Wellesley has a rich football tradition that peaks each Thanksgiving morning when the Raiders and Rockets meet, as they’ve been doing since 1882 in the oldest public high school rivalry.

Lesser known is the Family Bowl, a touch football tradition that started on New Year’s Day 25 years ago and is held annually.

Commissioner John E O’Neil, a former MVP, shares the history:

On New Year’s Day in 2001 a bunch of Wellesley-based families and friends got together to play a touch football game on the Wellesley High School football field. Middle-aged men in their thirties and their teenage sons and daughters tossed the pigskin around playing two-hand touch football with the emphasis on good sportsmanship and fun, not so much on winning. The game expanded the next year to include even more friends and family. Traditions evolved over the years to include a champagne toast after the game among all the players to celebrate the family connection, along with trophies for MVP, Offensive Player, Defensive Player, Unsung Hero and Sportsmanship awards. As time went on and the game was played each year, rain or shine, sleet or snow, it took on a higher level of importance as it became an anticipated event with a party to follow. At the party we laughed and bonded more as a family and told differing accounts of how the game was played and who did what which sometimes brought out differing opinions and hearty laughter.

Family Bowl — Commissioner John E O’Neil alongside referee/scorekeeper
Mark DelVecchio, longtime Wellesley resident and original cast member

As the years went by some of the older original players dropped out and new ones came on board, including a man who comes from California each year to participate. We still play two-hand touch with 7 or 8 or even 9 players on each side but we’ve added a referee complete with penalty flags, a scorekeeper and a timekeeper. We have a Commissioner and Treasurer to keep things going and we bought cones to line the field, red and yellow pinnies to distinguish the players, and better and more expensive trophies as the tradition continued uninterrupted all while maintaining good sportsmanship as the theme of the game. About ten years ago, knowing this event needed a name, we dubbed it the Family Bowl given that all the players were considered family.

We’ve had some quirks these past twenty-five years, including a concussion to one of the players that cost him cognitive issues for several months. There have been grumblings and arguments about who was or wasn’t in or out of bounds or how many hands made a tag, but the highly competitive nature of some players has been held in check. One particular quirk involves an unusual habit where one of the original players wears drop-seat pajamas to the game and screams “Kill, Crush, Destroy,” as he hurtles toward family members on kickoffs, some of whom may be his own children. The wives, girlfriends and young children watching on the sidelines have become accustomed to this behavior and ignore it.

In one of the earliest years of the game, long before funding was approved for the real trophies handed out now (acrylic beauties with the year and type of award inscribed), one of the prizes for Unsung Hero was a nip of butterscotch rum. The totally dissatisfied look on the recipient’s face was a sight to see which was quickly eased when he was told never to drink the contents, but to keep it as a reminder of his outstanding athletic achievement and reminisce whenever he looked at the tiny bottle. Not sure he bought that explanation.

When the 2026 Family Bowl takes place on January 3 at noon, the men and women who participate will range in age from being in their 60s to teenagers, including a third-generation player who was not yet born when the first game took place and is the son and grandson of two of the original participants.

We hope and pray the Family Bowl lasts for many more years.