Living just outside Philadelphia, we’re no strangers to sports rivalry. Whether a diehard Phillies’ fan with a hatred for the Red Sox and Yankees, or an Eagles enthusiast that can’t stand to talk to a Cowboys fan, heated sports rivalry is as essential to life in the Mainline area as air is to fire. With that being said, it’s no surprise that this tendency towards heated rivalry seeps into high school sports. The rivalry between Malvern Preparatory School and The Haverford School is historic and impactful, not just in sports competitions but also among the young men who attend these schools.
Founded in 1887, the Inter-Academic League, more commonly known as the Inter-Ac, holds 138-year-old beef between many of the most spirited preparatory schools in the country. It’s no mystery that the two all-boys schools developed a distaste for one another. This duel of pride, skill, and passion transcends time, encompassing numerous generations of men who now teach, coach, and study at these prestigious institutions.
Mr. Ronald Algeo ’87, Associate Head of School, coached at Haverford for a short time, thus providing a perspective from both sides of the story.
“I think that this rivalry wasn’t like this when I was a student, because honestly, they weren’t very good in a lot of sports… I think they’ve done a really good job of, you know, being consistent across the board in many sports [as of recent]. So it’s pushed us to get better,” said Algeo when commenting on how the rivalry has changed since his time at Malvern.
As times change, so does the tug-of-war between these powerhouses. Even though Malvern had the advantage in Algeo’s era, this was not always the case. In the years that followed, the gap whittled away until Haverford looked eye to eye with Malvern athletics. Haverford has found great success in its Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Lacrosse teams, winning Inter-Ac titles throughout the late 1900s and early 2000s.
“So Malvern was unscored upon. So we had several goals. One of them, we wanted to win the game,” recalled Algeo from his time coaching at Haverford, providing insight from their side of the story.
From Algeo’s time coaching, seemingly nothing is different. On both sides of the rivalry, the goal is always to win. No matter how daunting a task, beating the other half of the rivalry is always a possibility in the minds of these young athletes.
Mr. Jeffery Carroll ‘02, Student Academy Leader and Malvern Football Coach, played for Malvern during some of their more dominant years.
“I remember during my brother’s time, in ’96 or ’97, Malvern was up 52-0 and we were kneeling the ball with over 8 minutes to go. We continued to beat them over the next few years… We had shut out our first two Inter-Ac opponents, EA and Penn Charter, and were on the verge of our third when Haverford scored a touchdown on a fake field goal. We were still up a few scores, but we were disappointed to give up the scoreless streak,” Carroll recalled.
The heated memories of these games remain burned into the minds of those who participate in them. All of them being incredibly impactful on the relationship between the two schools as well as the students who played and fought in them. As Haverford and Malvern traded wins and losses from 1995 to 2015, the rivalry grew increasingly intense.
The tension between the two schools is so severe that it has become a focal point of people’s experience 20 years later. The memories of victory or defeat are not the main idea; rather, it is how badly they beat them.
“Then, they scored on another fake field goal. I found the choice to even try for two fakes to be bush league. Clearly, their head coach didn’t believe in them. But shame on us for being fooled twice. The final was 34-19 in our favor, but they celebrated like they won the Super Bowl. I guess a 16-point loss was the most they could hope for,” Carroll provided.
Coach Matt Mackrides ’08’, Assistant Athletic Director and Head Lacrosse Coach, provides insight from his time playing in the highly competitive Malvern versus Haverford games, as well as coaching them.
“This was a 5-5 game in the fourth quarter and eventually went into overtime. With a lot of back and forth in overtime, we got the ball back with about 15 seconds to go in overtime. Our play that Coach McEvoy drew up kind of fell apart, so it was a scramble. My junior teammate Tom Hueber passed the ball to senior Jason Malcom, who shot the ball and scored with 1.9 seconds left in overtime to win us the EPSLA [Eastern Penn. Scholastic Lacrosse Association] Championship,” Mackrides said when recalling his most memorable experience playing against Haverford.
