‘I Remember … The Thanksgiving Day Football Classic’

Marshal with memorabilia from that Thanksgiving Day game in 1965. To add to the nostalgia, we visited the former WHVS campus which is now the site of a sprawling housing development. He could still remember the passion of the crowd on the sidelines. /Joe Barkovich photo.

By George Marshall

The final Thanksgiving Day football classic featuring the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and the Welland High Tigers was played 57 years ago – Monday October 11, 1965.

The annual game was a welcomed event for the entire community. Those years were quite different from today. We had no malls, no stores were open on Sundays and holidays and most of us walked to school. Almost all had some association with one of these institutions.

Literally thousands of paying spectators, young and old, enjoyed the pre-game parade and were either delighted or saddened by the outcome of the contest. This one game divided our community for that day. Good guys versus bad guys, with bragging rights for a year the prize!

I was fortunate enough to be both a young fan and later as a player.

As a player, the Thanksgiving Day game was the highlight of the season and that was known before the season started. Coaches, staff and team members practiced on the gridiron daily from the end of the school day often ending in darkness. Meetings were frequent.

Game day for both teams started with no sleep from the night before, a reluctant  breakfast  – reluctant, because of nerves it was hard to keep down – and a long, intense walk to campus. The game itself, punishing with hard hits! Everything was left on the field. No one left without aches and pains and some sustained injuries. However, those aches and pains tended to hurt less with a victory.

When speaking with players and supporters of those Thanksgiving Day games over the years, they seemingly, with no exceptions, remember those games vividly with enthusiasm and fondness. I certainly remember that last game: Notre Dame won, 19-7.

(George Marshall played in the Thanksgiving Day classic in 1964 and 1965. After high school, he went on to play university football for two years with St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana and finished his career at Waterloo Lutheran University in 1969. Well-known in the community, he is a former city councillor and regional councillor.)

Editor’s note: ‘I Remember … ‘, a new feature on the blog, will appear once or twice a month, on Saturdays.