Location: 10 AM, Victory Park, Slatington
Final Score: Palmerton 25 - Slatington 0
Weather: mostly cloudy, perfect weather for a football game. The high temperature in Allentown was 50 degrees.
Coaches: Michael "Mike" Burcin (1920-1998) for Slatington and John C. Young (1906-1981) for Palmerton.
1949 Slatington High School yearbook photo of the 1948 football team
Slatington's schedule before the Thanksgiving game with Palmerton
Slatington 6 - Lansdale 33 (13 September)
Nazareth 27 – Slatington 7 (25 September)
Lehighton 28 – Slatington 7 (2 October)
Slatington 14 – Emmaus 27 (9 October)
Northampton 47 – Slatington 19 (16 October)
Slatington 7 – Catasauqua 28 (23 October)
Slatington 0 – Whitehall 50 (30 October)
Stroudsburg 25 – Slatington 21 (6 November)
Slatington had a record of 0-8 heading into the Thanksgiving game.
1949 Palmerton High School yearbook photo of the 1948 football team
Palmerton's schedule before the Thanksgiving game with Slatington
Palmerton 0 – Carlisle 7 (17 September) Palmerton was held to 2 first downs and only 48 total yards in the game.
Palmerton 7 – Whitehall 25 (24 September) The game was played under the lights at Breaden field in Allentown.
Palmerton 25 – Stroudsburg 6 (1 October) Another Friday night game. This one was played under the lights at Stroudsburg's Gordon Giffels Field.
Catasauqua 7 – Palmerton 0 (9 October)
Palmerton 6 - Bangor 6 (16 October)
Palmerton 12 – Northampton 37 (23 October)
Emmaus 6 – Palmerton 0 (30 October)
Wilson 15 - Palmerton 0 (6 November)
Palmerton 21 – Lehighton 7 (13 November)
Palmerton had a record of 2-6-1 heading into the Thanksgiving game.
During the season, Palmerton had been outscored by its opponents 116 to 71, while Slatington had also been outscored by its opponents 265 to 81.
Neither Slatington nor Palmerton had a great football season in 1948, with the two teams totaling a meager 2 wins against 14 losses and 1 tie and being outscored 381 to 152.
Slatington's new head coach was Mike Burcin who had been hired in May 1948. About 35 players first reported on 18 August for daily practice between 1:30 and 4:00 before school began.
Palmerton returned the veteran head coach, John C. Young, for the year.
Before the Thanksgiving game, both teams were involved in some unusual games that year.
For Slatington, it was the game scheduled against Lansdale H.S. on Friday, 10 September 1948. Because of heavy rain, the game was postponed and then played at 8:15 on Monday night, the 13th. The result was that "Lansdale High school completely outclassed Slatington High school's grid men last night as they romped to a 33-6 triumph at Lansdale." (The Morning Call, 14 September 1948) Then, a week later, Coplay H.S. canceled its game with Slatington "due to small squad out [for football] at Coplay." (The Morning Call, 17 September 1948) The substitute game involved Nazareth H.S. coming to Victory Park on Saturday the 25th. "Nazareth High easily felled Slatington High, 27-7, yesterday afternoon at Victory Park before perhaps 1000 fans." (The Morning Call, 26 September 1948)
For Palmerton, it was a rare Friday night game under the lights at the new Breadon Field in Whitehall Township. The field had opened in the summer of 1948 as the home of the minor league baseball team Allentown Cardinals. On Friday night, 24 September 1948, Palmerton played Whitehall H.S. there and lost 25-7. "The game was played under the lights at Breadon Field, in Allentown, and was deemed a successful departure from normal when a crowd of close to 3000 showed up." (The Morning Call, 25 September 1948)
Slatington entered the Thanksgiving game "as a decided underdog, [but] the high school eleven will be determined to upset the favored Zinc town gridiron machine. The local team will begin the fray outweighed and outmanned, but it will not be outplayed." Players were small back in the 1940s. "The starting line will have an average weight of 160 and the back field, 150 pounds." (The Slatington News, 25 November 1948)
The game turned out badly for Slatington "Palmerton high school handed the local high school boys one of their worst Thanksgiving thumpings in the long history of the teams' traditional schoolboy series Thanksgiving Day morning at Victory Park 25-0." (The Slatington News, 2 December 1948) Allegedly, a crowd of over 3,000 viewed the contest. "Palmerton scored twice in the first period, again in the second for an 18-0 halftime lead, then added a final touchdown in the fourth frame … Shiner scored both Bomber first period tallies." (The Morning Call, 26 November 1948) That player who scored twice in the first quarter would be Doug Shiner (1933-2010), a Palmerton freshman and later a key player on Palmerton's championship, and unbeaten, 1951 football team.
| Position | Palmerton | Slatington |
| Ends | Kurtz Walcott Leasher |
Sheffler Snyder Balliett |
| Tackles | Hill Rehrig Holstein Waring Shupp |
Follweiler Weaver |
| Guards | Stemler Mann Salazar |
Moditch Bloss Werley House |
| Center | Nemeck Mertz |
Greensweig |
| Backs | Mooney Shiner A. Mooney Blose Mends Lewis |
Welsh Papay Ross Lilly Hughes Chandler Kemmerer Rehrig |
After this game, the Thanksgiving rivalry stood at Palmerton 12 wins, Slatington 1 win and 1 tie.
Newspaper sources
- The Morning Call
- The Palmerton Press
- The Slatington News
- Service Star Press (Palmerton)