Babe Ruth Graduate Joe Depugh Passes Away
Inspiration for Bruce Springsteen's Song, "Glory Days"

Thanks to Bruce Springsteen, Joe DePugh’s glory days never really passed him by. DePugh, who helped inspire “Glory Days” — Springsteen’s bittersweet ode to youthful memories on his mega-selling 1984 album “Born in the U.S.A.” — died of metastatic prostate cancer in Palm Beach County, Florida, on March 30, 2025, at the age of 75.

DePugh and Springsteen grew up in Freehold, New Jersey, and played Babe Ruth Baseball together.

In the early 1960s, before Springsteen became the Boss, he was a clumsy baseball player whose athletic abilities were so sad that DePugh, the team’s star pitcher, gave him the nickname "Saddie."

“Bruce lost this big game for us one year,” DePugh told The Palm Beach Post in 2011. “We stuck him out in right field all the time, where you think he’s out of harm’s way. But this important game, we had a bunch of guys missing, and we had to play him.”

The two ran into each other in 1973 outside a bar called the Headliner in Neptune City, New Jersey.   Springsteen was walking in, and DePugh was, you guessed it, walking out.

“There I am going to the car in the parking lot, and here comes Bruce. And I hadn’t seen him since we graduated,” DePugh said in a video recorded for an exhibit in Freehold about the history of the song. “It was great to see him again, and so we got talking, and we’re out in the parking lot for a half hour and he said, ‘Let’s go in,’ so we went back in and had a drink and then another drink, and all of a sudden the guy’s flashing the lights, it was 1 in the morning almost.”

More than a decade later, “Glory Days” hit the airwaves.  “I knew right away,” DePugh said in the video about the first time he heard the song. “It’s an incredible compliment.”

For years, the true identity of the pitcher-turned-barroom companion remained unknown to the public. Former Freehold Babe Ruth Leaguers had theories about who the arm behind the speedball belonged to — there was the former player who ran into Springsteen in a diner and the local pitcher who made it to the minors, among others.

DePugh could play ball. The Freehold Transcript wrote about a standout Babe Ruth League outing from DePugh on May 14, 1964, when he struck out 11 in a losing effort. The newspaper listed Springsteen on that same roster, but at the time, it was DePugh who enjoyed rock star status.

At the end of high school, DePugh tried out for the Los Angeles Dodgers before going on to play basketball and earning a degree at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

DePugh lost both his parents at a young age and became the legal guardian for two of his brothers. After college, he worked as a substitute teacher before becoming a contractor. He later moved from New Jersey, splitting his time between Vermont and Florida. He continued to make regular stops in Freehold to see old friends, including, on occasion, Springsteen.

“He said to me, ‘Always remember I love you,’” DePugh said in the video about one such reunion. “He kissed me on both cheeks, and then he was out the door.”

Springsteen, a 20-time Grammy award winner, posted a tribute to DePugh on his Instagram page on March 30.

"Just a moment to mark the passing of Freehold native and ballplayer Joe DePugh," Springsteen wrote. "He was a good friend when I needed one.

Quoting from his song, Springsteen went on: “He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool. … Glory Days, my friend."

Springsteen and DePugh remained friends into their 50s.