Editing Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (section)

=== Football ===
Since the early 1900s the "Engineers" of the Polytechnic Institute, along with longtime arch-rival [[Baltimore City College Football|The Baltimore City College's]], "Collegians" / "Black Knights" had dominated the old public – private schools athletic league of the [[Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association|Maryland Scholastic Association]] (M.S.A.) which existed 1919 to 1993 in the local prep sports scene. However, since joining the newer state-wide [[Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association]] ([[MPSSAA]] – founded 1946) in 1993, Poly made it to the final playoff football game once in 1993, the semi-finals once in 1997 and the quarterfinals in 1994 and 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.mpssaa.org/assets/fallsports/football/Football%20State%20Champions.pdf|title = MPSSA Football Championships Tournament History|access-date = September 15, 2007|publisher = Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association|archive-date = April 10, 2008|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080410072151/http://www.mpssaa.org/assets/fallsports/football/Football%20State%20Champions.pdf|url-status = live}}</ref>

==== Poly and City ====
The '''Poly-City football rivalry''' is the oldest [[American football]] rivalry in Maryland and one of the [[List of high school football rivalries (100 years+)|oldest public school rivalries]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Patterson |first1=Ted |last2=Smith |first2=Dean |title=Football in Baltimore: History and Memorabilia from Colts to Ravens |date=November 6, 2013 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-1-4214-1236-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KoYLBAAAQBAJ&dq=baltimore+polytechnic+institute+rivalry+%22oldest%22+maryland&pg=PA266 |access-date=June 18, 2024 |language=en}}</ref>—predated by the longtime also famous [[English/Latin Rivalry|athletic and academic rivalry]] between the two [[New England]] secondary schools dated back to 1887 between the [[Boston Latin School]] (founded 1635, considered colonial America's oldest public school)  and the [[English High School of Boston]] (founded 1821, considered the oldest public high school in America). The second oldest public high school in the country is considered to be the [[Central High School of Philadelphia]], founded 1836, all of which with traditions, curriculum admissions standards and famous faculty and alumni similar to its predecessors in [[Boston]] and subsequent followers further south in [[Baltimore]].<ref>{{cite news |title=These High School Football Rivalries Date Back To The Late 1800s |url=https://www.wbur.org/news/2017/11/22/oldest-thanksgiving-football-games |access-date=June 18, 2024 |work=WBUR |date=November 22, 2017 |language=en}}</ref>

