Union Hill High School was a public high school serving students in grades 9–12 from Union City in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as one of two high schools of the Union City Board of Education, an Abbott District.Abbott School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed June 15, 2016. The school was built in—and named for—what was formerly Union Hill, a municipality which merged with West Hoboken in 1925 to form Union City. Until 2008, Union Hill was one of the city's two high schools, with the former Emerson High School the other. The Union Hill and Emerson campuses continued to serve high school students for an additional year as separate campuses of the new Union City High School, after which that school's main campus was completed and both schools were converted to their current designation. The building that housed Union Hill High School is now Union Hill Middle School and houses students in grades seven and eight.
History Established in 1886 as Town of Union High School, the original and second sites of the high school were repurposed grammar school buildings, with the first graduating class being in 1888. The school occupied a floor at the Union Hill town hall until 1914, when a new building was completed at a cost of $400,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). In 1925, the town merged with its neighbor to the south, West Hoboken, which had been served by Emerson High School, to form the city of Union City,Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 148. Accessed June 18, 2013. after which the school was officially renamed as Union Hill High School. As the city was now served by two high schools, students who lived north of Route 495 (which previously divided the two municipalities) would attend Union Hill, while those who lived south of it would attend Emerson, though that boundary was shifted in later years to keep the school enrollments roughly equal.Hu, Winnie (November 22, 2007). "After 88 Years of Rivalry, the Last as Us and Them". The New York Times. Accessed January 2, 2008. "But today's so-called Turkey Game signals the end of the tradition. Next fall, the two schools will merge in a new $176 million building.... The new Union City High School will take up four-and-a-half acres in the center of the city, squeezed between row houses and commercial strips. It will have a football field and bleachers built on the roof so that players will no longer have to share the facilities at José Martí Middle School."
The school was first accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1928. From 1888 through its 119th graduating class in June 1961, more than 10,000 students had graduated from the school."Union Hill High School Has an Outstanding History of 75 Years", The Jersey Journal, October 5, 1961. Accessed December 25, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "The present high school cornerstone was laid In 1912 and the building was completed In 1914 The building was constructed at a cost of almost $400,000 of which exactly $270,080.20 was spent for general contracting and approximately $125,000 for heating ventilation plumbing and electrical work The architects Joseph D. Lugosch and Philip W. Roos gave the community a well designed and well planned building Even today the auditorium is considered by many people as one of the most attractive high school auditoriums in New Jersey Although the school was always known as 'Union Hill' its authorized name was the 'Town of Union High School' and it was 'dedicated to training for lives of usefulness and honor' How- and West Hoboken consolidated into Union City in May 1925 the name was officially changed to 'Union Hill High School'. Members of the Class of June 1925 were the first to have the name 'Union Hill High School' inscribed on their diplomas"
By 2007, both Union Hill and Emerson, which are separated by one mile, had close to 1,500 students and offered the same schedule, courses, and after-school sports, and their test scores and student demographics were comparable. Unlike Emerson, Union Hill did not have a Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program, though Union Hill had a stronger arts program than Emerson, and both schools had different career education programs that allowed students to pursue interests like child care, hospitality, and fashion (the city was once known for its embroidery factories). Superintendent of Schools Stanley M. Sanger stated in 2007 that he received 25 to 40 requests a year from students who want to switch to the rival high school due to a particular academic interest or a family connection. Most such requests were granted.
In September 2009, Union Hill High School and Emerson High Schools converted into middle schools, and a new school, Union City High School, opened for grades 10–12 in new a building on the site of the former Roosevelt Stadium.
