Like cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes at the Thanksgiving dinner table, the87-year-old Turkey Bowl rivalry between Calvert Hall and Loyola Blakefield is embedded in Baltimore high school football culture.
The game, starting at 10 a.m. today at M&T Bank Stadium, has become a homecoming for both schools and their alumni, but it reaches more than just the Cardinals (1-7 this year) and the Dons (9-1). The game has spanned generations and become a family event.
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Tom Bateman, a Calvert Hall graduate in 1964, played in the game when it was held at Memorial Stadium and has been attending it since he was 4 years old. He remembers when the Baltimore County parochial schools were located just blocks away from each other in the city.
“They were very close,” Bateman said. “They rode the same trolleys and buses. That rivalry became the tradition of the game and never changed. Now, we are only about three miles away.”
“It is something people expect to happen at 10 o?clock on Thanksgiving morning,” former Loyola coach Joe Brune, who retired in 2001 after 35 years, said.
Brian Hartman, the president of the Loyola Alumni Association, said the friendly roots is what makes this rivalry so special.
“It is built around the fact that the kids are friends, or even family,” Hartman said.
That kind of camaraderie ? from opposing sides ? has kept the game popular throughout the decades.
“You get up and go to the Turkey Bowl,” Hartman said. “You don?t even think about it. Dinner can wait.”
TURKEY BOWL COOKING
» All-time record: Loyola leads, 45-33-8
» First meeting: 1920
» Last year not played: 1947
» Calvert Hall?s longest winning streak: Seven games (1978-84) under coach Augie Miceli
» Loyola?s longest winning streak: 11 games (1989-99) under coach Joe Brune
» Current winning streak: Loyola, three games