The rivalry here in "The Monumental City" began in the Autumn of 1889, when a team from [[Baltimore City College football|The Baltimore City College]] ([[Baltimore City College|"City"]] "Collegians") then situated at North Howard and West Centre Streets since 1875 with its first structure of two (which unfortunately collapsed in August 1892 because of undermining from construction of the underground [[Baltimore Belt Line|Howard Street Tunnel]] bypassing congested [[Downtown Baltimore]] for the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]]). After seven years of temporary exile in a former elementary school building they returned again to the same site at Howard and Centre to a new larger home followed in 1899, remaining there although increasingly overcrowded until the move to the "Castle" in 1928. The City College is reputed to be the third oldest public high school / secondary school in the nation, established 1839. and had unofficial student teams playing [[rugby football|rugby]] and various earlier versions of [[American football]] starting back in the 1870s. Meanwhile, the B.M.T.S. / B.P.I. was in its also cramped quarters on Courtland Street (today's Saint Paul Street / Place / "Preston Gardens" site) and both public secondary schools in those days were with no campus or athletic fields, so forced to use nearby municipal parks like newly purchased Clifton or older [[Patterson Park|Patterson]] or [[Druid Hill Park]]s. The two teams from neighboring all-boys high schools which were seven blocks apart in [[Downtown Baltimore]], met in the new municipal [[Clifton Park (Baltimore)|Clifton Park]] (of the late noted Baltimore merchant / banker / philanthropist [[Johns Hopkins]] (1795–1873) summer / country estate and mansion "Clifton") against a team of "scrubs" from the new Baltimore Manual Training School (the future renamed Baltimore Polytechnic Institute ("Poly") four years later in 1893), then located on the northeast corner of the former Courtland / now St. Paul Street and East Saratoga Street in [[Downtown Baltimore]]. It has continued annually every Fall season in numerous locations, parks and fields, most notably at the new [[Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University|Homewood Field]] of the "Blue Jays" of  [[Johns Hopkins University|The Johns Hopkins University]] at their new spacious campus off [[Charles Street (Baltimore)|North Charles Street]] and University Parkway, where they moved in 1914.<ref>{{cite news |title=City first clashed with Poly on the gridiron (plus other longtime competitions in various other sports and seasons since the 1890s.|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2018/11/01/when-city-first-clashed-with-poly-on-the-gridiron/ |access-date=June 18, 2024 |work=Baltimore Sun |date=November 1, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title="Crabcakes & Football, That's What Maryland Does!" |url=https://www.mdhistory.org/crabcakes-football-thats-what-maryland-does/ |website=Maryland Center for History and Culture |access-date=June 18, 2024 |date=November 7, 2013}}</ref> City leads the series with the record standing at 66–62–6.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 28, 2023 |title=City football claims dominant 44–6 win over Poly in 134th edition of rivalry: 'This game means everything for City' |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/high-school/bs-sp-va-city-poly-football-20231028-se6dleoc2nauhe4ihuv5vdadbq-story.html |access-date=2023-10-31 |website=Baltimore Sun}}</ref>

Little is known of the first [[American football]] game between the Manual Training School ancestor of the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute ("Poly") and [[Baltimore City College|The Baltimore City College]] ("City") in the Fall of 1889, (no mention in the several Baltimore daily newspapers back then) except that a junior varsity team from Poly met City's "scrubs", in the newly purchased [[Clifton Park, Baltimore|Clifton Park]] in the northeast section of the old Baltimore City and that City emerged the victor for the next decade and a half, as the B.C.C. was then playing an ambitious schedule then against several regional colleges / universities opponents and played in a regional football league composed of upper levels of higher education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That began the oldest football rivalry in [[Sports in Maryland|Maryland]] schools, the region and the nation,{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} City's "Collegians" continued to win regularly against upstart Poly through 1901, however in 1902, for the only time in history of the series no game was played; though, in 1931, an extra game was played to compensate.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 219.</ref> Between 1903 and 1906, City won the series, but the tide soon turned in 1907, when the first tie in the 18th match of the series occurred.<ref name="Leonhart 1939, p. 221">Leonhart (1939), p. 221.</ref> The next year in the 19th clash in 1908,  Poly scored its first victory in the almost two decades long athletic rivalry now gaining widespread popularity and following among Baltimore sports fans and publicity in the sports pages of the several daily papers in town.<ref name="Leonhart 1939, p. 221"/>

