The two suburban schools will have a new traveling trophy awarded to the winning team each year.
Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo and Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner visited high school football practices in their communities this week to give players a look at the Mayor’s Trophy that will go home with the winner of Friday night’s game between the two schools.
The new tradition begins this year in the rivalry between the Houston Mustangs (7-2) and Collierville Dragons (9-0). The trophy has each game in the past between the schools inscribed on the base of the award. The future games scores will be added.
There are any number of rivalry trophies awarded in college football. Memphis and UAB play in the Battle of the Bones. Ole Miss and Mississippi State battle for the Golden Egg. There’s the Secretary’s Trophy to the winner of the annual Army-Navy game, and several Governor’s Cups for in-state rivalries in Kentucky, Kansas and Georgia.
There’s a Milk Can Trophy, an Oil Can Trophy an Old Oaken Bucket and an Old Brass Spittoon.
“Lots of teams at the college level and the high school level, they play for pride or they play for a traveling trophy,” Palazzolo told the team on Monday. “So this year, boys — men — you’ll be playing for the Mayor’s Trophy.”
A few of the Mustangs “oohed,” when Palazzolo pulled the trophy — provided by the Orgill Brothers — out of the box.
Friday night’s game at Houston High in Germantown is the 34th matchup between the schools. Collierville has the all-time edge by three games.
A few other notes about previous games:
Houston is 2-0 against Collierville in the playoffs.
Last year, Houston won 40-7 before capturing the state title.
All three shutouts in the series were by Collierville.
Collierville had a winning streak of six games from 1993-1998.
Collierville has scored 613 points in the all-time series compared to Houston’s 610.
Since Houston won the match last year, the trophy is sitting in its field house. Whether they keep it will depend on Friday night’s result.
“This is yours to keep, yours to defend, and yours not to lose,” Palazzolo said.
For years, the rivalry was known as “classy (Houston) versus trashy (Collierville),” and students dressed accordingly. Recently it was “rebranded” to classy versus crazies, a nod to the Dragon student section, the “Collierville Crazies.”
Joyner, who once played for Collierville High, showed the trophy to the Dragons on Tuesday afternoon. When he played, their big rivalry was against Germantown High.
“There’s still a rivalry when we play Germantown, but it’s nothing like competing with Houston,” he said Tuesday afternoon.
When Houston opened under legacy Shelby County Schools in 1989 it was the second high school in Germantown. Located right on the border between the two suburbs, many of the Houston students resided in Collierville.
“Kids would go to a football game on Friday night playing for different teams and different schools,” Joyner said, “and then they’d have the same Sunday school lesson on Sunday morning.”
When the suburban districts were born some 11 years ago, Germantown High went with Memphis Shelby County Schools, and Houston became the high school for Germantown.
Not only are the two schools playing for the trophy, the region championship and top seed in the playoff also is on the line. The winner will have a home ... Click here to read full article
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