St. Cecilia High School

St. Cecilia High School was a Catholic high school in Englewood, in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, that operated under the supervision of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark until it closed in 1986. History St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church was established in 1866 and saw substantial growth in the number of students served by its parochial school, necessitating an expansion that would be able to double the number of students that the school could serve. A building was designed to accommodate 600 students, with a cornerstone ceremony held in May 1901 and a formal dedication in January 1902. The Book of Englewood, a history published by the city in 1922, describes the building as "an imposing edifice of red and gray sandstone." In 1939, two years after his graduation from Fordham University, Vince Lombardi began his football coaching career at St. Cecilia; he worked there for several years before leaving to take a junior coaching staff position at Fordham, his alma mater. At the school, Lombardi taught algebra, chemistry, physics and Latin; in addition to coaching the school's baseball and basketball squads, he coached the football team to six state titles and a streak of 36 consecutive victories. Athletics The 1943 football team, coached by Lombardi, earned recognition as the high school national champion with a 12–0 victory against the Brooklyn Prep team led by quarterback Joe Paterno.