A resident of Nutley for a number of years , Phil Cuzzi has reached the pinnacle of sports officials. After paying his dues in the minor leagues and working as a reserve in the majors, he has worked steadily as a major league umpire where just this year he officiated the world series. off the field, Phil is a strong advocate for ALS Research. ln 2003, he created the Robert Luongo ALS fund, which helps raise research funds to fight Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Cuzzi was born on August 29,1955, in Newark and raised in Belleville. He attended Belleville High School and was graduated in 1973, where he excelled in baseball and football. While attending high school, he met his future wife, Gilda. He then went on to attend Glassboro State University and was graduated in 1977 with a B.A. in Education. After graduation, he had careers in teaching graphic arts and later in sales but his heart belonged to baseball.
His love for the game encouraged him to travel to Ormand Beach, Florida, to study at the Harry Wendlestadt Umpiring School. After graduation his dream was coming closer to fruition as he began to officiate in the minor leagues in divisions such as the New York-Penn League, the Carolina League, the South Atlantic League, and the Florida State League. A few years went by and he would officiate his first major league game, the St. Louis Cardinals vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers, as he worked alongside his mentor, Narry Wendlestadt. Since that day, his work as a major league umpire has taken him across the country to high profile games such as Wild Card games, Division Series, National League Championships, All-Star games and, just recently, the pinnacle, the 2017 World Series.
Outside the baseball diamond, Cuzzi’s loyalty to his childhood friend, Robert Luongo, who passed away in 2004 after battling Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), led him to establish the Robert Luongo ALS Fund, lnc. lt began as a fundraiser in 2003 that helped provide a then state-of-the-art computer for Luongo, to help him communicate with family and friends, and then in subsequent years to assist Luongo’s daughter, Dominique, achieve her goal of attending her father’s alma mater Harvard University.
She graduated in 2017 with a B.A. in History. The Robert Luongo ALS Fund is now a 501(c)3 organization committed to donating money for ALS research, raising money for scholarships for students of parents and family members who suffer from ALS, and to help families who need to care for an ALS patient. ln addition, the annual Robert Luongo ALS Fund Dinner held at Nanina’s in the Park, attracts such luminaries as Joe Torre, Bob Costas and Tommy Lasorda.
Phil and his wife Gilda have lived in Nutley over 20 years. As quoted in an article from the Hudson newspaper The Observer, Cuzzi went on to say, “l came from Belleville and I moved all the way to Nutley. This is my home.”