In the 101 seasons of St. Joseph Football, certain games on the schedule are always circled, here's a look at some of the rivalry games for St. Joseph.
"The St. Joe River Rivalry" - "The Twin Cities Rivalry" - "The War by the Harbor Shore"
Believe it or not, but St. Joseph and Benton Harbor played football back in the early 1900's, but the rivalry was dormant until the mid 1980's when Benton Harbor joined the Big 8 Conference and the yearly battle between the two schools would resume. Benton Harbor has now left the SMAC and the rivalry is on hold as the two schools are not scheduled to play in the near future.
The Bears and Vikings have the longest in conference rivalry dating back to the formation of the conference since the 1930's, even though the rivalry between Kalamazoo Central and Battle Creek Central has been played for over 100 years, they were not in the same conference since the 1980's.
Back in the days of the Big 8 Conference, the road to the conference title usally went through St. Joseph or Portage Central, both schools with legendary coaches, Ike Muhlenkamp at St. Joseph and Bob Knight at Portage Central. Some of the battles between the two teams are still talked about today.
"The War By The Shore" - "The Battle of Cleveland Avenue" - "The Game"
Back in 1957
Lakeshore high school opened it's doors after the merger of the
Stevensville and Baroda schools, but it wasn't until 1961 before the
Lancers would meet their neighbors to the north on the football field.
The first game was won by St. Joe by the score of 34-0 and that's the way most of them
went for the next 20 years, St. Joseph won 21 of the first 23
games played including the first 11. Lakeshore's first victory in
the series came in 1972 in a 14-0 win over the Bears.
St. Joe would go on to win the next 6 games by the combined score of
124-31. Lakeshore's second win of the series came in 1979.
St. Joe won the next 4 games in 1980, 81, 82, and 84 (no game was played
in 1983).
Following the Bears 34-0 victory to start the 1984 season, Lakeshore had
enough and asked to have the series be put on hold. So for 4
seasons the Bears and Lancers would not meet on the football field.
During the break in the series St. Joe compiled an amazing 37-6 record
over those years, making three appearances in the playoffs and even
playing in the 1988 MHSAA Championship game in Class B. While St.
Joe went on to great success under Coach Ike Muhlenkamp those 4 years,
Lakeshore compiled a record of 12-23.
Enter coach Denny Dock at Lakeshore and then the series turned 180
degrees and suddenly Lakeshore was the dominant team. When the series resumed
again in the 1989 season, Lakeshore finally
believed that they finally had a team that could contend with St. Joe.
The Lancers would win the 1989 game 14-7, The Bears won the next two
games in 1990 and 1991 (14-7 and 16-7). Lakeshore
won the game in 1992 and was the beginning of what fans refer to as "The
Streak." Lakeshore would go on to win the next 17 games by the
combined score of 534 to 183. The "Streak" ended on
September 28, 2007 when St. Joe beat Lakeshore 21-3 in front of the
largest crowd in school history as over 7,500 people packed into
Dickinson Stadium and watched history. The Bears would meet
Lakeshore again in the 2007 District Championship and the Bears won
again 49-14.
The Bears and Lancers have split their meetings in 2008 and 2009, the
Bears won the regular season meeting at Lakeshore in 2008 but fell in
the playoff game at Dickinson Stadium later that year. Lakeshore
won the regular season game in 2009, but St. Joe won the rematch in the
playoffs, both at Dickinson Stadium.
One of the most memorable games in the St. Joseph/Lakeshore series
was during the 1997 season. On a calm October night St. Joe would
enter the final game of the regular season with an 8-0 record, Lakeshore
entered the game at 6-2. St. Joe finally thought that this would
be the year that the tables would turn once again in the Bears favor.
Dickinson Stadium was filled to capacity on both bleachers, the press
box was full with 3 radio stations covering the game as well as two more
by the ticket booth just to "be there." However the electrical
systems at the aging Dickinson Stadium couldn't handle the demand.
With the Bears leading 28-24 in the 4th quarter the Bears were facing a
3rd down play and had the momentum in their favor in the last 6 minutes
of the game. Before the Bears and Lancers would line up for the
play, the stadium went dark. The lights in the stadium had gone
out as well as the scoreboard, and all of the other electricity in the
stadium. A blown transformer forced the game to be
suspended. As the St. Joseph Fire and Police Departments got
people out of the stadium it was determined that the game would
be completed on Saturday afternoon. Back after the delay, St. Joe
failed to convert on the 3rd down play and Lakeshore went on to score a
late touchdown to secure the win in a game referred to as "The Night The
Lights Went Out."
St. Joe and Lakeshore have met every year since 1989, during the 1999,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2013 seasons, they met twice as the Bears and Lancers faced each
other in the playoffs as well. Thanks to the addition of Lakeshore to the
Big 16 Conference the St. Joe/Lakeshore rivalry will continue for many
years to come.
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