her grandson. The latest addition is a photo of Moreno hurdling that poor Central Michigan defender, a play that dominated the September highlight shows.
“She’s been there for me a long time. She took me in, taught me things, gave me knowledge. Like how to carry myself, how to stay humble,” Moreno said.
“As a boy raised primarily by his grandparents, he was raised with values of that generation,” Maculaitis said. “He has these basic values that he has from his grandmother — and she’s not playing, she’s a very strong woman.”
Soft-spoken but rigid in her own way, McQueen provided an opportunity-rich environment for her grandson.
The Middletown area doesn’t conform to any of the usual Jersey stereotypes. No, Moreno did not grow up in the shadow of an oil refinery. Mobsters did not surround him, nor did the tough streets of Newark, a half-hour away, mold him. Middletown has been voted a top 100 most livable city by Fortune magazine. It’s woodsy and suburban with large pockets of wealth. As a senior, Moreno was one of three African-American players on the football team.
It’s a place where the diversions were almost Rockwellian — hanging out at the beach or inside the bowling alley. It’s a place where Moreno could grow up comfortable enough with himself to adopt pink as his favorite color. They tell a story here of him padding around in a pair of his grandmother’s slippers in the locker room before a game. Why? Why not, they were comfortable.
That ease with his surroundings is coming in handy now. Said Antonucci of what greeted him on his season-opening trip to Athens: “I expected to go down there and see a kid who was under a tremendous amount of pressure — Heisman hopeful, national championship talk, the comparisons to Herschel [Walker]. When I got down there, I was amazed at just how comfortable he was, how relaxed he was. I don’t know if I could handle that.”
On the more eccentric side, his grandfather, who now lives in Florida, was a magician working cruise ships and parties, and the street corner when necessary. As well as showing his grandson around a chessboard, William McQueen also taught Moreno a little slight of hand.
“When ‘Shon was around 10 or 11, he used to dabble in a little magic. But once he got involved in football, that was the end of the magic,” Mildred McQueen said.
Some would argue that is when the magic began.
Tacklers were amazed by his disappearing act.
Moreno left Middletown South with the state record in touchdowns — 128 — and was second on the all-time rushing list with 6,268 yards. The Eagles won the last 36 games that he started, as well as three straight state titles.
The style that has wowed Georgians won over the New Jersey populace then. Already Moreno was running recklessly and popping up after every tackle like the ground was electrified.
“Making leaps, jumping up and down, his whole body on a cellular level just imbued with the pure joy of sports,” Maculaitis said.
“He goes from hurdling a player to an amazing touchdown [against Arizona State] on primetime TV,” said his former coach, Antonucci. “You say to yourself, ‘What more do you have in your bag of tricks; what else can you do?’ “
The Jersey Shore Dawgs are not so accustomed to seeing Moreno bottled up — 34 yards on nine carries against ‘Bama — and his team knocked back on its heels. They have a large body of experience, and even more faith, to guide them to the certainty that the setback is only temporary.
In fact, their expectations are set to a Jersey Shore beat. In “Bounce,” Jon Bon Jovi himself seems to be singing about Moreno.
Bounce, bounce, nothing’s gonna to keep me down.
Bounce, bounce, stand up, shout it out.
Bounce, bounce, I play hard; I play to win.
Count me out, count me in,
I’ll be bouncing back again.
Services »
