A growing rivalry celebrates a watershed event today -- the 50th meeting of their pride-and-joy varsity football teams.
![Gallery preview]()
Related coverage
The 50th meeting
What: No. 1 St. Ignatius vs. No. 2 St. Edward.
When: 7 p.m. tonight.
Where: Byers Field, Parma.
Tickets: Game is sold out.
TV: SportsTime Ohio.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — It is said of a certain local breed of sports fans that their sun rises on West 30th Street in Cleveland and sets 100 blocks west in Lakewood.
In other words, their world revolves around St. Ignatius and St. Edward, and all that happens between them is universally important.
It's a world outsiders have a difficult time comprehending, one that anthropologists one day, centuries from now, might stumble upon and wonder: "What was all the fuss? They're the same people."
And therein lies the nexus to a growing rivalry that celebrates a watershed event today -- the 50th meeting of their pride-and-joy varsity football teams.
As much as they might hate to admit it, St. Edward and St. Ignatius have more in common than not. Both are West Side, all-boys Catholic schools with strong records of academics, community service and athletic prowess. St. Edward has won 44 Ohio High School Athletic Association state championships in six sports (27 in wrestling), and St. Ignatius has won 27 OHSAA titles in nine sports (11 in football).
"Our No. 1 enemy and our best friend is St. Ignatius, and the same thing is true of St. Ed's to St. Ignatius," said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, a former St. Edward football player who sits on the school's board of trustees.
Students frequently grow up in the same neighborhoods and attend the same grade schools and churches before choosing different sides of the great divide.
Many rival alumni wind up college teammates, or working side by side, or related after standing shoulder to shoulder in one of their sisters' weddings.
"Happens all the time. There's way too much cross-breeding," joked St. Edward alum Dan Coughlin.
This is the week they go back to their original horizons and don the old colors, blue for the "Iggy" Wildcats and green for the "Eds" Eagles. This week in particular is a peak moment in a rivalry that began in 1952.
Tickets for today's 7 p.m. game at Byers Field in Parma sold out a few hours after they went on sale Monday morning because rarely have the teams been so evenly matched and so highly touted.
Defending state champion St. Ignatius is ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press state Division I poll and Plain Dealer top 25.
St. Edward, the 2010 state champ, is No. 2 in both polls.
St. Edward is first and St. Ignatius second in the Region 1 computer poll that's used to determine the playoff field, with both teams having already clinched berths.
Both teams head into the regular-season finale with 9-0 records, and both in the past two weeks beat 2007 state champ Cincinnati St. Xavier by 11 points.
Adding to the anticipation are fresh memories of two classic games between them last year. St. Ignatius won both by identical 20-17 scores, first in Week 10, and again two weeks later in the playoffs.
St. Ignatius has won the rivalry 27 times, and St. Edward 21 times, with one tie.
There's more.
The one man who has had more impact on the rivalry is at the same time personally conflicted by its significance, and now finds himself reluctantly in the spotlight because he is on the verge of a great achievement.
St. Ignatius coach Chuck "Chico" Kyle has 299 career victories.
To the St. Ignatius fan, what could be more delicious than for Kyle to win No. 300 against St. Edward? He owns a 21-9-1 career record against the Eagles, who have had six coaches since Kyle took over at his alma mater in 1983.
Tucked in his cluttered office Monday afternoon, after a morning of teaching English literature, Kyle shrugged his shoulders and cringed at the mention of St. Edward as a rival for his school or for him personally. Nowhere to be found is a calendar or clock that counts down to the St. Edward kickoff.
"I'm not a rivalry guy," he said. "I don't use the word. Saying this is our big rival? I don't do that. The closest I come is [saying to the players], 'There's a lot of people who care about this game, and it's kind of special to alumni and some of your fellow students.'
"If I would ever say, philosophically, 'Who's our rival?' I would say the team you're trying to play in the state championship game. I don't know who it is, but that's the team I want to beat. That's our rival. That's the one who makes us tick."
As for winning No. 300, Kyle simply said, "I'd rather celebrate No. 305," a reference to winning this year's state final.
In the big picture, this big game is not the big game. Regardless of tonight's outcome, both teams begin practice for the playoffs Monday and the possibility they could face each other again in two or three weeks.
Kyle said this will not be his St. Edward swan song. He has no plans to retire. He turns 62 on Thanksgiving Day.
Big rivalry, bar none
While Kyle and St. Edward coach Rick Finotti try to temper the rivalry's emphasis among their players, that's a lost cause among a fiercely loyal fan base.
"Once they graduate, they love this place forever," Finotti said.
What this rivalry has over Ohio State-Michigan, where the blood boils in anticipation 364 days a year, is players from those colleges might never see each other again. Typical St. Edward and St. Ignatius grads will encounter each other daily, working in a courtroom after passing the bar exam, or just in the corner bar.
Asked how often he sees a St. Ignatius lawyer, McGinty responded with mock indignation, "Almost every day." McGinty is quick to point out that, by his count, the Eagles have more judges among their alumni, not to mention Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath and Commander Keith Sulzer, whose second district encompasses St. Ignatius.
Cleveland City Council President Martin Sweeney, a former St. Ignatius basketball player, counters by saying the Wildcats hold a 3-2 lead in council members.
McGinty and Sweeney are all-in during rivalry week. McGinty joked this is the week he puts all the Wildcats in jail and lets the Eagles out on bail. Sweeney bragged he has persuaded five St. Edward grads, including McGinty, to bet him $1 and give him points, even though St. Ignatius is ranked ahead of the Eagles.
"That reflects in my opinion either their intelligence or their confidence," Sweeney cracked.
