The Thanksgiving Day Turkey Bowl: A tradition like no other

In some circles the sport of football has had a bad year. NFL ratings are in a free fall. Grade schools can’t field teams. Pop Warner leagues are not just looking for players – they need lawyers.

But for anyone planning this sport’s funeral, I’d suggest you take a drive by Lakewood Middle School in Overland Park on Thanksgiving morning, roughly around 10 a.m. When you do, take a glimpse to the west side of the road, on the football field.

On that morning you’ll see 30 kids playing in three simultaneous football games. I’m talking backyard, two- hand touch football. The kind where every player has one goal – to catch a long pass – aka “a bomb,” then outrun his older brother and commence a touchdown celebration that involves hopping on one foot while twirling left, then right, and spiking the ball while someone is capturing all this on their I-phone and then making it “go viral.”

And if you head that way, on the sideline you’ll see a dad grinning broadly. He is the architect of this production — Tim Dolan, who with his wife Jane started this tradition — years ago.

“I grew up watching my dad and his buddies play every Thanksgiving as early as 1964” Dolan told me. “I organized the tradition with my college buddies here in KC at 63rd and Mission starting back in 1981.” And then he met and married Jane, and the kids arrived. Four boys — including twins—in six years.

In the early days, Tim had QB privileges. A couple years later it was a kid operation.

“The boys recruited the players, and they took it over,s he said. Meaning the recruitment effort succeeded without any kid actually speaking to anyone else. It was Groupme, group text, Snapchat, Twitter blast and every other form of communication that did not involve talking. E-mail blast to Dude City: “Fball game tmrw @ 10am, same as lst yr! [insert emoji].

Very quickly Tim noticed the games were becoming highly skilled and fiercely competitive. One year the players included two players from Rockhurst’s state champion team in 2010 – Frank Arbanas, QB and Cooper Kerns, all-metro left tackle, plus a few other players who had ‘game’ — Mike Widrig, Blue Valley North all-conference receiver, Henry Nobrega, Blue Valley North all-conference running back and T.J. Millweard, who later earned a scholarship to KU as a quarterback.

And those Dolan kids? All four made their mark in sports at Blue Valley North – with Danny an all-conference quarterback, and his kid brother Joey, also QB, second team all-metro while the twins Brian and Michael played basketball.

And neither snow nor rain nor heat nor a late night on the town keeps these boys from their anointed hour. One year they played in 6 inches of snow.

The plays are quintessential back yard football. None would be seen in the NFL, which perhaps explains why the league is suffering. The greatest backyard play is, of course, the time honored ‘down and out.’

Now the Commissioner is Danny Dolan, who works in Kansas City at the Grant Thornton accounting firm. “If I had a dollar for every text message I’m getting about this time, “we r still plying the Trky bwl this year, rite?” I’d be able to buy the whole gang a round of beers at O’Dowds the night before.” Which is probably happening in any event.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "The Thanksgiving Day Turkey Bowl: A tradition like no other."