It hardly seems possible, but it's been 40 years since the last Mount Carmel-Shamokin Thanksgiving Day football game.
In reality, that's as long as the actual Thanksgiving series lasted. The first game between the teams on Thanksgiving was in 1934. Prior to that, Mount Carmel played Mahanoy Area on Thanksgiving, and the Red Tornadoes and Greyhounds hadn't even played each other since 1927.
The game was discontinued on Thanksgiving Day because of plans the Eastern Conference had to expand its postseason to two rounds instead of one. That extra game would take place on Thanksgiving weekend and being that Mount Carmel was the dominant Southern Division team of the time and Shamokin wasn't far behind, the schools' administrations felt there was going to be a likely chance they would be involved in playoffs.
Oddly, the coming of state playoffs in the late 1980s and an even more elaborate system, has not stopped schools such as Easton, the Stroudsburg area schools and District 1 schools, from playing their Thanksgiving games, even in years when they're still involved in playoffs. But sometimes that means playing two games in three days, and that's just not healthy.
That 1973 game was not only the last played on Thanksgiving Day, but it has to be on a short list of the best played.
Beautiful day
That Thanksgiving morning dawned with unseasonably mild temperatures, which hovered around 70 degrees, and gorgeous sunny weather. That was just two years after the game had to be postponed at Kemp Memorial Stadium from Thanksgiving two days to Saturday because of the famous 1971 Thanksgiving blizzard which hit the northeast. It seems that weather, like the bounce of a football, can be all over the place.
Mount Carmel, under head coach Jazz Diminick, came into the game riding a 22-game winning streak and was already assured of playing later for the Eastern Conference title, which it
later won against Dunmore. Shamokin came into the game 8-2 under Tim Montgomery, and although the Indians were already out of the EC title picture, they had a shot to win the Susquehanna Valley Conference 'A' Division title by beating the Red Tornadoes.
As a sidelight, the game was attended by world-famous author James Michener, a Bucks County resident who was doing research for his upcoming book, "Sports In America," which was published in 1976. Michener was a guest of the late Bernie Romanoski. The actual "research" resulted in a page in the book which basically referred to Mount Carmel's program and its use of redshirting players.
If you watch the accompanying online video of the game, provided by Mount Carmel Area sports historian Phil Gergen and taken from Mount Carmel's game film (since transferred to compact disc), the first thing you notice is the crowd. The Mount Carmel side of the stands is full and the end zones and sidelines are packed. Although the camera doesn't show it, the Shamokin side was just as packed. Crowd estimate at the time was 8,000. It's rare to get a crowd half that size for big games now.
"It was jammed," said Keith Jeremiah, who had 10 carries for 89 yards in the game and scored the last Shamokin Thanksgiving touchdown on a 57-yard run. "I don't think they knew for sure it was going to be the last Thanksgiving game yet."
"I always enjoyed the Thanksgiving games, even when I was little," said Dave Gibboney, who played defensive back for Mount Carmel and was involved in the game's biggest play (more on that later). "There was electricity in the air. It was amazing that people would plan their Thanksgiving dinners around the game.
Fumble, fumble, fumble...
The game was tremendously hard hitting. The teams fumbled a combined 13 times (Shamokin 10, Mount Carmel three). Shamokin lost six fumbles and Mount Carmel two. Both coaches cited the hard hitting of the teams for the fumbles as opposed to greasy fingers. The Red Tornadoes took a 14-0 lead on a pair of five-yard runs by Joe Diminick Jr. and his brother, Ken. But Shamokin's defense started to get tough and the Indians were able to move the ball, thanks to some good passing between Ralph Rumberger and Mike Preshlock.
Those two combined for a touchdown pass to cut the lead to 14-7, and Jeremiah then broke loose on his 57-yard touchdown run, carrying Ken Diminick with him into the end zone for the final five yards. Rumberger ran for a two-point conversion, giving Shamokin a 15-14 lead early in the fourth quarter. That was the first time all that season Mount Carmel trailed anyone.
The teams' defenses forced punt exchanges, and Mount Carmel got a 29-yard return from Ken Diminick to the Shamokin 29-yard line, which set up a two-yard plunge by fullback Lou Cole with 1:37 remaining, giving Mount Carmel a 20-15 lead.
The most controversial part was yet to come.
Shamokin got decent field position on the ensuing kickoff. A pass downfield from Rumberger to Preshlock was caught somewhere around the 25-yard line. As Preshlock came down, he either fumbled the ball or it was stripped by Gibboney, who was defending on the play. Mount Carmel was awarded possession and ran the clock out, although some Shamokin fans insist to this day that Preshlock's knee was down on the play and the Indians should have kept possession.
"I don't remember much about that play," Gibboney said by phone from his home in Fort Myers, Fla. "I remember Preshlock was very good. He was taller than us and could jump. He caught a touchdown against me and I think it was the only one I gave up all year. One pass he caught, it was almost like things you see on Sports Center, with both feet in bounds and a defender hanging on him."
"We needed that one drive and Presh caught it, but then I guess he fumbled, although it was kind of controversial," said Jeremiah, of Coal Township. "I know we played that Mount Carmel group - the Diminicks and Coles - four times before that and split (counting junior high and senior high) That was the tiebreaker. They went up 3-2 on us. We were hanging in there and felt confident on that last drive. Our line was playing well."
Jeremiah said he doesn't remember the large amount of fumbles. "I thought it was a pretty clean game," he said.
"Those were cool days. I was best friends with Ken Diminick and I was always over at Jazz's. We went to all the wrestling matches," said Gibboney, who also ran track for the Red Tornadoes. He has been in Florida since 1978 working in a variety of positions.
"I got up to a reunion of the 1972 team last year when I was visiting to see some elderly relatives," he said. "The reunion for the 1973 team was on too short notice for me this year, though."