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CHARLEY
ROGERS, known in his prime as the "Camden Comet", was probably the
first Camden High School player to perform in the National Football League.
Charley
Rogers was born Charles Stagg Rogers on November 5, 1902 in New York
to William and Helen Rogers. The family had come to New Jersey by 1910, the
elder Rogers supporting his family as the general manager of a Philadelphia
mattress factory. The 1910 Census shows the m at 28 West Cedar Avenue in
Merchantville, New Jersey. Sadly, Charley Rogers' father was killed on July 26,
1912 when his car was struck by a train from Atlantic City while crossing
Collings Avenue in Collingswood, New Jersey at a crossing where the gates had
been left unattended. The 1915 New Jersey Census and the 1920 Federal Census
shows Charley Rogers still living at 28 Cedar Avenue in Merchantville with his
widowed mother, older brothers William H. and Roy L., and younger brothers
Robert G. Rogers.
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Charley
Rogers transferred to
Camden High School in his junior year of high school, where he starred
in football, basketball and track during the 1920-1921 and 1921-1922 seasons. After
graduating, he went to Colgate University for a year, then went on to the University of Pennsylvania,
where he was selected to the 1926 College Football All-America Team. After graduation, he played in the National Football League for the Frankford Yellow Jackets from 1927 to 1929.
Appearing in all 18 games in 1927, he scored 3 touchdowns in 1927, two as a
runner and one as a receiver. In the 16 game 1928 season, Charley Rogers started
in 8 and played in 13, again scoring three touchdowns, one on the ground and two
as a receiver. In 1929 he only appeared in seven games, and only two as a
starter. He served the team as a player-coach during their 1927 season. Rogers served as the head football coach at the University of Delaware from 1931 to 1933,
On July 25, 1926, while still attending the University of Pennsylvania, Charley
Rogers met Helen Crosby, who had starred at Swarthmore High School in
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania at basketball and field hockey. They eloped on July 25, 1926, to Mt. Pocono, but the marriage was kept secret until
November 25, the eve of the
Penn-Cornell game. The marriage, however,
was not a happy one, and the couple divorced in June of 1933.
At
the University of Delaware, Charley
Rogers coached the Fightin' Blue Hens to a record of 12𥑲, going 5-1-2 in
1931, 5-4 in 1932, and 2-4-2 in 1933.
Returning
to private life, Charles S. Rogers lived in Pennsylvania at some point before
1951, when he was issued a Social Security card. Last a resident of Andover, in
Sussex County, New Jersey, Charley Rogers passed away
in October of 1986.
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