Enumclaw turkey bowl

The Story of the Enumclaw Turkey Bowl

Every tradition has a beginning, and the tradition of the Enumclaw Turkey Bowl is no exception. Little did Jay Fox know that his largest contribution to the community of Enumclaw would be the proximity of his home to a local park as this was the site of the first Turkey Bowl in 1997. However it took more then just Jay Fox’s parent’s mailing address to grow the Turkey Bowl in to what it is today. Under the advisement of Eric Hyatt, Patrick Thomas, and Sam White the 1998 game was moved to Pete’s Pool as it was painfully evident that there was too much intensity for one local park to contain. To say the game was a success would not do it justice, and interest and competition continued to grow. In fact after 1999 the competition really started to grow. In the year 1999 Eric Hyatt, after facing the reality that no matter how many curls you do curls just don’t pay the bills, took a job at a machine shop called Shareway Industries. It was after one of Eric’s profanity laced tirades directed at his boss, for his bosses’ lack of intensity, that Eric was ‘asked’ to take a time out. While steaming outside of his place of employment it is safe to say that Eric had seen better days. He felt low. He felt alone. He didn’t know what, but he knew he needed something. That’s when something caught his eye. To his left in the trash a reflection threw a wink his way. As Eric lifted his hands from his knees and squared his shoulders in the direction of the signal an odd clarity began to settle in. This was his time, this was his place to make the only contribution to the Turkey Bowl bigger then that of Jay Fox’s parents decision on where they chose where to live. He decided to rescue that scrap metal and some of it’s wood brethren and create what is now known as “The Trophy”. Since first awarded in the game of it’s birth in 1999 the guidelines (we can’t call them rules as The Trophy can not be ruled by any man) have been firm. At the conclusion of Turkey Bowl Play the Committee of Fathers chooses an MVP. The Trophy goes home with the MVP to be returned to the field of play one year later where the willing compete for the right to host The Trophy for the next year to come.

The Turkey Bowl was grown over the years and has even absorbed players from other annual games as the other games have died. The Trailer Bowl was a briefly popular game which was last played in 1998. Pat Birkeland and Jeremiah Mills first played in the Turkey Bowl after in 2004 playing in the Les Schwab – Texaco Thanksgiving game. Pat and Jeremiah had been brought in as ‘ringers’ by Eric Johnson for the Texaco team to counter Dan Andrew and Nate Peterson being brought in as ‘ringers’ by Les Schwab in the now banned Les Schwab – Texaco Thanksgiving game (the game was actually banned as too many employees were getting hurt and missing work which means the game is worth mentioning here). Today the Turkey Bowl is the longest running annual football game in Enumclaw and is showing no signs of slowing down. The game continues to be played at Pete’s Pool Thanksgiving morning at 8:00AM as the tradition continues.

MVPs

1999 - Joey Smith
2000 - Ryan Dacy
2001 - Joey Smith
2002 - James Kline
2003 - Travis Weigal
2004 - Eric Hyatt
2005 - Jeremiah Mills
2006 - Sam White
2007 - Pat Thomas
2008 - ???

Notable Injuries

1998 – Tom Noser – Separated shoulder
2001 – Eric Hyatt – Bit through bottom lip
2002 – Eric Hyatt broke Kyle’s nose
2004 – Sam White – concussion
2005 – Pat Birkeland – ripped the sh*t out of his ankle
2006 – Taff separated his shoulder

Game Specific Rules

The Pat Thomas Rule: No blocking at the knees while your opponent is running like dirty quarterbacks do.
The Taff Rule: No putting your shoulder into totally defenseless receivers. If you violate this rule your shoulder will separate next year, ask Taff.

Additional Info

We are working on a dedicated website for the Enumclaw Turkey Bowl so if anyone has any pictures from past games please eMail them to [e-mail].

References

[Eric Hyatt] [Patrick Thomas] [Sam White] [Pat Birkeland]

-- () 23:20, 7 October 2008 (UTC)