'84 Potato Bowl: Agree to disagree

WASILLA — Arguably the state’s most storied annual regular season high school sporting event, the Potato Bowl has its fare share of tales. This year, another will be added to the list.

Thanks to a scheduling oddity, the Wasilla Warriors have the opportunity to host the Palmer Moose for the second straight year. The issue was forced after the Alaska Schools Activities Association reclassified football prior to the 2015 season. With the move of Palmer from the large-schools Railbelt Conference to the medium-schools Northern Lights, the Potato Bowl became a nonconference game for the first time in series history in 2015. It also relaxed a priority to rotate the venue for the game from year to year. In order for schedule-makers to guarantee teams across the state four home games and four road games each during the eight-game regular season, the 2016 slate included Palmer hosting Colony for the second straight year, Wasilla hosting Palmer in two consecutive years, and left Colony without a home game against a Valley rival for the first time in Knights program history.

While the Warriors faithful are relishing the chance to host the game in consecutive years and those in blue are not as thrilled about making the trek across the Valley once again, when future Potato Bowl football fans take a look at the series history, it’s not going to be the consecutive years in which the annual rivalry was host by Wasilla High that’s going to pop out as the strangest in the, now, 38-year history of the contest.

That honor goes to 1984. There is a different result, from that season, depending on who you talk to. And now the teams boast conflicting series records for the game. Palmer claims a 27-10 mark in the first 37 Potato Bowls, while Wasilla clings to an 11-26 record.

One game or two?

The 1984 season ended up with a pair of Palmer-Wasilla matchups on the prep football calendar, former longtime Palmer High School activities director Michael Janecek said recently. Initially, the Palmer-Wasilla game was scheduled for the end of the regular season. But prior to the start of the 1984 season, a Palmer-Wasilla game was added to the beginning of the year.

“Essentially we had two games scheduled. The first game, Wasilla won a close game. The second game, they claimed it didn’t exist on the schedule,” Janecek said.

Janecek said the early-season game was added to ensure both Palmer and Wasilla would have at least six games that season.

“We couldn’t get another game. We decided to add the game, it would be good for us to play together,” Janecek said.

The 1984 season opened with Wasilla’s come-from-behind win over the Moose. Wasilla quarterback Vic Farris connected with Craig Pell on a 19-yard go-ahead touchdown pass that gave the Warriors the 14-12 win.

The game marked the debut of Wasilla’s first-year head coach Bill Sterns, who came to Wasilla after leading Dimond to the 1983 Alaska state football title.

“The kids were new to me, I was new to them. Great kids. Great day for those kids. Bad, disappointing day for Palmer,” Sterns said recently, recalling that August afternoon in 1984.

Sterns said, for himself, it was a great introduction to the rivalry.

“Palmer was really successful. Both schools detested losing to each other. And I was brand new,” Sterns said. “I felt the energy of the rivalry we had.”

When it came time to play again, Janecek said, Wasilla held strong to its claim that the early-season game was in fact the 1984 meeting between the Warriors and Moose.

“We think the second game was the official conference game,” Janecek said of Palmer’s view of the situation.

The schools then, essentially, agreed to disagree.

“We all agreed, that’s what we’ll do. When we have the trophy, we have our record. When you have the trophy, you have the different count,” Janecek said.

Now the traveling trophy, the Mayor’s Cup, which is awarded to the winner each year, has two separate placards. Each program has its own, with the record it claims, engraved.

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 programs. 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, 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.”

The 38th annual Potato Bowl is scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. at Wasilla High.

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