Poly dominated the series in the subsequent 1910s.  The only year of that decade that City won was 1912,<ref name="Leonhart229">Leonhart (1939), p. 229.</ref> and between 1914 and 1917, Poly shut out City. Poly's streak continued through 1921, completing a nine-year winning streak, which City finally broke in 1922 with a 27–0 victory.<ref>Leonhart (1939) p. 224.</ref> During this time for the next three decades, many P.-C. games would be played at the newly built football bowl of [[Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)|Municipal Stadium]] (a.k.a. the Baltimore Stadium or as Venable Park Stadium on the north side of the newly landscaped 33rd Street boulevard in the former Venable Park, seating almost 100,000 and constructed in six months in a crash-program during 1923. It would serve the city and visiting college teams like Army (West Point) and Navy (Annapolis), Maryland (College Park), Notre Dame and others. In 1946 with the peace after [[World War II]], it was the site also of the first professional football team in town, the first incarnation of the [[History of the Baltimore Colts|Baltimore Colts]] in the new [[All America Football Conference]] and then followed into the later merger with the [[National Football League]] in 1950. Old Municipal Stadium endured up to 1949 housing both [[Minor League Baseball|minor league]] [[Baltimore Orioles (minor league)|Baltimore Orioles]] of the [[International League]] when their old home of [[Oriole Park]] (the fifth one, built 1914 originally as Terrapin Park for the [[Baltimore Terrapins]] of the short-lived [[Federal League]]) on Greenmount Avenue and 29th Street in nearby [[Better Waverly, Baltimore|Waverly]] neighborhood burned down in a spectacular blaze after the Fourth of July in 1944 and the two pro football Colts franchises when a multi-year project began in 1949 reconstructing, expanding and adding an upper deck to become the new [[Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)|Memorial Stadium]] reopening in the Spring of 1954 to greet the new [[Major League Baseball]] team in the [[American League]] of the transplanted new [[Baltimore Orioles]], moving from [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] (as the former lackluster [[History of the St. Louis Browns|St, Louis Browns]]).

At the same time Poly-City football continued there on 33rd Street also moved into the new rebuilt athletic bowl continuing holding annual gridiron renewals of sports combat here attracting crowds of 30 to 40,000 fans in the pre-national sports franchises era, continuing on 33rd until the 1990s. Scheduled on [[Thanksgiving Day (United States)|Thanksgiving Day]] afternoons and with traditional students, cheerleaders, floats and teams parades west from City's "Castle" and north from old Poly on North Avenue were popular. Plus tailgating in the surrounding old stadium parking lots and checking out the earlier activities of the morning football game between [[Roman Catholic]] high schools Calvert Hall and Loyola.

In 1926, was one of the most famous Poly-City games ever played. Prior to the game, the eligibility of City's halfback, Mickey Noonen, was challenged.  A committee was formed to investigate Noonen's eligibility, but Noonen's father—frustrated with the investigation—struck one of the members of the committee. The result was that Noonen was not only barred from the "Collegians" team, but also expelled from the [[Baltimore City Public Schools]] system.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 225–226.</ref> The 1930s ushered in a period of resurgence for the City "Castlemen" team, now ensconced in their new spacious hilltop campus of "Collegian Hill" at 33rd and The Alameda and the landmark "Castle on the Hill" since 1928. Poly, which had dominated in the previous two decades, only picked up two wins in the entire decade.<ref name="Leonhart229"/>

In 1934, B.P.I. student Harry Lawrence, who had famously kicked the winning field goal against City in the 1926 fall classic, later became the head coach at his former arch-rival City College leading to some of its most winningest seasons and success stories in the following decade and subsequently joining the B.C.C. faculty as a longtime guidance counselor from the '30s into the 1970s, becoming a "Castle" legend and only Poly alumnus inducted into the [[List of Baltimore City College alumni|B.C.C. Hall of Fame]].<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 227.</ref>

It was during these times that the longtime local afternoon daily newspaper ''[[The Baltimore Sun|The Evening Sun]]'' (published 1910–1995, part of the three published papers of ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]papers'' (with the morning paper ''The Sun'' begun 1837)) from the A.S. Abell & Company commissioned a bronze statue of a crouched football player on a mahogany wood base known as "The Evening Sun Trophy" and several were made over the next half century with each school keeping it for showing off in the exhibit glass cases in the following year in the Poly "Memorial Corridor" or City's central "Trophy Hall", and being retired after a number of victories. Several were made over the decades and each school still has some on display as cherished historical icons of past glories.

