Rowland “Red” Pierson

Baseball Coach

Class of 1949

Inducted: 1998

Rowland “Red” Pierson graduated from Long Branch High School in 1949 and came back to the High School as a social studies teacher in 1955. He began coaching freshman basketball and junior varsity baseball the following year. In 1958 he assumed head coaching duties in baseball and cross country. His 1962 baseball team, picked by critics to end last, won the Shore Conference championship. That year, Pierson was named Coach of the Year. Coach Pierson retired his baseball cap in 1964 when he was appointed Assistant Principal at the Junior High.

Because of Red's love of baseball and his own involvement in various shore area teams, he met Ed Carlton, a former Asbury Park High School baseball coach and avid sports observer. The two became close friends and when Ed Carlton passed away in 1961, Red Pierson formed the Ed Carlton Memorial League in his honor. In addition to founding the Ed Carlton League, Red was also president of the Jersey Shore Baseball League. He was instrumental in organizing the Monmouth County Baseball Tournament, both of which are still going strong.

An outstanding baseball player in his own right, Pierson was best known as a pitcher in baseball and softball and played well into his 50’s. His involvement in fast-pitch softball is legendary in the Shore area and his opponents often found his pitching unhittable.

In 1991 when the Jersey Shore Sports Hall of Fame began, Red was elected a charter member. He was considered “Mr. baseball” of the Shore for the past three decades. In 1995, the Long Branch Board of Education named the varsity baseball field after him.