The question of when it all began is debatable. The well-known Fountain Valley-Edison rivalry began in 1969, but the Battle for the Bell began in 1975. How did Edison and Fountain Valley come to be such enemies?
When Edison High School first came to the Huntington Beach School District in 1969, transfer students poured in from FVHS and HBHS. Transfer students at both schools were early-on informed if they were to transfer to Edison in a few weeks. While Huntington kept the soon-to-be transfer students in the football program until they officially left, Fountain Valley dropped the transfers on the football team from the program roster, believing that they were weren’t going to be playing as Barons anytime in the future. According to first football Edison coach, Bill Vain, this was a plot Fountain Valley had developed from the very beginning to defeat the EDH football team. So the Chargers pushed their limits to challenge the Barons. In the very first year, the unseasoned varsity football players from Edison beat the CIF-bound Barons in a devastating 21-20 score, a Baron loss. And so the Bell Game originated from the rivalry, a game to prove which team has got it all.
In the first six years of the rivalry (FV lost four games, won once, and tied once) the annual football game that drew crowds in the thousands offered a prize of pride and the feeling of being undefeated. However, in 1975, Dave Hagen, FVHS activities coordinator and Ben Garrett of Edison High decided to find a prize to initiate more hype and enthusiasm for the Bell Game. The first winning prize was proposed to be an animal, but that was shot down quickly because of complications and responsibility. The next idea was a World War II Howitzer cannon that actually fired, but principals from both high schools shot down the idea in fear that the prize would be used in violent or negative ways and situations. So instead, the reward was a bell tucked away in the Mission Viejo antique shop for sale at an alleged $600. And so, since 1975, the bell has been brought to the game by the previous year’s winning team, and brought back by the present year’s winning varsity team. (You can see the bell in the winning team’s Administration Office each year.) The list of the 42 years of games can be viewed on both schools’ websites. (Through those four decades, there has been a tie only once, on October 4, 1974, with a stunning score of 0-0.)
This year, Barons have proved to push their limits and give their all. Good luck out there Barons, and bring back our Bell!
