Harper chief, twin brother in a football family feud
Michigan and Minnesota battle it out each year for The Little Brown Jug, while Florida and Florida State have their Sunshine Showdown. And the new Land of Lincoln Trophy is awarded to the victor of Illinois vs. Northwestern.
Rivalries abound in college football but don't come naturally at the community college level.
That could change on Saturday, Oct. 24, when Harper College and Grand Rapids Community College, who are in the same football conference, take to the gridiron in what's being dubbed their first-ever Twin Bowl.
The idea was born this summer, when identical twin brothers Kenneth and Steven Ender took the helms of Harper College and Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan, respectively.
"Ken picked up on it before I did," Steven Ender said. "I had just been hired and he was being interviewed at Harper when he called me up and asked me if I realized these two schools played each other."
At stake - aside from sibling bragging rights - is the Twin Bowl trophy: identical face-to-face football players atop a cup. The loser also has to buy the winning brother a box of cigars.
The Harper Hawks are the defending NJCAA national champions, but the numbers say the edge belongs to the undefeated Grand Rapids Raiders, whose record climbed to 7-0 with a dominant win Oct. 10 over Joliet Junior College.
Meanwhile, attrition has hurt the Hawks, as 22 players from last year's team have moved on to four-year schools. And Harper is adjusting to the leadership of new head coach Eric Waldstein, who came to the Palatine campus after serving as an assistant coach at Cornell College in Iowa. Harper, whose record is 2-5, most recently dropped a 13-7 decision to Joliet.
"There's a lot of talent and pride at both of these great institutions," Kenneth Ender said. "The students are jazzed up about it."
So are the 59-year-old identical twin brothers, who will both be in attendance with plenty of other family members when the game kicks off at noon Central time at Grand Rapids' Houseman Field.