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 Gene
Olaff was born in Bayonne, New Jersey on September 23,
1920. His mother, Irene MacGregor, was of Scottish
heritage and his father, Victor Olaff, was a Swedish seaman who
jumped ship in America and joined the National Guard to obtain
his U.S. citizenship. Ironically, after obtaining his
citizenship he was shipped over to France when the Guard was
activated during WW I.
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Personal Information |
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Class of 1971 |
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Born: September 23, 1920 - Bayonne, NJ |
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Position:
Goalkeeper |
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Int'l
Caps: 1 |
Int'l
Goals: 0 |
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Gene had one sister, Adele, who was born in 1927. Tragically both of his
parents died very young, his mother died in 1937 at age 39, and his father
died in 1941 at age 43, leaving Gene, who had no relatives of any kind in
America, to raise his younger sister. He married his wife Doris in 1941, at
which time he was 21 and she was 18.
Gene's
first job, after graduating from Bayonne High School in
1937, was as a janitor in a shirt factory in Bayonne where he
earned $7.00 per week. That lasted for one month when he
was lured away to a job as a shipping clerk with the Raven
Screen Co. in New York, where he earned the grand sum of $14.00
per week. He was later employed by General Motors in Linden,
N.J. as a metal finisher where his wages soared to $45.00 per
week.
 Gene took up
soccer when he was 12 years old playing for the junior team of
the Bayonne Rangers during the 1933-34 season. Since he was the
tallest on the team he was automatically chosen as the
goalkeeper, the position he played his entire career. From
1933-1937 he played for the Bayonne High School soccer team, and
at the same time was a member of the Bayonne Rangers senior team
and subsequently the New York Brookhattan "B' team. In 1937 he
was signed by the Hatikvoh Football Club of Brooklyn, playing
for them until the end of the 1938-39 season and helping them
win the National League Cup in 1939. It was during his spell
with Hatikvah that he lost his amateur status. During that
era it was very common for players to receive money for playing
while retaining their amateur status. According to the
rules at the time, an amateur player was supposed to be
automatically released at the end of each season, thus allowing
them to switch clubs freely. By contrast if a player
signed a professional contract he was bound to the team and
could be bought and sold without the player's consent. It was,
of course, not legal for amateurs to be paid but it was a common
practice and the money received, which was the same as the
professionals, was negligible. Gene received $9.00 per game. At
the start of the 1939-40 season, he jumped to the Brooklyn
Swedish Football Club in the National League (where he won his
second National League Cup). Hatikvah reported to the US Soccer
Federation that he had received money for playing and he was
declared a professional by the USSF Secretary (Hall of Famer
Joe Barriskill).
It was a dictatorial process with no appeal process and no
hearing, and sadly it eliminated him forever for consideration
for a place on the Olympic team, which given his ability, would
have been a foregone conclusion. Many players were treated in
this harsh, arbitrary manner. Hall of Famer
Jackie Hynes
was one of them. At
just about the same time, and at the same age, he was also
declared a professional by Barriskill. In his case for receiving
$8.00 per game.
In 1941 he was signed by Brooklyn Hispano of the American Soccer
League and was in goal when they won the U.S. Open Cup in 1943
and 1944 against Morgan Strasser of Pittsburgh. In an
interesting footnote to history, the team threatened to strike
just prior to the final game in 1944 against Morgan Strasser. The
players demanded, and finally received $30.00 per player for the
game. It was the most he ever received for playing. In 1944
Hispano completed the double, winning the American League
championship in addition to the Open Cup. Gene speaks warmly of
Duncan Othen, the manager of the Brooklyn Hispanos saying
he "took me under his wing and treated me like a son. He was
like a second father". It was Othen who, after Gene in his early
playing days suffered a 6-0 loss and was going to quit, told him
that if he quit then he would be a quitter all his life.
It was a timely message which he never forgot.
 During World
War II Gene served with the United States Navy as a Diver First
Class, and while assigned to the various Navy schools on
the East coast continued to play for Hispano. In the latter
part of 1944, and all of 1945 he was stationed in Bari,
Italy working on salvage operations on the Adriatic Sea.
He was discharged in 1946 under a government program where he
received $20 per week for 52 weeks until he could find a job.
But it didn't take him long to find a job. In March of 1946, at
age 25, he joined the New Jersey State Police, which at the time
was virtually a military operation, having originally been
established in 1921 by Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the
father of General Norman Schwarzkopf of Desert Storm fame. All
troopers, regardless of marital status, were required to live in
barracks and were off only 4 days and 9 nights per month,
receiving a salary of $150 per month. Gene was to
remain with the N.J. State Police until 1975, moving up through
the ranks and holding key positions including Instructor at the
Academy, Planning Officer, Deputy Superintendent and Chief of
Staff under Colonel David Kelly. He held command positions
through the turbulent 60's which included the 1967 race riots in
Newark, as well as the assault on organized crime which led to
the conviction of a number of well known mobsters. One of his
accomplishments was to form the country's first state police
underwater unit. In 1966, as a Captain, he was in charge of the
detail responsible for planning and security for the historic
meeting between President Johnson and Russian President Kosygin
in Glassboro, N.J. In 1975 he was promoted to Colonel and
appointed Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.
