Sport: Basketball
Born: June 19, 1907
Died: August 15, 1966
Town: Bogota, New Jersey
Howard H. Bollerman was born June 9, 1907 in Brooklyn and grew up in Bogota, NJ after the family moved there during World War I. Tall and painfully skinny, Howie had a keen interest in sports and, given his size, gravitated to basketball. He enrolled in Hackensack High School in 1921 and became an ace defender and rebounder for the Comets as he reached his final height of 6’8”. On February 6, 1925, Howie led the Comets to a 39–35 win over Passaic High School, which hadn’t lost a game since 1919—a streak spanning 159 games.
Howie was an excellent student and earned a scholarship to Colgate in 1925. He played three years of varsity ball for the Red Raiders and earned All-America recognition as a senior in 1928–29. He graduated as Colgate’s greatest ballplayer—a distinction he held until Carl Braun and Ernie Vandeweghe came along after World War II. Howie took a job teaching in the Bound Brook public school system and, with the onset of the Great Depression, supplemented his income playing basketball.
Howie’s first pro team was the Paterson Whirlwinds of the American Basketball League. He played center for a club coached by Artie Powers that included veterans Benny Borgmann and Stretch Meehan. Howie also suited up for Union City and Trenton in the early 1930s. During his long career, he played with pro hoops stars George Glasco, Honey Russell, Phil Rabin, Pete Berenson, Rusty Saunders and Joe Brennan. In 1933, baseball star Hank Greenberg also appeared for one game in the Trenton lineup. The following year, another baseball star, Buddy Hassett, was a regular in the Union City lineup with Howie.
The professional game was quicker than college ball and Howie sometimes had trouble keeping up with smaller, faster centers. However, his size always made him a valuable man because each basket was followed by a center jump until the late-1930s. On a good night, he hit two or three baskets and prevented twice that number. His primary job was defense, rebounding and passing out of the pivot.
Howie joined the Brooklyn Visitations in 1934-35 and got to watch the development of young sharpshooter Bobby McDermott. In his first year, the Visitations defeated the New York Jewels in the ABL finals, 3 games to 2. Howie led a defense that shut down the Jewels’ scoring duo of Mac Kinsbrunner and Allie Schuckman. In their three wins, Brooklyn limited New York to a total of 45 points, including 10 points in the finale.
In 1935–36, the Visitations made it back to the championship finals against the Philadelphia SPHAs. It was a grueling series that went seven games, with the teams trading victories on their home courts. In Game 7, Philadelphia center Moe Goldman—younger and quicker that Howie—was the difference maker in a 47–34 rout that denied Brooklyn a second ABL title.
Meanwhile, Howie’s Bound Brook cagers were also playing championship-level ball. The 1936–37 team captured the state title. His stars included Joe Volpe, George Pfister and Lou Welaj, whose brother Johnny went on to play major-league ball. They defeated Monte Irvin-led South Orange High School in the semifinals and beat Weehawken in the finals.
Howie played pro ball right through the Depression and into the 1940s, when manpower was at a premium. He also earned a reputation as a first-rate football and basketball official. In 1939–40, he was a regular for the Baltimore Clippers, teaming again with McDermott for the ABL season. During World War II, Howie played for the New York Jewels. His final year as a regular was 1943–44, although he played twice for Bergen in the New York-New Jersey League in 1946–47.
Following Bound Brook’s 1937 state championship, Howie became a Social Studies teacher at his alma mater, Hackensack High. He also coached football, basketball and baseball, and taught driver’s ed. The 1944-45 basketball team won a state championship, beating North Plainfield in the finals, and repeated as the #1 ranked team in 1951–52. Chet Forte was the Comets’ floor leader in ’52, as they wiped out Princeton in the finals.
In 1954, Howie retired as a coach to devote more tie to teaching and administrative work. He was named principal of Hackensack High School in 1960. He passed away at 59 after suffering a heart attack in the summer of 1966. An annual award was named in his memory for outstanding contributions to Bergen County basketball.