The final Tomahawk Game

Or is it? Saturday October 13 at 7 p.m. Constantine and White Pigeon will meet up for the 86th and perhaps final time on the gridiron. Constantine is leaving the St. Joseph Valley Conference for the Kalamazoo Valley Conference and will not have room in its schedule to accommodate a non-conference game with White Pigeon starting next season.

The series dates back to 1929 between the two rival schools separated only by a few corn fields and three miles. The winner of the annual contest gets possession of the Tomahawk. The Tomahawk was made from a large indian arrowhead stone found in a field between the two schools.

The two schools agreed to play each other with the winner receiving the Tomahawk until next year's game. Constantine won the first game 14-6 and has recently won 15 Tomahawk games in a row.

Even though the game has been rather lopsided in recent years you can just about guarantee that there will be a record crowd at Saturday's game. More buildup than normal is going on at each school this week as players and fans prepare for what could be the final contest in the storied battle.

From the Kalamazoo Gazette -

Research by school officials on both sides verifies that the Constantine-White Pigeon contest is Michigan's longest-running high school football series for which a token artifact is awarded to the winner.

For those not familiar, White Pigeon's mascot is the Chiefs. The town is named for Chief White Pigeon who saved the area's earliest settlers from an imminent indian attack by running all the way from the Detroit area to warn the residents. I thought I should throw that out to help people realize why a Tomahawk would be the trophy.

Read this article in the Kalamazoo Gazette for more information on the History of the Game