Colorful printed program booklets were published annually by a joint Poly-City student / faculty committee packed with supporter advertising front and back with team group photos and rosters, player / coach biographies and photos plus the administration, page of City and Poly songs and cheers, photos of each school building and school seals, lists of the previous years of scores of victories and defeats. These now prized collector's items began in the early 1920s and continued up to the mid-1970s. Special thick editions of the two student newspapers ''"The Poly Press"'' (founded 1922) and ''"The Collegian"'' (established 1929). They were also packed with advertising from local commercial businesses and ads from various homeroom / classes, organizations, clubs and individuals. Plus ''"The Collegian"'' was printed on orange newsprint paper to match the black ink for their school colors of "The Black & Orange". They frequently continued the fun tradition of making up a replica humorous satire of the opponent's student paper so memorable versions appeared of ''"The Folly Mess"'' (subtitled "A Folly institution since A.D. 922") reporting on the dire terrible situation at the "Baltimore Follytechnique Institution" and equally hilarious ''"The Collitchin"'' (with its twisted slogan "serving the student morons of the Baltimore Seedy Collage") of the awful horrible climate at the "Dump on the Hump" and making fun of the other's administration, faculty, coaches, collapsing decrepit buildings, worthless diplomas and failed education good only for future criminal successes!!!

Poly won five straight games against City to open the 1950s, and 9 of the decade's 10 games, under its legendary coach Bob Lumsden, for whom the school's current football stadium is now named. Lumsden finished with an 11–7 record against City when he retired as "Engineers" head coach in 1966. He also coached 9–0 Poly to the unofficial National High School Championship Game at [[Miami, Florida]]'s huge landmark [[Orange Bowl]] stadium in 1962, against the [[Miami High School]] "Stingarees", but Poly lost by a score of 14–6.

With both secondary schools packed to almost 4,000 male students each because of the post-[[Second World War]] "[[baby boom]]" plus slowness in new construction and were heavily overcrowded, sometimes operating on split -shifts, but the scholastic sports programs continued to prosper, strive and inspire generations of Poly and City boys.

The "Blue and Orange" team's fortunes changed later in the 1960s, when City was coached during the decade by their legendary coach [[George Young (football executive)|George Young]]. Young (a Calvert Hall alumnus, City College history teacher and future [[History of the Baltimore Colts|Baltimore Colts]] front office executive and later to lead the [[New York Giants]] pro football team and finish his sports career as an [[NFL]] executive), guided his "Black Knights" teams to six wins over Poly, and an equal number of the old [[Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association|Maryland Scholastic Association]] (M.S.A.) "A Conference" championships.<ref>{{cite book | last = Marudas | first = Kyriakos| title = The Poly-City Game | publisher= Gateway Press | year = 1988 | location = Baltimore | page =66}}</ref> One of Young's most memorable victories occurred on Thanksgiving Day, 1965, at the old [[Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)|Memorial Stadium]] on 33rd Street, when undefeated City's "Black Knights" beat the also previously undefeated Poly "Engineers" by the largest margin score ever, 52–6.<ref name="DiBlasi">{{cite web | last=DiBlasi | first=Joe | publisher=Word Smith Media Ventures | title=Poly-City | date=November 9, 2006 | access-date=2007-07-26 | url=http://www.pressboxonline.com/story.cfm?id=1117 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928043719/http://www.pressboxonline.com/story.cfm?id=1117 | archive-date=September 28, 2007 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Baltimore City's public high schools withdrew in 1993 from the old Maryland Scholastic Association, a unique public / private / independent and parochial schools athletic league in central Maryland, organized in 1919, and joined the newer larger statewide [[Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association]] (MPSSAA), organized in 1946. This was mandated by a new Superintendent of Schools who had earlier spent his career in the neighboring suburban [[Baltimore County]] public schools system who were original charter members of the competing MPSSAA which had grown in the postwar period and he wanted the City schools to participate in the statewide playoffs tournaments in the various sports (with championship games played at the large venues of [[Byrd Stadium]] and [[Cole Fieldhouse]] arena at the [[University of Maryland|University of Maryland at College Park]], northwest of Washington, D.C. in suburban [[Prince George's County, Maryland|Prince George's County]] or later in other large state public universities / colleges).<ref>{{cite web| last=Mills| first=Keith| publisher=Word Smith Media Ventures, LLC| date=November 8, 2007| access-date=2007-11-09| url=http://www.pressboxonline.com/story.cfm?id=2819| title=Poly vs. City: Tradition Time Is Here Again| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071205072832/http://www.pressboxonline.com/story.cfm?id=2819| archive-date= December 5, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> This change meant that the scholastic football season would end earlier to allow for the beginning of state-wide playoffs in the M.P.S.S.A.A., forcing Poly and City to move their annual century-old game in 1994 from its longtime traditional holiday date for decades of [[Thanksgiving Day (United States)|Thanksgiving Day]] holiday afternoon to the less memorable first Saturday in November, and a subsequent loss of high attendance, publicity and media coverage with occasional radio / television broadcasts. They also missed playing with the longtime holiday double-header tradition with the morning "Catholic Game" at the 33rd Street stadium between [[Roman Catholic]] high schools' similar arch-rivalry between [[Calvert Hall College High School|Calvert Hall College]] ("Cardinals") versus [[Loyola Blakefield|Loyola High School at Blakefield]] ("Dons"), played since 1920 (now in their 104th game).

