Dating back to 1893, the Male vs. Manual football game might be the oldest American football rivalry west of the Allegany Mountains, but even so, no two rivalry teams in Kentucky have seen the football field against one another than Bellevue and Dayton. Their rivalry dates back to the mid-1920s, and the Tigers and Green Devils have played each other 145 times in the years since. In more than 45 of those years they have played twice.

The all-time record for the series stands at 98-44-3 in Bellevue's favor. In more recent years, the district seeding game between the two has been dubbed "The Battle For The Paddle," with the winning team earning possession of the traveling trophy paddle until the next year's district game.

Dayton and Bellevue split wins last year, with Dayton winning their first meeting 36-12, and Bellevue turning around in the district game to win 21-12 and maintain possession of The Paddle.


 

 

This will be the year the Greendevils regain the Paddle. 

11 minutes ago, JoeTuck33 said:

This will be the year the Greendevils regain the Paddle. 

Agreed.

Dayton has only held possession of it once - the first year of the institution of the paddle trophy in 2007.