Crosstown rivalry reaches 50

Don Bucci had been football coach at Cardinal Mooney for just a few years when he started getting invitations to speak at Ursuline's pep rally before the Mooney-Ursuline game.
In return, Irish coach Tom Carey spoke at Mooney.
"I got booed over there and he got booed here," Bucci said with a laugh. "They stopped that pretty quickly."
On Saturday, the two teams will meet for the 50th time, with the Cardinals leading the all-time series 31-15-3. (Unless you count 2001, when Ursuline won 39-6 but later had to forfeit the win.)
They first met in 1958, when a young quarterback named Jim Traficant led the Cardinals to an 8-6 upset win at South High Stadium.
They've played each other every year since, including twice in the 1968 regular season. They also met twice in the playoffs -- 1990 and 1995 -- with Mooney winning both meetings.
Trying to remembermemorable games
Bucci coached in 37 Mooney-Ursuline games from 1966 to 1999 and he counts them among his most memorable. Just don't ask him to name his most memorable in the series.
"I really can't offhand," he said. "But we had some great battles."
OK. Well, do you remember your first one?
"Well, let's see. My first year was 1966 and I don't really know how we did that year," he said.
For the record, he won 26-20, which was pretty typical. Under Bucci, the Cardinals went 26-10-1 against Ursuline, including seven straight from 1976-82. And while he doesn't quite remember his first, he does remember his last, when the Cardinals won 34-0.
"That was a memorable game," he said. "It was a tough game until our little upback [Ryan Krispinsky], who we never threw a pass to, went right down the middle and Matt Kubik threw it to him.
"I can still see him scampering in."
Longtime rivalry,longtime rivals
The most memorable games may have come against Dick Angle, who coached the Irish from 1979-96 and went 5-15 against the Cardinals.
"He and I kind of went at it," Bucci said.
Each year, during Ursuline-Mooney week, students decorate the lockers, hold pep rallies and, every once in awhile, do things they shouldn't.
"There were a few years when they did a little damage at the other school," Bucci said. "But 98 percent of the time it's a great rivalry."
Bucci retired after the 1999 season and P.J. Fecko took over in 2000. Fecko, a 1993 Mooney graduate, lost to Ursuline his senior year, when Irish quarterback Tim Tyrell (now the coach at St. Thomas Aquinas) threw for one touchdown and ran for another in a 17-6 win.
It was Ursuline's only win from 1993-99.
Fecko lost his first two Ursuline games as Mooney coach. He's since won two straight, including last year's 24-21 victory.
The first tastein a new place
Ursuline coach Dan Reardon, on the other hand, has never coached or played in the rivalry. Reardon graduated from Canfield and was an assistant at Warren Harding before being hired last spring.
"The game obviously has a tremendous amount of tradition," said Reardon. "And I think that's born of a couple things. First, both teams have a mutual respect for each other. Second, there's been an awful lot of years when this game had high stakes as far as conference championships and playoff standings.
"This year is no different."
With a win, the Irish (5-3, 1-0) can clinch their first outright Steel Valley Conference title since 1975. With a loss, they'll be hard-pressed to make the playoffs.
It's the same for Mooney (5-2, 0-1), who finish the season with a home game against Columbus Bishop Watterson, the same team that defeated the Irish last week.
"As coaches, you want to play well every week, but I think the kids and the fans and the boosters and the student body all turn it up a notch this week," Reardon said. "You just try to keep an even-keel and not get too wrapped up in the hype."
Bucci followed the same formula in his coaching career and, obviously, had some success against the Irish.
And don't think he doesn't know it.
"Yeah, I always felt kind of proud of that," he said, chuckling.
XJoe Scalzo is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.