Peter Theofilis stalked the sidelines of a touch- football game Thursday and watched a new generation of family and community embrace a Thanksgiving tradition.
The inspiration for 12 Pittsburgh-area cousins to stage the first “turkey bowl” game sprouted out of services at a Greek Orthodox church in Oakmont.
On Thursday, the game celebrated its 50th anniversary. People from Oakmont and Moon — as well as those who came from homes as far as Maryland and Georgia — braved gray skies and occasional rain to take part.
“There’s people I see once a year and our families have known each other for hundreds of years,” said Theofilis, 64, a former Penn Hills High School tailback, as relatives and members of the Greek Orthodox community battled for the pigskin at Oakmont’s Riverside Park. “Now, we take a team picture every year. I like to look back to see how the kids have grown.”
“Yeah, it’s a reunion,” he laughed.
Theofilis has attended all 50 games. Damaged knees nudged him to the sidelines in his 50s.
But, regardless of where the dozens of people who turned out stood, you could sense the spirit of the day — an annual excuse to celebrate the holidays with family, imbued with a healthy dose of competition.
Players roared when a boy in a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey hustled into the end zone. When someone fumbled the ball or missed a catch, people playfully booed.
Zach Facaros called an informal timeout about 15 minutes into the game. The Moon Township resident, a podiatrist by day, said the games’ footballs were deflating.
“He’s using helium!” someone quipped, as he hand-pumped air into one of the balls.
“This is how Tom Brady got in trouble,” added another.
Facaros graduated from nearby Riverview High School in 1999. He comes to the family game, informally known as the Ikarian Turkey Bowl, religiously.
The game is named after Ikaria, an island in the Aegean Sea near where Icarus, a figure in Greek mythology, fell into the sea after he flew too close to the sun, melting the wax in his wings.
The island, where many of Thursday’s players were residents or the descendants of residents, sits about 125 nautical miles from Athens.
“There’s multiple generations playing at this point,” said Facaros, 43. “There are 50- and 60-year-olds playing alongside kids in the single digits — 8, 9, 10.”
Among those running routes to catch the football was Paul Murray, a retired Pittsburgh Public Schools science teacher.
He is 73.
Murray turned out around 9:30 a.m. Thursday in full gear. The former linebacker didn’t represent Homestead High School, his alma mater. Instead, he sported a red-and-white Spartans jersey from Schenley High School, where he worked as a substitute teacher.
“I remember one year we played, it was cold, really cold — but we still managed to play,” said Murray, who started playing in the game around 2010. “There’s kids. And we have fun with it.”
Some of the guys knew their stuff. John Panos, who makes his living as Fox Chapel School District’s assistant athletic director, perched on the sideline near Theofilis.
“I’ve been coming here 15 years, and I’m the newbie,” laughed Panos, 59, of Indiana Township. “But, now, my son’s out there on the field: It’s a new generation. And it’s a great little community.”
A touch of mourning lingered over some of the game, which was being held for just the second year without Nick Theofilis — a Penn Hills EMS paramedic and volunteer firefighter killed Nov. 27, 2022, in an ambulance crash in Pittsburgh.
The 23-year-old had played in the Ikarian Turkey Bowl just three days before the crash.
And that’s where Steven Mcginley entered the picture. The Greenfield-based carpenter was commissioned to create a trophy for the annual event.
“I had never actually done a trophy,” said Mcginley , 40, as he delivered the towering piece of reclaimed oak to the game Thursday morning. “I like to focus on things that are very robust. … It has to function first but it needs form. Form is almost as important.”
His trophy left plentiful space for the extended family to mount tags with the winners’ names. The piece was dedicated to Nick Theofilis.
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Nick’s father, who attended an event Wednesday marking the anniversary of the young man’s death, never saw it coming.
“I thought I did a good job holding it in yesterday,” Theofilis said. “With the trophy, it’s harder.”
“We’re quiet people but Nick wasn’t. He was over the top with everything,” he added. “This kind of stuff — being able to stand around, joke around — is good.”