A story that deserves to be told

Last year, on a Monday before the 2008 Potato Bowl, I sat in my recliner watching Monday Night Football on ESPN.

It was late in the second half, the game had been all but decided and ESPN’s trio of broadcasters — Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser — were already well into witty banter mode.

With each passing minute and every passing down, the talk became less about the game and more about popular culture and current events.

As I was just getting ready to slip into a fourth-quarter siesta, I heard the words …

Wasilla, Alaska.

“What? Did you hear that?” I asked my wife. What does Wasilla have to do with Monday Night Football?

With it not much more than a month away from Election Day at the time, that shout-out to Wasilla, made by Kornheiser on national television, was obviously in reference to Wasilla High School’s most publicized graduate, former Alaska governor and one-time vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Whether he was bored with the broadcast or enamored with Palin, Kornheiser — a newspaper columnist who has enjoyed late television fame — had a temporary fascination with Wasilla, and its class of ‘82 grad.

“What’s the mascot of Wasilla’s football team?” Kornheiser asked on air.

It was not long before her learned Wasilla was in fact home of the Warriors. And not long after that, Kornheiser professed his desire for a Wasilla High School jacket.

And that gave me an idea.

I need to get that man a jacket!

But, for a price.

Before the final whistle had sounded, I Googled Kornheiser’s name, and tracked down every bit of contact information I could find.

And then I sent ole’ Tony a little note.

I told him who I was and that I had a few connections at Wasilla High School. I’d get him his jacket and maybe even a jersey, but he has to do something for me — mention the Potato Bowl on an upcoming broadcast of Monday Night Football, or his daily sports television talk show, Pardon the Interruption.

I briefly explained the history of the Potato Bowl, then annual event that pits Mat-Su’s biggest football rivals — the Palmer Moose and Wasilla Warriors — against each other each year.

I told Kornheiser of the game’s meager beginnings and its evolution over three decades.

I spoke of present day Potato Bowls, which attract in excess of 2,500 hundred fans, a significant number for communities such as Palmer and Wasilla which have a population of about 8,000 and 10,000 people, respectively, according to a recent census report.

I argued the Potato Bowl is the quintessential high school sporting event that embodies the charm of small-town America.

I never did get a response from Kornheiser, or the producers of either show.

But as I told Kornheiser in the e-mail, the story of the Potato Bowl is one that deserves to be told.

America deserves to hear of the event that spans 30-plus years in a state that’s only 50 years old.

Former Palmer High School activities director Mike Janecek, the man who gave the game its name, once called the Potato Bowl, “the crown jewel of Alaskan sports.”

It’s a game that kicked-off with a humble start.

In 1979, former Palmer head coach Dan Strouse derived the idea of recognizing the annual match-up between the two Valley prep football programs.

Ron Larson, the Mat-Su Borough mayor at the time, purchased a trophy from the Borough office to be the official prize awarded to the victor. That traveling trophy would be called the Mayor’s Cup, and would remain in the possession of the victorious team.

The game initially held the name of the trophy, the Mayor’s Cup. But before long, Janecek dubbed the game, “The Potato Bowl.”

“The game is a part of our culture in the Valley and potatoes are also a part of our culture. When you go down to Four Corners, what do you see? Potatoes,” Janecek told the Frontiersman in 2002. “I mentioned the term to an Anchorage Daily News reporter and it stuck.”

Palmer and Wasilla first met in the battle for the Mayor’s Cup in the fall of 1979. The two teams played on a Friday afternoon at 3, on a field behind the building now known as Palmer Junior Middle School.

The Moose won that first game, posting a slight 7-6 victory. Palmer scored its lone touchdown of the game 12 seconds into play, when Ron Richards took a reverse 80 yards for the score on the game’s opening kickoff.

Brad Hanson, now the offensive coordinator of the Palmer varsity team, kicked what proved to be the game-winning extra point.

That afternoon was the start of rivalry that’s now in its third decade.

And since that first game, there have been shutouts.

There have been blowouts.

There have been games decided on the final play.

The Potato Bowl has given fans a little bit of everything.

And there are the oddities that make the annual event even more appealing.

Both teams claim a one-game difference in the total record for the last 30 Potato Bowls. Palmer boasts a 22-8 mark against Wasilla in the game, while Wasilla claims a 9-21 record against its rival.

An explanation of the discrepancy takes fans back to 1984, the year in which there were two games between the rivals on the schedule.

Wasilla won the first contest 12-8 and Palmer claimed a 6-0 forfeit later that season.

To this date, the programs agree to disagree.

But all agree, the Potato Bowl represents all that we still love about athletics.

It’s the stands that turn into a sea of blue and red.

It’s the fans who circle the sideline.

It’s the Warrior pep band and the Moose Gooser.

It’s football on a fall Friday night.

It’s a story Kornheiser would be lucky to tell.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.