College Presidents Football Wager Benefits Charity

Two local food pantries -- FISH of Galesburg and the Jamieson Community Center in Monmouth -- are the winners, in a friendly wager between Knox College President Roger Taylor and Monmouth College President Mauri Ditzler, over the Bronze Turkey game, one of the nation's oldest college football rivalries.

Officials from the colleges, with Knox College Vice President Lawrence B. Breitborde subbing for Taylor -- delivered frozen turkeys this week -- 14 to FISH and 12 to the Jamieson Center -- after Monmouth won the annual football game 42-0 on November 7, the 121st meeting of the two colleges in the sixth-oldest college football rivalry in the United States.

Photo above, FISH volunteer Sharon Ferris hands frozen turkeys to Lawrence B. Breitborde, vice president for academic affairs of Knox College, and Mauri Ditzler, president of Monmouth College. Photo right, Breitborde helps unload the delivery.

Monmouth leads the football series 61-50, with 10 ties, since the first game in 1888. It was dubbed the Bronze Turkey game after a turkey trophy was created in 1928. The number of turkeys covered by this year's wager was determined by Taylor and Ditzler with a formula based on each school's current regular season winning streak. The presidents of the schools started the wager in 2001.

The delivery is the second time this month that FISH has received a food donation from Knox. Knox employees collected more than two-dozen boxes and bags for FISH on November 6.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 47 states and 48 countries. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.