When the Coolidge High Colts won their first Turkey Bowl championship since 1986 last week, the school already shared an important piece of the Thanksgiving tradition’s history.
Days before the Colts’ victory, alumni of the 1969 Turkey Bowl between Coolidge and the McKinley Tech Trainers reunited in front of RFK Stadium, where their historic game was played.
“They were trying to bring the city back together and they were going to do it through the youth,” said Coolidge High alumnus Rev. Dr. Robert Screen.
Seven years before their game, in 1962, St. John’s High played Eastern High at RFK Stadium in front of over 50,000 fans.
The game ended in a riot, putting an end to games at RFK.
In the wake of the 1968 riots, local leaders wanted to bring the city together — so they decided to bring high school football game back to RFK Stadium.
“It was a very volatile year in Washington, D.C. And you have to remember this is the year after Martin Luther King got killed [and] the year after Bobby Kennedy got killed. And then you had the Vietnam War,” Screen said, referring to the year of 1969.
Moving the Turkey Bowl to RFK Stadium in 1969 made headlines. Over 9,000 fans watched as Coolidge beat McKinley Tech 20-2.
“Unfortunately, one team had to lose and one team had to win. I’m outnumbered today and I was outnumbered then,” said McKinley Tech alumnus Hayward Corley.
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Loss or not, the alumni reminisced about playing on the same field as their heroes.
“That was hallowed ground. We were playing in RFK Stadium. I’d never experienced anything like that. And [it] took us a while, I think, as a team to get our feet back on the ground, because, you know, we were playing in RFK Stadium,” said Coolidge High alumnus Carlos Hamlin.
Headlines called the “orderly crowd” a “boost” for the city title game.
“They were taking a big chance and seeing if they could get the young people to do it again, but do it civilly,” Screen said.
“And it worked out,” Corley said.
Fifty-six years later, the Turkey Bowl is still going strong — a legacy the alumni say they’re proud to be a part of.
“I think it’s very, very important and a valid event for the community, but we have to do more to inspire young people to participate in sports, to stay in school and to reach as far as they can go in life,” said 1969 Coolidge High alumnus Lawrence “Larry” Berry.
The Washington Commanders say they hope to bring the Turkey Bowl to the new stadium being built on the old RFK Stadium site.
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