2017 POTATO BOWL: Palmer High to honor longtime head coach prior to game

Historically, the Potato Bowl is the biggest and the best.

The annual clash between Valley rivals Palmer and Wasilla that dates back to 1979 remains the most anticipated regular season prep football game on the local slate. Just about four decades worth of history and tradition can’t be denied.

Palmer hosts Wasilla Friday at 7 p.m. in the 39th Potato Bowl, and Rod Christiansen’s 27th as head coach of the Palmer Moose. Just prior to kickoff, PHS will honor its longtime head coach. Last week, Christiansen stepped to the top of the list, becoming the all-time winningest head coach in Alaska football history. Christiansen will be recognized during a short, on-field ceremony, to commemorate the achievement.

Christiansen, Palmer’s head coach since 1991, earned his 151st victory with Palmer’s 35-8 win at Kenai Central last week. Christiansen entered the 2017 season trailing the late Buck Nystrom, who held the prior mark of 150 victories earned during his 31 years as a head coach at Eielson and North Pole.

Christiansen tied Nystrom two weeks ago with a 35-8 win at Eagle River.

Christiansen is 151-99 in 27 seasons as a head coach.

Even though the record-setting victory came on the road, the Potato Bowl feels like the ideal time to recognize Christiansen, who is 18-8 in the game as a head coach.

Palmer High activities director Dale Ewart said school officials are urging Christiansen’s former players to attend and help honor the state’s all-time winningest head coach.

Palmer High is also hosting a military appreciation Friday night. There will be a special presentation of the colors along with the National Anthem and a salute to service men and women during halftime. All service members in uniform or with military identification will be admitted for free.

This marks the 39th year that Palmer and Wasilla will battle for the Mayor’s Cup, the traveling trophy awarded to the winner of the annual game. Palmer claims a 28-10 mark in the series. Wasilla boasts an 11-27 record. The winner of the 1984 Potato Bowl is still in dispute. The rivals split a pair of games that season, with each team claiming its win as the actual Potato Bowl.

The Moose are riding a two-game Potato Bowl winning streak. Palmer held on to claim a 21-14 win over the Warriors last year. Wasilla’s last Potato Bowl win, 47-14, came in 2014 at PHS. Christiansen is 18-8 in 26 career Potato Bowls.

Palmer, which clinched a spot in the Division II playoffs last week, is 3-4 overall. Wasilla, still alive in the Division I playoffs, is 2-5.

Below is a bit of history of the Potato Bowl, compiled from my past Frontiersman stories.

I say Potato Bowl, you say, what???

The annual Palmer-Wasilla matchup was not always called the Potato Bowl.

From 1971 through 1977, football players from Palmer and Wasilla high schools competed on a combined team, the Palmer-Wasilla Falcons. In 1978, each school created a separate program. Palmer had varsity, but Wasilla fielded a junior varsity team, and the foes could not play.

In 1979, as Palmer and Wasilla were set to meet in a varsity game for the first time, former Palmer head coach Dan Strouse came up with the idea to recognize the annual game that featured, at that point, the only prep football programs in the Valley. Ron Larson, mayor of the Mat-Su Borough in 1979, purchased a trophy from the borough’s office that would become the traveling trophy for the game.

The contest was first known as the Mayor’s Cup.

Years later, former longtime Palmer High activities director Mike Janecek dubbed the game the Potato Bowl.

During that era, long before Colony High School was built, the old Trunk Road was seen as the clear dividing line in the Valley.

“That was the boundary. You go across, you’re in enemy territory,” Janecek said.

Trunk Road’s intersection with the Palmer-Wasilla Highway was known as Four Corners. And at Four Corners were potato fields.

“Ask anybody in the state, we grow a lot of potatoes in the Valley,” Janecek said.

Newcomers to the Valley are sometimes puzzled with the idea that the Valley’s most noted prep event is named after a potato. And while the potato fields may not be as visible, or prevalent, in the Valley as they once were, Janecek said the game helps the community keep a grasp on its history and culture.

“It’s precious,” Janecek said. “We want kids to continue to know what that’s all about, and where we came from.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.