Famous California rivalry that honors fallen veterans adds a purple shade of valor

Family of Jerry Mahoney presents Sacred Heart Cathedral with his Purple Heart in step with famed Bruce-Mahoney football game and upcoming Veterans Day mass

The Purple Heart of Jerry Mahoney was presented to Sacred Heart Cathedral officials hours before Friday's Bruce-Mahoney game with arch-rival St. Ignatius and will officially be enshrined Tuesday during a Mass on the San Francisco campus on Veterans Day. / Photo courtesy of Mahoney family/Sacred Heart Cathedral

SAN FRANSICO — One of the nation’s oldest and most storied high school football games — featuring a blend of forest greens, arctic whites, royal blues and ruby reds — took a poignant shade of purple Friday when the teams collided at Kezar Stadium. 

Sacred Heart Cathedral and St. Ignatius, a pair of private, Catholic-based schools founded in the heart of San Francisco, met for the 102nd time dating back to 1893 and more than 7,000 fans cheered passionately until the bitter end, a 23-14 victory for St. Ignatius, the Wildcats’ third straight win in the series and 66th overall against 29 defeats and seven ties. 

Winning and losing took on a whole other perspective for this rivalry starting in 1947, when the title of the “Bruce-Mahoney game" was forever linked to the contest, to honor a pair of fallen war heroes. 

Bill Bruce, a 1935 St. Ignatius graduate, and Jerry Mahoney, who graduated from Sacred Heart in 1944, both perished in World War II. The winner of the game — later a best-of-three sports and now best-of-five — keeps the coveted Bruce-Mahoney trophy on campus throughout the school year. 

St. Ignatius (left) and Sacred Heart Cathedral at Kezar Stadium / Photo courtesy Sacred Heart Cathedra

Basketball and baseball were added to the series, and more recently girls volleyball and girls basketball added to the rich tradition.  It currently resides at St. Ignatius, which owns a 2-0 lead for the 2025-26 school year.

All the games in every sport carries a keen interest not only for students and alums of the school, but the general Bay Area region.

“Over the years, I attended many Bruce-Mahoney games, all over the city," said lifetime Bay Area resident Steve Dells, a nephew of the late Mahoney, who turns 80 in January. "Kezar Stadium. USF. Big Rec. AT&T Park and even Seal Stadium. I attended last year’s basketball games at the Chase Center, the first time the games were ever played there.

  "It's always an honor to watch any game tied to my uncle and Mr. Bruce as well."

SACRED PURPLE HEART

Little did Dells know at the time that he would add a significant layer to the rivalry.

On Friday morning, just hours before kickoff of the highly anticipated game, he presented his uncle’s recently secured Purple Heart to Sacred Heart Cathedral. (Remarkably, the football teams could play a second time in a month, for the Central Coast Section Division 2 title as Sunday, St. Ignatius was seeded No. 1 in the playoff bracket and SHC No. 2. )

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The coveted military medal — the oldest given to U.S. military members who were either wounded or killed in any action — will officially be introduced and enshrined at SHC on Veterans Day Tuesday (Nov. 11), during a mass at the Cathedral of St. Mary the Assumption.

Bird's eye view of Kezar Stadium before a Bruce-Mahoney football game between Sacred Heart Cathedral (white) and St. Ignatius. / Photo courtesy of Sacred Heart Cathedral

The mass, entitled “Called to Serve: Sacred Heart Cathedral Mass for First Responders,” will honor and bless SHC’s community of service-oriented first responders. 

"It will be meaningful and emotional," Dells said.

WHERE IT BELONGS

Many of Mahoney’s family — Dells estimates up to 15 members — will be in attendance and be honored. The Purple Heart will eventually be displayed prominently in the main lobby of the school, where Mahoney himself was an All-City football and basketball player. 

“I have a picture of Jerry running for a touchdown against St. Ignatius and his brother Bobby is blocking for him,” Dells said proudly. 

Jerry also excelled at boxing in the military for a short time after joining the Naval Reserve following his graduation from Sacred Heart in 1944.

The second youngest of seven children, Mahoney died less than a year later when his naval merchant ship, the Henry B Plant, was sunk by a German submarine in the Atlantic off the coast of Ramsgate. 

Sacred Heart Cathedral (white) and St. Ignatius played the Bruce-Mahoney basketball doubleheader for the first time at the Chase Center in January of 2025 / Photo by Catherine Tsang/Sacred Heart Cathedral

The date was Feb. 6, 1945. 

