Thanksgiving Day Football

Thanksgiving Day Football

A Few Conshohocken Games of Note

By Jack Coll

11-27-13

     More than a few football games have been played in Conshohocken or by Conshohocken football teams on Thanksgiving Day over the years.  As I page thru my massive library of football files I came across a file that I acquired back in 1989 from the library of the National Football Hall of Fame located in Canton Ohio.  The file is full of tid-bits pertaining to football, one note of interest was nearly 45 years ago was Brian Piccolo who lost his life to cancer at age 26, played his final football game in Atlanta vs. the Falcons on November 16, 1969.

Another note of interest was the name James Robert Kalso, a plaque was installed at the Hall of Fame in honor of Kalso.  You’re thinking what I was thinking when I first saw the name 25 years ago, who is this guy?  Well James Robert Kalso died on July 21, 1970 at Ripcord Base in South Vietnam.  He was the only National Football League player to lose his life in the line of duty during the Vietnam War.  Most of us know about Pat Tillman, a member of the Arizona Cardinals who died from friendly fire in 2004.

Among the many newspaper clippings I found at the Hall of Fame Library was one dated “December 1, 1899.”  The headline read, “Conshohocken Team Defeated Ursinus College In Thanksgiving Day Struggle.”  The sub headline read, “There were a Thousand and a Half Present, Including Many Ladies, to See Bob Crawford and His Mates Beat Collegeville Squad.”  Conshohocken fielded a team that included Bob Crawford as the right halfback, Crawford later managed and coached the Conshohocken Professionals from 1914-1922.  Bill Neville was Conshy’s right end while Harvey Shaw was the left end.  Bob Crawford owned a Cigar Store at Second and Fayette Street, and Neville owned and operated a Drug store at the opposite end of the block at First Avenue and Fayette Street.  Custard was playing quarterback for the locals and Bulger and Lang were running backs.  Conshohocken won the game with a first half touchdown and two more TD’s in the second half.

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Near Riot Staged At Thanksgiving Day Football Game

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Spectators In Free-For-All At

Game Between

Conshohocken and East Falls

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Conshohocken Athletic Club Wins Brutal Game

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     That was the headline screaming from the Conshohocken Recorder newspaper back on November 30, 1923. It was a game played at the Conshohocken Community Field, (“A” Field) on Thanksgiving Day in an era when trolley cars were still clanging up and down Fayette Street, and most of the residents purchased their live turkey from one of their neighbor’s backyards.

A quote from the newspaper stated “It was previously announced that the game would be for blood, but it was not dreamed that the contest could have resulted in a brutal contest, it proved to be after hostilities opened.  East Falls was recognized as a bruising, battering, bumping bunch of football players—a team that would not care to be a party to a pink tea affair,”

     The East Falls players were accused of piling on long after the play was blown dead, their tackling was noted as “wicked and savage”, as East Falls players would hold the runner up, while other players took a whack at the ball carrier, (back in the early days the play would never be blown dead until the players was on the ground and the ref made sure the runner was still in possession of the ball).

     With minutes remaining in the first half East Falls punted the ball and Conshohocken’s Kehoe fielded the punt and that’s when the real trouble began.  Kehoe was hit immediately, tackled and thrown to the ground by two of the visitors.  The refs sounded the whistle but that didn’t stop two more players from pounding Kehoe while he was down.  The crowd of about three thousand Conshohocken residents jumped from their seats in anger over the piling on, on the very next play Kehoe was given the ball and pushed out of bounds ending the play.  But that didn’t stop four or five players from pounding Kehoe while he was down and out of bounds.  And that my friend’s is when the crowd pushed out onto the field and started kicking some East Falls asses. Following several minutes of ASS WHOOPING the East Falls players managed to make it to the locker room located under the covered grandstand, the Conshohocken faithful continued to take it out on the East Falls spectators.  Conshohocken Police Officer William Heald called for a riot squad from Lower Merion but order had been restored.

