Few teams in the state will open the 2012 football season with both as much change and as much tradition as Perry and Greene County. The Blue Jays and Rams play a freshmen game at 4:45 p.m. with the varsity contest to follow at 7:30 p.m. at Linduska Field in Jefferson on August 24. The game is the first in football for the Jefferson-based squad known as the Greene County Rams, which has students from the three school districts in Greene County; East Greene, Jefferson-Scranton, and Paton-Churdan. It will also be the first 11-player game on the high school level for those who played previously at EG, as the Hawks were an eight-player program.

The tradition part of the rivalry dates back to 1898 when the Perry Y.M.C.A. team defeated Jefferson High School in Jefferson’s first-ever high school football game. The high school teams from the two communities began playing after that, and except for a few short interruptions, have been playing ever since. The Rotary Clubs from Jefferson and Perry donated a cowbell in 1928 and the winning school has kept the bell until the game the following year.