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double deuce
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Posted: Sat Nov 8th, 2008 11:16 pm |
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| Lakes boys put on a totally awesome performance. It was definitely the best this season. Congrats to Milford too!
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imjeffsfan
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Posted: Sat Nov 8th, 2008 08:38 pm |
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| Great job on the game last night (honestly)... almost had it! The football team and the band both looked their best last night! Congratulations teams!
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init4lake
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Posted: Sat Nov 8th, 2008 02:06 pm |
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| MILFORD WILL NOT WIN ANOTHER BOB FOR 3 OR 4 YEARS. LAKE IS YOUNG AND WHAT I SAW FRIDAY NITE WAS THE T URNING POINT WE BEEN LOOKING FOR SINCE COACH JOHNSON TOOK OVER. CAN'T WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR.
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double deuce
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Posted: Thu Nov 6th, 2008 08:49 pm |
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Very nice article! Awesome job!
I can remember the Battle of the Bell way back in the mid-late 70's and going to the football games that were held at W.T.Chipman.
Come on Lake Forest residents, let's pack the stands and let our players put on a great show for us. That may be just what they need, to see their stands packed full!
Rain or Shine, hope to see lots of you Friday nite!
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jlhughes
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Posted: Thu Nov 6th, 2008 05:49 pm |
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The Journal would like to hear from you. Share your Battle of the Bell stories here on Newszap.com.
Spartans battle for Bell,
hope to be season spoiler
By Jamie-Leigh Bissett
The Journal
FELTON — The Battle of the Bell is a time-honored tradition that has been a part of the Milford and Lake Forest school districts for nearly 40 years.
Currently, Lake Forest holds the edge 20-19, though Milford has won four out of the last five games.
This year, for the 40th installment of the battle, the game will be played at Lake Forest High School in James H. Blades Stadium beginning at 7:30 p.m.
And though this is a game both teams are looking forward to, the end result will mean two totally different things for the neighboring districts.
For Milford, a win means their first state playoff berth since 1974 when they went 10-0 under then head coach Vern Walsh. It also means their first Henlopen Conference championship since the same year.
For Lake, a win means finishing the season with a three game winning streak and a 4-6 record.
Though second-to-last-place in the Southern Division is not a place most teams want to be, the season has been a success for the Spartans who have managed only one win in each of the last two seasons.
The past — a history
of Battle of the Bell
The first Battle of the Bell game was played in Milford in 1969, which was the first year the Felton and Harrington school districts combined to make the Lake Forest School District.
The game was played on Thanksgiving morning and was originally called the “Turkey Day Battle.”
It was, and has remained, the last game of the season. However, because of the creation of the state football tournament, the game stopped being played on Thanksgiving morning sometime around 1972.
According to an article found in the Milford Chronicle, the bell came from an old Penn Railroad community train. It said, “Cooperation was gained from the Delaware Breakwater Railroad Co. with a former employee and the bell was purchased for around $100 from a railroad graveyard in Pennsylvania.”
The article went on to say the decision to acquire something symbolic of the two towns to allow the winner of the Turkey Day Battle was decided among Barney Briggs, athletic director at Milford, and General Albert Adams, superintendent at Lake Forest.
It said the first thought was for the symbol to be an old peach basket. Then a steamboat whistle was recommended, but the final decision was made to use the bell instead.
According to a fact sheet handed out by Milford head football coach Mike Tkach, no Battle of the Bell game has ever ended in a tie.
Only one game, in 1994, was won in overtime by Lake Forest 14-7.
It goes on to say that the bell weighs 52 lbs and is made of solid brass with an oak base.
The fact sheet said initially, on game day the fans of the visiting team were allowed to travel to the game by train for free.
And, “Legend has it that good luck comes to the one who rings it,” the history sheet said.
The past — the first five years of the game
The first game in 1969 was played at Milford with Lake Forest coming off of a three-game winning streak.
Lake Forest ended up winning the first battle in a close game 27-26, finishing the season 4-5, and in second place in the Henlopen South Conference, while the Bucs finished 5-5 and in last place in the Henlopen North Conference.
Dale Wilson, a staff writer for the Milford Chronicle, wrote at the time that the game was “Undoubtedly the most exciting game of the season.”
Keith S. Burgess, sports editor for the Harrington Journal, said, “The outcome was in doubt right up to the final whistle. The two teams may never again engage in as exciting a Turkey Day struggle, as was this opener of the new series.”
Then in 1970, the game was played on the W.T. Chipman field in Harrington and was won by Milford, 18-8.
Milford, coached by Moe Barber, was having its first winning season since the 1964 season when it went 6-3 and finished 8-2 that year.
The play-by-play of the game aired on WTHD Radio 93 in Milford, and was called a “defensive struggle,” by the Chronicle.
Burgess in the Harrington Journal called it an “erratic contest” and “saw the ball change hands thirteen times on fumbles and pass interception. A game of this type could have gone either way.”
