Schedule of Events Boys’ Soccer Smoyer Field —10:30 a.m. Field Hockey Phelps Stadium—11:30 a.m. Girls’ Volleyball Memorial Gym—Noon
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Girls’ Soccer Smoyer Field—12:30 p.m. Football Phelps Stadium—1:30 p.m. Away Events Boys’ & Girls’ Cross-Country Interschols at Exeter Boys’ Water Polo Interschols at Hotchkiss
*need from smug mug BV vs. Brook’s 2016-17
A Rivalry 139 Years in the Making
n 1878, a legendary rivalry was born. Red and blue blood mixed when Phillips Academy and Phillips Exeter battled on the football field for ultimate glory. Contrary to popular belief, this was not the first time that the two schools had faced off in athletics. In May of that same year, Andover met Exeter on the baseball field, only to suffer a tough 11–1 loss. Six months later, on a chilly Sunday afternoon, “the Andover eleven” braved weather that “threatened rain” and secured its revenge with a crushing 22–0 victory on the gridiron. This game set the tone for the ensuing 138 years of interscholastic competition. The competition that took place in 1878, however, was only an extension of a familial rivalry of a different kind that had begun 100 years earlier with the founding of Phillips Academy in Andover. In the midst of the American Revolution, 26-year-old Samuel Phillips sought the help of his uncle, John Phillips, to establish a school on Andover Hill; Phillips Academy was founded in 1778. Three years later, the elder Phillips founded Phillips Exeter Academy, 30 miles to the north. Though the schools shared a family name, relations between them were often far from loving and familial. As Frederick S. Allis Jr. once wrote, “There was really no reason for their working together.” Yet, the family linkage between Andover and Exeter was strengthened by the fierce annual athletic competitions. Aside from a short stint in the 1890s when a riot on the Exeter campus cancelled the games for two years, the competitions have endured—through war and peace—as the nation’s oldest prep school rivalry. Over the years, Andover and Exeter have evolved with the changing times. Both campuses became coed in the early 1970s, and sports and fitness options have expanded considerably. Since fall 1973, both boys’ and girls’ teams have competed for victory in multiple sports each year. Throughout a century of change, one thing has endured: the tremendous anticipation and excitement shared by athletes and fans alike. —Upper management, The Phillipian, vol. CXXXIX 3