ESPN RISE

The sign on the press box of the Silver Bowl, where Mount Carmel (Pa.) plays its home football games, this week will read "770."

As in 770 victories, and counting.

No other Pennsylvania school has won more often than this one, which is located in an old coal town some 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia and some 50 miles southwest of Wilkes-Barre. And while Mount Carmel has been losing residents for years -- the borough's population of 6,390 (as of the 2000 census) was roughly one-third what it had been 70 years earlier -- it doesn't lose often when it comes to football.

In fact, only Valdosta, Ga. (841), Louisville Male (784), Massillon, Ohio (783), and Little Rock Central (771) have more victories. And rest assured that the news spread quickly late Friday, when it was learned that the Red Tornadoes' victory over Central Columbia, in combination with a loss by Little Rock Central, allowed Mount Carmel to move within a game of the Arkansas-based school.

Phil Gergen saw to that. He is the sports information director for the Tornadoes -- not exactly a formal position, but one he takes seriously -- and the one who came up with the idea for the sign, after discussing it several years ago with a friend in New Castle, out in the western part of the state. He said it would be interesting to see which school made it to 600 victories first. Some Mount Carmel alums put their wallets behind his brainstorm, and before long, there it was.

So when Gergen caught wind of the Little Rock result, he made sure to get coach Mike Brennan on the phone, figuring it's always nice to put that out there, and give everyone something to shoot for.

Brennan, while certainly appreciative, has more immediate concerns. His team went 6-5 last year, 4-6 the year before. The goal this season, he said, is to "put Mount Carmel back on the map." And the Tornadoes, off to a 5-0 start, survived their toughest test to date against Central Columbia, winning 29-15.

"I said we're not going to find out how good we are until something goes wrong," he said. "Well, things went wrong for us."

Brennan, 39, came to Mount Carmel in 2000 after coaching at a high school in nearby Pottsville, and a few years after playing on the offensive line at Temple. He said that upon arrival he immediately became aware of the "overwhelming sense of responsibility to the past players and coaches."

He won a state championship his first year, and another in his third -- the last two of five Mount Carmel won in the even-numbered years between 1994 and 2002, in the state's second-smallest enrollment class. And along the way he immersed himself in the town's many traditions. Like the rivalry with nearby Shamokin. And the weekly get-together with fans known as the Supper Club.

It used to be the Breakfast Club, said the 76-year-old Gergen, who has remained the SID since retiring in 1993 after 21 years on the Mount Carmel faculty (and 21 years in Naval intelligence before that). But when the administration decided several years ago to begin the school day earlier, a change had to be made.

So the Supper Club was born. It convenes every Thursday night during the season at 6:30 p.m., at a restaurant in town called Mattucci's. Dozens of fans show up -- there were 77 last week, Gergen reported -- and Brennan brings five players and two cheerleaders, along with other students involved in the football program. One week it might be the managers. Another it might be the chain gang. Still another it might be the kids who broadcast replays of the games on Wednesday nights, on the school's student-run TV station.

The students leave after a while, and Brennan then fields questions. He said it's a "lot of fun." He also said that he's almost never asked why somebody's son isn't playing more -- either in that forum, or any other.

"I've had one parental call in nine years," he said. "People will not believe that. The perception is that I have a very tough job, but really the school board, administration, athletic department and parents are very supportive. … I think the parents have trust in what we're teaching their kids, and they let us coach."

It helps that they win, and win often. As the sign indicates.

Mount Carmel's traditions are among many in a tradition-rich state. Here are a few more:

Unrivaled rivalries

The rivalry between the two largest high schools in Erie, Cathedral Prep and McDowell, is far from the oldest in the state. That would be the one between Penn Charter and Germantown Academy (in Philadelphia's Inter-Academic League), which dates back to 1887 and is believed to be the nation's longest continuous series. (Penn Charter holds a hefty 77-33-1 lead.)

Nor is McDowell-Cathedral Prep the state's most storied rivalry. That would be the one between Easton and Phillipsburg, N.J., two cities that sit on opposite sides of the Delaware River from one another. Their schools will meet for the 102nd time on Thanksgiving Day, in a game that divides families (for a day, at least) and is regarded in such a way that on those occasions in recent years when the teams have had playoff games scheduled for Saturday, two days after the rivalry was slated to be renewed, each game has gone on as planned. Never mind that that meant playing twice in three days; they did it, while acknowledging that the first game meant more than the second. That will never change.

But the Cathedral Prep-McDowell rivalry took on a new meaning this year, when a former Cathedral Prep player named Mike Freeman, having lost his mother, Janice, to breast cancer five years ago, asked athletic director Bill Flanagan to consider making the schools' Aug. 29 meeting a fundraiser for cancer research, as well as a tribute to those who have been diagnosed with the disease. Flanagan approached McDowell AD Brian Fuller with the idea, and the Courage Bowl was born.

On game night the players, wearing pink breast-cancer ribbon stickers on their helmets (not to mention sweatbands that were either pink or blue, for prostate cancer), ran through a human tunnel of cancer survivors while taking the field. A portion of the gate from McDowell's 43-23 romp, as well as countless donations -- some $17,000 in all -- was passed along to a local cancer center, and the Erie branch of the American Cancer Society.

