For Polars and Ptarmigans, it’s all about hometown tradition

By: 
John Mueller, news@newpraguetimes.com

To the uninitiated, they arrived at the park Saturday, Dec. 31, for an hour or two of pushing each other around, throwing a football, blocking, tackling or be tackled – the kind of stuff young men or those competitive enough to still revisit their glory days revel in at the time and second-guess the next morning.

A little crazy? Perhaps. And yet, none of them, it seems, would miss it for the world.

“Why do you do anything. It’s fun and it’s a tradition,” said Eric Steinhoff.

“We do this to keep a tradition alive,” said Zack Dubanoski. “It’s been 63 years since this started and we want to keep it alive.”

The 63rd Annual New Prague SnoBowl football game was played Saturday at Memorial Park. Its origins trace back to Monday, Dec. 26, 1960, the day the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers, 17-13, in the NFL Championship game. Yes, the game was played on a Monday back then, the day after Christmas, a sign the NFL had not yet grown into the dominant enterprise it is today. The SnoBowl game started in 1960 when Alan Vanasek, Bob Komarek, Dennis Henry, Greg Bilek, Mike Sharkey, Rick Vanasek, Doug Dvorak and Dick Jonckowski decided a football game played once a year, during the winter, would be a good idea. Jonckowski remembers it was cold, but not too cold to play.

The annual contest pits the Polars against the Ptarmigans. The Polars have won 32 of the 63 games. The Ptarmigans have won 19 times and there have been a dozen ties.

The Ptarmigans, known as the Rock Ptarmigan in Canada and the UK, the Snow Chicken in the U.S., and as most folks in these parts are no doubt aware, it’s the official bird of the Nunavut, a Canadian territory. There is, no doubt, a colorful story how the chunky little ground-feeder was selected as a name for the team to rival the Polars.

Admiral David Timmons (U.S. Navy retired) is credited with bringing the Ptarmigan to the rivalry. Alan Vanasek said Timmons brought the name back after a year working highway construction in Alaska.

‘A day you wait for’

Kurt Ruehling, a 1987 NPHS graduate and a former SnoBowl participant, brought a bullhorn to play the National Anthem Saturday. “The history of this game is awesome,” he said. “This is a day you wait for. This game has been played longer than the Super Bowl.”

A game where all the participants know one another has inspired highly-spirited post game celebrations over the years. Back in the 1980s, New Prague’s police chief implored the SnoBowl’s organizers to tone down the parade from the park to the downtown establishments, Tom Vanasek said. He played from 1977 through 1990. Apparently, legend has it, parading down the middle of Main Street, through the theater and climbing over parked cars was considered bad form.

The game has come a long way since then. In the early1990s, attendance dipped to as low as 10 or 12 guys a side. Others recall a time when 40 or 50 players per team showed up to play.

This year’s game ended in a draw, the Ptarmigans scoring a second half touchdown to equal the Polars. There was intensity from most of the players as the second half wore on. These young men are still at an age where competitive spirit can be summoned on short notice. A member of the Ptarmigans was explaining a facet of the contest to a newcomer, but just as the Polars intercepted a pass, he bolted from the sideline to try and stop the defender-turned-unintendedballcarrier, not bothering to wait for the appropriate time for the changing of personnel. Earlier, referee Tom Chromy called a holding penalty. Later, Chromy joked it was the first holding penalty called in the last eight years.

These things will happen when the Polars and Ptarmigans reunite each year, most commonly during the Saturday between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

The game is the oldest known continuously played school reunion football game played anywhere in the United States, or at least anywhere they know of. It features former college football players, former New Prague High School football players and former NPHS students. Some of the former collegiate players held off participating, fearing serious injury. NPHS players are not recruited until after their school playing days are in the rearview mirror.

Saturday’s edition of the SnoBowl game was played amidst mild temperatures, a reasonable southern breeze on soft, moist snow, the kind children used to make snowmen and forts before hurling a barrage of snowballs at one another. It’s also the kind of snowpack offering a forgiving landing spot for a 20- or 30-something who ought to know better but somehow isn’t thinking about how his muscles will ache the following day.

Having worked at the newspaper since mid-October, the annual SnoBowl game is one of the traditions of the community and is uniquely New Prague. Attending it was a no-brainer. It was, without question, an absolute delight as were the contestants and folks who helped make the game happen.

We look forward to SnoBowl 64 next December.

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