When Andrew’s football team beat Sandburg 42-27 on Sept. 9 in Orland Park, thousands of fans packed the stadium.
That’s not a big surprise. It’s a battle of two District 230 schools that are just 5 ½ miles apart.
It seems like no matter what the sport is, this rivalry is fierce. It’s possible that if these two schools engage in a checkers tournament it might bring out a crowd.
But the football rivalry is unlike any other in the state.
The reason?
They didn’t play their first game against each other for decades. Andrew opened for business in 1978 and was not in the same conference or division with Sandburg.
Though the two schools played each other in every other sport, Andrew and Sandburg were not meeting on the gridiron.
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Former sports writers Alan Macey and Pat Disabato crusaded in The Daily Southtown for the game to be played with their columns in the 1990s.
Disabato, who also had an area preps sports TV show for 18 years, said he got nowhere talking to athletic directors and coaches about it. He said he took it a step further and talked to District 230 Superintendent Patrick McMahon about it in the summer of 2004.
The first game was scheduled for 2005.
But the two teams qualified for the Illinois High School Association Class 8A playoffs in 2004 and faced each other for the first time a year ahead of time.
The Eagles, 5-4 at the time, shocked the 9-0 Thunderbolts 21-6 to start the rivalry with a bang.
Disabato said that some people were not happy with him. He said he was called a “coward” by one coach for going over their heads.
But on Sept. 9, when he checked a tweet on his phone, it re-affirmed that his persistence was worth it.
“I was looking on social media and saw the packed house at Sandburg,” Disabato said. “It’s always packed. That’s what we tried to convey.
“When I go to my grave, I can say I got that game played.”
Disabato had no skin in the game. He is a Blue Island Eisenhower grad. But he said that in the 1990s, Andrew and Sandburg had such talented teams that he thought it was a waste that they didn’t face each other.
He said most of the excuses he heard for not playing the game was that it might hurt playoff chances. Teams need six wins to qualify for the postseason, though many teams qualify with five. In a nine-game schedule, nonconference wins are precious.
But Disabato still felt the game should be played.
“The communities took pride in their schools,” he said. “Orland. Tinley. They didn’t like each other. Baseball games were intense and would draw a thousand people. So, why weren’t these guys playing football?
“These kids deserve these memories. They are going to remember playing in this game more than getting beat in a playoff game.”
After this year’s game, Sandburg still owns an 11-2 advantage over Andrew, but five of those wins were by seven or fewer points including the 33-27 three-overtime thriller in 2008.
The series took a few years off after 2014 and resumed in 2021.
This year’s battle had good things for both teams.
For Andrew, it broke an eight-game losing streak to the Eagles. Running back Mike Barberi ran for 255 yards and three touchdowns while Nick Smith added 81 yards and two touchdowns before he was injured in the second quarter. Joshua Tanquilut had a fourth-quarter score and Jack LoConte had two interceptions.
For Sandburg, the loss stung but it offered a chance to get sophomore quarterback Anthony Shelton some time in a pressure game. He took over for injured Christian Evans and threw for 218 yards, hitting sophomore Charlie Snorek for three second-half TDs.
Running back Katrell Thompson added 129 yards on the ground for the Eagles.