The Turkey Day Game – 30 Years Ago (1987)

You might think scoring the only points in the Turkey Day Game would be reason for ecstasy, but not when you score them against your own team. That’s what happened 30 years ago in 1987.

Both Kirkwood and Webster teams entered the Turkey Day Game with 4-5 records. The winner would break even for the season and the loser would be relegated to something much less than a record of 4-6.

During the game, both teams failed to score with excellent opportunities. In the first quarter, Webster tackled the Kirkwood punter and team captain, Jon Nelson, on the 26 but could not move the ball and failed on a fake field goal attempt. On its second possession, Webster drove to the one-yard line but a goal-line stand by Kirkwood ended in a Jon Nelson interception in the end zone on a second field goal fake.

At the start of the second half, Kirkwood drove the ball 81 yards to the Webster one but quarterback Michael Wise fumbled a snap and Webster recovered. Later, in the fourth quarter, Webster’s team captain Tony Best returned a punt 66 yards but was tracked, chased sideways from right to left, and back right again, and eventually tackled on the four on a herculean effort by Greg Bopp. The Kirkwood defense held and junior Matt Arrandale missed an 18-yard field goal attempt.

Greg Godi was a junior player standing near Kirkwood's first year defensive coach, Sharron Washington, as Bopp came off the field. "After watching that tackle, I remember Washington saying in a cool and even voice, 'Congratulations, you saved the day, my boy.' Until the end of the game, we did not know how close we came to losing it." Tony Best also recalled of that "zig-zag" run from one side of the field, to the other, and back again. "I remember being really tired towards the end of that run. I probably ran, in total, a hundred yards."

Finally, the game came to its last 50 seconds, still scoreless, and seemingly destined for a second overtime match in two years. Webster was on its own four-yard line and on fourth down. Into the game came John Dames, Webster’s long snapper. Dames, a likeable guy, whose father and brother had both played for the Statesmen, went into the game determined to deliver the ball to the team’s punter, Tony Best, to get it a safe distance from the goal.

Dames, who had made no errors as long snapper that season, gave a firm snap back but the ball travelled over Best’s head, who was unable to get a hand on it on a tremendous leap, and back through the end zone causing a two-point safety. The safety forced Webster to kick off to Kirkwood and several downs later the game was decided.

Tony Best recalled, "whoever that was who tackled me, he found me on the field and shook my hand. It was a really cool move on his part." Dale Collier, Kirkwood's head coach who had also been a center, made sure to find Dames. "I told him that the loss was not his fault. Things like that happen in games and as one center to the other, I knew how he felt."

Jack Jones, the consummate coach, had vivid recollection of every play in the game – all, in his mind, bearing equal weight to its outcome. At the end of it, his only thought was to manage a team who had just experienced one of the toughest losses in Turkey Day history. However, the trauma had not ended.

After triumphant Kirkwood players, led by Greg Godi and team captain David Ingle, carried the Frisco Bell up the stairs and out of Lyons Field, everyone went home to enjoy or stew over their Turkey Day dinners. Walt Smallwood, though, received a call from a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It seemed a simple question, "who was your center?" Smallwood answered truthfully – it was Chris Alt. Chris Alt was indeed Webster's regular center but that was not the information being sought.

After Alt's name was published as being the center who caused the safety, Alt's angry grandmother called the paper to set the matter straight. A shaken reporter called Smallwood again for clarification and learned all too well to have your facts straight when reporting on the Turkey Day Game.

This year celebrates the 109th varsity contest between the 119th football teams of both schools. Webster leads the series 54-47-7 but in terms of the Turkey Day Game championship title, Kirkwood leads in those games 40-38-5. This is also the fifth year in a row in which the varsity teams will have presented themselves to the field on Thanksgiving Day. May the Frisco Bell ring for you this Turkey Day!

By Shawn Buchanan Greene
Webster Alumnus 1987