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The Press Box: Thanksgiving Traditions

By Randy Rutherford - Sports Writer | Nov 24, 2021

Thanksgiving is coming up next week. We are hopeful to see our family in town and do a little traveling, too. As we were carving out plans with both our kids and their families, I was reminded about Thanksgivings of my past. Time honored traditions that were held dear in my heart as our own Hendricks and Rutherford families played through my mind. My grandparents little yellow house on the end of East Street was the setting for many happy turkey meals shared with my family as a kid. And if you weren’t sitting at the table by noon and ready, you were late according to my Grandpa Hendricks. The house is still standing at the end of East Street, and the memories made with packed in family members eating some of the best homemade noodles and rolls you could get your hands on will forever live on in my memory.

One story I never grew tired of hearing about was the tradition of the Sistersville vs Magnolia football game played every Thanksgiving Day during the 30s and 40s. My mother, Mary Jane Rutherford, shared her vivid memories about the biggest football game of the year. It would be the final game of the season for both squads and guaranteed to be a full house in attendance. She often spoke about kids that didn’t have transportation to the game hopping on a slow-moving train going through town to bum a ride north to be part of the excitement.

It is becoming more and more challenging as time moves forward to find folks still living today with memories from those long-ago forgotten traditions. I did stumble on this excerpt from the Wheeling Intelligence dated November 26, 1919, “Bitter rivalry which has existed for many years between New Martinsville and Sistersville is expected to draw a record-breaking crowd to the annual game between the high schools’ teams of the two cities on Thanksgiving afternoon. This turkey day clash marks the close of what has been a successful season for each team, and it also marks the climax of this year’s athletics locally. For several years past victory has rested on the shoulders of Magnolia High School of New Martinsville. This year, however, Sistersville hopes to follow in the footsteps of all college teams in the country by upsetting the dope.”

After reading the above article, at first, I thought the saying “upsetting the dope” was a misprint as I had never heard it before. But after reviewing other sports columns from the same time period, it was a popular saying and used when an underdog was hopeful to knock off a giant contender. Who would have guessed?

Another more recent memory surrounding Thanksgiving and football traditions began when both my children, while living in Michigan, grew up watching and cheering for the Mountaineers. It became a family tradition to travel to Sistersville and then Morgantown or Pitt the day after Thanksgiving to watch the Backyard Brawl. This well-known rivalry stores one of my favorite football memories. It was the 2009 win over Pitt that happened in the final 3 seconds of the ballgame when kicker, Brian Bitancourt, broke the 16-16 tie by booting in a winning field goal that queued up Country Roads! The place went ballistic and gave us a small amount of payback for the bad taste left in our mouth after the 2007 Backyard Brawl fiasco that stole our ticket for the chance at a national title.

Closer to home local high schools built their own Thanksgiving Football traditions over the years. No one will forget the 1980s dynasty of Tiger teams that traveled south each Thanksgiving weekend to fight for the state title. Beginning in 1980 and running through 1986 SHS played in the championship game claiming five of the seven titles. Tyler County High School also traveled to Charleston two times. In 1986 Sistersville defeated the Red Raiders but they returned the favor defeating the Tigers in the state championship game in 1983. Magnolia won it all in 2010 and 2015 at Wheeling Island and Paden City also prevailed around Thanksgiving in 1970 and 1979, both of these were played in Parkersburg. For anyone that didn’t travel to Laidley Field in Charleston or Wheeling Island or Parkersburg those weekends, they were left in charge of keeping the lights burning, otherwise Sistersville, New Martinsville, Paden City and Middlebourne could be mistaken for a ghost-towns.

This is the time of year our area high schools are hopeful to be playing in the post season hungry for a Thanksgiving appearance in the title game. Sadly, it wasn’t to be for any area football teams this year within a three-county radius. So, with that its onward to winter sports in the valley!

And I leave all you good people with a Thanksgiving toast to share with your family hopeful it may become a new tradition in your house. The author is unknown, but it goes like this, “May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump, may your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump. May your young yams be delicious, may your pies take the prize, and may your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs!”