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Prepping for Powder Keg: Huskies Ready for Challenge

There was a time when it took the New Hampton School faithful half a day to manage the old route 132 south to play Tilton School. Times have changed, but a short jaunt down Route 93 has not softened one of the most storied rivalries in prep school athletics. The Huskies and Rams will collide in Tilton on Saturday for an afternoon of competition and a celebration of what has been a storied rivalry over the years. So grab your New Hampton gear and be prepared to cheer for the Huskies as they attempt to retain the Powder Keg. New Hampton has won the annual competition that awards points for victories in each sport in three of the last four years. Tilton School will have a tent and lunch for both communities. Here's the schedule: 

Noon — Men's Varsity Football  
12:30 PM — Men's JVA Soccer  
12:30 PM  — Mt. Biking  
1:45 pm — Women's Varsity Field Hockey 
1:45 pm — Men's Varsity Soccer 
2:15 pm Women's Varsity Soccer  
**NHS Cross Country already earned two points for their victory last week. The Huskies will travel to Connecticut for the New England Championships

There a is a rich history involved. The football rivalry between the two schools began in 1895 and has since been expanded to include other fall sports.

In years past this rivalry was known as the “Harvard-Yale” of New Hampshire preparatory school competition.  The two schools first met in baseball in the late 1880s, and then competed in track.  The first football game was played in 1895.  Among prep schools, only the Exeter-Andover football series begun in 1878 and the Groton-St. Mark’s competition dating to 1886 are older.


The competition endured over the many years despite two wars, a flu epidemic, and numerous snowstorms.  From 1895 to 1912 the football teams played twice each year, traveling the dozen or so miles down the “Devil’s Den Road” (now Rte. 132).  The rivalry was resumed in 1921 with just one game annually and continued until 1939, then resumed again in 1942 until 1951, when a “cooling off” period was prompted by an excess of school spirit.  It next resumed in 1954.

In the 1950s the schools instituted a trophy, the “Powder Keg,” which was awarded to the school that won the football game.  In its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, interest in the New Hampton/Tilton football rivalry went way beyond the walls of the two schools, annually drawing spectators from around New England.

More recently, the competition was revived yet again in 2007 after an almost twenty-year hiatus.  The schools’ athletic staffs met to determine how best to resurrect the athletic rivalry, and they decided to update the contest to include more fall sports.  In the resurrection of the tradition in 2007, Tilton took the football game and the coveted barrel-shaped trophy, which had been in New Hampton School’s trophy case since 1989. Who will take the Powder Keg in 2013? Travel to Tilton on Saturday to find out. 
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