The title of this section of non-veterans is “Did You Know?”.
I did not find out about Chester Forte until I read the article on March 22, 2007 in The Record written by John Rowe, where he picked the All-Time All-Area College Hoops Team.
I recognized the name of Chester Forte from Hackensack, as my family doctor when I was young in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s. I had also seen the name on TV for years at the end of Monday Night Football under "Produced and Directed" by Chet Forte, but had no idea there was a connection. So I asked my dad if he was related to Dr. Forte, our family doctor and he said to my surprise, “Oh yes, that’s his son.” I said, “Really, I remember Dr. Forte being grumpy”, which was more a product of being young and afraid of the doctor, any doctor. My older brother said he wasn’t grumpy and he liked Dr. Forte, and my dad told me
“Bob, Dr. Forte was a good man. He took care of me when I was 4 years old when I had pneumonia and again a few years later, I almost died. The Hackensack Italian community in the 1930’s setup a fund of $175.00 a year for Dr. Forte, and he would take care of everybody. He came to everybody’s house when they were sick because no one went to an office then. He asked for $25 more after sometime for expenses, and they told him forget it! He still came. You would not believe what that man did for nothing! He would get paid in vegetables or whatever!”
Well, I guess that explains the Hackensack High School 1953 yearbook caption stating
Chester Forte had "a brilliant future in a medical career". It was not the path Chester Forte took and Sports broadcasting has never been the same.
Click on articles below to learn more:
Click here to view June 7, 1996 Columbia University article on Chet Forte’s passing.
Click here to view (Ivy@50) article November 29, 2006 telling the story of Chet Forte's greatest accomplishment wasn’t beating out Wilt Chamberlain for “1957 Basketball Player of the Year”, but rather changing sports television forever with his directing and production of Monday Night Football.
Click here to view February 18, 1964 The Record newspaper article titled,
“For The Record”, which is talking about the great 1960’s-70’s Knick basketball star Bill Bradley who later became a New Jersey Senator, who is on the verge of breaking Chet Forte’s Collegiate scoring mark when he was in college at Princeton.
Click here to view March 22, 2007 article in The Record newspaper of sports writer
John Rowe’s All-Time All-Area College Hoops team. One of his selections is Chet Forte, who is pictured with College All-Americans of 1957, one of which is the great Wilt Chamberlain, who he beat out for Collegiate Player of the year.
Click here to view the 1953 Hackensack High School yearbook photos of Chet Forte on
Football, Basketball, and Baseball teams. They all had tremendous success. Their basketball team was 16-1 losing to Englewood in their first meeting 70-45, but turning the tide in their second meeting and winning 69-60. In football the team was 9-0 with 7 shutouts! The other two wins were 13-6 against Paterson Eastside and 20-7 against Tenafly. The baseball record is not shown because photos are taken before season has been played, but according to my records, the baseball team in 1953 was 12-4 which did not win them the league title as the 12-4 record had in 1952. The photo of Chester Forte in both high school and college does not show a person with any physical dominance which makes it all the more impressive his accomplishments.
Written by:
Bob Meli
September 1, 2015
Click here to view Chester "Chet" Forte and William "Bill" McCadney CYO Basketball Photo.
