It started with four friends and a football.
It evolved into a half century and counting of Turkey Day Tradition.
We take you back to the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1962 in the 3000 block of Ruby Avenue in Racine. The 60-and-older crowd might remember it as the day of Vince Lombardi's most humiliating game - Bart Starr was sacked 11 times in the previously unbeaten Green Bay Packers'
26-14 loss to the Detroit Lions at Tiger Stadium - but Tom "Fox" Hansen, John Hanson, Don Paar and Tom Carroll reflect on it from a far more pleasant perspective.
While hanging out at the house of Carol Totero, whom Carroll was dating at the time, the four St. Catherine's High School classmates became restless. Grabbing a football, they walked over to the vacant lot that was then immediately south of the Totero's house and started throwing passes to each other during the overcast 42-degree day.
It was just knocking around for an hour or so among four buddies who were less than a year away from going their separate ways in life. Yet, what happened that day somehow marked the beginning of a tradition that extended to its 50th game last Thursday at Armstrong Park.
"It was four guys getting together, bumping heads and throwing the ball back and forth," Hansen said of that first get-together, just weeks after the world had been terrorized during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
And it became a revolving contingent of players over the years, representing both the old guard and the newer blood in what has become known as "The Turkey Bowl." Sons with graceful strides going against graying, balding fathers with feet of clay have elevated what started as an impromptu get-together into an annual event that has taken on an iconic local status.
Hansen, the only one to appear in all 50 games, still plans an annual Thanksgiving trip from Madison, where he moved in 1998, to keep his streak alive. Paar's annual appearances were interrupted only by a two-year stint in the Army from 1965-67 and he's still going strong 17 years after being treated for prostate cancer.
John Hanson is more of a bystander these days after dealing with serious health issues. Only Carroll among the original four is no longer in the picture, having fallen out of touch after moving away years ago.
But the list of Turkey Bowl veterans has become extensive, with many names bearing a familiar ring. Jim Winters. The late Len Ziolkowski. Bobby Franks. Larry Czosnek. Dick Stindle. Rocky Falaschi. Dick Meteyard, Bill Bushell. They are just a few who have played over the years.
And to play in just one Turkey Bowl is to get the bug.
"Dick Stindle's son, Kevin, was in the Marine Corps about seven years ago," Paar said. "And they told him he had a chance to go home at Christmas or Thanksgiving and Kevin chose Thanksgiving so he could play in the Turkey Bowl with all the guys."
It's all as innocent as the bygone era from which this tradition started. Those who show up are paired off into blue and red teams. The game, featuring one-touch tackles, starts around 9 a.m. and a mental clock ticks for about 90 minutes.
Whichever team is ahead at around 10:30, give or take a few minutes, is the winner, unless the other team has a chance to tie with its next possession. Afterward, the newer and older generations relax at the Country Pump for a post-game spread featuring a tray of sausage and cheese and cannibal sandwiches.
Ballots are passed to select that game's offensive and defensive most valuable players. Photos from the day are placed into what has become Tom Hansen's third scrapbook from this tradition.
And then another year is in the books. But the promise from this event is that there are endless pages remaining in this enchanting story.
What would Hansen have said 50 years ago if he could have known such a tradition would have unfolded just because four buddies were bored?
"I guess I would have said, ‘Wow!' " he said. "Who would have known? When you start something, who knows what it's going to turn into? It just kept gravitating and growing and growing."
With no end in sight.
"You know, every year we look so forward to it that I think it's going to go for years and years," Paar said. "I've got two grandchildren now, 10 and 8, who come out and watch us and they're just waiting to be able to play, so I can see this going on for quite awhile. I really can."
Peter Jackel is a reporter for The Journal Times. You may contact Peter at (262) 631-1703 or by email atpeter.jackel@lee.net
Copyright 2011 JournalTimes.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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