Uncovering the Remarkable Story of Cleveland Gaiter

Upstairs at the Ocean County Library in Toms River, just in front of the elevator doors, three small glass display cases hold remembrances of a notable local family that, were it not for the efforts of one area man, might have been lost to history.

An immigrant family of 10 children that produces numerous college graduates, teachers, an advanced degree holder from an Ivy League school, decorated war veterans, and perhaps the best athlete the area has ever produced would be notable enough, but when the family is African-American and growing up amidst the prejudice and racism of the early 20th Century, the family becomes that must more commendable. 

Gil Leibrick of Ocean Gate discovered the Gaiter family’s story a few years ago. 

“I was being inducted into the Toms River Schools Hall of Fame and a few of us were wondering what ever happened to the guys we had heard about when we were in school,” he explained. A conversation with retired principal Doc Ricketts proved informative about lots of long-forgotten scholastic athletes.

“As I was leaving, Doc Ricketts asked me, ‘Did you ever hear about Cleveland Gaiter?’ It was a name I had never heard.”

Intrigued, Leibrick started researching Gaiter at the Ocean County Historical Society. “They have a fabulous research center. I asked about Cleveland Gaiter and a guy left and three minutes later, he came back with the yearbook,” for 1926, the year Cleveland graduated from Toms River High School, the school that would eventually become High School South.

A three-sport star in high school, competing in football, baseball and track, Cleveland had been lauded as the best athlete in South Jersey. Sportswriters from not only local newspapers but also those in north Jersey considered Cleveland to be the best high school running back they had ever seen, “quite an accomplishment since the north Jersey papers didn’t take Ocean County teams seriously back then,” Leibrick observed.

Leibrick’s research uncovered a shameful incident during a football game between Toms River High School and Point Pleasant in 1924 during which the Point Pleasant coach instructed his team to remove Cleveland from the game.

In the notes for the display at the library, Leibrick wrote, [Toms River] “coach N.S. Detweiler pulled the team off the field, forfeiting the game, ending the sports relationship with Point Pleasant High School for three years. Point players had been instructed to get the ‘colored’ back off the field at any cost.”

After graduation, Cleveland played semi-pro football, boxed professionally—until an injury stopped his career after compiling a 5-1 record—and eventually dabbled in vaudeville, leading to comparisons with Red Grange, another famous athlete turned entertainer of that era. The New Jersey Courier for Feb. 5, 1926 described Cleveland’s prize-winning appearance on the stage of the Traco Theater.

Cleveland’s story would be interesting enough were it not for the accomplishments of his siblings. Leibrick’s research uncovered Supervising Principal Dr. Edgar M. Finck’s 29th and final report to the Dover Township Board of Education, written in 1948 by, in which Finck praised Wilfred and Ernestine Gaiter who emigrated from the Bahamas in 1911, writing they, “were of the laboring class.

They lived in an overwhelmingly white community. There were not one or two children: there were 10! Yet, by diligence and industry the parents established for themselves a position of respect in the town, and assisted all ten children through high school. Seven of these youngsters were graduated from college, one has a master’s degree. Seven children have been teachers.”

Eldest daughter, Olive, graduated from Toms River High School in 1925, graduated Glassboro Teachers College, attended New York University, Temple and Howard. She worked as a teacher. So did her sisters Lenore, Nellie, and Phyllis, as well as her brother, Ralston. Nellie also received a Masters degree from Columbia University.

Two brothers served with distinction in the U.S. Army during World War II. Worrell, who graduated high school in 1933 and earned a BS degree from Hampton Institute, received a Bronze Star for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Roger, who graduated high school in 1939 and earned a BS from Glassboro, became a pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, flying 55 missions over Europe before being shot down over Hungary in November1944. He evaded German patrols for days before being captured and sent to Stalag VIIA Prisoner of War camp.

Leibrick remains in awe of the accomplishments of this little remembered family of hard-working immigrants who struggled so mightily to overcome so much and managed to serve their communities and country. He said he is grateful to the library for allowing the exhibit to remain on display for the entire month of February and hopes that it can remain a little longer.

“The family deserves to be recognized,” he said.Despite all of the notable accomplishments, Leibrick said he hadn’t lost sight of the fact that these were real people with real failures and sorrows. “Cleveland’s son said years after his father had died, he found a letter from Columbia University offering his father a full scholarship. Unfortunately, the family expected the eldest son to go to work to help support the family.”

Leibrick could only speculate as to the thoughts and emotions Cleveland would have kept along with the letter for all those years, wondering at what might have been. If nothing else, Leibrick is glad to have had the opportunity to share the story of this remarkable man and his equally remarkable family.