You’ll no longer wait until Week 10 to see your favorite Berks football rivalry game

By Mike Drago Last updated Aug 23, 2022

Gov. Mifflin players hold aloft the Gurski-Linn Trophy after a 42-14 win over Wilson in 2021.

The final week of the regular season in Berks football will look drastically different this season — as will most of the other nine weeks.

With all 14 Berks League teams now playing in the Lancaster-Lebanon League, a lot of new rivalries will be formed and many of the old ones will be disrupted.

The “Frost Bowl,” between Hamburg and Schuylkill Valley, and the Pig Iron Bowl, between Daniel Boone and Exeter, long the season finale for each school, will be played earlier in the season.

So will the “Backyard Brawl,” between Berks Catholic and Wyomissing; the “Battle of the Border,” between Muhlenberg and Reading High; and the Hall of Fame Trophy game, between Fleetwood and Kutztown. Each of those rivalry games had generally been played on the final weekend of the regular season.

No more.

That’s one of the drawbacks of the 13 Berks Football League teams joining what will be a 37-team, five-section league, with alignments bases strictly on enrollment.

TROPHY	RIVALS	INAUGURATED	TROPHY SERIES LEAD*
Pig Iron	Daniel Boone vs. Exeter	1966	Exeter, 37-18-1
Battle of the Border	Muhlenberg vs. Reading High	1974	Tied, 9-9
Frost Bowl	Hamburg vs. Schuylkill Valley	1976	Hamburg, 24-16-1
Keeley-Wolfrum	Berks Catholic vs. Wyomissing	2012	Berks Catholic, 5-3
Gurski-Linn	Gov. Mifflin vs. Wilson	2012	Wilson, 7-3
Hall of Fame	Fleetwood vs. Kutztown	2013	Fleetwood, 7-1

*Includes only games since introduction of the trophy.

The Pig Iron Bowl, initiated by the Lions Club of Amity-Antietam-Birdsboro, has been played since 1966, usually as the final game of the season.

The Pig Iron Trophy represents the iron forged at the Birdsboro steel plant, where many people who lived in the Birdsboro and Reiffton communities worked.

Like most rivalry games it’s the game players from both sides look forward to all season, whether they are winning or not. A victory in that year-ender could save a bad season; a loss could ruin a good season.

Until last season, when Daniel Boone couldn’t play in the Pig Iron Bowl due to a COVID situation, the teams had met in 61 straight seasons — the longest continuous streak in Berks football history.

They’ll renew that rivalry this year but as the season-opener, Aug. 26 at Birdsboro.

The same goes for Fleetwood and Kutztown, who began meeting in the final game of the regular season in 2003 — two years after the Tigers’ debut — and introduced a trophy to their game in 2013.

They, too, will open their season against each other.

Like Exeter, which is in Section 2, and Daniel Boone, which is in Section 3, Fleetwood and Kutztown are no longer playing in the same section. The Tigers will play in Section 3, the Cougars in Section 5. That will make a Week 10 game impossible since the Tigers and the other seven Section 5 schools will be playing league opponents that week.

The Gurski-Linn Trophy, presented to the winner of the annual Gov. Mifflin vs. Wilson game.

For 32 straight seasons, from 1962-93, Gov. Mifflin and Wilson met in the season finale. That tradition began when they were in the Tri-County League and continued after both joined Section 1 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League in 1975.

It was interrupted from 1994-99, first when Mifflin moved to Section 2, due to enrollment, then two years later when Wilson moved down and Mifflin returned to Section 1 due to enrollment shifts.

The Bulldogs and Mustangs resumed their Week 10 games from 2000 to 2003. After Mifflin moved to the Berks League in 2004 the teams began meeting in a season-opener in 2006 and continued for 11 straight seasons.

In more recent years, with the introduction of Zero Week — when teams could drop a scrimmage and start the regular season a week earlier — and then with the late start in 2020 due to COVID, the meeting has bounced around, from Week 2 to Week 1.

This year they’ll play Week 6, at Shillington — and on a Saturday afternoon, another new wrinkle.

It’ll be their first mid-season meeting since 1961 and the first Saturday game in the series since the early 1980s, before Wilson had lights on its home field.

Since 2012 the teams have played for the Gurski-Linn Trophy, named in honor of former coaches John Gurski of Wilson and Ray Linn of Gov. Mifflin.

The teams could conceivably meet in Week 1 at some point in the future, but since each will receive a midseason bye week it will ease scheduling if each has the same bye week and they meet then. Scheduling mid-season non-league games is difficult because most teams are involved in their league schedule.

Wilson’s Cam Jones, left, with his cousin, Nick Singleton, center, and brother Jadyn after last year’s game against Gov. Mifflin.

There are seven teams in both Section 1 and Section 2 (as well as Section 3), so one team will not play a league game each week between Weeks 4-10. In Sections 4 and 5 there are eight teams so each will play a league game every week in Weeks 4-10.

The Frost Bowl first appeared on the final week of the 1976 schedule and remained there through 1991, after which Schuylkill Valley suspended its program for five years. The Hawks and Panthers resumed their Week 10 meetings in 2001 and have met that week every year since.

The game has traditionally been played in conjunction with the King Frost Parade — albeit the name. The parade is always scheduled for the final Saturday of October. This year that’ll be 15 days after the Hawks and Panthers meet in their Week 8 game.

Since each team plays in Section 5 it is conceivable the game could return to Week 10, if Lancaster-Lebanon League administrators approve of it.

The Keeley-Wolfrum Trophy (Wyomissing athletic department photo)

Muhlenberg and Reading High have ended the regular season against each other every year since 2010 when the Battle of the Border Trophy game was re-instituted. That trophy game was initially played from 1974-80.

This year they’ll meet in Week 2 as a non-leaguer. They were Berks League rivals since 2010.

The Red Knights will play in Section 1 and the Muhls in Section 2 for at least this season and next; the league could realign for 2024 due to enrollment shifts.

The game everyone has been waiting to see again is Berks Catholic vs. Wyomissing, who have met in the “Backyard Brawl” since the Saints’ inaugural season, 2011. It’s always been a Week 10 game, has always decided the Berks 2 title and often had a huge bearing on the District 3 playoffs, when both teams were in the same classification.

When Berks Catholic moved to Section 1 for the 2020 season the rivalry was suspended, at Wyomissing’s request.

This year they’ll meet in Week 4 and the game again will be a big one. It’ll be the league opener in Section 4 and the winner will have a leg up on winning the section’s inaugural title.

Since 2012 the teams have played for the Keeley-Wolfrum Trophy, named in honor of the team’s current and long-time head coaches, Rick Keeley of Berks Catholic and Bob Wolfrum of Wyomissing.

Over the last decade it had become Berks’ biggest season-ender, replacing the fervor and passion once generated in the season-ending “Holy War” between Central Catholic and Holy Name, the two schools which formed Berks Catholic.