A DELCO HOLIDAY TRADITION: TALKIN’ TURKEY
Ridley and Interboro have special guests for their annual Thanksgiving Day clash
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP » The train tracks that run parallel to MacDade Boulevard is all that divides Ridley Township from Prospect Park. Students born on the north side wear Ridley Raiders green, while those to the south don the yellow and black of the Interboro Bucs.
Both schools have their pick of Wawas, an afterschool staple, whether it’s the one in Folsom along MacDade just a 15-minute walk from Interboro High School, or the one a half mile down North Swarthmore Avenue from Ridley.
The well-known rivals aren’t short of opportunities to bump into each other.
For the uninitiated, the annual Thanksgiving Day football between Interboro and Ridley is a generational affair. Fathers now cheer on their sons to clobber the descendants of their former opponents in the area’s own mini-Super Bowl. It’s not uncommon to find players who carry the torches of older brothers and relatives with the hopes of earning that big “W” on Thanksgiving Day, which precedes a delicious spread and a year’s worth of bragging rights.
Those chance interactions around town are typically friendly, players say, many of whom played youth ball together for St. Gabriel’s Norwood Tigers. Yet, when November comes around and the Turkey Bowl is looming, it’s all business.
“We’re basically friends all year. If you run into them at Wawa or something, you say ‘What’s up?’ and talk, everyone knows each other’s families, but then once November hits, no matter if they’re in the playoffs or not, you don’t talk to them, no matter what,” said Ryan Kennedy, the center and captain for the Ridley Raiders. “If I saw Coach (George) Zagame somewhere I wouldn’t even talk to him,” Kennedy laughed.
Zagame, the assistant coach at Interboro is a former slot back coach at Ridley High School. Additionally, he coached the St. Gabriel Tigers seventhand eighth-grade football teams, which featured Kennedy, as well as players from Interboro like Danny Coll, Joey Forte and Wyatt McDevitt.
Leaving Ridley for Interboro after last season, Bucs coach Steve Lennox said, “Their loss is our gain.”
The faceoff between former teammates is particularly special to the St. Gabe’s alumni. Forte said it’s all part of tradition.
“We always see each other on Thanksgiving,” Forte said. “We’ll get together, take a picture, it’s cool.”
However, the nostalgia doesn’t cloud the desire for that “W” on game day for
either team, but as Coll put it, “Once you’re on a team with someone, you’re brothers forever.”
“But when you’re on the field playing against them, you have to hate them for at least a couple hours,” Coll said.
McDevitt said the Thanksgiving game would be the penultimate moment for the seniors.
“We always leave everything on the field, after it’s done we’re all friends,” McDevitt said. “This is the defining moment to show who were are, who we were, and how we got here as football players.”
Despite PIAA changes that have shifted the schedule of playoff games, which forced a cancelation of Thanksgiving games in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2012, the game between the two schools fosters its own championship atmosphere. Even Sportsradio WIP and other local news stations are getting in on the fun.
It’s the history of the game, the nostalgia, that keeps the rivalry alive, drawing thousands every year on Thanksgiving morning. Like Kennedy, who follows in the footsteps of older brother Denis Kennedy, whose Ridley team defeated Interboro 12-0 in 2015, middle linebacker and tight end Brett McLaughlin of the Bucs follows in the footsteps of his father and brothers.
“I used to be the waterboy, my brothers both played in it, my dad played in it, so I’m the last one in the line,” McLaughlin said. His brothers Tyler and Bob graduated in 2013 and 2012 respectively.
Needless to say, the family is living vicariously through Brett in his final game as an Interboro Buc.
“This is definitely the highlight of the season trying to beat Ridley,” McLaughlin said. “It’s all in good fun, but they do a lot of talking, we’re just waiting for our chance to prove them wrong on the field.”
Sean Crowley, running back and middle linebacker for Ridley, said his brother Mike Crowley, a former Green Raider, told him Thanksgiving Day as a senior is the “best and craziest game of your entire life.”
“Last year I walked on the field and it literally felt like an Eagles/Cowboys game,” Crowley said.
Talking about the train tracks that separate the two school districts, Crowley said the proximity is what makes the rivalry so explosive.
“You cross the tracks and you go from Ridley to Interboro, I’ll talk to them, be cool with them, but once Thursday comes, it’s all business,” Crowley said. “They know it, too, it’s straight business.”
As far as trash talking is concerned, Interboro players accused Ridley of talking the most smack. When asked if Ridley players would claim the same of the Bucs, they responded, “Maybe, but it wouldn’t be true.”
“We will,” Crowley said, unabashed. “Last year we met at the goal line and it was bad, the refs had to separate us.”
“But they know, it’s right across the tracks,” Crowley said. “That’s the kind of rivalry I love.”