Turkey Tussle 2015 Pasadena High School Bulldog Varsity shown with the Turkey Tussle Victory Bell after their 13 to 6 victory over Muir. Seen above are #6 Kris Jolley, #1 Tyrek Adams, #24 Alex Hernandez and #5 Jeremiah Jones. Pasadena High School and John Muir High School will once again compete for the honor to […]
Turkey Tussle 2015 Pasadena High School Bulldog Varsity shown with the Turkey Tussle Victory Bell after their 13 to 6 victory over Muir. Seen above are #6 Kris Jolley, #1 Tyrek Adams, #24 Alex Hernandez and #5 Jeremiah Jones.
Pasadena High School and John Muir High School will once again compete for the honor to rights to the traditional Victory Bell during this year’s edition of the Turkey Tussle, an annual homecoming football game between the two cross-town rivals, on Friday, November 4, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The PHS Bulldogs are currently in proud possession of the Victory Bell, after dealing the John Muir Mustangs a 13-6 loss last year. The Mustangs had been in control of the bell for 19 years in a row.
This will be the 70th edition of the Turkey Tussle.
The practice began in 1947 when the game was played between Pasadena Community College and John Muir Junior College. The campus of what was John Muir Junior College had just been returned to the City of Pasadena after having been used as an Army base during World War II.
These two schools played annually until 1953. Then in 1954, the first game in the annual rivalry between what is now Pasadena High School and John Muir High School was played.
Possession of the Victory Bell is the prize for the winning school. For over 60 years the Bell has been the symbol of Victory for the Turkey Tussle and it has been passed back and forth between PHS and Muir over those years.
The Bell itself has a history of its own.
The story is told that the Victory Bell dates back to a friendly wager between two fathers in 1955. One, the parent of a PHS Bulldog student, had bragged about how badly Pasadena was going to beat Muir in the game. A Muir dad took offense and fired back that Muir will be victorious. After heated discussion, a wager was struck between the two excited men, not for money, but for pride.
It seems the PHS dad was a retired Santa Fe railroad man, and as a retirement gift from the railroad he was awarded the bell from his locomotive train. He bet that PHS would defeat Muir and was willing to put his most sacred possession, the bell, up as the prize.
PHS did win that game and the bell was heard ringing loud and clear after the game.
The following year, the father once again put the bell up as a symbol for the victor — but Muir won the game. Muir demanded that the bell be sent to their campus until they played again next year. And so the tradition began.
During the annual game, the Victory Bell sits quietly in the south end zone of the Rose Bowl. One of the highlights that will be witnessed on November 4 is when the winning team rushes to the end zone and celebrates their win by ringing the Victory
Bell.
The Bell has graced the campus of Muir more than at PHS. For the past 30 years, PHS has seen the bell only once. Muir has won the game 42 times, with two ties, and has won the past 16 years in a row.
In June 2005, the John Muir High School campus was burglarized and the Victory Bell was stolen. On February 7, 2006, Charles White, who wasn’t a student at either school nor a staff member, found the Victory Bell sitting in a gully near a road in the Angeles National Forest.
Upon its return, the bell was professionally cleaned and polished and promptly placed into a secure locked area which remains a secret to this day.
During the 70th Annual Turkey Tussle, pre-game activities include Homecoming Royal Court presentations at 6 p.m. and kick-off is at 7 p.m.
At the end of the game, the Pasadena Unified School District will recognize the first recipient of the Austin M. Lacy MVP Award, named after a versatile senior football player at PHS who died of a rare illness in 2011.
A few weeks before his death, Lacy was discovered to have been suffering from mesothelioma – a disease primarily caused by long-term exposure to asbestos. He was only 17 when he died.
Lacy, whose motto was “Not Easily Broken,” played a number of positions for the Bulldogs: linebacker, defensive end, and full back, and was considered an extraordinary student athlete who battled back to play for PHS during his senior year despite the life-threatening condition.
PUSD says the MVP award will represent Lacy’s determination, stamina, and character.
Tickets for the 70th Annual Turkey Tussle are $12 and will be available at the Rose Bowl box office one hour before the game.
