The first Swine Bowl took place in 1954 when a group of Westchester teenagers decided late one autumn to play a game mocking high school football. They’ve had so much fun over the years that even after going their separate ways to college they felt a need to reassemble on the Saturday after Thanksgiving every year since
The inception of the name of the contest is not clear, which makes sense because either are the rules. The one overwhelming imperative is that everyone has a good time, and if yesterday’s game is any indication this dictum was followed with relentless enthusiasm.
The game now draws third generation family members of the original participants, and some of the originators of the game return annually and one, Richard Greeman, makes it to the game from the south of France, where he lives in retirement.
“Most of the originals show up every year,” said Dan Breslaw, one of those originals. He lives in West Corinth, Vt., and says that the only games he missed were during the six years he lived in Alaska. “I could never have predicted when we started that we’d be doing this at the age of 70,” he said.
Thanks to Clyde Haberman of the Times for source material for this article
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Hi–just saw this while googling swine bowl web site. I’m one of the originals. Very nice little piece–thanks. Since Central Park is your focus, I wonder if it would be of interest to you to know that the Swine Bowl has been battling the Central Park Conservancy, ever since the latter’s de-facto privatization of the Park, for many years, over such issues as game location (we were booted out of our traditional site on the Great Lawn) and policy regarding banners and displays. The battles have taken place both on the field and through correspondence of various kinds. It raises, at least in my mind, some serious issues concerning the Park and its proper use. I can send you some materials if you give me your e-mail address.