The Turkey Bowl trophy stands 3 feet, 6 inches tall. As trophies go, it's a whopper.

        Especially for one honoring the winner of a Thanksgiving Day football game between two Catholic grade schools less than a mile apart.

        With its wooden base freshly waxed, brass figures polished and engraved roster of past scores gleaming, the trophy stands tall. It's ready for Thursday's Turkey Bowl at Deer Park High School's football stadium.

        The annual matchup pits the Golden Bears of Sycamore Township's St. Saviour against the Eagles of Deer Park's St. John the Evangelist.

        Despite its height, the trophy is dwarfed by the towering rivalry this contest represents and the Thanksgiving traditions it nourishes.

The Golden Bears of Sycamore Township's St. Savior Catholic School hope to keep the Turkey Bowl title. (Jeff Swinger photos) | ZOOM |

        The Turkey Bowl is far more than a 39-year-old Thanksgiving Day football game. Over the years, it has taken on a unique capacity. As it divides neighborhood loyalties, the game also unites families and communities.

        The special significance of this event runs through the heart of both Deer Park and Silverton. It goes deep into parts of Sycamore Township, Dillonvale, Rossmoyne and Blue Ash.

        Grown sons and daughters come from near and far to root for their old schools, then go to their childhood homes for Thanksgiving dinner with their parents. Area businesses decorate in the schools' colors. Green and Gold for St. John. Blue and Gold for St. Saviour.

        The Turkey Bowl, the rivalry and the trophy reinforce cherished values:

        Staying close to your family.

        Being proud of your roots.

        Coming home.

        In other cities, in other Tristate neighborhoods, such sentiments belong mostly to a bygone era. For the tight-knit area touched by the Turkey Bowl, these feelings still flourish in a place called today.

        “Every year, the stadium is packed. Guys who played for the schools come back to see the game,” said Mark Feldhaus, a self-described “home improvement dude” and veteran of two Turkey Bowls, 1976 and 1977.

        Returning players remember everything about their old games. The weather at kickoff. The heroes. The goats. The long walk home.

        And, above all, the score.

        “We shut out St John's both years: 22 and 38 to zip,” Mark told me with pride and without hesitation.

The challengers: the Eagles of St. John the Evangelist | ZOOM |

        “Before the game, each school has a parade,” said his wife, Christy. “My kids watch the Turkey Bowl parade instead of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV.”

        She likens the game to “standing over your back fence and talking with your neighbors.”
       

Sharing faith and work ethics
               St. John and St. Saviour are neighboring parishes. The schools are close. Their front doors are just nine-tenths of a mile apart down Plainfield Road.

        The rivalry is “friendly,” said St. Saviour's athletic director David Chachoff.

        “But tough,” added his St. John counterpart, Don Braun.

        The schools are evenly matched in terms of ethnic backgrounds and incomes, largely German and middle-class. Their students share the same Catholic faith and work ethic.

        “You have to teach these kids to have fun,” said St. Saviour Principal Mary DeBrunner.

        “They want to work hard. They want to excel,” said St. John principal Pat Sand.

        “They want to win.”

        This year, winning the Turkey Bowl carries with it an added incentive.

        On Nov. 11, the schools met for the CYO League's city of Cincinnati championship. At game time, both teams were undefeated. St. John's winning streak came to an end that day. St. Saviour won the game and the championship.

        “St. Saviour won the city championship. But, now they play the Turkey Bowl for the national championship,” noted St. Saviour alumnus Neil Bailey.

        Neil comes from a mixed marriage. His wife, Peggy, is a St. John grad.

        Every Thanksgiving, they go to the game. And sit on opposite sides of the field.

        “We don't talk much on the way in,” he said.

        On the way out, for the last five years, Neil has been doing all the talking. St. John has not won a Turkey Bowl since 1994.

        Neil is careful not to rub it in too much.

        “We go over to her mother's for Thanksgiving dinner.” He doesn't want to eat his turkey in the garage.

        “So, I just grin a lot. They know who won.”
       

Fathers and sons
               Family also plays an important role on the field. Charlie Fischer and Jim Kelly will watch their sons play in Thursday's Turkey Bowl, just as their dads once watched them.

        Jim played tailback for St. Saviour in the Turkey Bowls of '66 and '67. He views the game as “the east-side version of the west-side's old Thanksgiving Day rivalry between Elder and Western Hills high schools.”

        Passions run high.

        “At practice the eighth-graders have been hitting harder and yelling louder,” said Jim Kelly's son, Scott, a seventh-grade linebacker for St. Saviour.

        “Dad tells me to relax and enjoy the game. He keeps reminding me, "You will remember this game the rest of your life.'”

        Charlie Fischer remembers the 1971 Turkey Bowl. He played guard for St. John. “We lost 14-6,” he said, without prompting.

        His son, eighth-grader Charlie Jr., is St. John's quarterback. “My dad always talks about the block he made in that game for a touchdown.”

        Charlie Jr. hears his teammates yelling louder, too. “This is like UC vs. XU. We're playing for bragging rights.”

        After the game, bragging — and commiserating — goes on at area restaurants and watering holes. Some cater to one school or the other.

        Fans of both teams mingle in peaceful co-existence at Deer Park's Chicken on the Run. This half-century-old pub got its name from delivering fried chicken to neighborhood homes when Colonel Sanders was a buck private.

        Ross Bachman, the Chicken's owner, keeps the peace with colored duct tape. A gold stripe with a blue strip on one side and a green strip on the other bisect the barroom. Fans of both teams know their place. And cross the line for friendly debates.

        “It's our biggest day of the year,” Ross said while waiting on customers last Saturday night. Over the roar of families chowing down at tables and regulars bellied up to the bar, he added: “And our loudest.”

        He hears the game replayed and old Turkey Bowls rehashed “from the minute it ends until around 3 p.m.”

        At that bewitching hour, Ross hears a chorus of “gotta go to mom's for Thanksgiving dinner.”

        The place empties.

        Those last words dovetail with the Thanksgiving message offensive coordinator Ralph Perdrix gives his St. Saviour players before they take the field.

        For some, this will be their last Turkey Bowl, their last Thanksgiving together. So, he always leaves them with these words:

        Be thankful for your health.

        Be thankful for your opponents.

        Be thankful for your family and friends.

        Everyone on the field, in the stands and cooking at home can be thankful. For, a place like this still exists, still honoring Thanksgiving traditions. And they can call it home.

       Columnist Cliff Radel can be reached at 768-8379; fax 768-8340.

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