Fitchburg

The Thanksgiving Football Rivalry between Fitchburg and Leominster has long been a source of pride, an iconic match-up that is just called  “the game,” in short. It’s a beloved tradition established in the upper pantheon of local lore.

But this year the Thanksgiving football tradition will make history yet again – but not on Thanksgiving. On evening before, playing for the first time outside of Leominster or Fitchburg, the teams will go head to head on the hallowed ground of Fenway Park.

And while Crocker Field opened in 1918 and Doyle Field debuted in1931, all the match-ups between the teams have been played in those stadiums or fields at the same locations that predated the glorious football edifices. Each stadium was largely building to accommodate the rivalry and provide a fitting home for “The Game.”

The departure from the routine of a Thanksgiving morning game at Crocker or Doyle field has bothered some. That’s understandable. But make no mistake, the rivalry has had more than its share of twists and turns. That is part of what makes it so special. Playing football at Fenway Park is just one more chapter, something to be added to a rich fabric of notable games or non-games.

Amusingly, the teams were already referring to each other as “Old Time Rivals” in 1898, only four years into their series. That year was the first time the teams played each other on Thanksgiving. At the close of the 19th Century, little did anyone know just how old the rivalry would become.

Despite the rivalry’s unquestionable vintage, one (or two) seemingly unshakable myths often prevail about this football tradition. Many locals make the claim that the Leominster-Fitchburg football rivalry is one of the oldest, if not the oldest in the country. There is also a variation, one that I grew up with, that the rivalry is the second oldest in the country, second only to Boston English vs. Boston Latin.

Neither is true.

Fitchburg-Leominster doesn’t even make the top ten of ancient rivalries in New England, never mind the country. The top spot belongs to Needham vs. Wellsley who started playing each other in 1882, the year the father of American Football, Walter Camp, is credited with inventing the game by establishing a system of downs and changes of possession.

Nonetheless, one thing is for sure, Leominster-Fitchburg football holds all of the elements of a special rivalry.

The rivals have failed to play at all in 1900, 1902, 1923 and 2020. The first skipped meeting came when the low grades of the Fitchburg team caused the school’s academic officials to suspend the season and Leominster not knowing the future, scheduled a game with Worcester High School who they defeated on Thanksgiving Day, 15-0. In 1902, Fitchburg’s football fortunes were not as promising as Leominster’s and the boys squabbled over who was responsible for not scheduling a game that year. Whatever the reason, the teams did not meet.

In 1923, a fight during a basketball game between the schools in the spring caused Fitchburg to suspend athletic relations with Leominster, not because of the fight itself but because of Leominster’s ignorance of the “one free slug per year” rule of high school basketball at the time. Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled the 2020 contest, something the 1918 influenza pandemic threatened. The virus did
ultimately relent enough to permit a Thanksgiving meeting of the squads that year.

Weather has had its role too. The game was postponed for snow in 1971, 1989 and 2014. The game was not played on Thanksgiving in 2018 but advanced to Wednesday evening because of predicted artic cold weather for Thanksgiving Day.

Perhaps the most interesting installment of this special rivalry occurred in 2010. Before the teams met at Doyle Field that season, I was successful in convincing the Sentinel editor Jeff McMenemy to change the second game played in 1898 from a Fitchburg 5-0 win to a tie. I simply directed the editor to the news item carried in the 1898 Sentinel that reported the game. It was reported that the referee ruled the game a 0-0 tie after he called back a Fitchburg punt return that went for a touchdown because of fan interference. The Leominster players couldn’t find the Fitchburg ball carrier in the crowd, never mind tackle him. With that change, the series was dead-even when the teams met up in 2010; 58-58 and 10 ties.

When regulation time expired in 2010, the teams were tied 12-12. They played a tie breaker and were again tied, this time 18-18. It took two tiebreakers to end the deadlock. After 117 years, with series swings in the favor of both teams, somehow the Leominster-Fitchburg squads had managed to have a series tie and a game tie that finally declared Leominster the victor 24-18, after the second tie breaker
round.

To quote a popular cliché, “You can’t make that stuff up.”

While this rivalry will continue to be a local staple for many years to come, it will continue to exist, continue to change and continue to provide generations of stories, pride and a tradition steeped in American values.

Mark C. Bodanza is a local attorney and author of 13 books, 3 on The Rivalry; A Game that Forged Rivals, 1933: Football at the Depth of the Great Depression and Rivals: More About the Fitchburg-Leominster Football Tradition.