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Nothing is a better combination than Thanksgiving and football. The NFL has a long tradition of holding more Thursday games in order to give its fans a full slate of gam0s, but it's not restricted to professional football alone.
In 2021, one of the biggest events in Maryland football (that has been around for over 100 years) returned. The Turkey Bowl put the #16 Loyola Blakefield Dons and the #7 Calvert Hall Cardinals head-to-head. The Blakefield Dons won a close 41-35 contest.
Loyola pulled the upset with just nine seconds remaining when the team scored the game-winning touchdown with a catch by Noah Bull. Coming into the game, Calvert Hill had a three-game winning streak, while Loyola lost a 14-3 low scoring contest.
The Turkey Bowl: an age-old tradition
The Turkey Bowl is one of the most traditional high school football games in Baltimore, and its history goes back to the start of the last century.
The two schools were close to each other in the 1920s and the 1930s, but neither one had a field to play back then. The first game between the two teams was stopped at a 0-0 scoreline with just three minutes remaining because of darkness.
There have been 101 Turkey Bowl games between Loyola and Calvert Hall. With that win, Loyola now have 50 wins and 43 losses. There have also been eight ties between the two teams.
Because of how close these two schools were, with only a mile separating them, the rivalry and the banter were always present. The biggest win ever happened in 1922, when Loyola won 47-0 against Calvert Hall.
The game has become a Baltimore tradition. It is believed that this is the oldest continuous series between Catholic high school football teams in the United States. In 2019, former Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome presented Calvert Hall with centennial special jerseys for the game.
These days the game is held at the Johnny Unitas Stadium, although it was previously disputed at the M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens. The Turkey Bowl is the biggest Thanksgiving football event in the state of Maryland, even if it's just a high school football game.
