Here's an interesting article from 1960 that echoes all the way to 2017 discussions on similar topics; enjoy.
by Bill Shefski, Philadelphia Daily News, December 12, 1960
Petition Would KO City Title Game
If a majority of the Public League’s 17 football coaches get their way, Saturday’s 23rd annual City title game may have been the last one in which their champion meets the Catholic League champion.
It has been learned that a group of Public League coaches have drafted a petition to abolish the game as it is now played. The petition will be mailed to each coach this week for suggestions and for each coach’s signature. If every coach signs, the petition will be sent to the Board of Superintendents for further action.
The unrest caused by the Catholic League’s almost-complete domination of the game in the past decade was swelled even more by La Salle’s 24-0 victory over Public League king Frankford High at Franklin Field Saturday.
The Public League coaches believe it is unfair that the league’s prestige should suffer so by the embarrassing one-sided defeats at the hands of the Catholic League champs each year.
Since 1950, the Public League has won only one game (Lincoln 28 – La Salle 20 in 1958) and tied one (Northeast 20 – St. James 20 in 1953). The Public League has scored only 67 points in the last 11 games to the Catholic League’s 276 points.
Public League coaches feel the game has taken a sharp turn in the Parochial schools’ favor for various reasons outlined in the petition.
Foremost reason on the petition is the number of hours each league spends on the practice field. Catholic League teams, the petition states, spend approximately 340 hours at practice. In the Public League, which doesn’t allow spring practice, average seasonal drill time is 140 hours – 200 hours less.
The petition also points out that Catholic League coaching staffs are, for the most part, larger. It points out that Catholic League coaches are mostly non-faculty members and well-versed football men.
The third major reason is the fact that there are three schools in the Catholic League which now can be classified as suburban schools. La Salle, in Wyndmoor, Monsignor Bonner, in Drexel Hill, and St. James, in Chester, are the schools mentioned. This suburban status, the Public League coaches believe, gives these schools wider areas from which to draw talent. They feel this is partly the reason the same three schools also have dominated the Catholic League the last few years. Most Catholic League schools and all Public League Schools are restricted by boundaries.
The petition also lists two ideas for continuation of the inter-league rivalry at annual inter-league games. Attendance at the games has dropped sharply, too, since the Catholic League domination started. The Public League coaches’ suggestions for future inter-league competition are aimed at ending both the competitive and attendance problems.
Top suggestion is an all-star game putting the All-Public League against the All-Catholic. Second suggestion is a carnival-type game in which the first four teams in each league would take part. Each team would play one quarter against a team in the other league which finished in the same position.
La Salle Coach Tex Flannery was in a jovial mood after the game Saturday until he was informed of the Public League coaches’ plan.
“It’s ridiculous,” Flannery emphatically declared. “The game does too much good. It gives those who play in it something to remember in later years – not individual feats but team feats. It gives a team something to shoot for each season.”
Flannery, whose teams have won two city titles in his four years as coach, doesn’t have the advantage of spring practice. His team does, however, start full practice two to three weeks before the Public League.