Truly beginning in the 2005s and continuing to today, the shared Lacrosse rivalry is arguably the closest and most tense of all Malvern vs. Haverford encounters. It is also the least predictable among the individual sports rivalries, consistently producing close games between the two programs. As both programs are elite by Pennsylvania standards, they look elsewhere for competition, playing prestigious lacrosse programs across the East Coast. Therefore, when these teams settle down for the end-of-the-season league play, they are as prepared as possible for the pinnacle game of their season. This slow burn leading up to the larger ignition allows for suspense and emotions to rise, which can sometimes lead to negative fallout.
“Also, the game does not define you as an athlete at Malvern Prep. I put a lot of emphasis on things bigger than the game itself. Being a good person, representing Malvern and their families the right way. These are way more important aspects of playing lacrosse for Malvern Prep,” Mackrides volunteered, highlighting the fragile balance between passion and sportsmanship.
The ideas about remaining respectful and sportsmanlike presented by Coach Mackrides are undoubtedly shared by both schools.
Mr. Michael Murphy, former head football coach and Director of Athletics at The Haverford School, spoke to his experience with the respect that comes from the rivalry.
“As a young head coach in the league and even back to my time as an assistant coach at EA [Episcopal Academy] prior to becoming the Haverford head coach, Gamp [Pellegrini, long-time and Hall of Fame Malvern football coach] always took the time to catch up before games and let me know what a good job we were doing building the program and how our team was getting better, etc. I just always had tremendous respect for him, how he led, and what he had built at MP. So the year after that final game, I wore a white dress shirt and tie, his signature look, to coach, and I think he really appreciated that,” Murphy, when asked to recall a rivalry moment that stood out to him, spoke unprompted about respect and sportsmanship.
This level of respect demonstrated by both coaches reflects that which is shared and practiced by the players. In such an intense rivalry, it’s easy for the passion to turn into hatred for the team you’re playing. Thanks to the outstanding people at the head of these organizations, this turmoil is short-lived and discouraged. Within athletic competitions, respect between players and coaches is upheld, but off the field, however, the line is far more trampled.
As the history between the two schools lengthens, so does the allure around rivalry games. Bringing a student section to an away game is sought after by many school spirit and pride organizations, yet is achieved by few. Malvern Preparatory School and The Haverford School almost never fail to assemble the full force of their student bodies at away games. Once the mob mentality sets in and individual codes are overshadowed by the shared ideas of many, this rivalry becomes one of the most heated, prideful, and aggressive battles in high school athletics. It becomes not a competition between whose team does the best, but rather whose chants are louder and whose shouts sting the hardest.
“I wish the rivalry were a little healthier than it is now. It seems like both sides have taken it too far with things like planting flags on our turf, our guys storming the court after a regular-season basketball win, and some other very poor choices by both fan bases. We should opt to leave it all on the field,” Coach Carroll said.
This begs the question: has the feud gone too far? Are we too involved with a high school sports rivalry to the point that it becomes detrimental to both schools, on both a student-by-student level and an organizational level?
“It kind of starts as soon as you get to Malvern… It’s pretty mandatory. I mean, as soon as you get here, it’s like, the Malvern – Haverford games are the mandatory ones you got to go to… It’s like, we’re not fans of them. Sometimes it goes a little too far,” a Malvern sophomore said.
“They just don’t have class, they’re very immature about the rivalry, especially when they lose,” said another anonymous student reflecting on his experience with rivalry games.
It’s clear that the Malvern students feel a certain way about the opposition, a feeling which is surely mirrored by Haverford students. However, it’s clear that the people who have experienced the rivalry and moved on do not hold grudges; instead, they take away respect and lessons from conflict. No matter who was interviewed, the idea of respecting one another, to at least some degree, was discussed, reflecting the deep tradition and the high standards demanded by both schools. This rivalry is one that will continue to live on for generations to come, leading to more intense battles, the occasional ugly spot, but most importantly, moments of respect between two powerhouse all-boys schools.
