I am going to say something today that may get me excommunicated from the proud alumni tribe of Baltimore City College. I am going to say that in the 136th annual football game between these two high schools, Poly beat City this year.
And I think this was a good thing.
There, I said it and I’m not ashamed.
I said it because it’s the first time in 13 years that Poly has beaten City in football. The game was played Nov. 1 at Morgan State University, and Poly won 41-36.
In a rivalry that was born when Benjamin Harrison was president, the overall record now shows 67 wins for City, 63 for Poly and six ties.
And I’m glad Poly won after 13 straight losses, because now their kids can sense the joy, and the proudest sense of tradition, that generations of kids from each school have felt in their victorious years in America’s second-oldest public school football rivalry.
I know a little bit about that feeling because I saw a similar miracle happen precisely 65 years ago this Thanksgiving week when City hadn’t beaten Poly for a full decade, and they were considered a likely loser all over again.
On that Thanksgiving Day, in front of 18,000 howling, disbelieving fans at a 33rd Street ballpark called Memorial Stadium, a 15-year-old sophomore named Tom Duley inscribed his name in legend.
With Poly leading and seemingly on its way to another victory with only 22 seconds remaining to play in the first half, Duley stood at City’s 10-yard line, awaiting a Poly kickoff. His head was down in dejection. A referee walked over to him and said, “Keep your head up, son.”
Duley told me that story in 1990, three decades after the runback. It was evergreen in his mind until the day he died. And it remained vivid in the minds of all who were there that day.
He picked his head up and returned the ensuing kickoff a stunning 85 yards, and it sparked a 30-26 City victory.
“I could hear the crowd when I crossed the goal line, and I turned and saw everybody running at me,” Duley remembered. “I didn’t know what to do. Coach [George] Young wouldn’t allow any hot-dogging. So I dropped the ball and walked back to the bench.”
The runback became the touchstone moment of a generation of Baltimore prep football fans. For years, grads of both schools would say simply, “I was there when Duley ran that kickoff back.” No other explanation was necessary.
For years, people who heard Duley’s name would ask him, “Are you the one? City College? The kickoff return?”
Duley lived off Harford Road, in the Hamilton section of the city. After the game, he took a municipal bus home from the ballpark. Late that afternoon, on a corner newsstand, was the day’s final edition of The Evening Sun newspaper.
The front-page headline, stretched across eight columns atop the page, read, “City Upsets Poly; Duley Electrifies Crowd of 18,000.”
The next morning’s Sun newspaper called Duley “a legendary hero.”
That moment was the highlight of his life. He played a little college football at Clemson, but returned to Baltimore and started a family. He had a photo developing business in Bel Air for a bunch of years.
The City-Poly rivalry is one of Baltimore’s great traditions. Some of the particulars have changed. For generations, the game was part of a Thanksgiving Day double-header at the now-vanished Memorial Stadium, Loyola playing Calvert Hall in the morning and City playing Poly in the afternoon.
In Duley’s era, Poly was still down on North Avenue, not Falls Road and Coldspring Lane. City, meanwhile, has now temporarily moved from 33rd Street to the University of Baltimore campus during an anticipated three-year renovation of the legendary “Castle on the Hill.”
Recalling the runback, and City finally beating Poly, Duley said, “I didn’t know what I had done right away. I didn’t understand the significance, the history of it all. … It lifted us up when nobody gave us a chance.”
That’s what those kids from Poly are getting a chance to understand now. They’ll remember this victory for the rest of their lives.
I went to City, but I join many others saying, “Well done, Poly. Enjoy the moment, which will cling to you for the rest of your days.”
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, including “Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore” (Johns Hopkins University Press) and “Michael Olesker’s Baltimore: If You Live Here, You’re Home” (Johns Hopkins University).
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