CASTLETON-A sportswriter since 1973, Tom Haley can tell you every headline-grabbing thrill of covering a half-century of New England high school and college championships. But ask the 77-year-old where he draws his sweetest memories and he'll tap into his favorite off-season tradition: the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.
Growing up in Proctor, Haley promoted the annual football game between teenage all-stars from Vermont and New Hampshire long before he attended it at various twin-state stadiums. Megaphone in hand, for example, he would interrupt his student-announcing duties at a local Little League tournament to share radio updates of the Shrine score.
Haley covered his first Maple Sugar Bowl in 1975 (a Vermont victory, he remembers) and has reported on every one since. That's why he chronicled its 70th anniversary on Aug. 3 at Vermont State University's Castleton campus, even though he's also serving as its honorary grand marshal.
"Generations of families have played in the game," he said of an event that collectively has raised some $5 million for children's hospitals in New England and nearby Quebec. "There are all kinds of great stories."
Haley embodies one of them. Graduating from Castleton in 1973, he started his career as a part-time sportswriter at the Eagle Times in Claremont, New Hampshire while teaching at nearby Fall Mountain Regional High School. Moving to full-time reporting in 1981 - "I said to myself, 'I can get paid to go to games'" - he returned to his home state to begin his current Rutland Herald job in 1987.
Search the words "Tom Haley" and "Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl" in the archive website Newspapers.com and you'll find almost 1,000 of his stories, be they previews, daily updates from a week of training camp, event coverage, color pieces and postmortems.
Take the report about the Vermont father who competed in the 25th anniversary game and his son who followed on the 50th. Or the player who skipped 1969's Woodstock music festival for the matchup, then flew from his United Nations post in Sri Lanka a half-century later for a reunion.
"The 2000 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl is the best game in the history of the all-star high school football series that many people have seen," Haley wrote of the day Vermont beat New Hampshire 47-40. "The 1973 edition just might be the best that people didn't see."
That latter year, as much as two-thirds of the crowd left early with New Hampshire ahead 21-9 and 3:38 remaining, only to miss Vermont miraculously come back to win 22-21.
"It made for a game," Haley wrote, "that will likely be talked about as long as the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl is played."
Haley has won the Vermont Sportswriter of the Year award 10 times and been named to both the Castleton Sports and Vermont Principals' Association halls of fame.
"Tom has been a good advocate," said state Rep. Kristi Morris, D-Springfield, the Shrine Bowl's general chairman.
Although the event no longer draws the 18,000 spectators it did at Dartmouth College's Memorial Field in 1977, it still pulls a crowd of as many as 5,000 at its current home at Castleton's Dave Wolk Stadium.
The position of grand marshal, for its part, has morphed from presiding over a pregame parade that ended during the COVID-19 pandemic to presenting a keynote address at an opening banquet.
"I don't want to give away too much," Haley said of his speech, "but I'll offer some examples about the fact the star at the Shrine game could be any of the players."
Or, in Haley's case, a supporter on the sidelines. The sportswriter has six children and 12 grandchildren - one of the latter whom was selected to be a 2024 Shrine Bowl cheerleader.
Brookelyn Kimball, a recent Otter Valley Union High School graduate and soon-to-be Castleton student, wrote on the game's website that she was "ecstatic" to be chosen.
"I was even more excited to tell my grandfather about my new accomplishment as he is super involved," she continued. "I am thrilled to be able to share this experience with him."
If she can keep up, that is. Haley not only continues to work full-time at the Herald, but he also has written a book, the New England travelogue Maple Mayberrys and Other Sweet Spots.
"If I wake one day and say, 'It's just not fun anymore,' I will retire," Haley said. "But right now, the Shrine game is one of my favorite things. It has become greater and greater because of its endurance."
This Sports item by Kevin O'Connor originally appeared in VTDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.