As for the other kind of bar, a joint called Eddy & Iggy's in Lakewood takes the rivalry to a different level. The neighborhood pub on Detroit Avenue west of St. Edward celebrates the rivalry with its name and its motif. Jerseys and banners from both schools decorate the walls, as does a tote board of state titles won by each school.
Co-owners and St. Ignatius grads Tim and Tom Corrigan approached the schools about establishing a special relationship, but were told, in effect, it was inappropriate and they could not show favoritism to one establishment.
"One of them said, 'Do you know how many bars are owned by our alumni?' " Tim Corrigan said.
Two of Eddy & Iggy's homemade microbrews are called Eagle Ale and Wildcat Lager, and during rivalry week, Corrigan keeps a running tally of which beer sells more. Last year, Eagle Ale won by a wide margin. Bartender Nate Rychlik, a former St. Edward football player, said there has yet to be a fight in the bar between rival alumni, but there is plenty of shouting on game days.
One of the regulars is Sweeney, who in 2010 boldly watched the St. Edward state championship game on TV at the bar while wearing his St. Ignatius gear. "Among the alumni, it's a rivalry like no other," he said.
It isn't just the old folks and current students who get swept up in the rivalry. Behind the scenes, there is constant competition for the next wave of stars as coaches try to persuade many of the same eighth-graders to choose their school. The rivalry was ever-present at CYO eighth-grade games last Sunday.
"You could just feel it in the air," said Finotti. "They're already drawing the line and wearing team colors, establishing themselves this week."
St. Edward President Jim Kubacki, a former St. Ignatius quarterback, remembers those days. His best friend growing up in Westlake, Paul DelVecchio, became a St. Edward linebacker who pounded Kubacki in their 1971 game.
"The first time he tackled me, he said, 'See you after the game,' " Kubacki said. "We're still friends. We were in each other's weddings, and we go out every week."
Bad blood
There are older and more storied rivalries in Ohio. St. Edward-St. Ignatius pales in comparative longevity and history to Piqua-Troy, which played Friday for the 128th time since 1899, and Massillon-Canton McKinley, which meet today for the 122nd time since 1894.
Rivalries come and go. Friday saw the final Berea-Midpark game because the sister schools will merge next year, just as Lorain Admiral King and Southview did two years ago. Before St. Ignatius-St. Edward became a big deal, they had other rivalries -- St. Edward with St. Joseph, and St. Ignatius with Cathedral Latin.
This rivalry wasn't destined, and didn't get off to a very good start. Beginning in 1952, St. Ignatius won five of the first six games, and the series abruptly stopped. Stories differ on the reasons, but the consensus appears to be the result of bad blood either between the students, administrators or both.
A generation passed until no one could really remember why they didn't play, so they resumed in 1971, and St. Edward reigned, winning 13 of the next 15 years with one tie. That took them to the Chuck Kyle era, and the Wildcats have had the upper hand since. Several of those games have been of the "last man standing" variety, and went to the team with the better kicker.
The best-remembered is a triple-overtime, 35-34 St. Ignatius win that came down to a St. Edward missed extra point in 1993. St. Edward won on an overtime field goal in 1996 and again in a wild, 44-41 overtime game in 2001.
Just as memorable as the scores have been the electric atmosphere inside packed Lakewood Stadium, which is St. Edward's home field, and Byers Field, where St. Ignatius plays. St. Edward home games are particularly festive because the neighborhood bars fill up before and after the game, and traffic has been known to grind to a halt around the stadium while folks stop to watch.
The rivalry has its dark side. The jealousy and vitriol between fans can be extreme.
"The parents take it more seriously than their kids do sometimes," McGinty said. "The kids take it lightly in a way. They give it 100 percent, but it's not the end of the world if they lose. But some of the parents are ready to head to the bridge if they don't win."
Kubacki called rivalry week one of his least favorite because so many fail to grasp that it's just a high school football game.
"There are a lot of emotions flying around this week," he said. "Some are perfectly acceptable and some aren't."
Coming together
Like many Catholic school rivalries, St. Ignatius and St. Edward for years promoted the unfortunate nickname "Holy War," and the schools now are working to distance themselves from that label and attitude. Today's winner will receive a newly created Safety Forces Trophy to honor the many graduates of both schools working in public safety. It's an antique street corner fire department call box, painted red with the 49 scores to date painted in blue and green.
Student council members from both schools met recently to find common ways to serve the community and will take donations at the game for the Bluecoats Fund benefiting families of fallen police officers. Also for the first time, fans from both schools are invited to a joint pregame service at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Parma. St. Ignatius President the Rev. William Murphy will celebrate the Mass, and Kubacki will offer a communion reflection. Students from both schools will serve as lectors and altar servers.
"We hope it lets people remember what unites us and try to use that for the greater good, and let the game be the game," Kubacki said.
After which, they will head to opposite sides of Byers Field and continue the rivalry that has become a spicy slice of life in Greater Cleveland.
"It really is all that is good about high school athletics," said former St. Ignatius and NFL quarterback Oliver Luck, now the athletic director at West Virginia University. "There's great players and, by and large, really good kids.
"It's a big event in Cleveland and puts 10 to 15 thousand people in the stands. That, to me, was fun, and it's still good, old-fashioned, wholesome entertainment."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: twarsinskey@plaind.com, 216-999-4661
On Twitter: @TimsTakePD
Live audio controls: Pre-game is Friday at 12:30 p.m., kickoff at 1 p.m., post-game immediately at end of fourth quarter
Live chat: Log in to chat with the broadcast team and other fans
