Many gifted footballers either started or honed their skills as part of one of the many teams of the German American Club. Now Jimmy Knox, Sean Gardiner and the late Nick Wiener Sr. are to be inducted into the GAK Hall of Fame.
The GAK Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on March 5, 2022. Tickets cost $ 40 each and are available by calling (609) 284 – 5059 or emailing fcgak1992@gmail.com.
“It’s an honor to be inducted into the GAK Hall of Fame,” Sean Gardiner said. “The club has a long history and over the years it has had many great players and coaches. I am lucky that my name is mentioned with some of the best and I am happy to have been inducted into the position with Nick Wiener Sr., for whom I played on the GAK U23 team. I again played for the GAK team over 40 in the Mercer Men’s Football League ”.
Gardiner has been a player, coach and referee in the organization, and attributes to it some of the best moments in football.
“My warmest memories of GAK will remain as a coach,” Gardiner said. “Tony Sharko, my high school classmate and best friend, has coached together since we formed the U9 team. These kids are now younger and older in high school.
Some of these children have never played for any team other than GAK. I would like to think that together we not only helped them become better footballers, but, more importantly, to become even better young people. “
Gardiner coaches the U19 GAK 03 team, coaches his eldest son Aiden, and helps Charcot with the U18 GAK Havoc team, which includes his youngest son Liam.
Gardiner is also proud that the children he and Charcot coached also carry their classroom preferences.
After coming to this country from Scotland in 1954, Knox found the football he had been looking for at the Trenton Liderkranz club, and played with the club from 1957 to 1962, when Liderkranz became a GAK.
“I still haven’t come down from the cloud nine since I was called to be injected,” Knox said. “I’ve been at this club for a long time and it’s a great honor. So many great people and players have gone through this club. Everyone who knew something and wanted to play football wanted to play here. “
One of the greatest teams ever was the 1959 Liederkranz team, which included Weiner and Knox.
“Mercer County was a real hotbed of football,” Knox recalls. “East Trenton was the king of the hill. They had so many teams that it was amazing. I remember my first game and the crowd at Wetzel Field, it was so great. ”
Knox also coached at GAK as well as an assistant at Notre Dame.
The name Wiener is the best that Mercer County has to offer in football.
Nick Sr. played with Liederkranz and GAK for many years, and then he took over the GAK youth football program in 1964, which singled out countless high school and college stars.
One of Nick’s greatest joys was coaching the GAK team in the Garden League and coaching his sons Nick Jr. and John.
This is a very worthy group headed to the hall in the club.
