Featured Former Jersey Trooper

            I’ve taken this opportunity to feature a former Jersey Trooper some might recall, most - probably not, but one whose scholastic abilities set the pace for his career and the remainder of his life.  Recalling his youth, he ran everywhere.  He was only ten when his father sent him off on an errand to the store in downtown Pitman for a pack of cigarettes.  Running the full half-mile trek he quickly made the purchase and was midway home in full sprint when an unsuspecting lady opened the door from inside her parked car just as the swift footed youngster passed by.  Colliding full force with the massive hulking car door, the young, weightless runner bounced wildly into the street.  Immediately, he shook off the violent collision, jumped up and scurried away, unaware of the gash the imposing car door left upon his head. 

            Fearful for the boy’s safety, the concerned lady summoned the local police and gave a detailed description of youth.  The officers were well aware of the boy’s identity, not because of any delinquency, but because of their amazement of his running ability.  Every time they saw him he was running, and he was fast.  Proceeding to his home they found him in the confidence of his father, the local auto mechanic, a white towel held upon head, blood stained from the gash he received in his collision with the weighty car door.  A ride in the police car to a nearby doctor for a few stitches was all that remained of the mishap.  But that didn’t slow him down.

            Eight years later, this 1949 graduate of Pitman High School, left an outstanding mark as both an athlete and student leader.  In football, he lettered three years, playing end on offense and in the backfield on defense.  In his senior year the team was Tri-County Champions, loosing just one game to a non-league opponent, Lower Regional.  Their 8-1 record was the best in Pitman’s history.

            At only 135 lbs. and one of the smallest players on the field you can imagine that football wasn’t his premier sport, but his speed was a constant threat on every play.  His greatest success however was in track.  As a freshman and sophomore he was an excellent quarter-miler, achieving Tri-County and South Jersey Group I Championships in that race.  Doubling that distance, he is considered as one of Pitman’s best ever half-milers, where he won all but two races as a junior and then going undefeated as a senior, winning Tri-County, the South Jersey Group I Championship, and finally being the New Jersey State Group I Champion.

            His 1946, 47 and 48 teams were Tri-County Champions, and the 1946 and 47 teams also won the South Jersey Championships.  In 1949, the team won the Bridgeton Relays, a first ever for a Pitman High team.  But South Jersey was only local news.

            The successes of the Pitman team qualified them to participate in the Penn Relays in all four years.  The 1946 team captured first place in the mile relay.  But that wasn’t his personal highlight.  In 1949, his senior year he ran the third leg of the mile relay.  Receiving the baton, he was thirty yards behind the leader.  Through sheer determination he was able to make up the entire deficit and handed off the baton tied with the leader, a 51.8 quarter mile, better than the school’s stand alone quarter mile record.  An amazing accomplishment, shortly overshadowed by defeat, the team lost the race by one foot.

            As a senior he was president of the Student Council, active in the Dramatic Club, serving as president, and performing lead parts in both his junior and senior class plays.  Always artistic, he won third place nationally at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh out of thousands of entries for abstract design.

            After graduating high school, he attended Kings College in Delaware, labored for a local cement mason, and then worked briefly for RCA and Dupont before enlisting in the New Jersey State Police in 1954. 

            Anyone who knows Lieutenant Alfred C. Mossop, #1337 (Ret.) knows he doesn’t stand still for long.  Always on the move, he hurried his way around Troops “A,” “C,” and “D” before being posted at Division Headquarters in the Community Relations Unit, and then lastly at Emergency Management before retiring in 1983, after twenty-nine years of service.

             Outside the State Police, Al served in the New Jersey National Guard for twenty-two years, retiring in 1972 at the rank of Major. Over the years he’s served on the Elk Township Resolution Committee, was President of the Jim Thorpe Lions Club, served as Regular Chairman of the Lions Club, and was Deputy Sheriff of Carbon County, Pa.

            Currently, Al serves on the Salem County Resolution Committee, and is a monthly regular at the Troop “A” retiree get-togethers at Bernardi’s Wheat Road Tavern in Vineland.

            Al was inducted into the Pitman High School Sports Hall of Fame on November 27, 2005, and the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame on March 28, 2006.

            After his retirement, Al and his wife Nancy relocated from South Jersey to Jim Thorpe, Pa., to Kissimmee, Fl., and then back to South Jersey.  It’s kind of like running that oval track in his younger days.  No matter how far you go, you always wind up where you started the race.  After four children, twelve grandchildren, and four great grandchildren you’d think he’d start to slow down.  Not even close.  I’ve known Al personally for thirty-eight years, and I still can’t keep up with him.   

   Lt. George Wren, #3680 (Ret.)

(As previously posted in the December 2011 issue of True Blue & Gold)