Bangor-Brewer’s 100th features past, present

BREWER – The 100th edition of the Bangor-Brewer football game that will be played Friday night at Doyle Field will accent both the past and present of the athletic rivalry between the neighboring schools.

The present will be represented by the battle for the Geaghan Trophy, a tradition started in 1966 after the sudden death earlier that year of former Brewer High School player Timothy Geaghan.

That trophy was awarded annually from 1966 to 1998, the last year before Brewer was reclassified from Class A to Class B.

But now that Brewer has rejoined Bangor in Class A this season, that tradition will be reinstituted, and the Geaghan family also will be represented during the pregame coin toss.

“We wanted to get the Geaghan Trophy presentation going again because a lot of people don’t know what it’s about,” said Brewer athletic administrator Dennis Kiah. “Tim Geaghan wasn’t a star athlete, but he was a person who loved football, and that’s what this rivalry is about.”

Among other activities planned in conjunction with the game, players, coaches and cheerleaders who participated in past Bangor-Brewer football games are invited to take part in pregame ceremonies.

“We’re inviting former participants in the Bangor-Brewer game to come down to the field at 6:45 p.m. and go to their team’s respective end zone,” Kiah said. “They’ll line up according to the decades [they played] and will form a human tunnel on both sides of the field so that the kids playing in the game can run through history.”

In addition, current Bangor and Brewer cheerleaders will toss commemorative mini-footballs to fans on both sides of the field, and special T-shirts recognizing the 100th game in the rivalry will be on sale.

After the game, a slide show featuring photos of past Bangor and Brewer football teams will be projected on the side of the Brewer Auditorium.

“We’ve got a lot of people who have been working in the background, and in the foreground, putting together the slide show,” said Kiah. “Fred Lower has put together information about Bangor back to 1890, and Andy Maxsimic has been working on ours from 1903. The slide show will alternate a Bangor team and a Brewer team for each of the different years all the way up through to the present year.”

Kiah cited the cooperation among officials at both schools as being pivotal to the development of this 100th-game commemoration.

“You really can’t commemorate 100 games without both groups being involved together,” he said. [Bangor athletic administrator] Steve [Vanidestine] and I have worked very hard over the years to make this a rivalry that has a friendly type of atmosphere. You go out, you play a game, the game gets over and you’ve got some memories and then you shake hands.”

Bangor leads the series 71-20-8.