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Former Union star Gary Mobley, who had a successful stint as the head coach at Rahway and most recently guided the Columbia Cougars, is now joining the staff of longtime friend Barris Grant (right, in top photo) on a new-look Union coaching staff heading into the 2025 gridiron season. (Sideline Chatter photos)
The last time Gary Mobley was a member of Union High School Farmers football was 40 years ago when, as a standout senior player for head coach Lou Rettino, Mobley and his teammates were getting ready to make history again in the fall of 1985. Fast forward four decades. Mobley, a Union High School Athletic Hall of Fame member and Union resident, is home again. After deciding that nine seasons as the head coach at Columbia High School were enough, Mobley sought to coach elsewhere. He applied for the Union job, but did not get it. However, he was offered and took the next best thing. Mobley is now on head coach Barris Grant's staff as the assistant head coach and in charge of running backs and safeties. Mobley will remain a health and physical education teacher at Columbia, where he was an assistant coach for one year in 2015 under head coach John Power, who is a 1989 Union High School graduate. "In conversation with Barris, I did not make the final round of interviews, I asked Barris that I would like to come home," said Mobley, 56, who is a 1986 Union High School graduate who went on to play collegiately at Temple University. "Having Gary Mobley on this staff means a lot," Grant said. "Bringing this hall of famer back home to his roots is special for our program." Mobley's addition to Union's staff is invaluable as far as someone having already been a successful head coach and someone who starred for the Farmers during their glory, state-championship days of the 1980s. Official practice commences Monday, Aug. 11. Scrimmages begin the following week with Union's first one being at West Orange on Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 10 a.m. where Grant will go up against his older brother Darnell, the head coach of the Mountaineers. Union's game-scrimmage is scheduled for home at Cooke Memorial Field on Thursday, Aug. 21 at 11 a.m. vs. Edison. Union's season-opener is Thursday, Aug. 28 at Woodbridge at 6 p.m. The home-opener is Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. vs. Hillsborough. Mobley was an assistant coach at Rahway before he became a head coach for the first time, which was being promoted at Rahway in 2004. Mobley was an assistant coach at Rahway from 1999-2003 under head coaches Paul Sep in 1999, 2000 and 2001; under Mark Ciccotelli in 2002 and under Kevin Conroy in 2003. "I gave myself to the Rahway and Columbia communities for the last 20 years," Mobley said. Present Buffalo Bills starting offensive lineman Dion Dawkins starred for Mobley at Rahway before graduating in 2013 and continuing at Temple. "We're grateful to have Gary pouring into our players and helping us rebuild this storied program," Barris Grant said. Grant's first game as the head coach at Hillside was at Rahway in 2016, which was Mobley's first year as the head coach at Columbia. "I've known Barris for a lot of years and totally respect his dedication," Mobley said. "He has great IQ and acumen for the game, a pedigree that is top-flight. He played at Irvington and in junior college and at Mississippi State and if it weren't for injuries might have played in the NFL. "There's nobody else I'd rather coach with and work for." Union has finished under .500 the last three years after capturing a state championship in 2019 for the first time since 1993 and coming close again in 2021, sidelined by the Covid-19 pandemic. "We're here to get the ship right," Mobley said. "To be able to come back here and be part of the community again means a great deal to me. I didn't want to miss an opportunity like this to work with a friend." Mobley, who will turn 57 on Aug. 18, is anxious to get things started and is optimistic things can be turned around right away at Union. "We're ready to jump-start this thing," Mobley said. "It will be a whole resurgence. The energy level, there's no better place for me to be than back home. "You can't put a price on total acceptance." Mobley guided Columbia to three of its seven playoff seasons. The Cougars are now guided by first-year head coach Lys Rubens Blanc, who played at Irvington and at Kean University and who was an assistant coach on Barris Grant's staff at Hillside in 2022 when the Comets went 9-2 and reached the North 1, Group 3 sectional state championship game, falling at top-seeded Old Tappan 28-14. Blanc graduated from Irvington in 2003 and played there when Darnell Grant, a 1991 Irvington graduate, was the head coach there. 