The Victory Bell is now in the possession of San Jacinto High School after the football team defeated Hemet 50-7 Friday. It will be painted in school colors and displayed in a case built by the school's woodshop class.
Hemet High painted and polished its treasured Victory Bell, leaving it gleaming with its trailer and frame in a color scheme of red, gold and white. It was ready for the resumption last Friday of its historic football rivalry clash with San Jacinto High.
It was polite for Hemet to bring the bell to San Jacinto in good condition, but it would have been more gracious if the paint had been orange instead of Bulldog red. The bell goes to the winner of the rivalry game. It was claimed by the Tigers on Friday for the first time since San Jacinto won in 1966.
The schools, which began the series in 1929, only had played four times since 1967 and not at all in the last half dozen years because bigger Hemet tended to dominate San Jacinto. Now that they are the same size and in the same league, the rivalry was renewed Friday. San Jacinto crushed Hemet, 50-7.
Garry Packham, the San Jacinto High principal who played for Hemet in the 1960s, said that despite its nice paint job in Hemet's school colors, the trailer and frame will become San Jacinto orange.
The bell is locked away to prevent its disappearance. The team likely will show off the bell at a San Jacinto School Board meeting. It will be displayed in a secure place in a case built by the school's woodshop class. Packham plans to host the bell for at least a few years. If Friday's lopsided contest was any indication, San Jacinto will keep it.
