When East Met West and a High School Rivalry Ruled Green Bay

In Late November 1925, football fever swept Green Bay. Red banners, representing Green Bay East High School, and purple-and-white banners, hung in honor of Green Bay West High School, festooned the city’s store windows. Spirit calls echoed on either side of the Fox River, which cut through the downtown district, and according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the city took on the “aspects of a great carnival.”¹ On the eve of the annual rivalry game between Green Bay East and Green Bay West high schools, the city simply went “football crazy.”² On Thanksgiving Day, the undefeated East High Red Devils (commonly called the “Hilltoppers”) would meet the rival—and also undefeated—West High Wildcats (also nicknamed the “Purple and White”) at the newly opened City Stadium. The winner would claim not only citywide bragging rights but the Fox River Valley Conference title.

For two weeks, the game dominated discussions throughout the city. A capacity crowd of nearly 7,000 fans—higher than the average number at Green Bay Packers games, also played at City Stadium—was expected to witness the clash, and the Press-Gazette described the game as the “biggest and most bitterly fought” of the schools’ twenty-year-old rivalry. This was due in part to the parity between the two squads, which had a nearly even series record (East had won eleven games to West’s eight). East had dominated the rivalry since 1916, when it snapped West’s winning streak with an outstanding performance from Earl “Curly” Lambeau. (Lambeau would, of course, go on to found the Green Bay Packers, the state’s first professional team and one of the oldest franchises in football today.)³

In the days before the game, reporters covered every angle, from pep parades to roster news and previews. They stressed the game’s importance for the two high schools, noting how the quality of the two teams reflected well on Green Bay: “To make two championship teams is a tribute not only to the coaches of both schools but to the fine spirit of the student bodies of both institutions.”⁴ An editorial in the newspaper described the game as a worthy “test” of the two teams’ talent, and a way to decide “fairly” which Green Bay high school team was superior. It was a fitting end to a season that demonstrated the depth of the city’s football talent.⁵

Before radio and television, football was fundamentally a local sport, serving as a powerful source of community identity and pride. The strongest bonds were often to a city’s high school teams, especially when professional football had yet to prove its staying power. The sport transformed in the late nineteenth century from an extracurricular activity on college campuses to a public event, aided in no small part by newspaper coverage. In the early years of the sport, most Americans discovered football in the newspaper. Articles often employed narratives that reflected on success more broadly in the United States; in communities across the country, high school football offered youths, in the words of sports historian