Sports Watch
THANKSGIVING Day. For years - from 1936 through 1969 to be exact - Thanksgiving not only meant being home with the family to enjoy turkey and the trimmings but also spending the afternoon at the old Honolulu Stadium. Turkey Day games were
the premier eventsIt was time for the traditional Thanksgiving Day doubleheader featuring the four best high football teams in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu. It was the event locally.
Moms kept dinner warm until fathers, sons and daughters came home, elated or disappointed, from the "Turkey Day Games."
"That was our Super Bowl, the highlight of the season," said Arnold Morgado, who played in the last Thanksgiving Day doubleheader in 1969.
"Whether you played in it or watched it, it was a great event, a festive occasion with all the drama and color. Back in those days, there wasn't an empty seat," Morgado said.
Crowds of 22,000 or more jam-packed the old "Termite Palace," located at the corner of South King and Isenberg streets.
Thanksgiving's not the same anymore with the end of the traditional doubleheader, according to Morgado. "A large part of it is that you don't have a Honolulu Stadium anymore. That place set the stage for the emotions."
Morgado played for Punahou back then, returning a kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown in a 20-19 loss to Farrington in the first game, which was the appetizer.
The second game was a playoff for the ILH title as both Kamehameha and St. Louis finished with unbeaten records, having played to a scoreless tie during the regular season.
Led by quarterback Milton Holt, yes the same Milton Holt, the Warriors captured the championship with a 13-6 victory over the Crusaders, who had an outstanding QB of their own in Kaipo Spencer. Starting for the Saints were two other all-stars who went on to play in the National Football League - Gary Campbell and Hal Stringert.
COACHING Kamehameha to the title in the last Turkey Day doubleheader was George Naukana, who also played in two Thanksgiving Day games for Roosevelt High School in 1954-'55.
"To me, Thanksgiving Day was always football. It was always a dream of every kid to play in the Thanksgiving game," said Naukana, who went to the games as a youngster with his dad, an all-star lineman for Kamehameha in the late 1920s.
"Playing and going back to coach in it and winning the championship will be something I'll always treasure," said Naukana, who works with Kamehameha's preschool in Kailua-Kona.
The Turkey doubleheader went the way of the dodo when the original ILH - which was made up of Honolulu's five private and five public schools - broke up the following season because of a rift between the two factions.
Farrington coach Skippa Diaz remembers the rivalries only too well. "Indubitably. I still remember the games I played, as clear as day. We had the opportunity to play the champions and we beat them."
That was in Skippa's sophomore and junior years with the Governors in 1959 and '60, when they beat Punahou and Kamehameha, respectively.
Except for Thanksgiving Day 1936 - when Roosevelt and McKinley met in a single game for the title - doubleheaders were played without interruption through 1969 with the exception of 1963, the year President Kennedy was assassinated.
Even a World War couldn't stop the games. They were held in 1942 through 1945 when Hawaii was under martial law. It was a time of hardship, but the Turkey Day games lifted the community's spirit during literally dark days because of blackouts.
Today, there's still football with our turkey. Television has brought the game into our living rooms. Somehow, it's not the same.