Rivalries defined by memories

To have a true rivalry, the saying goes, both participants must achieve a reasonably equal level of success – and as often as possible at each other’s expense.

It’s a saying that surely roils citizens of Red Sox Nation when thrown in their faces by New York Yankees fans, who offer up the comparative number of World Series won by each team as sufficient evidence to suggest that such a rivalry is beneath the Bronx Bombers and beyond the reach of the Olde Towne Team.

Of course, those who live within the Nation but place their allegiances elsewhere, those who can best serve as unbiased arbiters of such matters, surely see the reality of the rivalry between the franchises and their fan bases as something that transcends the American League East standings or world championships.

Something similar can be said about the high school football rivalry between Bangor and Brewer, who will meet for the 100th time since their first official encounter in 1903 tonight at Doyle Field in Brewer.

Bangor has won more than 70 percent of the previous meetings. The Rams have not lost to the Witches since 1991 and have lost just once in the last 30 years.

The rivalry hasn’t even existed in nearly a decade, since Brewer dropped from Class A to Class B after the 1998 season.

Now Brewer has rejoined Bangor in the Class A ranks, but the programs remain in vastly different places.

Bangor has been ranked as the largest school in the state by enrollment, while Brewer is one of the smallest schools in Class A.

Bangor is a perennial contender for the Eastern Maine and state championships, and this year brings a 6-1 record into this year’s regular-season finale against the Witches.

Brewer, though just two years removed from a Class B state title that rekindled thoughts about how that team would fare against the big boys – particularly the big boys from across the Penobscot River – is in a rebuilding mode. The team is young, and while improvement has been evident since the start of the season, the Witches still are in search of their first victory.

The chances of that victory coming Friday night are remote, but that reality should in no way diminish the special nature of this rivalry, which really transcends whatever happens on a football field on a given autumn evening.

These teams represent their communities, and being such close neighbors they represent the emotions of the communities toward each other. Those emotions are competitive, to be sure, but rarely hostile.

These players represent their relatives, relatives who have their own recollections of their schools and the rivalries that existed generations earlier. And those family allegiances often have blurred over the years, with brothers and sisters, sons and daughters moving from one side of the river to the other – and ultimately sending their kids to the “dark side.”

On the field, these teams represent not only the present but also their football pasts. Each has its glory days to look back upon, Brewer its 2005 title and its legendary teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Bangor its nine-year run from 1973 to 1981 when it won four state championships, as well as its most recent title run in 2001.

Former players and coaches from both schools have a multitude of memories that are rediscovered with each renewal of the game, as do their fans.

And new memories will be made tonight, no matter the outcome. That’s what a rivalry is all about.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net