The school was the 233rd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools. The school was ranked 268th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state."Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank". New Jersey Monthly. September 2008. posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
Athletics During Union Hill and Emerson's time as Union City's two high schools, the Union Hill Hillers and the Emerson Bulldogs were rivals in athletics. In competing for the Hudson County Interscholastic Football Championship, Union Hill beat Emerson five consecutive years from 1923 to 1927. During the November 1927 game, Union Hill beat their rivals 19 to 0 in front of a crowd of 12,000 people.Staff. "Union Hill Captures Hudson County Title; Vanquishes Emerson High School Eleven, 19 to 0, Before a Crowd of 12,000.", The New York Times, November 27, 1927. Accessed April 13, 2020. "Union Hill High defeated the Emerson High School eleven for the fifth successive year here today before 12,000 persons to clinch the Hudson County Interscholastic football championship. The score was 19 to 0."
The boys' basketball team won the Group IV state championship in 1919 (defeating Passaic High School in the tournament final), 1955 (vs. New Brunswick High School) and 1956 (vs. Trenton Central High School).Boys Basketball Championship History 1919-2024, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated March 2024. Accessed March 26, 2024. A crowd of 2,000 spectators at Rutgers University saw the 1956 team win their second straight Group IV title, holding off Trenton with a 70–68 victory in the championship game.Lovas, Joe. "Union Hill Retains Cage Crown In Group 4, 70-68; Hudson County School Top Trenton; Ramming, Orlando Ignite Last Period Rally", Herald News, March 19, 1956. Accessed March 11, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Union Hill High School, which had waited 36 years to win a Group IV basketball championship last year at Elizabeth, repeated as New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association titleholder Saturday night at Rutgers University Gym, New Brunswick. Before 2,200 fans, the Hillers of Hudson County staged a fourth quarter rally to defeat Trenton, 70-68, and win their third Group IV state crown."
The boys' bowling team won the overall state championship in 1972.Boys Bowling Championship History: 1958–2025, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated February 2025. Accessed March 1, 2025.
Turkey game For 88 consecutive years, the most notable aspect of their rivalry on the field was the annual Turkey Game, held on Thanksgiving, a tradition that began in 1919, when the high schools served the neighboring municipalities of West Hoboken in the south and Union Hill in the north, a rivalry described as "simmering hatred" that gave the schools' principals cause to fear that the first game might turn ugly. That game ended in a tie of 0–0. When Union Hill and West Hoboken merged in 1925 to form Union City, the Turkey Game remained, despite the fact that schools in the same district usually do not often compete directly against each other.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Turkey Game attracted as many as 15,000 fans. A wooden chariot would be pulled around the field at halftime, carrying the football king and queen from the defending school, who were booed and pelted with paper when they got to the opposing side of Roosevelt Stadium. This part of the tradition fell into disuse by the early 1970s.
Stanley M. Sanger, who graduated from Emerson in 1969, and who never set foot in Union Hill until he became a teacher, characterized the Union Hill–Emerson rivalry by saying, "It's our Mason–Dixon line. You knew Union Hill was north and Emerson was south, and you respected the boundary. It was the natural state of things." An old traditional greeting before the game was "Are we having hot turkey or cold turkey?", as the loser was said to eat "cold turkey", figuratively speaking. Over the decades, coaches were known to zealously guard their game plans and players, who were alert for spies, were often excused from their classes to practice in secret locations. When sharing Roosevelt Stadium for practice, they would use opposite ends of the 50 yard line. While the athletic coaches were not permitted to recruit players from the rival school, students were known to often recruit players from the elementary and middle schools to attend their high schools. A 50 lbs. brass trophy whose base is engraved with scores from every game, was passed back and forth between the two schools, and the winning school was rewarded with a half-day of school on the Monday after the game. According to David Wilcomes, a former football player and later football coach and the last principal of Union Hill High School, the Turkey Game developed a nearly religious significance as a Thanksgiving ritual for Union City citizens,"The Last Turkey Game". The New York Times. November 24, 2007 and a loss for one's favored team would cast a pall upon the day's subsequent holiday festivities, commenting, "If you don't win, it's a long Thanksgiving dinner." Wilcomes, whose father also played for Union Hill, stated that he stopped answering his home phone following losing games because of the endless reviewing and second-guessing of his strategies by various relatives. By 2007, the Union City district spent $130,000 annually on football.