Pig Bowl turns 50: How the Sacramento charity football game started and how it has endured

Lou Stanfill’s body didn’t hurt nearly as much as his head, but it wasn’t anything that a hug from each of his three bounding little kids couldn’t soothe and heal.

The headache was the result of slipping on shoulder pads and a helmet for the first time since 2002, when he suited up for Jesuit High School. Stanfill made a return to blocking and tackling this month as a 6-foot-4, 245-pound package of fury in practice sessions featuring men in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

Stanfill is back in football gear because there’s a big game on the calendar, the 50th Pig Bowl — Guns and Hoses — at 1 p.m. Saturday at Sacramento City College’s Hughes Stadium. He is motivated by sentiment, competition and legacy. The game pits the law enforcement Hogs against the fire department Fire Dogs in a game for charity and to honor those who have been lost on the front lines of civil service.

“I’m 38 now, no spring chicken, and wearing a helmet for the first time in years,” said Stanfill, a member of the Sacramento Fire Department. “My head hurt, but it’s football and it’s great to be back in it..”

That his father, Roger Stanfill, played in 16 Pig Bowls still resonates. Stanfill grew up admiring his father, a decades-long member of the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office who set a rushing record in the Pig Bowl and played in his last one in 1997. Stanfill also admired his godfather, Dan Tonini, who played in 17 Pig Bowls in the 1980s and 90s.

In recent months, father encouraged son to give football one last go. That was an easy sell for a rugby lifer who isn’t afraid of contact any more than he is to take on a burning building. And there’s always a little bit of crazy when one plays football, especially when pushing 40.

“In rugby, I wasn’t super fast, but I was a grunt,” Stanfill said. “I did a lot of the dirty work. I was never shy of contact. The chance to go hit again, to be in a game that means so much, I had to do it. And there’s a bit of a legacy there. I want to do my name proud, like my dad. He’ll be at the game. If I’m in civil service and have a chance to play this game for charity, I should. I’m excited. It’s a pretty historical game.”

The oldest such game in the country has been played in sunshine and in rain and muck. It has raised more than $1.6 million in charity.

Pig Bowl origins

How did a game with the quirky name come about? How did the Pig Bowl become such a local social event, with sold-out Hughes Stadium offering only part of the action?

Throughout the 1970s, the parking lot that snakes around the stadium located off Freeport Boulevard was often a three-day, two-night party with a sea of motor homes and campers and enough beer to fill up the stadium. What to do about the noise? Call the cops?

After games, players celebrated, win or lose. The winners enjoyed their champagne and the losers their beer.

Former Sacramento State players and longtime local law enforcement officers Larry Crumback and Joe Enloe got the ball rolling on a tackle football game between local police and sheriffs after two years of flag football competition at Land Park. But you can’t hit anyone in flag football.

In 1973, those men approached local coaches Dick Sperbeck and Mike Clemons about making this a real thing, blocking and tackling for charity. Crumback and Enloe urged them to coach the initial game. The coaches agreed, collected gear, got some helmets and kicked off the first game on Jan. 11, 1975. Pig Bowl organizers hoped for 3,000 fans and at least one more game in 1976.

Players and event organizers were stunned to see that 19,500 showed up, and they are still numb that the game has endured so long. For more than 25 years, the game was held the day before the Super Bowl. The Pig Bowl was Sacramento’s Super Bowl as the region was still growing and still waiting for a major sports franchise to land in the state capital. That happened in 1985 with the arrival of the Sacramento Kings from Kansas City.

In the first Pig Bowl, Clemons elected not to have 51-year-old Lou Fatur attempt a short field goal to win it in the closing seconds, saying later he didn’t want “Lou to be remembered as the guy who missed the field goal and lost the game. We didn’t even know if we’d have another game.”

The police Bacon Bombers held off the sheriff’s RazorBacks and Fatur in that first contest, 18-17. Fatur kept on kicking, calling it a career as a Pig Bowl player at 60. He once told The Bee of the game’s allure: “It’s for charity, a good cause. Then again, I think people like to see cops and sheriffs go out and thump each other.”

In a 1999 Bee story, days before the 25th Pig Bowl, Fatur insisted he would have made that chip-shot field goal in the 1975 game, saying: “Clemons said he didn’t want me to have all that pressure. Pressure? Hell, I was a cop for 40 years. You call a game pressure? It was going to be like the movies. I was going to be a hero. No question, I would have made it. I’d have shot Clemons if I’d had my gun on!”“

But one potential problem. Fatur had a size-14 square-toe kicking shoe. His foot was a size nine. There have been no such shoe or kicking controversies since.

