By Jesse Swafford | CSwaff Media
It took exactly one game for Piqua and Troy to establish that this wasn’t going to be an ordinary football series.
The year was 1899.
Piqua won the first meeting between the neighboring communities by the most unusual of scores, 2-0, with the game’s only points coming on a safety. The ending was controversial enough that local accounts of the rivalry’s history tell of a riot breaking out among spectators afterward.
More than a century later, the rivalry remains.
On Friday night, Piqua and Troy will meet for the 142nd time, adding another chapter to a series that has survived generations of players, coaches, schools and communities.
Troy enters the latest meeting with a 69-66-6 advantage in the all-time series, a lead created only recently. The Trojans have won three consecutive meetings after the programs had once again worked their way to an all-time deadlock.
But numbers alone have never adequately explained Piqua-Troy.
For those who have played in it, some of the strongest memories have little to do with the final score.
You Knew It Was Troy Week
Scott Foster played running back at Piqua from 1998 through 2000 and was inducted into the Piqua Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012.
More than 25 years later, one of his strongest memories of the rivalry begins before the ball was ever kicked.
“The intensity of the entire week is what stands out most,” Foster said. “From the first day of practice, everything felt different. You could feel it throughout the school and the community. Everyone was talking about the game, and you understood that you were playing for more than just your team, you were representing Piqua.”
By Friday night, the size of the crowd made it impossible to mistake what game was being played.
“In Piqua, cars would be backed up along Ash Street near the railroad bridge crossing,” Foster recalled. “In Troy, they would be lined up along the levee by the river. Seeing that many people coming out for one high school football game showed exactly how much the rivalry meant to both communities.”
Those scenes have played out in different forms for generations.
Players graduate. Students become parents and grandparents. The names inside the helmets change.
The importance of beating the school down the road doesn’t.
“It is difficult to fully explain unless you have experienced it,” Foster said. “Piqua-Troy is more than a football game. It is two neighboring communities with generations of history and pride competing against one another.”
141 Games, Almost No Separation
Perhaps nothing demonstrates the competitiveness of the rivalry better than the all-time numbers.
After 141 meetings, Troy leads just 69-66-6.
But control of the rivalry has repeatedly swung back the other direction.
Even the past quarter-century provides plenty of examples.
Piqua won three consecutive meetings from 2001 through 2003. Troy answered in 2004 before Piqua won again in 2005 and 2006.
Then came one of the wildest games in the modern series.
After Piqua defeated Troy 42-7 during its 2006 Division II state championship season, Troy returned the favor a year later by escaping with a 36-35 victory.
That win started a six-game Troy streak from 2007 through 2011.
Piqua responded with four straight victories from 2012 through 2015.
Troy won four straight from 2016 through 2019.
Piqua took the next three.
And then Troy took the next three.
Momentum in Piqua-Troy, history suggests, lasts only until somebody takes it back.
The One Time Friday Night Wasn’t Enough
For all the times Piqua and Troy have shared a football field, only once have they met in the postseason.
It happened in 1992.
Troy won the regular-season matchup 21-12.
Then the teams met again in the playoffs.
This time, Piqua won 20-7.
It remains the only season in the rivalry’s history in which the teams played twice.
It was also the first season of Bill Nees’ tenure as Piqua’s head coach. More than three decades later, Nees remains on the Indians’ sideline, giving him a perspective that spans a remarkable portion of the rivalry’s modern history.
Three Years From Inside the Rivalry
Foster’s playing career provided its own example of the series’ back-and-forth nature.
Troy won 28-14 in 1998.
Piqua answered with a 30-25 victory in 1999.
Troy came back with a 24-14 win in 2000.
Foster doesn’t point to a particular touchdown or carry when asked for his favorite memory.
He remembers what it felt like.
“Walking onto the field and seeing the stands packed with people from both communities is something that has stayed with me,” Foster said. “You could feel the energy before the game even started.”
For a Piqua running back, even an ordinary handoff didn’t feel quite so ordinary that night.
“Every carry felt a little more meaningful because you knew how badly everyone wearing blue wanted to beat Troy,” Foster said. “More than any particular play, I remember the physicality, emotion and pride that came with competing in that game alongside guys I had grown up with.”
The Rivalry Didn’t End When Football Season Did
I know that part of the rivalry firsthand.
I was one of Foster’s teammates at Piqua during those same seasons, and one memory from our senior year has stuck with me for more than 25 years.
Troy beat us 24-14 in 2000.
Our season didn’t end there. Piqua eventually advanced all the way to the Division II state championship game before finishing as state runner-up.
That didn’t stop Troy from reminding us of the one result that mattered most to them.
Later that school year, during a basketball game between the schools, the Troy student section had a message for us:
“First in the state, second in the county.”
More than two decades later, I still remember it.
And maybe that’s the easiest way to explain Piqua-Troy to someone who didn’t grow up around it.
The football game ends.
The rivalry doesn’t.
From 59-0 to Three Straight
Recent history provides another reminder of how quickly things can change.
In 2022, Piqua defeated Troy 59-0.
A year later, Troy returned and shut out Piqua 14-0.
The Trojans haven’t lost to the Indians since.
Troy followed with a 21-7 victory in 2024 and a 28-7 win last season, giving the Trojans three consecutive victories and the current 69-66-6 advantage.
It’s another reason the records entering Friday night may mean less than they ordinarily would.
Troy arrives at 2-1.
Piqua enters at 1-2.
The old rivalry-game cliché says to throw out the records.
Piqua and Troy have spent 127 years providing reasons to believe it.
Passing It Down
Foster now sees the rivalry from an entirely different perspective.
His playing days are more than two decades behind him, but his involvement with youth football in Piqua allows him to watch the next generation discover the same rivalry he grew up with.
“What makes it special is knowing that the rivalry is bigger than any one group of players,” Foster said. “We had our opportunity to be part of it from 1998 through 2000, just like the players before us did, and now another generation gets its turn.”
Some of those kids are still years away from playing underneath the Friday night lights.
They already know about Troy.
“I get to watch kids grow up understanding the rivalry and dreaming about eventually representing Piqua in that game,” Foster said. “Traditions like this connect generations. I hope these players appreciate that they are becoming part of a story that started long before them and will continue long after them.”
That story began in 1899 with a safety, a 2-0 score and, according to accounts of the rivalry’s history, an argument afterward that became something considerably larger.
Friday night, it continues.
Different players.
Different generation.
Same two communities.
Piqua and Troy.
Chapter 142.
And Foster has one piece of advice for the players who get their opportunity to become part of it:
“Take in the moment, but understand the responsibility that comes with it. Play for the teammates beside you, the players who wore the uniform before you and the kids in the stands who hope to wear it someday.
“The individual plays and statistics will eventually fade, but you will always remember whether you gave everything you had against Troy. Leave it all on the field.”
