Location: 10 AM, Victory Park, Slatington
Final Score: Palmerton 40 - Slatington 0
Weather: The weather forecast that morning called for “mostly cloudy” with a high temperature around 40 degrees.
Coaches: Fred Maass (1910-1994) for Slatington and Willard Wilhelm (1906-1981) for Palmerton
1939 Slatington High School football team from the 1940 yearbook
Going into the 1939 Thanksgiving Day game, the fortunes of the Palmerton and Slatington squads were quite different. Palmerton’s record was 4-4. That was pretty good considering the fact that Palmerton played no home games as the Delaware Avenue field was being reconstructed and not available for games. Slatington’s record was a not so impressive 1-7.
Palmerton’s schedule
Palmerton 6 – Summit Hill 19 (23 September)
Palmerton 7 – Whitehall 0 (30 September)
Palmerton 0 – Stroudsburg (6 October)
Palmerton 19 – Catasauqua 13 (14 October)
Palmerton 0 - Northampton 13 (28 October)
Palmerton 19 – Wilson 12 (4 November)
Palmerton 0 - Emmaus 26 (11 November)
Palmerton 31 – Lehighton 6 (18 November)
Slatington’s schedule
Slatington 0 - Stroudsburg 8 (22 September)
Slatington 6 - Lehighton 7 (7 October)
Emmaus 33 - Slatington 7 (14 October)
Slatington 7 - Northampton 26 (21 October)
Catasauqua 34 - Slatington 6 (28 October)
Slatington 20 - Whitehall 14 (4 November)
Stroudsburg 20 - Slatington 13 (11 November)
Slatington 0 - Coplay 19 (18 November)
In the Lehigh Valley League, going into the last game of the season, Slatington was in last place (Whitehall, Lehighton and Slatington all with one win); Palmerton at 3-3 was in fifth place.
1939 Palmerton High School football team from the 1940 yearbook
The Start of the Season
For the first time, interested Slatington football players were asked to report to Smith Hall on Tuesday, 29 August, at 1 o’clock. Some equipment was distributed, and some calisthenics and “hardening exercises” were carried out. That was the week before school actually opened, and so we might consider this as the first time that summer football practices occurred.
Up at Palmerton, the team also reported for practice on Tuesday the 29th, and by the end of the week two-a-days (morning and afternoon) practices were scheduled for Thursday the 31st and Friday the 1st. Coach Wilhelm stated that forty-eight boys had reported for drills with an additional twenty expected to turn up after Labor Day.
Slatington’s first game of the season (a game that Slatington would not win) was at Stroudsburg, on Friday evening, 22 September. Stroudsburg was the only league high school that had lights on their football field.
For Palmerton, the season was especially challenging as the Delaware Avenue field was being rebuilt as part of WPA project, and the team had to play all of its games on the road, as well as practice at a more distant practice field.
The Week before the Big Game
In the days before the big game in Slatington, “Pep meetings, Pep talks [were] going on all week throughout the student body with the big pep meeting held Wednesday.”
The Slatington band had also been practicing. At the game before Thanksgiving the band, under the direction of Edgar Acker, had unveiled some surprise drill formations. On Thanksgiving Day itself, the band was scheduled to perform before the game started. “The SHS band will salute the Palmerton visitors and their Blue Bomber team with a bomb formation which will suddenly burst and form the capital letter P.”
In Palmerton, the banquet for the football team, sponsored by the Palmerton Athletic Dinner Club, was held on Monday evening at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church with more than 100 in attendance. The principal speaker was George McGaughey, head line coach of Lafayette. Coach Wilhelm congratulated the team “pointing out the terrific handicap under which they have been operating” with the distant practice field and all away games. Coach Wilhelm refused to make any prediction, because “he felt that Slatington was gunning for the Zinc borough squad.”
The game
The final score of 40-0 pretty much tells how the game went in this fifth annual classic held at Victory Park before about 2,000 fans. Despite Slatington’s pregame hopes, “This was a heart-breaker for the local fans as everyone was looking forward to witness one of the closest contested games of the season.” That was not to be.
The Morning Call headline read:
“Palmerton Tans Slatington High Eleven, 40-0
Wysocky Scores Three Times as Blue Bombers Go on Rampage“
The paper’s game summary began: “The up-river classic, proved to be a one-sided affair, the Zinc town squad gaining ground at will either by line plunges or through the air.”
“At the end of the first half the more than 2000 fans who watched the contest settled down to see just how many points Palmerton would actually garner against an apparently demoralized team.”
Palmerton rolled up 15 first downs to Slatington’s 3, and Palmerton’s Joe Wisocky, who was the real star of the game, scored three times.
“The activities began early in the first quarter when Slatington kicked off to Wysocky who returned the ball to the 45-yard line. After a march of 40 yards to the goal line Wysocky fumbled and Slatington recovered. Neff kicked on the first down and Carazo returned the punt to the 5-yard line from which point Wysocky plunged over for the first score.” (The fact that Slatington punted on first down seems quite unusual, but reading through game descriptions from the 1930s, it was not uncommon to punt on any down, not just fourth down. I can’t help but believe that was a flawed strategy in this case.)
Two more scores by Palmerton followed in the second quarter, a Wisocky two-yard run and then a safety when a snap went over the head of Al Neff, who was tackled in the end zone for a safety.
In the third quarter, Palmerton scored twice: a 35-yard interception return and then another Wisocky run.
The fourth quarter was no better for Slatington, as Palmerton scored two more times.
| Position | Palmerton | Slatington |
| Left end | Fabian | Wotring |
| Left tackle | Yanza | Parry |
| Left guard | Williams | Lehman |
| Center | Ondrasik | Hankee |
| Right guard | Shepherd | Heiney |
| Right tackle | Lipsica | Buzinski |
| Right end | Messinger | Jones |
| Quarterback | Carazo | Williams |
| Left halfback | Harbudy | Kern |
| Right halfback | Balliet | Mack |
| Fullback | Joe Wisocky | Alfred Neff |
The full rosters of both squads appeared in The Slatington News, 23 November 1939.
A few hours after the game, the annual Thanksgiving football dance sponsored by the Palmerton High School senior class took place in the Palmerton gym. Players from both teams enjoyed the music of Chet Walck and his orchestra.
After this game, the Thanksgiving rivalry stood at Palmerton 5 wins and Slatington 0 wins.
Newspaper sources
- The Morning Call
- The Palmerton Press
- The Slatington News