The plan now is to make the Courage Bowl an annual event.

Notes on other rivalries:

• Reading High and Lancaster High (now J.P. McCaskey) have been meeting since 1892, while Reading and Pottsville have been squaring off since 1894. The latter two schools, located in or near the state's coal region, vie for the Lump of Coal Trophy.

• There are two trophies called the Old Shoe -- one going to the winner of the Muncy-Montgomery game (in the north-central part of the state), the other going to the winner of the Dallas-Lake-Lehman game (northeast). Both are random cleats of no particular significance, which were long ago bronzed.

• It's not just bragging rights that are at stake when Rochester and Monaca meet in the final game each year, in the state's western half; it's naming rights. If Rochester wins, the bridge on the road connecting the two towns is called the Rochester-Monaca Bridge, and vice versa.

• Mahanoy Area and Shenandoah Valley face off each year for the Damato-Szematowicz Trophy, named after the first soldiers from each community to die in World War II -- Shenandoah Valley's Anthony Damato and Mahanoy Area's Jerome Szematowicz.

What's in a name?

The list of colorful school nicknames throughout the state is seemingly without end. There are Cedars (Lebanon) and Shamrocks (Trinity) and Dynamos (Springdale) and Canners (Biglerville). There is a Thundering Herd (Carlisle) and a Red Tornado (McCaskey) -- which is not to be confused with Mount Carmel's Red Tornadoes. There are also Grenadiers (Wilkes-Barre GAR, which stands for Grand Army of the Republic) and Polar Bears (Northern, in York County) and Canaries (Allentown Allen).

Here, in reverse order, are the best nicknames:

Fifth runner-up: Karns City Gremlins. Remember: No water, no food after midnight and no bright lights.

Fourth runner-up: North East Grapepickers. The school is near Lake Erie, where vineyards abound. (And just for good measure, the school's mascot dresses up in a Fruit of the Loom-type costume.)

Third runner-up: Williamsport Millionaires. A nickname that dates back to the early 1900s, when because of the lumber industry the city had the highest per-capita concentration of millionaires in the country.

Second runner-up: Ben Franklin Electrons. Though the old nickname of this Philadelphia Public League school, the Poor Richards (as in Poor Richard's Almanac), might have been even better.

First runner-up: Mars Fighting Planets. And there is a replica spaceship in the middle of this town, 25 miles north of Pittsburgh. And your winner is: Boiling Springs Bubblers. The town, located in the south central part of the state, not far from Carlisle, has many underground springs. And the spring area, athletic director Scott Govern said, is called "the bubble."

In addition, there is a lake in the middle of town that maintains a year-round temperature of 52 degrees, so that in the winter it bubbles up, as if boiling.

Govern said there was a movement about a decade ago to change the school's nickname to Ironmen, since there are also many foundries in the area. But he added, "It's not ever gonna happen. Bubblers is what it is."

Can't beat that.

And so on …

The state's traditions run high and wide -- as high as the hill from which North Hill's Rowdy Rooters watch their team each week, and as wide as the bandwidth used by a Web site run by a sportswriter named Ted Silary.

The Rowdy Rooters, easily identifiable by an illuminated sign, camp out in the driveway of a home overlooking Mario Martorelli Stadium in Pittsburgh. And while noisemakers are not allowed in the stadium itself, the Rowdies have no such restrictions; they sound a siren every time North Hills (which has produced players such as LaVar Arrington, the former Penn State and Washington Redskins star) does something good.

"They don't cause any trouble," said Jerry Di Paolo, who covers high schools for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "but they make their presence known."

As does Silary, the longtime prep writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. His site, tedsilary.com, includes the usual information, as well as the unusual. It is duly noted, for instance, that Overbrook High once faced a fourth-and-goal from its own 30. That Germantown's roster once featured six different players whose last name was Johnson. That a Washington player named Jeff Capriotti once had punts of 81 and minus-10 yards in the same game.

There's more. That's true, in fact, no matter where you look in the state.

At Manheim Township, near Lancaster, the fight song sounds much like the one at the University of Michigan -- which stands to reason, since head coach Mike Melnyk used to be a kicker for the Wolverines. At Aliquippa, the alma mater of Mike Ditka, a student in Native American garb rides out on horseback before games and plants a flaming spear at midfield, much like they do at Florida State. And at Berwick, they collect trophies. The Bulldogs have won six state titles, more than anybody else, and three mythical national championships.

Which is as good a place as any to end. Though the traditions themselves never will.

Gordie Jones is a freelance writer in Pennsylvania. Leroy Boyer, Pottsville Republican; Ben Brigandi, Williamsport Sun-Gazette; Jerry DiPaolo, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Mike Drago, Reading Eagle-Times; Rod Frisco, Harrisburg Patriot-News; Keith Groller, Allentown Morning Call; George Guido, Valley News-Dispatch; Jeff Kirik, Erie Times-News; Eric Knopsnyder, Johnston Tribue-Democrat; Ted Silary, Philadelphia Daily News; Paul Sokoloski, Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader; Eric Thomas, Carlisle Sentinel; and Mike White, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, contributed to this article.