In Davis County's first Pig Bowl, the gray-sideburned doughnut rolls whipped the crew cuts with the washboard stomachs. It was Geritol over Gatorade.
The full-contact football game Saturday between Layton area police officers and the Hill Air Force Base Security Police was billed as a way to help bond police officers to their communities and Hill to its host cities.But what the game at Layton High School came down to was a contest between old and young.
Rod Dixon, who joined the Layton Police Department nine months ago, scored the first and only touchdown for Layton in the first quarter. The old-timers then hung on for a 7-6 win.
"The guys had a saying," said Pete Davis, Layton patrol officer and coach, "Age and will over youth and speed."
Indeed. Davis, with John Ledkins and Jerry Lukens, helped organize officers from Pleasant View to Salt Lake City and willed his teammates to practice once a week for two months.
On Hill's side, Paul Bellus, who had the idea for the game, practiced with his teammates for just three weeks.
The game featured a pep band, cheerleaders, a drill team and an announcer.
The Hill team wore uniforms on loan from Clearfield High School and Layton wore Layton High uniforms, except for 6-foot, 280-pound Miller Atagi, who fit better in a Weber State uniform.
"Those guys were half my age," Ledkins, 46, said afterward. "I'm just glad I'm not going to the hospital on a stretcher."
Ledkins ignored a herniated disk and bad knees to play. And despite the age difference, experience was on Layton's side.
Davis and two other officers played football in the Big Sky Conference. Jim Kortwright played semipro baseball. And Dixon played basketball at Weber State.
On the other sideline, half of the Hill AFB security officers had never played football. And only a few played in high school.
And then there was the size difference.
Two-thirds of Layton's 33 players weighed more than 200 pounds. Hill had only 11 players over 200.