Vikings Football Renews Rivalry with North Brunswick on Thanksgiving

The South Brunswick High School Vikings will suit up for one last time this season when they face their longtime rivals, the North Brunswick High School Raiders Thanksgiving day at .

Under the leadership of Coach Rick Mantz, the Vikings come into the game with a school record-setting 9-1 record, having recorded their only loss of the season last week in the

“Thanksgiving is a special time,” Mantz said. “With it being a home game for us, it’ll be senior day and the kids will be out there with their moms and dads. It’s always a very emotional time.”

North Brunswick finished its regular season with a record of 5-4-0

Although the Vikings came out on top of last year’s Thanksgiving Day game against the Raiders with a score of 27-0, North Brunswick is still the historically favorable team in the matchup, with a 36-year record of 23-11-1 against the Vikings, said Jim Zinsmeister, the unofficial SBHS sports historian.

“Not stellar, not stellar,” Zinsmeister said. “But last year’s game was a 27-0 victory for the Vikings over the Raiders, so I think we’ve turned the corner on the Raiders and I hope I’m correct in that assessment.”

The rivalry between SBHS and NBHS dates back to 1975, with the inception of the North-South trophy, after the creation of the Bicentennial Athletic Conference, Zinsmeister said.

South Brunswick won the trophy that year under the leadership of the late Mike Elko, and finished the season with a total of six wins and three losses.

The trophy was later re-named the Mike Elko Memorial Trophy after the passing of Coach Elko in the Spring of 1977, Zinsmeister said.

John Schwartz, 50, who played offensive and defensive tackle in the ’77, ’78 and '79 seasons, still relives some of the memories he made while playing football.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said, remembering his teammates. “We just had a solid team. It was about friendships and taking care of each other when another guy is down — picking him up. Thirty years later, I remember it like it was yesterday, all the fun we had. There was nothing like that football experience.”

The Vikings had a great season, and they don’t intend on giving up the win Thursday without a fight, Mantz said.                 

“We’re having a heck of a year and we have a great group of seniors, so we’ll see,” he said. "We’ve won the Elko Trophy here the last three out of four [years], and we’re hoping to hang onto it.”

Though his confidence is with the Vikings, Schwartz stressed that there’s more to Thursday’s game than winning or losing.

“Try to enjoy the moment that we so often don’t,” he said. “Remember the friendships and remember the fun of just being together, because you can’t duplicate that experience anywhere. Once football’s over … this band of brothers you’ve created is something you’ll remember for the rest of your life — winning or losing record.”