A new Thanksgiving football rivalry

St. Peter’s / St. John’s tradition ends after 95 years 

By Bill Doyle, CFP Correspondent 

St. Paul Diocesan Junior-Senior High School of Worcester and St. Bernard High School of Fitchburg announced plans to begin a Thanksgiving football rivalry next fall. 

“That’s exciting news, no doubt,” St. Bernard’s coach Tom Bingham said. “We’re thrilled to start a new tradition with St. Paul. I think it’s just a natural fit.” 

“We’re excited for the opportunity to start a new tradition,” St. Paul’s coach Mike Donovan said, “playing against a great Catholic school in the area.” 

“I think it’s the best case scenario for St. Paul and St. Bernard,” St. Paul’s athletic director Jim Manzello said, “to play another Catholic school, really a small, urban co-ed Catholic school and it’s hard to find. We’re the last two in Central Mass., obviously. So, for us, there’s really no better Thanksgiving opponent.” 

St. Peter-Marian Junior-Senior Central Catholic High School and Holy Name Junior-Senior Central Catholic High School merged this school year to form St. Paul’s, on the former Holy Name campus. 

Until the merger, St. Peter-Marian had played St. John’s High School of Shrewsbury in the oldest continuous Catholic high school football rivalry in the country. On Thanksgiving Day in 2019, St. John’s defeated St. Peter-Marian, 35-12, at Fitton Field in the 95th and final meeting between the two schools. 

Mr. Donovan, St. Paul’s coach, is a 2006 graduate of St. Bernard’s. He played offensive guard for Coach Bingham and served as an assistant coach for a few years under him before coaching at Fitchburg State University and then at St. Bernard’s. 

“I know the staff there very well,” Mr. Donovan said, “played for them and coached with them and I’m excited to start this rivalry with them.” 

Mr. Bingham and Mr. Donovan will coach against each other for the first time next season. 

“Two Catholic schools playing on Thanksgiving is going to be special,” Mr. Bingham said, “and the relationship between the two coaches will only add to that.” 

The rivalry between St. Paul’s and St. Bernard’s is expected to be much more competitive than the one between St. John’s and St. Peter-Marian. St. John’s won 16 of the final 17 games against the Guardians to finish with a 59-30-6 advantage in the series. In recent years, St. John’s has played in the Catholic Conference against such Eastern Massachusetts schools as Xaverian, Catholic Memorial and St. John’s Prep of Danvers. 

St. Paul’s was scheduled to play St. John’s last Thanksgiving, but the game was cancelled due to the pandemic. 

“It was a relationship and a rivalry that we were very proud to be a part of for more than 90 years,” St. John’s Headmaster Alex Zequeira said. “From my end, there had been a hope that we could do it one more time. It’s like a retirement party. You want to go out celebrating the success we’ve had for nine decades. While I understand from their point of view why they wanted the rivalry and the game to take another direction, I’m saddened by the fact that we couldn’t give it its proper farewell.” 

Mr. Zequeira said he was confident that St. John’s would find another Thanksgiving Day opponent. 

St. Paul’s football season was postponed until February and then Mr. Donovan coached the Knights to a 5-0 record. 

Mr. Bingham has coached St. Bernard’s for 25 years and he led them to Division 8 state championships in 2018 and 2019. His first game as the school’s head coach was against Holy Name. 

The Bernardians played Lunenburg for 20 years and then North Middlesex for four, all on the night before Thanksgiving. The Bernardians attempted to arrange a game against Maynard last Thanksgiving, but the game was canceled due to the pandemic. St. Bernard’s season was also postponed until February and the Bernardians finished 6-0. 

“The Thanksgiving Day games are a really special part of high school football,” Mr. Donovan said. “It’s a big part of what drew me back to coaching at the high school level. Starting this new rivalry against St. Bernard’s, a comparable Catholic school, it gives both alumni bases a chance to come together to watch the start of something great for both schools.” 

In recent years Holy Name played Auburn High on Thanksgiving Day. Previously, Holy Name played Clinton, Wachusett and Milford. 

St. Peter-Marian and Holy Name each had far fewer students than St. John’s, but with 580 students in grades seven through 12, St. Paul’s is much larger than St. Bernard’s. Although enrollment has increased from a little more than 100 students to about 140 this year, Mr. Bingham said St. Bernard’s remains the smallest high school that plays football in the state. 

“It’s clearly a reach game for us,” Mr. Bingham said, “but we’re excited to have the opportunity. I think it’s going to be a real natural rivalry that’s probably going to take on some energy pretty easily.” 

“Both in terms of student experience and the composition and size of both St. Paul’s and St. Bernard’s,” said Michael Clark, St. Paul’s head of school and associate superintendent, “I think this offers an opportunity for two teams to be able to go head-to-head and have a very competitive experience and a very enriching student experience and it also offers an opportunity to bring a very rich tradition of north county football matched up against us here in Worcester. So, on that score, I think it’s win, win, win all the way around.” 

Mr. Manzello said it hasn’t yet been determined which school will host the Thanksgiving Day game next fall and whether the game will be held on Thanksgiving Day or the night before.