Discussions are underway for a 2008 gridiron contest between the neighboring towns of Portville and Olean.  The Springtime date and location of the epic game have yet to be determined, but both alumni squads are recruiting players from the recent and distant past.

 

It will be the 5th year of alumni football for the Panthers, who crushed Allegany in 2006 and 2007.  Olean stunned Salamanca last year at Bradner Stadium, after losing a close one to the Warriors in 2005.  Talk of the game is escalating.

 

Portville is rallying their troops and over 20 players have committed to play against the Huskies.  According to Big Jim Hawbaker, who has been an expert in the Twin Tiers football scene for the past 60 years, "Even though Olean is four times the size of Portville, I think the Panthers match up good.  I hear that Welty and Hellwig are a go."

 

The Olean gang is led by Steve Estes and Bob Kosinski (a local legend who plays QB, RB, and LB).  "We'll beat 'em just like I predicted we would beat Salamanca," Kosinski recently commented.

 

The young bucks of Portville who frequent the popular Olean watering holes claim that the trash-talking began this past summer.  The players are anxious to see what will happen between two towns that are so close, but who have never played each other on the varsity gridiron level.

 

"The only official high school game between the towns came in 1945," notes Big Jim.  "During the Second World War, when gasoline was being rationed, teams had to play confined schedules.  That year, Portville beat the Olean JVs in an official game, 9-0.  The Olean varsity was in a much bigger league with Jamestown, Salamanca, Springville, and those schools."

 

According to local history, the first known battle between peoples from Portville and Olean occurred around 1655, when the Iroquois Nation defeated the Erie Nation along the Allegheny River.  At that time, the Eries occupied the Allegheny River region, while the Iroquois (particularly the Senecas) ruled the Genesee River and central New York.

 

The Erie Indians had a village in Olean, but Portville constituted a sacred hunting ground for both tribes.  Over the years, the two nations fought each other on many fronts throughout the Twin Tiers, but the stronger and more numerous Iroquois were able to set up more hunting camps in the Erie territory.

 

The Iroquois finally decided to rid the region of their pesky enemy, especially since the new European colonists were pushing them from the East.  In 1655, an epic war took place, starting at the big bend of the Genesee River, near Rushford.  The Iroquois (mostly Senecas) attacked the Erie warriors from the front and ambushed them from the sides.  The Iroquois routed the Erie and chased them down toward the Allegheny River.  Seneca camps in Portville joined their comrades when they reached Olean, and the dimished Erie soldiers grabbed their families and headed into Pennsylvania.

 

The Iroquois sent the remaining opponents down the Allegheny and obliterated them from Western NY history.  The Senecas then set up their own villages along the river and in the area of present-day Salamanca and the State Park, as well as the south end of Cuba Lake.

 

Seneca war camps have been found in Portville - on the hill above the cemetery overlooking Dodge Creek and on Salt Rising Hill near Bolivar.  These locations were probably used by the victors during the Great Erie War.

 

"I've been up Salt Rising to see the big war circle they made.  It's a grassy hump that goes around the woods, but you would miss it if you didn't know what you were looking for", reveals Big Jim.

 

Portville was connected to Olean by an ancient Native American path called the Forbidden Trail, which stretched all the way from Olean to the Susquehanna River near Elmira.  Up until 1800, white men were forbidden to travel upon it, and it was only used by the Erie, Iroquois, Delaware, and Susquehannok nations.

 

After 1655, the Senecas took complete control of the special trail and the rivers of the Southern Tier.  The Olean valley became an important place for them, and around 1750, Chief Cornplanter was born...some say in Olean, across the Olean Creek from where Bradner Stadium now sits.  This was also the spot where Olean was first settled by Adam Hoops and his pioneers.

 

So, 353 years after the epic war between the Iroquois and the Erie, Portville is once again challenging the athletes of Olean to a battle of turf.  Both squads are feeling confident after huge 2007 victories in their respective alumni clashes.

 

Hopefully, the powers that be will iron out the details of where and when the contest will occur.