- Friday will mark 90 years of rivalry between the Shafter Generals and the Wasco Tigers as the school's football teams meet for the 96th time. 23ABC spoke with Jerry Gould from the Wasco High School class of 1964 and Barbara Gladden from the Shafter High School class of 1969 to get their thoughts on the rivalry and to have them reminisce.
- Shafter and Wasco will meet at Shafter High School at 7 p.m.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
This coming Friday needs little introduction. It's one of the longest standing high school football rivalries in the state of California. It's Shafter-Wasco week, or Wasco-Shafter if you're nine miles north of where I'm standing here on the grounds of Shafter High School. But I'm new here, I don't want you taking my word for it, take theirs.
“I’m Jerry Gould, Wasco High Class of 1964.”
“Barbara Gladden, Shafter High Class of 1969.”
According to Wasco High school records, the Shafter-Wasco Rivalry started in 1933 featuring 96 meeting across the nine decades of competition and with all of those meeting between these two teams, it’s definitely a date circled on calendars throughout the region
"It was all about the Shafter game and we had to beat Shafter one way or the other," said Gould. "It was just a real intense, constantly talking about that Shafter game with Wasco.
"I talked at one of the rallies and I told them years from now you might not remember what your football record was or your sports record was, but you will remember if you beat them or not," said Gladden.
And while the matchup is an intense one on the field, some of the extracurriculars associated with the game? Equally so.. Like burning the tiger
23ABC: there's burning the general.
“Burning letters on the field,” said Gould.
23ABC: Do you have any experience with that? I mean, I'm assuming the statute of limitations is probably.
“I don't want it to tell too many stories, but I was part of one of those groups that did some of that, and we just didn't get caught,” said Gould.
"We had a one-ton truck, pep-band on the back. We'd drive, go up and down the streets of town, down across the tracks. For some reason they let us do that into the business district and 'Burn the Tiger' was the chant, we'd come back to the big bonfire at the school, throw the tiger on and burn that thing," said Gladden.
In case you’re living under a rock, the Shafter Generals, Wasco Tigers, in Shafter this Friday at 7 p.m.
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