RECORD FILE PHOTO: Tom Shoebridge in front of trophy case honoring brother Teddy Shoebridge, a Lyndhurst grad killed in the 1970 Marshall plane crash.
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Tom Shoebridge still has the magazines and newspaper clippings that speak volumes about his late brother’s talent.There was a time, more than four and a half decades ago, when Lionel “Teddy” Shoebridge was ranked among the best quarterbacks in the nation at Marshall University. He was considered the next big thing.
The 1968 Lyndhurst graduate’s college statistics compared favorably with the likes of contemporaries Joe Theismann, Archie Manning and Terry Bradshaw. Shoebridge, like those future NFL quarterbacks, appeared destined for stardom.
“That’s what everybody says,” Tom Shoebridge said Thursday.
Then came Nov. 14, 1970. Devastation struck the community.
Teddy Shoebridge and fellow Lyndhurst graduate Marcelo Lajterman (Class of 1969) – the team’s starting kicker – were on the chartered Marshall team plane that crashed, killing all 75 people onboard, including 36 players and five coaches. It remains the single worst sports-related air tragedy.
But their memory will live on in Lyndhurst forever.
The Golden Bears (2-0) will honor Shoebridge and Lajterman tonight during a re-dedication ceremony at 6:45 p.m. prior to their homecoming game against Hawthorne. The school will unveil refurbished signs bearing the images of Shoebridge and Lajterman on the Joseph P. Cipolla Memorial Field scoreboard.