Unfortunately, the year of his appointment was also the year he
reached age 55 which was the mandatory retirement age so he only
served for one year. Shortly thereafter he joined David Kelly in
forming D.B. Kelly Associates, a security firm which grew from
15 employees in 1978 to 2500 when the business was finally sold
in 1996.
Gene's career with the State
Police had a definite impact on his international
soccer career since he was never able to travel outside of the
Northeast for matches. Because of the military nature of
duty as a trooper he was required to obtain Sunday passes
in order to continue to play with the Hispano (with whom he
also won the Lewis Cup in 1946). Fortunately he had
an understanding superior who usually issued the passes but
Hispano actually carried two goalkeepers because they could
never be certain that Gene would be able to play. As
the
 premier American goalkeeper of the late1940s he played for
the American Soccer League All-Stars against Liverpool in 1946, Djurgarden of Sweden in 1948, and Scotland and Inter-Milan in
1949. He also saw action for the New York All-Star
team against Atlante of Mexico in 1942, and Hapoel Tel Aviv
in 1947, Liverpool twice in 1948, Belfast Celtic in 1949 and
Manchester United in 1950. In 1948 he played for the
United States national team against Israel and in 1949 against
Scotland in New York. Shortly after the match against Scotland
he was approached by
Erno Schwartz
who had been named coach of the U.S. team (although he was
subsequently replaced by Bill Jeffries) which was to play in the
1950 World Cup in Brazil. Schwartz informed him that he
would have to take a leave of absence from the State Police in
order to play for the U.S. team. He was told by his
commanding officer that he had to make a choice between soccer
and his career since no leave of absence would be granted.
Gene opted for his career. It is possible that he
could have been the goalkeeper in that famous upset of England
at Bela Horizonte, about which they are now making the movie
"The Game of Their Lives". Would the
outcome of that game have been different? Would the
outcome of the other games in that World Cup have been
different? No one will ever know. What is indisputable
though is that, at the time, he was acknowledged to be the
successor to the legendary goalkeeper and Hall of Famer
Stan Chesney,
his role model and idol when he was growing up. In fact he
emulated Chesney by wearing a baseball cap and baseball pants in
goal. Unfortunately he never had the opportunity to demonstrate
his prowess outside of the Northeast although he did perform
successfully against some of the best club teams in the world,
in New York.
As a goalkeeper Gene grew up in an era where team practice was
virtually unheard of. His practice consisted of going out
in the evening with a couple of friends to the grounds of a
local soda factory in Bayonne. They would place two soda
crates against the wall for goalposts and would take turns
"shooting in" at him. Gene attributes his success in goal
to his ability to anticipate the play and calculate the angles
he had to cover. And of course his wingspan was enormous,
so the combination made him very difficult to beat. He was known
for his dominance with high balls, and anything in the air
around the goals was his. His size was also a great help in
fending off shoulder charges which were legal in those days so
long as they were shoulder to shoulder and the goalkeeper had
both feet on the ground. It was not unknown for a goal to
be scored by "bundling" the goalkeeper into the goal with the
ball. This never happened with Gene. During his playing
days he stood 6'1 and weighed 180 pounds. He was also
noted for the length of his goal kicks which routinely reached
midfield and beyond which was significant in these days since
the balls were heavy even when dry, and being made of leather
which had a tendency to soak up water in the rain, they were
even heavier when wet. The balls in those day had a bladder
which was inserted thru a slit in the leather, then blown up,
with the slit then being laced up. He tells a wonderful
story of the time he was playing with the Hispano in Brooklyn
Oval. The team's fans were known to be fairly volatile and very
strong supporters who were prepared to back the team regardless
of what might happen. The lace of the ball came loose and they
had to cut it off to repair it so the manager asked if anyone in
the stands had a knife where upon switchblades were immediately
produced from all corners of the stands. They were, in
fact, prepared for anything.
 Gene and
Doris (who passed away in 2003) have two sons, Gene and Gary.
He has 5 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. In 1954
he initiated a Youth Recreation Program in Florence, New Jersey
and later served a president of the Florence Township
Recreational Youth Committee for 20 years. He
attended Northwestern and Temple Universities participating and
completing Police Administration courses. He is on the board of The
New Jersey State Police Museum Association and is a Master Mason
in Bordentown's Moriah Lodge #28. Gene, who was
inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1971, was a
strong and active supporter of Oneonta's efforts to build the
Hall and obtain official sanction from the U.S. Soccer Federation.
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