The first meeting took place on Nov. 18, 1887. Every year since, without interruption, Germantown Academy and Penn Charter have played a football game. When the two schools clash on Saturday, it will be the 125th consecutive encounter, making for the longest continuous high school football game in the nation.
The schools cofounded the Inter-Academic Athletic Association, as it was known then, in early 1887. By fall, they had instituted the football game, the first one won by GA, 20-6.
As the years passed, it gave way to the modern-day incarnation of PC-GA Day (or GA-PC day, depending on whom you ask), an annual field day - including sports from cross country to soccer to water polo - that marks a sort of homecoming for the schools, which rotate hosting the event.
Pep rallies, banquets, and various spirit-week activities prelude the games in the school days prior. Football is the centerpiece.
The Inter-Ac League is thought to be the oldest interscholastic athletic league in the United States. This football game is its most iconic artifact.
The all-time series record: Penn Charter 80, Germantown Academy 33, with 11 ties.
Each year since 1953, the Geis Trophy, named for GA alumnus Joseph Geis III, who died in the Korean War, goes to the game's most valuable player.
The rivalry - which predates beefs such as Ohio State-Michigan and Auburn-Alabama - is healthy, though involved parties have differing interpretations.
"The rivalry is overwhelming. Not just in football, but when you see PC kids out on the street, you don't say hi. If anything, you talk smack to them," GA senior linebacker Ryan O'Connell said.
"To be honest, you would think I'd hate GA a lot more. I just don't even see myself losing to them, which is why I haven't mustered any hatred toward them," PC senior tight end Tom Monzo said.