Then Poly and City met for the 119th time in November 2007, a contest unfortunately marred by the outbreak of a large brawl outside the new [[M&T Bank Stadium]], southwest of downtown where the annual Fall Football Classic for the oldest public and Catholic high schools had been relocated in the redeveloped [[Camden Yards Sports Complex]] (built 1996 for the new moved franchise from the [[History of the Cleveland Browns|Cleveland Browns]] to become the new [[Baltimore Ravens]] pro football team in the [[NFL]]). The time before and during the game was peaceful and fun, but trouble and strife occurred after the final whistle. This was the first documented trouble at the Fall Classic since the early 1970s. With games first being played at old [[Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)|Municipal / Baltimore Stadium]], the first built 1923 on 33rd Street's Venable Park. Violence had occasionally occurred near a century before and marred the old City-Poly traditions during the 1920s, but happened elsewhere from the stadium on downtown streets with competing colliding school fans parades. Both governor's and mayor's sons from opposing schools were arrested amid the street riots melees. Four decades later, some more serious strife recurred during the socially  tumultuous late 1960s era and early '70s outside old [[Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)|Memorial Stadium]] (rebuilt 1949–54) on the northside of 33rd Street with huge crowds of over 30,000 fans filling up two-thirds of the bowl. But it had been generally peaceful ever since those times of national unrest with racial summer urban riots and anti-[[Vietnam War]] and the military draft protests. Things quieted down specially with the traditions begun first in the 1940s and '50s of a "City – Poly Peace Pact" signing by the two secondary schools student leaders with media coverage at the [[Mayor of Baltimore|Mayor's]] ceremonial office at the historic [[Baltimore City Hall]], and its later renewal in the late '60s.

Now Poly and City still met for the 120th time on November 8, 2008, with guarded anticipation and some added security plus an intensive discussion program at both schools the several weeks before. The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and The Baltimore City College then met subsequently peacefully again for the 121st time on November 7, 2009, with the score of 26–20. The renewed tradition again continued with Poly"s "Engineers" and City's "Collegians" / "Black Knights" meeting for the 122nd time on November 6, 2010. As of the 2018 game, City had won the prior and trophy in 7 contests.

Because of the extreme large size of the downtown [[Camden Yards Sports Complex|Camden Yards]] football stadium with two-thirds of the place with empty purple and black Ravens seats empty, the site was changed to the more cozy smaller Hughes Stadium at the [[Morgan State University]] in the northeast city but still able to accommodate a larger than usual football crowd, while the  Calvert Hall-Loyola game still continued on Thanksgiving Day morning (grabbing all the media attention) moved to the [[Johnny Unitas Stadium]] at [[Towson University]] north of town and between those two Catholic schools home campuses in [[Towson, Maryland|Towson]].