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Syrup Pitcher Trophy-Vital Part Of SeriesAs a football trophy, the Syrup Pitcher is one of the largest.Win a state championship and the trophy is-not as physically impressive as the gigantic Syrup Pitcher. It may well be more prestigious — but there are those who would argue that point, also.The Thomasville-Cairo rivalry has always been a hot one. It heated up back in the early 20’s when the Bulldogs won several games by fairly wide margins, then Cairo came back to take victory away from Thomasville.Bitterness between the two near-by schools grew so that by 1931 a controversy forced them to halt football games between each other.“It had nothing to do with the athletic departments,” James K. Harper, then coach of the Bulldogs, tells us, “It was an argument between to tw!o administrations concerning the eligibility of players.” Nevertheless, the tw;o schools did not play between 1931 and 1941. When the series resumed, the rivalry immediately heated up again, due to the fact that game was usually played on Thanksgiving Day and many times the winner also came out Region Champions.In 1945, when Coach E.O. Garner’s Bulldogs won the schools’ first State Championship, Thomasville had to play Cairo three times before the Region Title was settled. Many teams w'ere playing nearby schools twice during the season that season, since the War was causing transportation problems.During the regular season Thomasville and Cairo tied the first game and Thomasville won the second, to forced a playoff between the two schools for the Region Crown.Thomasville won that playoff and earned the right to play Cedartown for the State Championship.An interesting footnote on that State Championship: Coach Garner was ill and Cairo’s coach directed the Bulldogs to their victory as Garner watched from a parked car.In 1954. J.B. Roddenbery, Sr. donated the “Syrup Pitcher” to be presented to the winner off the annual clash. It remained in the THS trophy case for the first nine years.Then in 1962, Cairo took the Pitcher for the first time w'ith one of its golden-era, Larry Green-Bill Stanfield teams. Green scored three touchdowms and on K defense grabbed Bulldogs speedster Dicky Thompsonfrom behind to halt a winning TD as Cairo won, 26-21.Cairo kept the trophy until 1965, when Joe Sumrall’s Bulldogs won it back, 14-0, It has been in Thomasville ever since. There have been two tie games between the teams since 1965, but the rules are you have to win it back once you lose it.
Newspaper Details
Thomasville Times Enterprise
Thomasville, Georgia, US
Thu, Sep 13, 1973
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Scott D.
NA, 11 Mar 2025
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