MARK KIESLING: Turkey Bowl tradition is heading into end zone

Tomorrow is the end of the line for the boys of the Turkey Bowl.

For more than 30 years, these graduates of Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing have met every Thanksgiving morning for a game of football at Lan-Oak Park.

They've scattered, somewhat. Some live in Indiana, one on the North Side of Chicago.

But time waits for no one, and those older bones and muscles just ain't what they used to be.

What started as a game of tackle moved to two-hand touch, then one-hand touch.

"Now if you even get close to a guy, he's down," said Eddie Dunne, 51, of Dyer.

"Some of these guys, you may see them only once during the year," said Jeff Fata, 50, of St. John. Over the years, he estimated, maybe 40 have played in what they've affectionately called the Turkey Bowl.

"If you've got Thanksgiving at your house, you've got to work around it," Fata said. "You can't be having dinner at 2 p.m."

You've also got to have an understanding spouse. "I've been through two wives during this thing," said Terry "Dubbs" Fredericks, of Dyer.

Once they began having kids, the guys would bring them with and eventually brought them into the game.

Will they continue the tradition? "They could still keep this game alive," Dunne said. "I know my son Kevin wants to keep playing."

"It'd be nice if the kids kept it going," Fredericks said.

So Thursday morning about 10 am., the boys of the Turkey Bowl will gather for the final game of a tradition that reaches back a third of a century.

They're not ready to throw in the towel just yet, though. "We're thinking of going bowling next year instead," Dunne said.

It's a little easier on the body, and a lot less likely to be affected by the vagaries of Thanksgiving weather.

"We've played in every kind of weather. Sunny and warm, snow, rain, no matter what the weather," Fata said.

"Those when it snowed, those were the fun ones," Fredericks said. "You're slipping and sliding all over.

"The rain's not fun. You're full of mud, and when you get home you've got to take your clothes off and shower and change."

There's even a Most Valuable Player trophy that stays with the winner for a year. "It's kind of like the Stanley Cup of the Turkey Bowl," Dunne said.

There's also a Toast Award for the player who gets "burned" by a bad play. "I wasn't gonna bring that up," Fredericks said. "I've won it many a time," Dunne said.

"The wives say if we get hurt not to come home, have one of your friends take you to the ER," Fata said. "Fortunately, no one has ever gotten hurt."

Well, not seriously. But Fredericks said, "I can remember sitting down to the turkey dinner and not being able to get up."

I don't think they'll have that problem with bowling. But you never know.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.