By GRAHAM JAEHNIG

gjaehnig@mininggazette.com

Since Copper Country high schools began developing athletic programs in the late 19th century, competitive games between local schools and districts has fostered a spirit of school and community pride. This applies to players, students, parents, and the schools’ community. The games also create and foster rivalries, such as that between Hancock and Houghton.

The fierce championship game has become a tradition that began 71 years ago, when the first Copper Bowl game was played at Hancock’s Condon Field on Saturday, Oct. 24, 1953.

Regardless of which U.P. high school teams advance to the state finals, the Copper Bowl is the final game of the season to determine whether the Gremlins or the Bulldogs will be the champion team between the two rival schools. It’s like their own, private division.

The rival game was much friendlier in the championship’s early days. Celebration activities after that first game included a dance party hosted by Mr. Garity’s 8th grade homeroom, while the dance was held in the Houghton school gymnasium. The Gazette reported a record attendance of students of both Hancock and Houghton. The dances attended by both schools don’t happen anymore.

“It was one of the most colorful football games of the year,” the Oct. 26, 1953 edition of the Daily Mining Gazette proclaimed. “Played under ideal conditions, and inspired Houghton team triumphed over their traditional rivals, the Hancock Bulldogs, 26-0.” The Gremlins emerged as the champions – that year. Since then, each team has shared in the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Hancock Superintendent and former Bulldog athletic director Chris Salani has a lifelong relationship with the Copper Bowl. In the 1950s and 60s, his uncle coached the Bulldogs. Salani’s dad and other family members were Bulldogs, as were Chris and his brothers.

“Copper Bowl has always ben that game you look forward to, the proverbial game on the calendar,” Salani told Daily Mining Gazette Sports Editor Daver Karnosky.” “So, having that history, and having my dad coach, growing up in the household and seeing pretty much every game for the better part of 18 years of my life, it certainly brings a different element of intensity, different element of emotion, a different element of pride as well.”

Houghton’s head coach, Micah Stipech, also has a history with the Copper Bowl. Stipech played in the game twice, and he has now coached the Gremlins in the game for the past three seasons.

“It’s something that you look forward to and dream of playing in,” Stipech told Karnosky. “I think it’s one of the great things about a youth sports experience in a small town that you look forward to playing for your high school team and in a rivalry game. The kids on the other side of the bridge are doing the same thing.”

Since the first Copper Bowl in 1953, it has been a Copper Country tradition. The game was played every October for the next 67 years. Then, 2020 happened.

Until then, Hancock led the all-time Copper Bowl series, 42-23-2 (.646). The Bulldogs have outscored the Gremlins 1,328-835 in 67 games — an average of 19.8 points to 12.5. The year 2020 was a strange year for the two teams. Just four days before the game, Houghton’s head coach, Micah Stipech learned that one of his players had tested positive for COVID. The entire team was quarantined for the next 14 days. It was the second time that season Houghton’s players were benched by the pandemic. Just a few weeks before, at the end of September, all schools in the Copper Country Intermediate School District were canceled for two weeks due to a spike in COVID cases.

Strangely,  the 2020 Copper Bowl would have been a rare second meeting in the same season between these two teams this year. On September 25, the Gremlins and Bulldogs played a last-minute game at Hancock. Both teams’ originally scheduled opponents canceled, Sports Writer Eddie O’Neill reported at the time,.

“However, more strangeness ensued as that game ended in a scoreless tie in the third quarter due to a storm front with lightening that moved in over Hancock that night,” O’Neill wrote.

The 2022 Copper Bowl resulted in another win for the Gremlins, when Houghton delivered the Bulldogs a major defeat, at 42-0. The trophy returned to the Houghton trophy case after Hancock had won it the previous year with a 4-1 score.

The 2024 season sees another rare two-meeting contest. On Oct. 15, Houghton defeated Hancock in the first contest with a 38-16 win. The second event will pit Houghton and Hancock against each other on Oct. 25, at the Copper Bowl.

Houghton downed Hancock 38-16, in the first of two planned meetings between the teams this fall. This game served as the official WestPAC league contest. The traditional Copper Bowl game will be played at Hancock Oct. 25. Will that game determine the winner of this year’s Copper Bowl? It certainly adds to the anticipation.

The championship game has see-sawed back and forth for nearly three-quarters of a century now, both the Gremlins and the Bulldogs have shared in victory and defeat, while the Copper Bowl trophy spends at least a year at a time visiting each school’s trophy case.