Longtime friends, families gather for 50th annual Turkey Bowl

Turkey Bowl co-founder Fred Green hauls in a pass Thursday morning during the 50th annual game.

Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan

What were a bunch of old guys doing playing a football game on the turf of Blackstock Stadium Thursday morning?

Well, they were winning ... then they were losing ... then they were winning again ... and then ...

Does the final score really matter when the most important thing is tradition?

Thursday marked the 50th annual Turkey Bowl, contested each Thanksgiving on the city’s South Side since Nov. 27, 1969.

That was when a group of friends, all of them in their early teens at the time, gathered for a pickup football game on Thanksgiving morning.

Among the originals in attendance this year were Fred Green, Michael Gobert, Kirk Fredrick and Jeff Fontaine.

Others playing in those early games included Richard Hall, Kim Larkin, Bruce Coyner, Mark Jeffries, Karl Clearwaters, David Penturf, Doug Wokoun and Mark Adams, to name a few.

Coyner was a notable character among those early players in that he played the game barefoot.

“I think it started over in Kirk’s neighborhood,” Green recalled. “We called it ‘Fred Field.’”

After a couple of years, someone built a house on Fred Field, so they moved things to the old DePauw University field hockey field, which sat behind the Green and Gobert residences.

“I always thought it was the best back yard in the world,” Green said.

At some point the game moved to Blackstock — or sometimes the football practice field if the Monon Bell Classic had torn up the regulation field too much.

Using DePauw’s facilities was problematic for a while.

“Security used to show up and chase us away,” Green said. “We would just come back later. Eventually, they just gave up.”

Though he’s now retired from the game, Turkey Bowl co-founder Kirk Fredrick throws out the “Ceremonial first interception” prior to Thursday’s 50th annual game.

Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan

Even when they were still kids, the players kept the physicality to a minimum — except in special circumstances.

“It’s always touch football unless it snows,” Green said.

“Or unless there are brothers involved,” Fredrick added.

“Yes, you can tackle your brothers,” Gobert piped up.

That last rule was especially nice for Gobert, whose younger brothers Terry and Shawn soon joined the fray.

Despite their early use as tackling dummies, Terry and Shawn have become Turkey Bowl stalwarts.

While multiple families and their friends have gotten involved over the years, Fredrick really credits the longevity of the tradition to the Goberts and Green.

“Probably if it wasn’t for the Goberts and Fred Green, this would’ve fizzled out a long time ago,” Fredrick said.

The field, which featured as many participants as ever this year, was dotted with three generations of Goberts on Thursday.

“As we got older, we brought in our families,” Michael Gobert said. “And now it’s grandkids.”

This year, that included all three sons of the late Don and Rhema Gobert, 12 of their 13 living grandchildren and all of the great-grandchildren.

Representing the second of three generations of Goberts playing in the game, Nick Gobert eludes a pass rush Thursday morning in Turkey Bowl 50. Among the “old guys” he’s avoiding are uncle Michael Gobert (beard) and dad Terry Gobert (black shirt).

Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan

All told, Turkey Bowl 50 featured 31 players ranging in age from 10 to 63, including a record nine female players. There were also a record 25 fans.

Michael is the one player who has never missed a game in 50 years. Green had another commitment one year while Frederick moved out of state 20 or 25 years ago and hung up his cleats. Terry Gobert, a Hall of Fame baseball coach at Jasper High School, missed in 1987 when he was an assistant coach for the Wildcat football team that was playing in the state finals the following day.

“I’m 44-4,” Terry bragged of his Turkey Bowl record.

Is it true? It’s hard to say. Mythology seems to matter as much as history in this tradition.

The game has always been an unofficial tradition.

“We never publicize it,” Green says. “People just show up at 10 a.m.”

However, this year it became a bit more official, with Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory issuing a proclamation on the matter.

