KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — All eyes will be on Boggus Stadium on Friday night.
The Harlingen High Cardinals and Harlingen South Hawks will write another chapter in their intracity rivalry.
Friday will mark the 26th annual Bird Bowl.
The Cardinals lead the series 21-4 and have won 10 straight meetings. The last time the Hawks won was in 2007, when South won back-to-back Bird Bowls in ’06 and ’07.
The first meeting happened in 1993. The Cardinals were led by Bob Boyd, and South was directed by Alex Leal, with the Cardinals winning the inaugural Bird Bowl 13-12.
Since Boyd, each Cardinals head coach that followed was hired from within the program. Brett Boyd, Randy Cretors and current coach Manny Gomez all followed.
Along with the first Bird Bowl in 1993, here are a few headlines from that year.
Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” was the No. 1 hit on the Billboard Top 100. The Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl, the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series and the Chicago Bulls won the NBA Finals.
Jurassic Park, Menace II Society and Schindlers List all hit the theaters in ’93, Gas was $1.16, Bill Clinton was President, and Windows NT 3.1 was released by Microsoft.
Current South assistant coach Frank Achtsam, who graduated from South in 2000, played football all four years in a Hawks uniform.
“The Bird Bowl is an established rivalry,” Achtsam said. “When we first started it, it was a big game. Any time you get an (intracity) rivalry it is always fun. I remember winning the Bird Bowl my last two years and playing in front of a huge crowd, and it was standing room only.”