On Thursday, January 22, 2026, the Sayreville Bombers were at home defending the court against the Colonia Patriots in a Blackout Game where the students were on their feet almost the entire game, bringing the energy.
At halftime, senior guard Sam Jones, along with his team and family, celebrated being awarded the all-time boys leading scorer in Sayreville history. At this point, Jones stood only six points away from the overall leading scorer in Sayreville history after 12 points in the first half.
While assisting his teammates and being an all-around team player, Jones was doing more than just shooting the ball, by calling plays and coordinating the team. Now, Jones was sitting just 1 point away from the record, which made everyone on edge.
Eventually, a pass from senior Chidi Chukwurah led Jones to the basket and allowed him to make a simple layup to break the record. After the Bombers won the game, Sam again was celebrated, making for an amazing night with lots of history broken.
For someone who attends many Sayreville basketball games, this was the greatest one as it held so much emotion and passion for everyone, from the fans to the players and coaches. You knew that this game was going to be something special from tip-off.
The second record that Sam Jones broke in that game was the girls all-time record which was set by Rhonda Rompola in 1978 with 1,608 points. This record stood for about 48 years which is a very long time for a record and just shows how prestigious the record was, standing alone with no real competition. To celebrate this historic record, here are some interesting facts from 1978 which many of you might be surprised by:
- In baseball, Pete Rose had a 44 game hit streak, showing dominance with his bat to ball skills.
- The Pittsburgh Steelers won their third Super Bowl in four years , solidifying their dynasty in the NFL as the “steel curtain.”
- The Washington Bullets (Washington Wizards) beat the Seattle SuperSonics (Oklahoma City Thunder) in the NBA Finals.
- The New York Yankees came back from 14 games in their AL East division and won the World Series.
- Argentina won the 1978 World Cup against the Netherlands.
- In College Football, Alabama won the championship, going 11-1 under legendary Head Coach Bear Bryant.
- In the Heavyweight Championship, Leon Spinks shocked the entire world by defeating legend Muhammed Ali.
- Lakers NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was averaging 25 points per game and was using his signature sky hook shooting form to dominate the league.
- The MLB actually played 162 regular season games which they still do today in 2026.
- Most outdoor sporting events happened during the afternoon before dusk because lighting really was only official set in all stadiums a couple of years later.
- Minimum wage was only $2.65 which is $13.27 less than our 2026 average.
- Gas prices were going for around 65 cents a gallon which is $2.16 less than our 2026 average.
- Directions came from asking people or paper maps; there was no GPS at the time.
- Most household TV’s only came with 3-5 stations, like NBC, CBS, and NBC.
- Music was mainly listened to on vinyl records and there were only very bulky over-the-ear headphones.
- To get the daily news, people primarily read news papers like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.
- Photos were taken on film and had to be developed which took time as there were not iPhones to photograph or video.
- The Blizzard of 1978 destroyed the northeastern part of the U.S. with our Sayreville area getting around 1-2 feet of snow.
- The first ever spam email was created and it advertised a new computer program and model.
- For cars, the Ford Bronco was produced as cars kept expanding to the modern foundation that we know today.
If it takes another 48 years for someone to break Sam Jones’s new record, what will students think about the year 2026 then?
