Kemp Carr has a team that could make Penns Grove football history.
But he wants his players to know Penns Grove football history.
That's why the coach brought his boundless energy and can-do pep to his latest pet project: a reunion of former Penns Grove players Saturday at the Red Devils' homecoming game against Schalick.
"It's homecoming, so those guys should come home," Carr said of the 50 or so former players scheduled to attend the event.
Carr calls himself a historian. He's a Salem native and former Salem High School player and coach. But he knows there were few programs that could match Penns Grove during the Red Devils' heyday in the 1950s and 1960s.
"Look at this," Carr said the other day, paging through a scrapbook with torn and yellowed newspaper clippings from those days. "I love this stuff. I want my players to know this stuff."
Penns Grove was a South Jersey power in the those two decades. The Red Devils won 10 Tri-County championships under former coach Jim Devonshire, who ran the program from 1948-63 and won his final 24 games.
Penns Grove was 9-0 in 1962, 1963, and 1967.
"We were the team that everybody wanted to beat," said Jack Prigger, a standout player on the teams that won 24 games in a row from 1961 through 1963 and also the head coach of the program from 1975-1990.
"The way people have looked at Paulsboro over the last 15 years, that's how they looked at us then."
Carr said he has heard from athletes from the 1950s through the 2000s. He said he was "overwhelmed" by the reaction of former players.
"They were so appreciative we wanted them back," Carr said.
But reunions such as this are special for reasons that reach beyond the chance for old-timers to reconnect and reminisce.
The best part of Saturday's festivities might be the opportunity for today's Penns Grove players to meet yesterday's Penns Grove players - to learn about the history of their program, to appreciate the athletes who came before them.
"You're not the first and you're not the last," Carr said of his players. "We don't need to invent the wheel. The wheel has been invented. We need to piggyback on what these guys have done.
"It's about filtering the old with the new. It's a collaboration."
Penns Grove is 5-0 and looks like the team to beat in South Jersey Group 1 this season. If they stay healthy and focused, the Red Devils could set a school record for victories and win the program's first sectional title since the creation of the tournament in 1974.
But Carr wants his players to realize they will be standing on the shoulders of those guys from the 1950s and 1960s.
"It's a big deal for us to get to meet those guys," Penns Grove senior quarterback Nick Elmer said. "They established the legacy."
Penns Grove senior wide receiver/safety Greg Thompson said his teammates need to cherish the opportunity to connect with the past.
"Those guys wore the same uniform we're wearing now," Thompson said.
Contact Phil Anastasia at panastasia@phillynews.com or @PhilAnastasia on Twitter. Read his blog, "Jersey Side Sports," at www.philly.com/jerseysidesports