‘Pig’ origin and crowds of 30,200

For decades, the biggest football game in Sacramento was the annual Turkey Day Game between Sacramento High School and rival McClatchy, played on Thanksgiving weekend. Fans filled up 23,000-seat Hughes Stadium in the 1940s, 50s and 60s before the Turkey Day Game lost its luster, and, finally, its name by 1975 when the high school football playoffs were adopted.

The Pig Bowl filled some of that civic pride void, longtime Pig Bowl followers and players say. But what to call this game. In the 1970s, the derogatory name used for police was pig, so Pig Bowl organizers got creative and ran with it. For the Pig Bowl, the Pig stands for “Pride, Integrity, Guts.”

The second Pig Bowl drew 22,500. A year later, 26,500 squeezed in for the third game with the addition of end zone seats in the horseshoe stadium. In 1978, a crowd of 29,300 packed into Hughes Stadium, a record for a sporting event in Sacramento. The Bee reported that 17,300 beers were sold that day. For years, no beer was sold on site. For this anniversary game, beers will be flowing.

In 1982, some 30,200 jammed into Hughes Stadium, setting a still-standing regional record to attend a sporting event. Local TV carried the game in the early days, and the NBC affiliate would preempt Saturday Night Live to re-air the game at 11:30 p.m.

Over time, the game lost its appeal. Players got older and retired as football warriors. The novelty started to wear off. Local media didn’t cover it like a Super Bowl, not with the Kings playing, the rise of high school sports and the desire of seeing cops beat on each other in football gear losing its punch. Fans sent letters to the editor at The Bee either pleading for more coverage of the game or insisting it all stop.

By 1987, attendance dipped to 11,447, the lowest in the series. In 2002, the game was in dire need of a jolt and new life. It was decided that local law enforcement would be on the same side, the same team, and the opponent would be local firefighters.

The game bounced around at other venues and the crowds dwindled to 6,000. It drew about 10,000 last season at Hughes.

Filming opponent practices?

Behind the efforts of game director Cary Trzcinski, a longtime member of the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office, the Pig Bowl returned to Hughes Stadium last season. Since that contest, Trzcinski reached out to 50 former Pig Bowl players and coaches. He invited them to this game to be inducted into the game’s Hall of Fame during a halftime ceremony.

Both rosters have 90 players, though not all of them make every practice with job commitments.

“It’s game week, 50th anniversary, and it’s going to be crazy and fun,” Trzcinski said Tuesday with all manner of enthusiasm. “It’s the camaraderie, the friendships, the bonds these guys develop over the years that makes it worth it. It’s such a worthy cause. We want to keep this thing going.”

Trzcinski competed in 13 Pig Bowl games, playing linebacker and fullback. And competitive? Those juices still boil. Both teams for decades have accused the other side of sending a spy to practice to film and take notes.

“We’ve heard that already this week,” Trzcinski said with a laugh. “I hear it from both sides still, like people standing on the overpass by Sac City.”

Stanfill’s journey

Stanfill, the fireman rounding back into football shape, said he wants to live it up because he’s been knocked for a loop. He had his health scare.

In November of 2020, when his barber combed over a mole on his head, Stanfill went to visit his doctor to see if it was serious. It wasn’t, but the swollen lymph nodes in his neck were. Stanfill was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. He battled cancer as he went through the Sacramento Fire Department Academy.

“I came out of it shining on the other end,” Stanfill said. “I got rid of cancer and found myself a career.”

Stanfill has been cancer free since April of 2021. Stanfill and his wife, Kramer, have three young kids — Hayes, Winette and Augy. The little ones delight in their father’s career. They don’t see the danger in it. Kramer gave her blessing for husband to pursue his dreams as a fireman and to play this game.

“The kids love stopping by my work to see the engine, and every day I come home, it’s to a hero’s welcome,” Stanfill said. “This is such a big game. Think about coming up with the name Pig Bowl. What a sense of humor. We’ve lost that. It’s important for people to know that firefighters and those in law enforcement are real people, too, that we deal with stress, and that we’re community members, have families, and that we all want people to be safe.”