In recognizing the spirit of community, respect for tradition and inclusiveness of the game, Dory wrote, “The spirit of sportsmanship, caring and community, along with a touch of competition, permeates through the gathering of old friends and new.”

Therefore, the mayor proclaimed Nov. 22, 2018 as Turkey Bowl Day in the City of Greencastle.

Participants in Turkey Bowl 50 gather Thursday morning prior to kickoff at Blackstock Stadium. Among those with the most experience in the game are (kneeling) Shawn Gobert, Kirk Fredrick, Fred Green, Michael Gobert and Terry Gobert. Fredrick, Green and Michael Gobert all played in the very first game back in 1969. Michael has played in all 50 games.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

Even DePauw has gotten in on the official recognition, with the players receiving the specific blessing of the athletic department. It’s a far cry from the early days of dodging campus security.

“I do especially want to thank DePauw for allowing us to play on their field for and the mayor for his proclamation,” Green said. “Everyone was very touched by the words from the mayor and all appreciated their original copy provided by the city.”

Even if the game is now on the up-and-up, some of the youthful shenanigans are still baked into the tradition. Following the proclamation, things proceeded with a “Ceremonial First Interception,” which featured a ball that was ‘‘borrowed’’ from DePauw about 55 years ago.

For the ceremony, Fredrick — in his only action of the day — threw a pass for the old guys team that was intercepted by Nick Gobert, Terry’s son, for the young guys.

“They let me do it because I threw so many interceptions back when I was playing,” Fredrick said.

Following the ceremonial part, Green said the “borrowed” ball would go into retirement.

Then it was time to divide up into the over-30 and under-30 crowd. A testament to tradition is that someone born a full 20 years after the founding of the game would still be a member of the old guys team.

One notable person missing from the old guys team in recent years has been Robert Sedlack Jr., who died of ALS in 2015. Green remembers him as “the best athlete to ever play” in the Turkey Bowl.

In Robert’s place this year, though, was his son, Robert “Tres” Sedlack III, in town from Chicago for the holiday.

“His son Tres, a freshman in high school, plays now and shows amazing skills like his father,” Green said.

Chicago is a relatively short trip in the scope of this game. On Thursday, Fredrick was up from Richmond, Ky., while others had made the trek from Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Kansas.

Fredrick recalls 1976, when he came home from college at Ole Miss with one of his fraternity brothers, a Mississippi native, who joined in the fun that year. They woke up on Thanksgiving to find a bit more snow than his guest was used to way down in Dixie.

“We had so much snow that he didn’t know what to do,” Fredrick said with a laugh.

There was even one year when Maj. Casey Dean — a Gobert by way of his mother Linda Gobert Dean — called in a play from an overseas deployment in Afghanistan.

Of course, there are also those who never really left Greencastle and remained part of the tradition. John Hecko, who wasn’t in attendance this year, has also been a mainstay for more than half of the 50 years of the game.

Likewise is Greencastle native Gary Williams, who started playing in the early 1990s and was on the field Thursday, across the line from his children Alexis and Elijah.

In the end, that’s what this game is really about — family, old friends and memories. The young guys may have won six touchdowns to five, but the old guys also may have pulled off a late comeback.

Regardless, in the end hugs were exchanged and everybody was already looking forward to Thanksgiving 2019 and Turkey Bowl 51.

“I come here every year and there are people that I don’t know their names,” Green, who lives in Indianapolis, said. “But I recognize them. You play the game, you hug them and I still don’t know their names.”

Meanwhile at right, a sort of “original six” of the Turkey Bowl, (from left) Shawn Gobert, Terry Gobert, Jeff Fontaine, Fred Green, Michael Gobert and Kirk Fredrick gather at halftime of the 50th annual game Thursday. Fontaine, Green, Michael Gobert and Fredrick all played in the first game in 1969, while Shawn and Terry Gobert each joined soon thereafter and are veterans of more than 40 Turkey Bowls.

Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan