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Childhood friend and former teammate Lou Brizzi remembers Devens as a South Bergen icon.
“He loved East Rutherford and representing it wherever he went,” Brizzi told Daily Voice.
He just loved the town, its roots and what he got out of it.
At just 12 years old, Devens led his little league baseball team to the Eastern Regional Finals — the same year he hit 18 home runs.
The switch-hitter went on to play for Becton’s varsity baseball team, and led the football team to win the New Jersey championships for three years in a row as running back.
The team lost only two games in those three years.
Devens, Class of 1959, was named “best looking” and “best built” his senior year.
“He was like Adonis,” Brizzi recalled. “He was just naturally chiseled.”
Devens attended The Citadel Military College of South Carolina, and later served in the Vietnam War. He retired from the military as a colonel in the 1960s.
He is survived by his wife, Patty; his four children; and his grandchildren.
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