The Turkey Day Game

Many of us went to or played in the Turkey Day Game. A tradition for many years in Peoria. I can remember going to the games as a kid. The game was played in all types of conditions. Rain, sleet, mud, snow, no matter what...they played. A tradition lost to the big tournaments. A Tin Can Award that traded hands many times over the years between Manual and Central. The series began on Thanksgiving November 25th in 1915 with Central playing Manual at Bradley Polytechnic Field. The series with Manual went until 1973. Woodruff and Spalding played on Turkey Day for 14 years (1939-1952).

Hello PHS Alumni,

Thanksgiving is here and we hope you all have a wonderful time with family and friends. It is definitely a time to break bread, give thanks and remember how lucky we are to live in the USA. Many of you are traveling and we hope you do not have delays or cancellations during your journey. It's been a busy year for us at the PHS Alumni Association. The Athletic Hall of Fame has wrapped up the "Class of 2023" inductees and we hope to have a banquet honoring our outstanding athletes at the school on April 27, 2024. So if you are in the area and want to come honor our new inductees, keep an eye out for ticket details. Lunch will be served and some great stories adding to the sports legacy will be told. We hope you can make it.

To all of you have donated to our Association we appreciate it. We still need your help. We can't operate without funds to administer the scholarships. It takes much effort to get these scholarships to the students who are pursuing an education or vocation after Peoria High School. So please keep considering a donation to the Peoria High School Alumni Association Genral Fund.

You can check this email out on our Facebook page too! We'd love it if you would share this email and like our Facebook page. Hit the "Sign up for email" button below. We appreciate it. Just remember, you will get the email no matter what. If you can spare some change, we appreciate it. If we have made errors in your name or there have been changes in your address, etc, please let the Alumni Office know and we will correct it!

Sincerely

Bill Robertson, Class of '78

President, Peoria High Alumni Association

Be a part of the Annual Appeal today!

This article is about a great PHS Coach and his players who were the first undefeated team in PHS history. Although one tie game with Woodruff..there were no losses! The 1954 football season saw culmination of Coach Juska's efforts to make these players the best they could be on the field and throughout life.

A Turkey Day Tribute

to the

1954 Football Team

and

Coach Tony Juska

In 1951, Coach Tony Juska began his coaching career at Peoria High School. Coach Juska hailed from the Chicago area and he himself was an outstanding player in the Chicago Prep Leagues.

Upon his arrival he was quick to assemble all Peoria High football players and begin what would a call to a winning program. Brock Hessing, who would become the star co-captain of the 1954 team remembers Coach Juska's words.

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Hessing recalls, "1951 was Coach Juska's first year at Peoria High. Prior to his arrival at PHS, the school had won only one game in two years. 1951 was our Freshman year and at the beginning of the first week of practice, Coach Juska call all the players together and told us that working together would return PHS to a winning program. He told us we would win some games in 1951, more in 1952 and 1953. He then told us that when we are Seniors we will go undefeated. he also told us we would have to work harder that we ever thought possible to achieve our goal.

The following article is from Peoria Magazine by the late Robert Sulaski. Robert L. Sulaski is the author of 59 Years of Drumsticks and Pigskins: The History of Peoria’s Thanksgiving Football Games. If you can find it...it is a fantastic book of history!

The Turkey Day Era

The Thanksgiving game marked the end of the high school football season and became an annual reunion for many Peorians.

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BY ROBERT L. SULASKI 

When area families sit down for their Thanksgiving dinner this November, some of the over-60 folks may recall Peoria’s annual Turkey Day football games—which began in 1915 and came to an end in 1973.

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The Beginning

Two years after Manual High School opened in 1909, Manual and Peoria High School (or “Central”) played their first football game. The competition was always very intense, and a major riot erupted in 1914 over a touchdown by Central’s Louie Neumiller, who was the student body president and a future president of Caterpillar.

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The brawl involved both players and spectators, and it took police 30 minutes to restore order. As a result, all athletic competition was declared “over” between the only two public high schools in Peoria. The following year, a “Peace Conference” was called at Peoria City Hall, where it was decided the two schools would resume athletic competition. The first competitive event would be a Thanksgiving football game. And with that, the Turkey Day Era was born. 

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That first Turkey Day game was played in 1915 on the Bradley University campus before a capacity crowd of 5,000 fans. It was reported that the noisy crowd could be heard all over the hilltop. Each year there were a variety of student activities associated with the games, including pep assemblies, bonfires and a Main Street “hobo” parade. The popularity of the event grew even larger when the games moved to the new Peoria Stadium. 

Upcoming Reunions

The Peoria High Alumni Association is here to help. Upcoming reunions can be a busy time. The Association can help provide some of your classmates with information for the reunions. If you have listing of members of your class, the Alumni Association would be honored to take those names and load them into our database so we can reach out to them with school news and updates during the year.

We would like to thank all the classes that got together for this reunion season. If you know of others out there coming up please let the alumni office know what the plans are for your class. We recommend you visit the school for a tour!

Scheduled Reunions 2024:

Distinguished Alumni Nominations

The Distinguished Alumni Committee will start accepting nominations for those Alumni who are deserving of this honor. If you know of a worthy candidate to be nominated as a Distinguished Alumni that graduated from Peoria High School, please submit their name(s) with a detailed write-up. The write-up must have verifiable accomplishments and documentation to help the committee during the screening of possible inductees. The more information the better!

Nominations must be submitted to the Alumni Office. Selections will be made during the Summer of 2024 or before to ensure contact can be made to the inductee. If the individual is deceased, the committee will need family information. The Distinguished Alumni are honored at the "Gold Lion Luncheon" every two years at Peoria High School. The Gold Lion Luncheon is scheduled for October 2024.

Submit a PHS Graduate to be a Distinguished Alumni!

Looking for Current Events and Happenings at PHS?

Check out this link to see the latest for PHS Athletics and events. Be sure to go to the calendar tab and see the entire month. Get the scores and info! Go Lions!

Athletic Hall of Fame Nominations

We would love to hear Alumni stories from your class! If you have a great story to tell about your teachers, experiences, athletics, coaches, love story, etc....please send them to the Alumni Office. We can also post short articles on your reunion. We would love to include them in the Lion's Pride and possibly print them here within our Monthly Emails.

For More Information:

​LaVerne Wilson

Administrator Alumni Office

1615 N. North St.

Peoria IL 61604

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309-682-4854