Glen Ellyn fans renew rivalry against Wheaton with nationally televised game
Joe Carlton and Harold Prichard have been fans of Glenbard high school football since they played on the team in the 1940s. Their friends say the two argue over who has seen more games.
Indeed, it's part of the green-and-white DNA of a true Hilltoppers fan to go to all home and away games. And there's few excuses to miss a game.
Who says so?
Carlton does in his 1997 book, “As The Backs Go Tearing By,” a retrospective of the first 80 years of football at what is now Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn.
He developed a set of rules for members of the self-proclaimed “Old Codgers,” a group of longtime fans who sit together every game. Some guidelines include:
Ÿ Don't attend any weddings or funerals during games.
Ÿ Don't complain about the weather.
Ÿ And don't die during a game. If you do, someone will have to prop you up until the game is over.
It's that type of passion that these die-hard fans are bringing to this Sunday's matchup with Wheaton Warrenville South — a storied, often checkered, rivalry that dates back to 1916.
The game has garnered national attention thanks to a scheduled live broadcast from Wheaton's Grange Field at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, on ESPN2. The matchup is underscored by preseason rankings that place both teams among the best in the state.
Adding another layer of intrigue, the Glenbard West Hilltoppers aim to avenge last year's quarterfinal round playoff loss to Wheaton Warrenville South — as well as their double overtime defeat at the hands of the Tigers a year before in the 7A state championship.
The rivalry
Despite the recent defeats, confidence is running sky high among the Old Codgers. Carlton says he's been exchanging emails all week with a Wheaton friend to let him know: “The green monsters are coming over.”
“We're gonna beat them this year. We've got a powerhouse,” Carlton said.
Prichard, known as “Snub” in Glenbard circles, is equally as confident in the result of the game.
“The biggest thing … isn't going to be if we beat them — that's a given — but whether we'll be able to find a place to park,” Prichard said.
They say the rivalry today is good-natured. But in its early years, the series had to be suspended twice because of rioting. Among the shenanigans: Wheaton fans burning a large W at Glenbard's field and painting an orange W on a building, said Carlton, adding that Glenbard fans “painted a green G over there, too.”
Carlton was on the Glenbard team in the 1944 season, when play resumed after the second hiatus in the series.
School administrators waited an entire four years before resuming games between the two sides so that a whole class could graduate, Carlton said.
But why was there so much discontent in the first place?
Prichard thinks the rivalry had its genesis before 1916, the first time football teams from Glen Ellyn and Wheaton met.
That was the first year for Glen Ellyn High School, which was located on the second floor of the DuPage Bank and Trust building at Main Street and Crescent Boulevard. When the school outgrew the space, Glenbard High School, now known as Glenbard West, opened in 1922 at its current hilltop location.
But before there were any high schools in Glen Ellyn, local students went to Wheaton High School.
Prichard contends that those early interactions may have planted the seeds of the rivalry.
The passion
These Glenbard fans back their team and defend their turf. And they keep coming back game after game.
Dennis and Joy Murphy went on their first date to a Glenbard/Wheaton game in 1947. They still live in Glen Ellyn and still go to games.
Legendary coach Bill Duchon, for whom the West football field is named, still attends games. But he says he sits further down the bleacher row from the likes of Carlton and Prichard, who haven't ever been afraid to tell the coach what plays to call — and tell him if it doesn't work out.
Somehow Duchon still remembers similar voices when he walked the Glenbard sidelines in the 1960s and 1970s.
“I'm (still) suffering from being over-coached,” Duchon said.
But what may be drawing these longtime fans back time and time again is that little has changed at Glenbard football games since their youth.
All home games are on Saturday afternoons. Without lights, Friday night games are impossible — and the way it should stay, many of the fans say.
The field overlooks Lake Ellyn and its nearby park, where tree leaves turn their colors in the heart of the fall football season.
And there's something about high school sports, distinctly pure and real, that's increasingly hard to find on the college or professional sporting levels, Carlton says.
“High school football is the last vestige of playing the way it's supposed to,” he said.
About this series
On Sunday, the football teams of Glenbard West and Wheaton Warrenville South high schools renew a rivalry that began 95 years ago.
The battle for bragging rights may be just as intense today.
South's Tigers hope to continue a 26-game winning streak and their recent dominance over the Hilltoppers from West. The two teams met last year in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs, and the year before in the class 7A state championship — with the Tigers winning both contests.
Now the whole country will be getting a look at storied rivalry. ESPN2 will broadcast Sunday's game live from Grange Field in Wheaton with kickoff scheduled for 11 a.m.
Starting today and continuing through Sunday, the Daily Herald will feature stories that take a look at the rivalry and what Sunday's game means to fans, players, the schools and the communities.