The third game in 1971 was played at Milford.
At the time, Milford’s starting quarterback Cory Kennah was out with a knee injury.
The loss affected the Bucs who wound up losing to the Spartans 20-12.
The Spartans finished the 1971 season with an 8-2 record and in second place in the Henlopen South while the Bucs finished 4-6 tied for fifth in the North with Cape Henlopen.
Burgess, in the Harrington Journal, said, “We believe this is the second-best record for a local football team since the pigskin sport was inaugurated here in 1957.”
The roles reversed in 1972 when Lake’s starting quarterback Larry Lorden and second team, All-League pick Robin Callahan sat out the final game because of a shoulder separation and scholastic ineligibility, respectively.
“Without these two, Lake Forest was only a shadow of the team that lost only once in Henlopen competition,” Burgess said in the Nov. 30, 1972 edition of the Harrington Journal
The Bucs won 15-2 and finished the season 5-5, and fifth in the Henlopen North.
Though the Spartans lost the battle, they finished with an 8-2 record and first in the South.
The game was played at W.T. Chipman in Harrington and was the last game to be played on Thanksgiving and the last game to be known as the Turkey Day Battle.
According to the Chronicle, “The packed stands…watched the two teams slip and slide on a muddy turf that looked like a fire hose had been turned on it all night.”
As Burgess said, “After four years, the jinx still holds, with the host team losing each year.”
Finally, in 1973, the game was played in Milford and won by the Bucs 45-7, the first time the battle had been won by the home team.
The game was played for the first time on a Friday and was also the first time it did not receive any major coverage in the Chronicle or Journal.
Milford finished with a 5-4-1 record while Lake finished 0-10.
As Burgess put it in the Nov. 22, 1973 edition of the Harrington Journal, “Take a winless football team, subtract eight seniors and what do you have? We are afraid it means bleak prospects for 1974.”
The past — Battle memories shared
“I played in 1969, the first game that was played,” Chester Scott, a 35-year physical education teacher at Lake Forest High School, said.
“At halftime, Milford was leading 26-0, but we came back to win 27-26. My friend Kenny Tribbett scored three touchdowns and I scored the two-point conversion that ended up winning the game for us.”
He added, “Milford had beaten all the Downstate teams. They had an All-State, All-Conference running back in Duece Watson, and we shut him down. To score 27 points in the seconed half that year against that team, that was the biggest thing around.”
Scott said he remembers going into the locker room during halftime and his coach at the time, Bill Muehleisen, “turned the lights off, and said ‘If you want a ride back to Lake Forest, you better win. Otherwise you’re walking back.’”
Freddie Johnson, who played for Lake Forest from 1986-89 and is now their head coach, said, “I remember my junior year when we went into the Battle of the Bell, if we would have beat Milford, we would have gotten into the playoffs, but they beat us pretty good.”
“My senior year, we were playing Milford, that’s the year Lake Forest went to the state finals, we had that stuck in our memories how they beat us, and we beat them pretty good my senior year.
“I was captain of the team senior year, and that whole week, I was preaching that at practice, ‘Remember last year, we’re not going to let that happen to us again. We’re not going to let them beat us our senior year,’” he added.
“I remember, my senior year, it was a cold night, and we had to win to go to the playoffs and we came out victorious,” Joe Scott, who played from 1992-95 and is an assistant coach on the team, said.
“I tell that story a lot, because I had a car accident that year, and came back from the car accident.The team rallied around me to win six straight games.”
He added, “To win the Battle of the Bell was like winning a championship.”
“When we played them, it was a big thing; we marked it on the calendar. There was no love lost there. It was very heated,” Robbie Reed, who played for Lake from 1986-89 said.
“Back then, it was more of a rivalry than it is right now. On the Milford side, they still get pretty amped up. Lake Forest has dwindled,” he added.
“My freshman year, we lost the game that year. It was the first time we had lost it in four years and it was very demoralizing,” Wesley Gerardi, who played from 1993-1996, said.
“My sophomore year, we had just missed the playoffs, so the incentive to end that season was to get the bell back. We got the bell back. We went into overtime, winning 14-7.
“Then my junior year, which was the year we won the state championship, we went into that game and it was a must-win because we wouldn’t have had enough points to get into the state tournament.”
Of course former players remember stories of when they played in the Battle of the Bell.
But even students of both schools who were not on the football team remember Battle of the Bell games and the week leading up to it.
“One of the biggest memories I have from it as a student was that it was more than just a football game,” Chris Kenton, who graduated from Milford in 1987 and now teaches social studies at Lake Forest, said.
“We would have competitions against Lake Forest to see who could raise the most canned goods for the local food pantries. We would literally fill pick-up trucks full of food, and then park them behind the end zones during the games.
“They would make an announcement at halftime letting everyone know who won. Both schools really got into it,” he said.
“We had great school spirit so there was always school-wide preparation for the football games. The atmosphere often seemed as important as homecoming,” Czar Bloom, who graduated from Lake in 1991 and now teaches English at Milford and coaches the cross country and track teams.
