The Truth About Turkey Day

I was thumbing through my copy of the Encyclopedia of Louisville the other night and came across the entry for the "Male-Manual High Schools Football Rivalry." The entry stated that the last "Turkey Day" game between the old rivals was played on November 25, 1976.

That's not right.

Now, I don't like taking on the Encyclopedia of Louisville because it is a superb book, and I know a lot of people who worked on the project. Your's truly wrote several of the entries for it. While the entry for the Male-Manual rivalry is mostly correct, it is way off on the year for the last Thanksgiving Day match up between the two schools.

I know. I went to Male High. I was a freshman in 1980, and that is the last year they played the Male-Manual game on Thanksgiving.

In the context of the football game, students at Male and Manual called the holiday "T-Day," and I used to have a pin that said "T-Day 1980," which sported a drawing of a bulldog. A few years ago I donated all the things I had relating to the last "T-Day" game to the Filson Historical Society in Louisville because in my possession they were getting torn and tattered and broken.

Thanksgiving was on November 27th that year, and several inches of rain fell on Louisville that day. Only a few hundred people braved the wet and cold weather to watch two once storied programs grind out one last Thanksgiving Day game, and I wish I could write that they were treated to a great football game. The truth, however, is that the Male and Manual football teams had fallen on hard times. I don't know what Manual's record was that season, but Male High had only managed to win two ballgames, back-to-back victories in the middle of the season against Stuart High School and Shawnee. It was a rough season.

In the Male-Manual game the two teams did something that had never been done since the rivalry began in 1893: they played to a zero to zero tie. Unbelievably, there had been only a handful of tie ballgames in the 87 year history of the match up. In an unprecedented move the schools agreed to play an overtime. The hearty fans had to brave more rain and cold to watch an extra period of football. Manual punched the ball into the end zone and won the last "T-Day" Male-Manual game 6-0.

As everyone knows, Male and Manual continue to play every year on the last Friday night of the football season. While the two old rivals have yielded to the Trinity and St. Xavier game, it is still a meaningful game. It hurt me when I saw that Manual beat Male this season, and I've been out of high school for a long time.

It had been awhile since the Rams (we always called them the "goats") beat the Bulldogs. When I was at Male High, Manual had the upper hand and carried a four year winning streak that they stretched into a seven year winning streak by my junior year. It was painful. It seemed like Male would never turn the tables on our rival down the street, and taunting from the Manual students made it even more excruciating.

Finally, on October 29, 1983, my senior year, Male High upended Manual in a 7 to 6 thriller at DuPont Manual Stadium. It was relief.

Male and Manual have a sort of trophy that they trade back-and-forth. It's an old barrel on which a gold "H" is painted on a purple background and a white "M" is painted on a red background. Whoever wins the football game gets to keep the barrel at their school, and they turn the loser's colors to the wall for the year. For my first three years at Male High -- the old one at Brook and Breckinridge streets -- there was a place for "The Barrel" under a banner some ancient graduating class purchased for the school.

On the Monday after Male's victory, Manual's football team brought the barrel back up Brook Street, and the seniors from Male High's squad hoisted the portly trophy over their heads and carried it into the gymnasium. The entire student body, which had never seen the barrel, awaited its return and cheered wildly as the team paraded it around the gym floor.

It was a great source of pride to see The Barrel in the long hallway of old Male High's second floor, which had a long line of trophy cases along the walls between classroom doors. The trophies in those cases -- commemorating state championships in football and basketball -- seemed unimportant with the barrel back where I thought it belonged with that gaudy "M" turned to the plaster wall at Male.

"Let's give a 'rah' for Dear Ole High School
And let us pledge our love of old.
Others may like white and crimson
But for us it's Purple and Gold."

On my last day at Male High, I stopped in front of the old barrel and took one last look at it. I haven't seen it since.