The Pelham Bay neighborhood and the East Bronx community is mourning the loss of a local advocate who was vital in providing athletic opportunities for the borough’s youth.
Bronx Warriors Football founder Jerome Demers, also known as “The Chief,” died on March 11, shortly after the organization’s president and treasurer James “Jimmy” Pellicone passed away in February. Demers, 85, was a parental figure for Bronx youth both on and off the field.
He originally founded and played for what was then an East Harlem football league for school-aged youth in 1948 before he was a a teenager. He officially established the name “Bronx Warriors Football” in 1952 before Demers and his family moved to Pelham Bay toward the end of the Baby Boomer era, where Demers lived until his passing.
With Bronx Warriors Football, Demers served in several capacities and roles, first as a player, then as a coach and mentor, along with his duties running the organization as its founder.
He would also set up events for Bronx youth outside of practices and games and would even reserve buses to take the players to venues including ice skating rinks, local pools, amusements parks, movie theaters and Yankees’ games to provide them with experiences that they may have not had access to otherwise.
Demers’ daughter, Kim Demers, can remember witnessing her father’s efforts in an attempt to provide the borough’s youth with happiness, along with hope and opportunity while also providing guidance.
“He (Demers) said that he was taking the kids on a trip that day — next thing you know, I look out the window and see two gigantic buses parked in front of our home ready to take all the players,” Kim Demers said. “He was just filled with so much joy and fun.”
After moving to the Bronx in 1957, Demers graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School and then Fordham University, before serving as director for the city’s Department of Parks & Recreation for 35 years, while simultaneously staying actively involved with Bronx Warriors Football throughout his tenure.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our founder, Jerome “Jay” Demers,” it reads on the Bronx Warriors Football League website.
In total, Demers spend more than six decades with the organization before officially retiring in 2015.
Demers, who was born on April 17, 1938, loved the Bronx Warriors Football League and was a football lifer.
“He loved was fully dedicated to the (Bronx) Warriors Football League,” Kim Demers said. “He especially loved it when kids who previously played in the program came back to coach.”
Kim said that the trait that was most special about her father was his commitment to the community and described his legacy as “generational.”
Demers’ wife and Kim’s mom, Geraldine, died in 2013. Jerome and Geraldine had four children: Kim, her two older sisters Kerry and Karen and her brother Ricky.
“He also taught us as kids to be fair and honest, and always give a little more than what people expect,” Kim Demers said.
When asked about the passing of Pellicone, Kim responded, “It was a tremendous loss. Jimmy was my father’s right hand man.”
The visitation and funeral service for Demers were held at Schuyler Hill Funeral Hill this past Sunday and Monday, March 17 and 18. He is interred at Rose Hills Memorial Park in New York State’s Putnam County.
Reach Steven Goodstein at sgoodstein@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260–8326. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
