Passing on Tradition : Families Continue Football Game That Kicked Off in ’78

SANTA CLARITA —  Before digging into a Thanksgiving Day meal and then sinking onto a soft couch to watch television, Tony Dos Santos spent two hours of a bright, windy holiday morning continuing a football game that began 15 years ago.

Dos Santos, 50, is patriarch of an interlocking network of friends and extended families that have played flag football every Thanksgiving morning through heat, cold, wind and rain since 1978.

“In the family spirit, you end up playing together, working together, eating together,” said Dos Santos, standing on the sidelines of the field at Old Orchard Park. “It’s just a lot of fun and exchange of friendship.”

More than just a chance to play football, it has extended into a second generation and is the only time some friends and relatives see one another. Game regulars schedule other holiday plans around the annual event.

There are 11 father-son links among those who regularly participate in the game and six of those pairs played Thursday. This is a chance for old friends and far-flung relations to catch up on the happenings of the past year, including the three weddings, one birth and an engagement since the 1992 game.

Tony Dos Santos Jr., 27, remembers his excitement when he was allowed to play for the first time at age 15 in the Turkey Bowl, as participants call the tradition.

“As a little kid I’d come out, help my dad set up in the morning, guard the beer. Now, I look forward to it all year,” Dos Santos Jr. said. “It’s a fun tradition. There aren’t a lot of these the way there used to be.”

Founding member Andy Stefanak missed the Turkey Bowl on Thursday, but son Jim played for his sixth time.

“I think the neat thing is it gets the sons, the dads, the families out here, which helps instill those family values. I know everyone here has been successful,” said Stefanak, 29, picking out doctors and lawyers among those playing. “This is an extension of that.” The football tradition began in 1978. After five years of playing softball, more than a dozen families whose members belonged to the Bud Boys Softball Club decided to spend Thanksgiving morning playing flag football.

Original members say they are proud to see the game continuing.

“It’s with mixed emotions as we watch these guys. We used to bring them and they would stand on the sidelines,” said Jake Germond, 54, who has missed only two of the 15 football games played to date. “Now, they play and they run like gazelles.”

“When the younger guys play, your heart is in your mouth because you don’t want them to get hurt like you hurt,” Dos Santos said.

There have been several injuries over the years.

A collision on the first play from scrimmage two years ago required a trip to the emergency room for stitches, although both players returned to finish out the second half. Laurence Strauss, principal of William S. Hart High School in Newhall, couldn’t finish last year’s game because of a sprained ankle, but came back Thursday.

“I think it’s the peer pressure that brings us out here,” said Strauss, 56.

The game has become a rite of passage for many family members.

New boyfriends can learn their future in the family depending upon whether they are allowed to play, said Perry Santia, who has played for eight years since marrying into the Stefanak clan.

“You know you’re officially in the family when you get invited to the Turkey Bowl,” Santia said.

A standard set of rules has developed over the years.

Each team has a younger and older squad that alternates every 10 plays. The biggest question is usually what age will be used to determine which squad a player is on. Last year’s dividing number was 30, this year’s age is about 35.

Those on the younger squad admit it will be a strange feeling when they have to move up to the senior squad, leaving the younger players behind.

“That’s going to hurt,” Santia groaned. “What it would probably mean is we have only 30 years to live.”

This year’s game ended with the blue team beating the red team 26-20, on the strength of a goal line stand that held off a late surge by the reds.

Plans have already been made for the game to continue into a third generation.

“We need to rent another field,” said Stefanak. “Soon it’s going to be dads and sons and sons.”

Dos Santos Jr. is already looking forward to when his son, 3-year-old Guido, will be old enough to participate.

“I made a pact with my dad--we’re playing until Guido is playing. So, Dad’s stuck playing for another 13 years.”