The excerpt below is from the
Renewal of Friendship
booklet which was released in 1993 when the annual Thanksgiving Day football game between Gloucester High and Gloucester Catholic was resumed.
Related:
Two and One-Half-Hours
The football teams from the two schools will meet tomorrow (Thursday) at the John Lynch Field at Gloucester High School, Rt. 130 and Market Street.
The Rams won last year\’s contest 30 to 14. Gloucester Catholic\’s junior running back Dashaun Harris finished that game with 222 yards on 23 carries and three total touchdowns in front of an estimated crowd of 400.
Thursday\’s Kickoff is 10:30AM. The Rams lead the series, 22-21-1.
BY G.J. FERGUSON
(CNBNewsnet)(Gloucester City NJ)(Nov. 27, 2019)–It has been nearly three decades since the last City-Series game was played in 1965. At times, it seems like it was only yesterday. But, sadly it wasn\’t. With the final whistle, on that sunny autumn day, the
City-Series passed into memory. Memories that have endured over the years. They have lived in the hearts and minds of those who remember the series and attached a special meaning to it.
Gloucester Catholic 1963 football team
It is with those in mind, that the idea for this program began. It started out as a history of the series, but a true history would require a book of several hundreds pages. What we have instead is more like a memoir of the City-Series. I hope that as you read the game stories and look at the old pictures, it will bring back the memories. Not just of the games themselves, but of old friends, old teammates, and a different time.
In the old industrial city on the
Delaware
, the year 1948 marked the beginning of the annual football games between Gloucester High and Gloucester Catholic. It was a time when semi-pro and town teams were still popular and attracting good-sized crowds. However, the largest and most loyal following was reserved for
high school football
. Across the country, in rural towns, in cities large and small, people filled the bleachers by the thousands to cheer their local school teams.
In some areas of the country, the games drew crowds of 25,000 to 30,000 or more. Closer to home, the
Collingswood
, and Camden High game used to attract 15,000 to 20,000 spectators. The City-Series games never approached numbers like these, but the crowds of 4,000 or more were common. For a small city of 15,000 people, it was a tremendous show of support.
If measured in length, it was not a long series. In
South Jersey
, many of the football series began in the 1920\’s or before. Vineland and
Millville
began their rivalry in the 1890\’s. In comparison, the City-Series was only played from 1948 to 1965. Nevertheless, for those eighteen years the people of Gloucester had a game that somehow, seemed to touch the very soul of their proud, old city.
In a
small town
like Gloucester, everybody seems to know everybody else. This familiarity made the games much more personal. Playing against a school located miles away; the opposing players were only numbers. In the City-Series games, that \”number\” had a name, and you better not forger it! If not brother against brother, surely there were cousins facing each other. Childhood friend’s kids from around the corner and down the street battling each other for 48 minutes. It was a neighborhood rivalry in the truest sense of the word:
Like the town it was played in, the games themselves were rough and tumble affairs. It was a hard-nosed and smash-mouth football. This was literally true before the facemask came into use. They were emotional games, played in a charged atmosphere before large, fanatical crowds.
Given all this, the remarkable thing is, the emotions never really got out of hand. Not on the field, nor in the stands. For the most part, the games were cleanly played. The hard hits came before the whistle, not after. This is not to say the games were perfect, they weren\’t. Nevertheless, the minor disputes that did occur were soon forgotten.
The very nature of the series made this possible. All of the ingredients that made this a fiercely contested game worked in reverse as soon ass it ended. It was high school football the way it was meant to be.
The first five years of the series belonged to Gloucester High. The Raiders (or \”Paiseleymen\”, as they were also called at the time) won the initial game in 1948 by a close score of 18-12. Matters only became worse for the Irish/Ramblers over the next four years! From 1949 to 1952, the Raiders completely dominated the series, winning by 21-2, 56-7, 19-6, and 25-7.
In 1953, Gloucester Catholic, tired of being a doormat for their city rival, recorded there first win of the series, winning by a score of 12-7. The Ramblers must have found the victory to their linking, as they set out on a winning streak of their own. The next four years found the Maroon and Gold on top by 20-13, 52-7, 26-0, and 12-7.
With the series tied at five games apiece, the Raiders pulled ahead by winning the 1958 game 18-7. However, there were to be no more long winning streaks in the series. The following year, the Rams triumphed over the newly named Lions by 19-0. 1960 was more of the same as a powerful Catholic Eleven rolled over the Lions 34-0 to take their first lead in the series.
RELATED:
A Preview of Gloucester Catholic & Gloucester High 2019 Gridiron Teams
Rams vs Lions Turkey Game
–Nov. 2009–With a few minutes left in the first half the Lions came back and tied the game at 14-14 but the Rams came back and scored again. As the half ended the score 22-14.
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RAMS V LIONS TURKEY GAME 2010-
What an exciting Thanksgiving Day football game this year between cross town rivalries Gloucester City High School and Gloucester Catholic High. Nearing the end of the fourth quarter Gloucester High was winning 27-20. With 19 seconds left Gloucester Catholic got a TD, making the score 27-26. Instead of kicking a field goal Catholic went for two but was stopped by the Lions defense.
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RAMS V LIONS TURKEY GAME Nov. 2011–
The video contains some snippets of plays from the first half of the game. Ben Boyer carried 42 times for 294 yards and scored four touchdowns to lead Gloucester City to a 34-14 victory over Gloucester Catholic yesterday in Gloucester City. Boyer finished the season with 1,841 rushing yards, 168 shy of the school-record 2,009 yards accumulated by Mike Blankenship in 2001. Boyer had touchdown runs of 28, 73, 3 and 8 yards for Gloucester City (5-5). With the victory, Gloucester City tied the all-time Thanksgiving Week series between the two schools at 18-18 (there has been one tie). Elliott McCummings had two touchdown runs of 6 and 80 yards for Gloucester Catholic (3-7). Score Lions 34 Rams 14