The Doings Cup remains empty.
For the second consecutive football season, Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South won’t meet on the gridiron for their formerly annual game that became known as The Doings Cup.
The two Hinsdale High School District 86 schools first played each other in football in 1983 when coaches Gene Strode of Central and Dave Smith of South decided it was time to start a new tradition, according to information from Hinsdale Central.
Management of the Hinsdale Doings at the time donated a traveling trophy that was awarded each year to the game’s winner.
That started an uninterrupted run of Doings Cup games until 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And 2022 turned out to be the final game between the in-district rivals — for now.
Hinsdale Central Athletic Director Michael Jezioro, in his second year at the school, said the game, and the tradition, was dropped from the schedule because of a change in the structure of crossover games in the West Suburban Conference. Hinsdale Central is in the West Suburban Conference Silver Division, and Hinsdale South is in the league’s Gold Division.
“The (West Suburban Conference) used to have two mandated crossover games between the Gold and Silver, and it became too difficult to schedule, so now it went to one crossover game,” Jezioro said.
That means the two District 86 schools will now play each other on a rotating basis, as will be the case with the remaining six teams in the other division.
“I think at this point both schools have their non-conference games, and we don’t want to get into a situation where we would be on each other’s schedule twice in a year, with a non-conference game and a crossover,” Jezioro said. “There does not seem to be a big push from either school to get the game back on the schedule.”
Alex Mayster, executive director of communication for District 86, replied in response to questions directed to Hinsdale South Athletic Director Art Ostrow, that outside of the six West Suburban Gold games each year, Hinsdale South focuses on scheduling opponents with classification enrollments closer to its size, along with the the crossover games each season against teams in the West Suburban Silver.
Hinsdale Central has been in control of the series throughout the 2000s —the last time Hinsdale South took home the trophy was in 2001, capping a 1990s run in which South won nine times.
Central’s current enrollment is more than 2400, and South’s is more than 1300.
The year-by-year history of the Hinsdale Central vs. Hinsdale South Doings Cup football game:
1983 CENTRAL 14 SOUTH 6
1984 CENTRAL 27 SOUTH 7
1985 CENTRAL 32 SOUTH 0
1986 SOUTH 22 CENTRAL 0
1987 SOUTH 22 CENTRAL 0
1988 SOUTH 34 CENTRAL 0
1989 CENTRAL 21 SOUTH 0
1990 SOUTH 6 CENTRAL 0
1991 SOUTH 35 CENTRAL 7
1992 SOUTH 48 CENTRAL 14
1993 SOUTH 35 CENTRAL 20
1994 CENTRAL 26 SOUTH 9
1995 SOUTH 9 CENTRAL 7
1996 CENTRAL 20 SOUTH 7
1997 SOUTH 42 CENTRAL 13
1998 SOUTH 17 CENTRAL 6
1999 CENTRAL 55 SOUTH 27
2000 SOUTH 26 CENTRAL 20
2001 SOUTH 35 CENTRAL 27
2002 CENTRAL 48 SOUTH 14
2003 CENTRAL 24 SOUTH 19
2004 CENTRAL 38 SOUTH 14
2005 CENTRAL 27 SOUTH 0
2006 CENTRAL 31 SOUTH 7
2007 CENTRAL 31 SOUTH 3
2008 CENTRAL 51 SOUTH 14
2009 CENTRAL 34 SOUTH 7
2010 CENTRAL 48 SOUTH 13
2011 CENTRAL 48 SOUTH 7
2012 CENTRAL 28 SOUTH 27
2013 CENTRAL 34 SOUTH 7
2014 CENTRAL 17 SOUTH 14
2015 CENTRAL 42 SOUTH 38
2016 CENTRAL 45 SOUTH 14
2017 CENTRAL 28 SOUTH 7
2018 CENTRAL 42 SOUTH 12
2019 CENTRAL 21 SOUTH 7
2020 No Game
2021 CENTRAL 49 SOUTH 0
2022 CENTRAL 16 SOUTH 7
Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
