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Turkey Bowl

Every Thanksgiving, residents at Duke internal medicine square off for a flag football game — lightly organized along the lines of who is serving at Duke Hospital and who is at the Durham VA, over the years the game has become a beloved tradition and opportunity for competition, camaraderie, and trash talk.

TRANSCRIPT

ACTUALITY:
NATSOUND Sounds of touch football game, up then under:

Male voice: “One banana two banana three banana”

Male voice, shouting: “Run! Run! Run!”

TRACK
On a field at Old Chapel Hill Road Park in Durham on Thanksgiving morning, two teams of medical residents play a game of flag football that is fierce…

Actuality
Thump of ball being intercepted, then loud cheering.

TRACK
high-level…

ACTUALITY

Referree — male voice: “We need to know what you guys have decided about the rules for this year…”

Male voice: Who’s keeping time? You got a flag? I got a flag…

Male voice:
“That’s enough rules,” followed by laughter

TRACK
And … respectful?

ACTUALITY
Male voice:
“The Duke Marines, we take a different approach to recruiting. It’s not just about size or athleticism — we think about about character and honor and integrity a lot.”

TRACK
The Marines’ opponents, the Jets, come from the Durham VA Medical Center and their approach is more …

ACTUALITY

Screamed pregame group chant:
“What time is it?” “Game time!”
“What time is it?” “Game time!”
“What time is it?” “Game time!”
“One, two, three, Go jets!!”

TRACK
Actually, since most residents rotate through both hospitals, everybody’s in it mostly for trash talk and bragging rights. It’s the Turkey Bowl, and for some 45 years, it’s been a way for the Duke Internal Medicine residents to blow off steam.

ACTUALITY
Referee:
I think the game started just because there was a little competitive thing with the chief residents at the VA and at Duke, and they would switch and there was this talking going on so they said let’s have a football game and figure out who’s best. The game sort of started and it just caught on and whoaaa…

TRACK
And then head referee Dr. Harvey Cohen got hit in the head with a football. But yes. The game started in 1973, in 1974 a resident described a resident catching the winning touchdown pass “with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth,” and things grew from there. Through the years, general agreement on a few points.

The great benefit of the game?

ACTUALITY
Female voice:
“It’s the family and camaraderie of our program that’s just part of our culture”

Male voice:
“Probably the biggest value is the camaraderie that’s promoted”

Male voice:
“It’s a great game. The camaraderie on both teams is phenomenal”

TRACK
Another point of agreement is the game’s importance:

ACTUALITY

Male voice:
People pick their allegiances pretty early… as soon as they come to Duke for residency. This year Mark, who is the VA chief, he started recruiting on day one of residency. He did something pretty clever, i have to give him credit for this, he wrote out this ‘I like pledge to play for the VA jets’ … got them all to sign this paper document, that looks like it was made by a three-year-old, essentially, it’s all scribbled, you can hardly read it…

TRACK
How important is the game?

ACTUALITY
Female voice:
Too important. To the people in playing? Extremely important. Of utmost importance.

Female voice:
It’s a matter of life and death for some faculty members i would say

Female voice:
When we were recruited? When we were interviewing? There were two things we talked about: Turkey Bowl and the Christmas party

TRACK
So, okay, the game. It goes by pretty much the usual rules,

ACTUALITY
Referee:
“The defense counts out loud, one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, so we can hear it “

TRACK
Which means it sounds just like it did on your street growing up:

ACTUALITY
Male voice, extremely fast: “onemississippitwomississippithremississippi”

TRACK
This year’s game included some wonderful plays

ACTUALITY
Cheering

TRACK
Some disappointing plays

ACTUALITY
Female voice:
Oh, come on! Someone has to be on him! Oh you guys are so … Oh my goodness, thank you whoever that was, Francis.

TRACK
The usual disputes

ACTUALITY

I respectfully disagree!

TRACK
And some common-sense rules:

ACTUALITY
Referee:
If somebody hits the referees, the game is over and you lose. That’s the most important…

TRACK
Someone won,

ACTUALITY

Team chanting: J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!!

NATSOUND under, sound of handshake line: “good game, good game, nice catch, nice touchdown,” etc.

TRACK
But in the end, it’s hard-working residents playing hard. For the rest of us,

ACTUALITY
Female voice:
“I appreciate the camaraderie although I don’t understand the game.”

TRACK
This has been an audio postcard by Duke Magazine.

ACTUALITY
Continued handshake line:
“Good game, good game.”