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Closure Of Germantown High School Means End Of Thanksgiving Rivalry

By Mike DeNardo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A Philadelphia holiday tradition for nearly four decades is gone now, but it's not forgotten.

Alumni of now-closed Germantown High School have to find a new tradition, now that the 39-year-old Thanksgiving football showdown with Martin Luther King High is no more.

Michelle "Mickey" Grace, Germantown class of 2010, says there's a void, for sure:

"It's definitely weird. Just because, you know, it's a part of history. It's a part of your rights as alumni to go see your old school play the people you were taught to hate. And now, we don't have that."

Many Germantown students go to King now. King's new Thanksgiving rival is Imhotep Charter, and Germantown Alumni Association president Vera Peeples-Primus says Imhotep is honoring her alma mater at halftime:

"They thought it would be an injustice to have a game on the field and not recognize the legacy and the history of Germantown High School."

This is especially the case since the game is being played at Germantown High's Benjamin L. Johnston Stadium.

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