     As Conshohocken took the field in the second half they were a battered bunch, and the cheap shots continued from the visitors in the second half.  After Fondots scored a touchdown he was deliberately struck a stunning blow in the mouth and the blood flew in every direction.  The paper noted “Pat Mellon’s face resembled a Chinese laundry check, but they remained at their post.”  Moser had a couple of teeth broken off, Ford retired after nearly having his left leg pulled out at the knee.  Ray Boyce and Abrams had their ankles badly twisted.  Kehoe was carried from the field unconscious and all the other players were more or less bruised and bleeding.  East Falls players were also scattered along the visitors sideline in what looked like an emergency room at the local hospital.

     The second near riot broke out when a ball was caught out of bounds and East Falls argued that the pass was caught in-bounds.  A 15 minute delay ensued with some pushing and shoving but the game resumed.  With Kehoe back in the game, players like Jones, Kriebel, and Laverty helped Conshohocken out to a 13-6 lead.  In the final period with darkness setting in over the Community Field Tyson of East Falls broke through the line, and had a full head of steam on, the only thing between him and a touchdown was Kehoe, Tyson was a much bigger player, East Falls out weighted the Conshohocken players by an average of 15 pounds per man, Kehoe set himself directly in front of Tyson, and it was stated that it was the hardest tackle of the day.  Kehoe was knocked out for the second time in the game but he saved the touchdown.  A number of players carried Kehoe to the sideline where they laid him on the bench where he recovered consciousness a little later in the contest. 

     The final ten minutes of the game was played in total darkness, Fondots scored the final touchdown of the day-night and although he was struck to the face with several blows he held onto the ball, Conshohocken won the game 19-6, in what will go down as one of the bloodiest, hard fought Thanksgiving Day games in Conshohocken’s 120 year history in the sport of football.

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 Thanksgiving Day Memories

Was it really a half a century ago

     Fifty years ago players from St. Matthew’s and Conshohocken High School walked out of the locker rooms at the Conshohocken “A” Field to play what was to be the final game between the two schools.

With heavy hearts, the memory of John F. Kennedy’s assassination just days earlier was still on the minds of every citizen in the country.

     It was supposed to be Conshohocken’s year, the team started the season with a 3-1 record with victories over Bridgeport, Yeadon, and Clifton Heights, but then injuries got in the way.  Head Coach Ray Weaver with Assistant Coach Frank Suntheimer made numerous lineup moves in an attempt to cover up the injuries but the small squad couldn’t compete with the likes of Swarthmore, Sharon Hill, and Collingdale.  Conshohocken High leaders included David Dozier, Harvey Jones, Adam Ciccotti, David Earl, Wayne Flowers, Billy McCall, Dave Rakowski, Ernie Mathis, Bobby Graham, Bobby Pasquarello, Jimmy Bruno, Mike Etheridge, Joseph Capaldi, John Cooper, Willie Foggy, and James McCarthy all played well for the 1963 squad.

Over at the other high school, St. Matthew’s, guys like Tony Ciavarelli, Paul Balzano, Tom Bullock, Bart Pettine, (there’s always a Pettine on the team, every team, the Pettine’s have been around in this borough for 150 years) George Farrell, Matt Maziarz, Jim Doughtery, and Al D’Angelo among others.  The boys from St. Matt’s High were suffering the same type of season as Conshy High with three wins and six losses.

Something had to give, and on this Thanksgiving Day it went St. Matthew’s way with a thrilling 25-18 victory.  St. Matthew’s struck first with a Barnosky pass to Gene Rydel, the touchdown capped an 85 yard drive that chewed up more than six minutes of the clock.  Before the St. Matthew’s fans could take their seat from cheering the touchdown, Conshy High tied the score using no time off the clock.  Bobby Graham ran the ensuing kickoff back to tie the game at 6-6.  The Conshy High fans were standing up to cheer on the touchdown as the St. Matthew’s fans were taking their seat from cheering on their touchdown.

George Farrell struck for St. Matthew’s in the second quarter with a five yard touchdown run putting St. Matt’s back on top.  After Charley Gambone’s interception of a Bears pass on the 17 yard line Gambone ran it back giving St. Matt’s a 19-6 lead going into the final frame.  The Bears flexed their muscles scoring on a 25 yard touchdown pass from Graham to Mike Ethridge, followed by a six yard touchdown run by Walt Mathis making it a 19-18 St. Matthew’s lead.

