Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua South freshman Aiden Purington raises the Ed Lecius Memorial Trophy, hoised up by his teammates, after South topped North, 27-13, in last year's Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving Eve. Due to the pandemic the game has been cancelled this year, and its future may be at a crossroads.

NASHUA – They’ll be playing high school football in Nashua this fall starting on Sept. 25 barring any pandemic related issues – except for one noteworthy holiday game.

The annual Nashua High School North vs. South Turkey Bowl has been cancelled for this November, Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras said.

The game had been moved from Thanksgiving morning to a 6 p.m. Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve start since 2016.

But not only will it not be played this year, there’s always the possibility this could open the door to eliminate the game in the future.

“This year, with all the restrictions being placed on spectators, it didn’t made sense to have the game being played with 400 people in the stands,” Gingras said.

Gingras was referring to the fan restrictions, between two and four immediate family members per game participant, the number depending on the game facility/venue. For example, it is likely less fans would be allowed indoors for, say, volleyball, compared to an outdoor event.

Gingras added Nashua isn’t allowing visiting school fans to attend games, but of course for any North-South event, that would be waived since all would be from Nashua. The two teams will likely play each other during the abbreviated regular season as they always have since The Split.

But, she added, the Turkey Eve Bowl would normally attract alumni who would be coming from outside the region, especially colleges.

“There are theoretically people coming to this game from all over the country,” she noted.

With this decision made, now the question is what will the game’s future be? Back in 2016, Gingras sent out a survey to see if it would be better to move the game to Thanksgiving Eve, an idea spawned by Nashua South coach Scott Knight and North coach Dante Laurendi. One of the ideas was to see if it would increase attendance.

It doesn’t appear to have been the case. In fact, the last couple of years attendance has been miniscule, thanks to frigid conditions in 2018 and rainy conditions last years.

“I think (the game’s future) is going to be a collective decision,” Gingras said. “Some people say we absolutely have to play that game. And some people say that it’s time to end it.”

Gingras acknowledged that attendance even on decent weather nights in 2016 and 2017 was not great, and it has dwindled over the years even when the game was played on Thanksgiving morning.

“People just aren’t going to Thanksgiving football games any more,” she said. “But this is something we won’t really have to decide on until next spring.”

The two teams have played the Turkey Bowl every year for 16 seasons since Nashua split into two high schools. Previously, Nashua as one school would play Bishop Guertin on Thanksgiving, dating back to the 1970s.

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