1985 - RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, BACK TO THE FUTURE, REFRIGERATOR PERRY AND THE CHICAGO BEARS AND TONY STEWART AND THE UNION FARMERS The summer of 1985 featured the blockbuster films Rambo: First Blood Part II and Back to the Future. Then in the fall of 1985 the Chicago Bears, who in 1984 reached the NFC Championship Game for the first time, were kicking everyone's butt, except for the Miami Dolphins, on their way to winning the Super Bowl with an 18-1 record, sparked by a rookie, heavyset, touchdown-scoring offensive lineman out of Clemson named William, "Refrigerator" Perry. The Union Farmers were making history themselves that fall 40 years ago, with Mobley a returning starter. Union captured North 2, Group 4 for the fourth time in the playoff era in 1984, but for the first time undefeated, finishing 11-0. Back then only four teams made the playoffs in each section and North 2 was a lot easier to digest, consisting of schools from only four counties: Morris, Essex, Union and Warren. In the 1984 North 2, Group 4 final played at Union, the host Farmers came away with a resounding 34-13 triumph. It was the third year in a row that Union and Montclair faced each other in the final. Union won at Montclair 14-7 in 1982 and then in head coach Butch Fortunato's final game Montclair won at Union 14-10 in the 1983 final. In 1985 the powerhouses were destined to tangle for a fourth straight year in the North 2, Group 4 championship game. In the semifinals it was second-seeded Union beating third-seeded Elizabeth 34-8 at Union and top-seeded Montclair edging fourth-seeded East Orange 8-6 at Bloomfield's Foley Field. Montclair's Woodman Field was under reconstruction so the Mounties had to practice at Nishuane Park and play their five regular season home games and two playoff games, because they were the top seed in the section, at Bloomfield's Foley Field. Union and Montclair were both 10-0 going into the sectional state championship contest and Union was ranked No. 1 in the state. There's a video of the game on You Tube. It was Mobley's final high school game and for Mobley and the rest of the Union Farmers, it had a happy ending. "It was cold and muddy that day," Mobley recalled. Before 11,000 fans at Foley Field the two best teams in the state, Montclair guided by second-year head coach Jack Davies and Union by Rettino since 1977, went back-and-forth with a vengeance for 48 minutes. Union's defense stopped Montclair deep in Union territory and later standout senior Tony Stewart intercepted a pass at the Union 16-yard line. Mobley and Stewart, cousins on Mobley's father's side of the family, grew up in the Vauxhall section of Union. Stewart rushed for a touchdown, passed for another and kicked an extra point. Stewart, who starred at Iowa, was drafted by the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and then played professionally in the Canadian Football League for the Calgary Stampeders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, said that the 1984 11-0 Union state championship team was the best in program history. "That seems like a whole other lifetime to me," Mobley said. "We played to a level of excellence that few teams did." The 1985 title was Union's fifth since 1978. Union still has the record for most sectional state championships won in North 2, Group 4 at 10, winning all 10 under Rettino in a 16-season span from 1978-1993. "It was a clash of the titans," Mobley said of the 1985 Union-Montclair epic confrontation. "We were just able to make a few more plays." GARY MOBLEY HEAD COACHING RECORD AT RAHWAY: GARY MOBLEY HEAD COACHING RECORD AT COLUMBIA: Follow JR Parachini on 'X' @parachini_jr
Gary Mobley (right) coaches up one of his Columbia Cougars during talk in timeout. The former Columbia and Rahway head coach is now on staff at Union under Barris Grant who is in his first season coaching Farmers. In second photo some Union Farmer players get together after 7-on-7 as they prepare for upcoming season. In bottom photo Mobley is seen while coaching at Rahway. (Sideline Chatter photos & courtesy Barris Grant)
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