The Big Game: Long Beach Poly and Wilson have been playing since 1932
It's one of the oldest continuous high school football rivalries in the country — and it once sparked a riot that ended with sprinklers and the national anthem.
Long Beach Poly's football program started in 1908, Wilson's in 1926 — but the two didn't actually play each other until 1932, six years after Wilson opened. According to longtime Wilson coach Skip Rowland, school officials had delayed the matchup because they worried about crowd control. It turned out they were right to worry: the first game ended in a scoreless tie that sparked an on-field student riot, only broken up when a school official turned on the sprinklers and played the national anthem.
Nearly a century later, “The Big Game” remains the oldest rivalry in Long Beach and one of the oldest continuous high school football series anywhere in the country. Poly has dominated most of it — Wilson hasn't beaten Poly on the field since 1991 — but the series still reliably sells out Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Poly and Wilson aren't the only rivalry that matters in town. Millikan and Lakewood play annually for the Donice Hamilton Trophy, named for an administrator who worked at both schools before her death in a car accident; Lakewood won 15 straight meetings between 2002 and 2016 before Millikan snapped the streak. In 2024, Millikan also ended Poly's 15-year Moore League winning streak outright with a 53–40 win, a result Long Beach's the562.org called one of the city's top sports moments of the year.
With Veterans Memorial Stadium slated for demolition in the coming years, both rivalries are entering a new chapter — just with the same stakes they've always had.