On a cold fall night, the entire school packs into a small stadium. The crowd pulses with energy as chants echo from the stands and the cracks of pads and helmets colliding ring through the air. The game is tied, and as the last seconds of the clock run out, the star quarterback unleashes a deep pass. Everyone’s eyes fall on the receiver as the ball spirals through the air, eventually falling right into his hands for a touchdown. The crowd storms the field, as spectators and players hug and celebrate in disbelief. Moments like this define a quintessentially American sport: football. But students at Germantown Friends miss out on this iconic American high school tradition, and many are left wondering why. 

For much of its early history, GFS had a football team, with roots dating back to 1883. According to a document written by Carl Tannenbaum, a baseball coach and former long-time teacher and boys’ athletics director at GFS, the sport struggled to gain proper footing, as soccer drew most of the male students’ interest, and the boys who did suit up to play football were massively undersized. For scale, high-school boys today are expected to be 170-200 pounds, on average, whereas the average player weight represented on the 1910 GFS football team was only 114 pounds. Amid the ongoing challenges with recruiting enough players to the team, along with the season delays due to polio outbreaks, the program was disbanded in 1916.

The following year, in the spring of 1917, the school was determined to bring back the football program. However, only students in grades 8-10 were allowed to participate. This decision was made so as not to draw players from the varsity soccer team. As a result, the football team only competed against freshmen and third-string opponents. The team would continue to play against JV teams and third-string opponents until 1921, when they truly started to become something special. 

By the fall of 1921, GFS faced a full varsity schedule for the first time. Despite this significant step up in competition, the Tigers went on to completely dominate the Friends League and were undefeated that season. In the following years, the team continued to exceed expectations, and its popularity grew. “It was the thing to do in the ’50s on a Saturday afternoon,” says Tannenbaum. “It was a very popular sport.”

But by the ’70s, the popularity of football at GFS began to wane again, and during the 1979 season, with multiple all-city players graduating and only 13 players showing up to tryouts, it became clear that the new class of boys was completely uninterested in playing. With no new boys signing up, the School Committee ended the program. The captain, Richard Balka ’80, and his coach, Dan Shechtman, reflected on the program, with Shechtman writing in the GFS Alumni Bulletin, “The game was played for the joy of the sport,” and that “football at GFS was pure.” It was clear that for the hundreds of boys who participated in the program throughout the years, football was not about winning, but about the shared grit and love for a sport that brought the whole school together, bonded in school spirit.

While some students might fantasize about attending homecoming games and making big plays, the football chapter has closed at GFS—and until there’s renewed interest and enough willing players, it’s hard to imagine it reopening anytime soon.