Blair Had to Win the Football Game Just to Tie Peddie

Two schools, one cup, two names, and neither will say the other's first. That tells you most of what you need to know.

On November 4, 2023, the 120th, Blair hosted. Blair won varsity field hockey and boys' soccer. Peddie won both cross-country races. Varsity girls' soccer went to Blair, a JV soccer game ended in a tie, and so on through the day, until, before the last game, the score stood at Blair 4, Peddie 5, one tie. It all came down to football. Only a win would tie the day for Blair. Anything else would be a loss.

The football game was scoreless with under six minutes left. Then Blair scored a rushing touchdown and an interception return, and won 14-0. Final: 5-5-1. Only the sixth tie in the cup's 35-year history.

Win to draw. A whole team playing with everything it had for the right to call it even.

When nobody wins, the cup is shared: six months in Blairstown, the home team that year, then six months in Hightstown. Peddie's student paper, The Peddie News, reported that the football game had been a nail-biter, and that the cup would spend the first half of the year in Blairstown and the second half, it added in parentheses, "in its rightful home" in Hightstown.

The rivalry went on. Blair's preview for 2025 called the opponents the Peddie Falcons, with "Falcons" struck through and replaced with "Chickens." Peddie won that year, 6-4, and its magazine called Blair gracious hosts.

At our house, my wife and I went to rival colleges. When their teams play, we watch together, in separate chairs. Last year the game ended in a tie, and the children, who have no loyalty to either, proposed we share the remote: six months each.

We have been taking turns ever since. Win to draw, then take turns. I know families that run on less.