     Of course we all know how this ends, with St. Matt’s pulling out a late game 25-18 victory, but what no one in Conshohocken knew at the time was that it would be the final game played between the two schools.  Negotiations were underway in an effort to combine the smaller schools in the state, forcing Conshohocken to merge with Plymouth and Whitemarsh Township school districts.

More than 6,000 fans attended the 1963 contest between the two schools, it provided an exciting few hours in a week when many tears had been shed with President Kennedy’s assassination.  With the National Football League’s decision to play on Sunday, just two days after the president was killed, it opened the door, allowing high schools to play the following week without a feeling of guilt and dis-respect.

The year 1963 wasn’t an easy one for Conshohocken and its residents.  Steel mills began closing, men lost their jobs and many layoffs in other steel mills along the river followed.  With the unemployment rate in Conshohocken at an all-time high, it affected the businesses in the lower end, a once thriving shopping district dwindled, due to a hurting economy, the advent of the strip shopping centers, and malls, and the affordability of the automobile, thus nearly every family in America now owned at least one.  With the lack of parking in the lower end making shopping more difficult, store fronts began boarding up their windows, by the end of the decade the turbulent 1960’s had taken a toll on the country with national leaders gunned down, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy.  The cities that burned, race riots, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, all led to a bleeding economy.

By the end of the 1960’s lower Fayette Street, Elm and Hector Streets, once a thriving shopping district now resembled a ghost town.  Conshohocken High School was gone, the Riant Theatre was showing Triple X movies less than a block from the St. Matthew’s Catholic Grade school, and the theatre was later boarded up.  Fires and debris littered Fayette Street.  Even St. Matthew’s High school was gone in name, becoming Archbishop Kennedy.

Thanksgiving Day became a day for Conshohocken residents to yearn for the good ol’ days, days when resident would shop at the long gone Charlie Hicks Store checking out the record bins for the latest hits.  Days when we could shop at F. W. Woolworths Five and Dime, once located at First Avenue and Fayette Street, and know everyone you ran into at the store.  Days when the young girls couldn’t wait to shop at Lefoe’s Fashion Shop at 74 Fayette Street and days when we shopped at O’Donnell’s Sports and Gift Shop or stopped at Banker’s Tavern for a couple of quick ones.

When we long for the good old days that bring us back to Thanksgiving Day football played at the “A” Field, for 20 years, it was the talk of the town.  Etched in the minds of residents the names of Ray Borzelleca, Ed Surmiak, Marty Kelly, Bob Weidner, Don Stemple, Charles Wilson, Billy Blair, Art Kehoe, Leo Wisniewski, Joe Watson, Joe Racicot, Bob Fineran, Dan McTamney, Bernie Borkowski, Al Bruzda, Sal Marine, Joe Golas, Lou Manetti, Armand Smith, Jaroy Cannon, Tommy Duncan, Bibsy Kelly, Sal Picard, Ed Pupek, Reece Whitley, Larry Moyer, Curt Hissner, John Pilcicki, Teddy Lesczynski, Lucius Howell, Jim Dozier, Jerry Pettine, Jack Gambone, Jay Dunacusky, Ron Nosek, Ed Ricci, Chris Bockrath and thousands of other Conshohocken football players provided us with Thanksgiving Day Football that’s likely to never return to this borough.

All some of us have is the memories, and all the rest of us can do is read about it.  We can read about how back in the day more 6,000 Conshohocken residents would show up at the “A” Field on Thanksgiving Day morning, how for eleven years St. Matthew’s High School beat Conshy High, and how Conshy High took it to St. Matthew’s six times, and maybe the best years were the three years the two schools tied in the turkey bowl classic.

Once again, thanks for the memories, and thanks to all the players who provided these memories.  My wish on this Thanksgiving Day is that maybe all the former players who ever played for either of these schools on Thanksgiving Day, will sit and tell their grandchildren about the glory days, the days when this town was alive with turkey day football, the days when every seat at the “A” field was taken and a ring of residents surrounded the field, a day when local high school football was king.

Happy Thanksgiving, I’m sure everyone reading this column has a lot to be thankful for on this holiday, and thanks to everyone who participated in the massive food drive that helped feed some of our less fortunate residents who depend on the Colonial Neighborhood Council.

Happy Thanksgiving!