Hanover will brim with people on Saturday as Memorial Field hosts the 60th annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, a football festival rivaled only by Homecoming weekend. The game pits all-star teams of Vermont and New Hampshire high school students against each other to raise money for the Shriners Hospitals for Children, 22 North American hospitals that give free orthopedic and burn care to children under 18 years old.
Marking the 50th time the game has been hosted by Dartmouth, it will feature the first ever evening kickoff at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow. Media director David Orr '57 said the decision was made to provide players with cooler game-time temperatures and increase public attendance.
Teams are composed of 36 players who are nominated by their coaches and selected by a screening committee of high school coaches and representatives. They have spent this week training at Vermont's Castleton State College and hosted a media day complete with TV crews and dozens of journalists, mirroring the start of this week's NFL training camps.
Many attendees and organizers hold a personal connection to the event. When Orr's wife was six years old, she was diagnosed with polio and told she would never walk again, but care she received at a Shriners hospital eventually made this possible.
"Each of us brings a little personal history to the game which makes it even more special," Orr said.
Orr, who has been involved in the Maple Sugar Bowl for over 50 years, described the rich history some have with the game.
"Once you get into it, it gets into your blood," he said. "It's fun to work with the kids and hard to believe that we now have some third generation families who have played in the game."
During the week of practice, students visited the Shriners Hospital in Springfield, Mass., to gain a better understanding of the game's purpose.
The game will be preceded by a parade through Hanover starting at noon, a street festival sponsored by the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and a carnival on the Green organized by the Panhellenic Council.
The Hanover Street Fest will include 21 vendors and various live entertainment options scattered throughout Main Street and surrounding streets.
"The merchants in town all really support the Shriners' mission," said the festival's communications director Sally Boyle. "It's going to be great to provide some fun activities between the parade and the game to hopefully keep people around."
Boyle said this is the first time the Hanover Street Fest and Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl have occurred on the same day, a move facilitated by shifting to an evening kickoff.
Dartmouth has had an intimate relationship with the game from its origins. A pair of Big Green quarterbacks led the New Hampshire side in the first Shrine game in 1954, as David Bradley '58 threw the final touchdown pass that sealed the Granite State's victory.
"We have a wonderful association with Dartmouth," Orr said. "The College said to us that We want you here and want to help to make it a great game.' They've gone out of their way to make us welcome."
In addition to the all-star football game, the Shriners also host an all-star band and a cheerleading team that perform at halftime. Both groups stay in Topliff Hall and use the Class of 1953 Commons, a sign of the cooperation between Dartmouth and the Shriners.
In its eighth year, the band consists of approximately 125 participants who arrived in Hanover for rehearsals on Thursday after receiving their music months in advance. The band is conducted by Monadnock Regional High School music director Phil Crotto and Green Mountain Union High School music director Fritz Wendlandt, whose father led the Dartmouth Marching Band in the 1950s.
The national organization plays 30 football games each year. The Maple Sugar Bowl ranks third largest in terms of money raised and attendance, behind only the East-West Shrine Game and North Carolina-South Carolina high school all-star game.
The Maple Sugar Bowl has raised over $4.5 million in the past 59 years.
Holman Stadium in Nashua, N.H., hosted the first game in 1954. The Shriners Hospital for Children was founded in 1922.