“For me, being a cross country runner at Lake Forest High, the Battle of the Bell came about the same time as conferences and states, and our athletic director Jim Blades, who was also the cross country coach, made sure that all the fall sports got to feel the school spirit as tournament time approached.
“The football team battled for the bell while the other sports, including soccer and field hockey, were looking to represent the school well in playoffs. It was certainly a great moment of Lake Forest pride,” he said.
“We took pride in it. I think the rivalry is bigger now than it was back then,” Ken Outten, who graduated from Lake in 1986 and now coaches soccer at Milford, said.
“Maybe having been here quite a bit longer than I was actually in high school, makes it seem more important, or at least it gets reinforced a bit more often.”
And everyone agrees that the rivalry was good, not only for the players themselves, but also for the school and the community.
“Any type of rivalry that you can have, it gives them something to look forward to and brag about. It’s positive and a good thing,” Scott said.
“Rivalry games are very important. It’s bragging rights for the communities and for the school. When these kids get older...these are things they are going to talk about. It’s about having good memories of high school games.
“I guarantee you can ask any football player from Milford and Lake, and they can tell you the scores, and what happened during the game,” Johnson said.
“It’s most definitely important for the community and the school. It’s camaraderie, and you learn how to deal with competition,” Scott said. “Everybody’s not going to be state champions, but they can win that game at that period of time.”
“It’s a way for the community to get together. It sets the tone for the rest of the season and if the football team has a good season, it puts a good spirit in the high school and the community,” Reed said.
“I feel this kind of rivalry is important for the school district and the community because, three out of the four years that I played, we didn’t go to the playoffs, so it always gave you incentive to practice and play through the season. It gave you something to look forward to and be proud of, to carry that bell off the field,” Gerardi said.
The present — the last five Battles of the Bell
Even though Lake Forest is leading the lifetime series, Milford has come back strong in the 2000’s and has won four of the last five Battle of the Bell games.
According to a plaque found on the famed bell, which lists the results from all 39 games, Milford defeated Lake in 2003 by a score of 20-13. Then in 2004, Milford won 17-6.
The Spartans took the win in 2005, defeating the Bucs 27-14.
Then in 2006, the Spartans were forced to forfeit their final three games of the season after allegations of drug use among players.
Finally, last year, Milford handily beat their crosstown foes 41-0.
The future — preview of Friday’s game
“I’m excited for the game. I think the group of kids that we have this year, they’re excited about it,” Johnson said. “They’re coming off of two wins in a row, the most games they’ve won in a couple of years, and they are excited, playing with confidence, and they’re really looking forward to the game. That’s the first thing they said on Saturday, ‘This week is Battle of the Bell.’”
He said he believes it is important for the team, especially the seniors, to win and bring the bell back to Lake.
“If they win the bell, that’s something they can say for the rest of their lives. It’s important for the five seniors we have, to say they laid the foundation for the future. If we can win that bell, and finish with three wins in a row, the underclassman will look forward to next year knowing they beat a good team like Milford. It’ll also be good for the community and the school. It’s important to have bragging rights.”
Johnson also said he believes Friday’s game will be a “very good, intense game. With a good week of practice, I think we can be successful.”
And even though Milford, with a 7-2 record and the chance to be Southern Division champions are the favorites to win, everyone involved with the Battle of the Bell said they’re not guaranteed a win.
“Even though it appears it could be lopsided this year, you never know what the rivalry will bring out of Lake Forest. It used to mean a lot when I was there,” Bloom said.
“It didn’t matter what the records were, it was a well fought game. There for a while, Milford was 0-40, and even though they hadn’t won a game, you still didn’t take them lightly,” Reed said.
“Football is a game of momentum. Any given team can be beat on any given day,” Gerardi said.
“We are most definitely looking to play spoiler on Friday. We know that if they lose to us, then they’re not Southern Division champs,” Johnson said. “This is high school football. Anything can happen, it’s all who comes to play on Friday night.”
“Any rivalry game, you can take the records and throw them away. It’s the players who will decide who wins on any particular day. It’s about school pride right now,” Scott said.
He added, “Lake is coming off of a two-game winning streak and they have everything to gain and nothing to lose.”
Sports editor Jamie-Leigh Bissett
can be reached at 398-3206 or
jlhughes@newszap.com.
Last edited on Thu Nov 6th, 2008 05:53 pm by jlhughes
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jlhughes
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Posted: Fri Oct 31st, 2008 09:16 pm |
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Attention former Lake Forest High School football players, coaches, fans, etc.!
The Journal is looking for anybody who has participated in, or knows anything about, the annual Battle of the Bell football game between Lake and Milford. We are looking for stories, memories and any other tidbit for an article in next week's paper. If you are interested, or know anybody who might be, e-mail me at jlhughes@newszap.com or private message me here on Newszap.com.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you, Jamie
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