hog bowl
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Years ago, when the Mudhogs started to go their seperate ways in the fall, when the older guys went away to school and the younger guys stayed back home in high school, the group seemed to drift apart a little bit. No longer could you just get together any day of the week and play a game of pickup hockey or basketball. This was in the time before the late fall tournaments were played, and before Any Given Sunday started. This was the time of the inception of the Hog Bowl.
The Hog Bowl is a friendly game of flag football which takes place in the vast greenery of Gallant Gardens. In the beginning, spare shoes, coats and hats were used to mark the endzones and the centre of the field. The Read and Gallant brothers, who were in high school, would spend the week leading up to Thanksgiving preparing the grounds, mostly involving raking the leaves off the field and back towards the swamp. Then, on the Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend, the rest of the guys would come home from University and College, and a group of a dozen or so Mudhogs would converge on the field for the game.
Today, not much has changed. Many of the faces remain the same. Instead of boots and coats, a baseball line machine is used for the sidelines. Instead of the Read's and Gallant's raking the lawn, a blower that Garry rigged up is used. However, the tradition and game has remained true to it's roots. Just a fun day of football where everyone goes home having enjoyed the day, and wakes up to realize that you can't just decide to play football one day a year, and not face pain the following day.