Battle for the Bell
Though his team goes into Saturday’s Victory Bell game already set to make a second consecutive playoff appearance, coach Mike Leonard said his team knows the importance of Saturday’s annual rivalry game against his ala mater.
“We do compete for that Victory Bell and that’s something that we want to keep here for a long, long, long time.”
The one-loss, HCAC champion Grizzlies go into the game as the clear favorite – Hanover (2-6, 2-4 HCAC) didn’t capture its first win for first-year head coach Joe Austin until Oct. 25. But Leonard said he refuses to believe a victory will be an easy task.
Leonard said he reminded the team during practice on Tuesday that in 2003 – his first year at Franklin – the roles were reversed. Hanover was going to the playoffs, while it was his team that came in with only two wins. A 17-14 Franklin lead was “one of the greatest feelings our guys had,” Leonard said.
The Panthers ultimately prevailed 33-24.
“Rivalry games, as they say, you throw out the records. [Hanover] wants to win the thing bad,” Leonard said.
It took Leonard two more tries to end Hanover’s dominance in the rivalry. The Grizzlies took the Victory Bell back with 45-15 win at Hanover in 2005, ending a streak of 11 losses to their rivals. Senior quarterback Chad Rupp has played in three straight Victory Bell wins, including the 2005 contest. Last year Franklin’s 55-14 romp clinched its first HCAC outright championship. Since its 2005 season-ending game, the Grizzlies are 26-4 overall.
Rupp said Bell Week always provides a “buzz” in the air leading up to the clash with the Panthers. Like Leonard, Rupp said records don’t matter in the rivalry game. A Franklin victory, Rupp said, may earn the Grizzlies a first-round home game, continue their conference winning streak, give them bragging rights for the year and guarantee a fourth straight Victory Bell celebration.
“It’s always a great feeling after you win and you can run over and get the Victory Bell,” he said.
Playing in what could possibly be his last home game in his college career just adds motivation, Rupp said.
“I definitely don’t want to lose this game,” he said.
Despite Franklin’s recent success, the Panthers still hold a 35-16 advantage in the battle for the Bell as well as a 42-32-3 record in the all-time series including a win in the inaugural game in 1898.
The Victory Bell tradition began in 1938 thanks to Hanover’s Bat Club, a non-athletic group that wanted to boost school spirit. Albert Parker, the then-Hanover president chose the Franklin game as the showdown for the new trophy.
The series resumed in 1988 when both schools joined the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference after a 17-year hiatus. Leonard, who graduated from Hanover in 1984, never played against his current employer.
Because the teams didn’t share many common opponents, there was nothing of the rivalry left when he played for the Panthers, he said.
During his first couple of years, the familiarity between Leonard and Hanover added another dimension to the rivalry. Besides being a player, he was also an assistant for longtime head coach Wayne Perry, who retired at the end of last season.
“I think it was little different in my first year or two. I had recruited [the players], they were like family,” he said. “It was like competing against your brothers. It was a neat, neat [feeling].”
Now, Leonard said he doesn’t think about the familiarity aspect because the coaching staff and players have turned over.
"I don’t think about it anymore, it’s competing against people I don’t know too well,” he said.
