Brophy-St. Mary's

I have great memories of watching Brophy-St. Mary’s games. It seems like we always need someone to hate, and for us as teenagers it was St. Mary’s. I presume most of those attending that school were decent human beings, but a great rivalry means not needing to think in terms of nuances – St. Mary’s was all the world’s evil wrapped up in one neat package.

In recent years, Brophy has almost totally dominated the rivalry in football, winning about ten in a row, I think, before St. Mary’s pulled off a big upset a few years ago. Many of the recent games were massacres.

Brophy won the past two years by a combined score of 121-6, and the games weren’t even that close.

I just looked it up online and the scores were 58-6 last year and 56-0 the year before, which adds up to 114-6. The writer's math skills indicate that he probably went to St. Mary's. They're not very bright, you know. (Just kidding).

The good guys break one

Bad math aside, the point stands -- Brophy won big and has mostly won big in the last decade or so. But through the whole series dating back to 1959, St. Mary’s (which used to be a powerhouse) holds the advantage, and in the 70s-80s they had an even longer streak of wins, as I recall. But it seems it was SM that ran up the white flag (and not in a very classy manner):

But the rivalry also was scuttled by St. Mary’s move to Division II. The Knights are in a nine-team section and only had two freedom games to schedule. Instead of playing up against Brophy — and probably getting hammered — St. Mary’s chose to play Division II schools Mesa Skyline and Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep.

St. Mary’s athletic director Greg Fahrendorf didn’t have a single conversation with Brophy administrators about continuing the rivalry.

That’s not very nice, but what can one expect from that bunch of sleazeballs? (Just kidding).

I guess the end of the rivalry was inevitable. St. Mary’s was by far the smallest school at the top level of Arizona high school sports, and was allowed to stay there in recent years only by being grandfathered in. They finally decided to drop down a level, and that probably is the course that best serves their students. Nothing else (certainly not the wishes of doddering old alumni) should outweigh that.

But, even as a guy who hasn’t seen one of those games in thirty years or so, I will miss the rivalry. Best wishes, St. Mary’s, it was fun hating you!