Philadelphia All-Star football game returns after hiatus

Football changed Doug Macauley’s life back in the 1960s.

After its three-year hiatus, the Philadelphia All-Star football game will continue to do the same for today’s players, Macauley hopes.

“The goal is to turn it into one of the best all-star games in the country,” Macauley, president of the game’s executive committee, said Saturday inside a garage adjacent to the Northeast High School football field.

“The game was started in 1975 and the whole mission was to showcase the talents of the city and help kids possibly get a look from college coaches, and many have gotten scholarships.”

Saturday’s game at Northeast High marked the first city all-star game since 2019. The pandemic and its aftermath had scuttled subsequent seasons.

The Public League won this year’s rain-soaked installment, 38-30, at Northeast.

Lincoln’s Khani Knight was named offensive MVP on the Pub side. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound quarterback and defensive back intercepted two passes, including one for a touchdown.

Mastery Charter North’s Quintine Wright earned defensive MVP honors, while, in defeat, Non-Public players Jamir Robertson and Eric Gardner earned offensive and defensive MVPs, representing Roman Catholic and Archbishop Wood, respectively.

In years past, current NFL players such as Jihad Ward (Bok Tech) and Teair Tart (West Philadelphia) used recognition or motivation from the all-star game to earn college opportunities.

There was no all-star game in 1966 when Macauley graduated from Northeast, but someone opened a door that helped Macauley play college football at Tulsa.

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Team managers had once mistakenly told Macauley he had been cut from Northeast’s team until his coach, Charles Martin, for whom Northeast’s field is now named, told Macauley he had better return to practice.

“He took me under his wing after that,” Macauley said. “He took me to practices, camps — everywhere.”

Creating opportunities for others is what motivated Macauley when the executive committee met last summer to plan this year’s game.

Macauley said they knew the game’s legacy would face challenges after missing several seasons.

A 2019 scandal involving allegations of embezzlement against the committee’s former president, Brian Fluck, likely didn’t help the game’s brand.

Macauley, though, said he and Cliff Hubbard, the former longtime Roxborough football coach and one-time executive director of athletics for the school district of Philadelphia, always planned to revive the game.

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Hubbard and Macauley were close friends who spoke weekly until Hubbard unexpectedly died in August.

Macauley spoke at the funeral and said the committee created a scholarship in Hubbard’s memory that could be awarded to an all-star player each year.

“I’m excited,” Macauley said of seeing their work come to fruition. “It’s always been our goal. Most of us played the game, coached the game, or evolved it somehow. We feel football brings people together from all walks of life.”

In order to organize this year’s game, though, Macauley and the committee also had to bring sponsors together.

Local businessman Mike Crawford, who owns the apparel company Holla Athletics, stepped in again.

Crawford, who represented Mastbaum for the Pub all-stars in 1997, helped rescue the 2019 game by donating free jerseys when the committee was hamstrung financially. His son, Mike Crawford III, also played in the 2017 game after starring at Imhotep.

SAFR helmets and Independence Blue Cross were among the other sponsors who made the game possible this season, Macauley said.

The future, he added, will require more support from sponsors, the city, and others.

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Former area standout and current Buffalo Bills lineman Ryan Bates, who nearly quit football for good before starring at Archbishop Wood and Penn State, Macauley said, is expected to support the game. Macauley hopes the game’s other alumni will follow.

“Many of our (committee) guys are retired,” Macauley said. “To be honest it takes a lot of legwork, and a lot of our legs are tired. We’re trying to get some of the younger guys involved to maintain the game and take it to another level.”