From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

The 87th annual Eastern States Invitational begins at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the 168th Street Armory, its home since 1998.

The meet wasn’t held last year, the third time since its inception that’s happened. The 1973 and 1992 boys meets weren’t held because of issues because of venue issues.

The first boys meet was held in 1934 under the auspices of the AAU at the old Madison Square Garden at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, and it remained at the Garden until 1966, when it moved to the Armory. When the Armory wasn’t available in 1973, the meet was cancelled, but it returned in 1974 at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym, where it stayed until moving back to the now-refurbished Armory in 1998.

The girls meet was held from 1980 through 1996 in Boston before merging with the boys meet. A joint meet was first held at Jadwin in 1997 before the meet as we all currently know it, with boys and girls at the Armory, debuted at the Armory in 1998.

Over the next couple days I’ll be posting all-time top-20 Eastern’s boys and girls performance lists and a list of all-time South Jersey winners – the first South Jersey winner was 79 years ago!

But first here’s a look at all the entries.

It’s not a very large South Jersey contingent this year, but Haddonfield, Rancocas Valley, Delsea, Deptford, Washington Township, Pleasantville, Atlantic City, Sterling, Winslow Township, Pitman, Highland and Egg Harbor will all be in action Tuesday.

For the complete event-by-event list of entrants, click here.