Bruce Beckman - Class of 1956

Football, Basketball, Baseball, Track

Presenter:  Jack Ford

The last of the four-sport athletes, the "Gray Ghost" haunted opponents in football, basketball, baseball, and track.

Referred to as "Manasquan's one-man show" by Press writer Herb Kamm, Beckman led Coach Hal Manson's teams from his quarterback position.  A two-time All-Shore honoree (including his junior season in which was shortened to five games due to a polio outbreak))and runner-up to Long Branch's "Army" Ippolito as the Shore Conference MVP, Beckman ended his gridiron career in style - accounting for every point in a 20-19 Thanksgiving win over Point Beach - and was awarded the Peter Blocksom Roetzel Memorial Award as Manasquan's most outstanding football player. 

In basketball, Beckman was selected as a first-team All-Shore guard, and under Coach Harry Morris led the Blue and Gray to Shore Conference and NJSIAA Group III titles in 1955.  In 1956, the Ghost won the Shore Conference MVP award, and both school and conference records in points scored and field goals, and became the first Shore player in history to finish a season without scoring less than 20 points in any one game.  He was awarded the Fredrick Lyman Abbott Memorial Basketball Award as Manasquan's most outstanding basketball player.

In the spring, Beckman split time between track and baseball.  In his junior and senior years, he set the Monmouth-Ocean Track Meet record in the 220, with times of 23.6 and 23.2.  In one week during his junior baseball season, a season in which he batted .424 for Coach Jack Schellenger, he hit two-home runs to beat Point Beach on the diamond, and ran a 10.2 second 100 to beat them on the cinders.