It’s one of the oldest clichés in the Carolinas. And one of the most respected.It’s the motto of the Shrine Bowl football game which will be played at Gibbs Stadium, Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina the third Saturday in December. This will be the 75th consecutive year for the Shrine Bowl game.
The Shrine Bowl game, from a modest beginning in 1937, has become a sports tradition in the Carolinas–ranking along side Duke vs. North Carolina and Clemson vs. South Carolina for football fan interest.
And in so doing it has contributed over $73 million to the Shriners Hospital for Children at Greenville, SC, and 21 other Shrine Hospitals and Burns Institutes in North America. The 2010 game and the five (5) Shrine Centers raised $1.5 million.
The Shrine Bowl matches squads of 44 outstanding North and South Carolina high school football players. To be selected to participate in the game still is an honor unmatched in Carolinas prep football. Being named to either state’s squad almost automatically assures a player of a choice of several college scholarships.
Each squad is under the direction of seven high school football coaches. To be picked as either a head coach or as an assistant is a goal of all prep coaches in the sister states. The same situation applies to the eight game officials. These men work the game with no thought of remuneration except one–the honor of being allowed to contribute their talents.
In fact, no one connected with the game is paid one cent for his services except office personnel, with a number of Shriners saving a week of vacation to make themselves available for duty during Shrine Bowl week.
The players are selected by the coaching staffs from a lengthy list submitted by the high school coaches of the two states. The sponsoring Shriners are completely out of this phase of the game, leaving the choices to the coaches. No school may be represented by more than two players, and statewide representation is a goal always achieved.
The squads arrive for the Shrine Bowl on Saturday preceding the game on the following Saturday. They begin the “Week to Remember” by visiting the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville on Sunday. At the hospital the players see first hand what their weeks’ work will accomplish.
When the patients and the players first meet it’s usually a mutual staring contest. But the shyness soon disappears and the patients and the players wind up chattering like a reunion of old friends.
On Monday the players and coaches begin two-a-day practice sessions, and the hotel housing and feeding the players triple their milk order for the week. The players are looked after by Shriners who call themselves “escorts”. These men actually live with the players all week and take care of any problems that arise.
Competition on the practice field to make the starting lineups is intense. This is exactly what the covey of high school coaches and fans like to see. The sidelines will be packed thoughout the week to watch the players every move.
On Friday night the squads and coaches are honored at a banquet, an annual event that is climaxed by an inspirational speaker from the world of sports. In the past few years, for instance, these speakers have been Mack Brown, Jim Lampley, Dick Sheridan, Ken Hatfield, Brad Scott, Jim Caldwell, Bobby Bowden, Mike O’Cain, Lou Holtz, Tommy Bowden, Mark Richt, Butch Davis, and Nick Saben. For the 75th game, the speaker will be ACC Commissioner and Former 1966 Shrine Bowl Player John Swofford .
The Imperial Potentate, the leader of all Shrinedom, attends every year and takes part in the halftime festivities.
On Saturday morning prior to the 1:00 o’clock game a parade involving about 2,000 people will move through downtown Spartanburg to Gibbs Stadium, Wofford College. The parade includes high school bands, uniformed Shrine Units and five Shrine Center Divans with distinguished guests.
The halftime ceremonies are almost as famous as the football game itself. They are planned months in advance around a central theme, and to hear the band playing to honor the Shrine Bowl King and Queen.
A King and Queen for each game is selected from the children at the Greenville hospital and the Cincinnati Burns Center, and in addition to seeing the game from the Royal Box on the 50-yard line, they are officially crowned at half-time. The amount of the year’s check that has been raised by the Shrine Bowl and the five sponsoring Centers also is announced at halftime, and this draws appreciative roar from the crowd equal to any that the game’s heroics might produce.
After 74 years the game’s win-loss results are South Carolina 40, North Carolina 29, tied 4. The Shriners aren’t too concerned with which team wins or loses. “We’re more interested in the real winner of the game”, says Connie Altman, Shrine Bowl General Chairman this year. “And that’s the children in Shriners Hospitals who will be made well again by the money we raise”.