“There is only one permanent home for his Purple Heart and that is to sit with the Bruce-Mahoney shrine,” said Dells, who recently turned 80. “It belongs to the student body and faculty and alumni at Sacred Heart and SHC, where Jerry’s greatest athletic accomplishments occurred.” 

TANGILE REMINDER

The SHC community and administration have been more than moved by the Mahoney family gesture.  

“The Purple Heart represents the ultimate sacrifice of service,” said Sacred Heart Cathedral President Melinda Skrade. “It is a humbling experience and honor to receive Jerry Mahoney’s Purple Heart.” 

SHC co-Athletic Director Margi Beima, the school’s 19-year girls volleyball coach, said the Purple Heart “will remind us that participating in this rivalry is a privilege and an honor,’ and “that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.”

Sacred Heart Cathedral's Maddie Eade takes a free throw at the Chase Center in San Francisco during a double header of basketball in the name of the Bruce-Mahoney Trophy. / Photo by Cathering Tsang/Sacred Heart Cathedral

Displaying Mahoney’s medal will serve as a "tangible reminder that sacrifice and service to others are honorable,” Beima said. “I hope it is a daily reminder to all of us of our school’s motto, ‘Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve.’ “ 

The fact Dells rediscovered the medal was a minor miracle in itself. 

LOOK WHAT I FOUND

It was first handed to Jerry's mother Margaret Reilly Mahoney in 1945 and when she died in 1953, the medal was passed on to her oldest daughter Eileen Mahoney Leahy in 1953. She eventually gave it to her son Jeremiah (“Buddy”) Leahy — one of Dells' 27 cousins.

In the 1970s, Leahy moved to Connecticut where Mahoney's Purple Heart lived unbeknownst to most of the relatives.

Following Leahy's death three years ago, his surviving son Tim, while clearing out his dad’s house, happened to find the Purple Heart in a drawer. 

“Three months ago, Tim brought his father’s ashes to bury in the Pacific (Ocean) and he stayed with us,” Dells said. “One night at dinner, Tim put a little box by the plate and told me to open it. It was Jerry’s Purple Heart. I couldn’t believe it. Had he not gone through all his dad’s drawers we might not have ever found it.”

Tim, who grew up on the East Coast, knew little about Jerry Mahoney’s life or death and even less about the Bruce Mahoney tradition. 

Certainly not like kids who grew up playing at either St. Ignatus or Sacred Heart, like current SHC athletic director Phil Freed, who played in Bruce-Mahoney football and baseball games from 1977-79 and coached in at as head SHC football coach from 1995-2003.

“Having Jerry Mahoney’s Purple Heart at SHC forever will be a symbol of the great sacrifice that he made for his country and will be a great example to our young men and women about the importance of service, which is a staple of who we are at SHC," Freed said.

Sacred Heart Cathedral (white) and St. Ignatius do battle at Kezar Stadium in another battle of the Bruce-Mahoney trophy / Photo by Paul Ghiglieri/St. Ignatius

Current St. Ignatius football coach JaJuan Lawson grew 40 miles North in Petaluma and lived his own rivalry game, his Casa Grande Gauchos versus the Petaluma Trojans in "The Egg Bowl."

As intense as that game is, said Lawson, a former quarterback, the spirit around the Bruce-Mahoney trophy "runs way deeper. Kids on each side went to grade school together understanding what Mr. Bruce and Mr. Mahoney gave up. When the whistle blows and the game begins there's a relentless, chaotic energy for the entire 48 minutes that's really hard to describe. There's a brother in arms feeling and all you want to do is hoist that trophy.

"The energy is simply electric, magnetic, and nonstop. You do everything in your power to make sure you don't lose that game."

No one claims that a football game or any other athletic endeavor is comparable to the life and death engagement on a real battlefield.

Mahoney's Purple Heart is more of a reminder that those who fought and continue to fight on those battlegrounds were and are fighting for the freedom for kids to play, express and live out childhood dreams, athletic and otherwise, while competing against likeminded kids.

The back-to-back Bruce-Mahoney game and Veteran’s Day Mass for First Responders “seemed perfect timing to bring awareness not only to my uncle but all the heroes from the greatest generation,” Dells said. “He was only 19 when he died so I’m hoping that young and older people now don’t lose sight of what they all died for — our democracy and freedoms. 

“I’m hoping the medal will serve as a reminder to the young men and women — our future heroes — in all their intelligence and diversity and compassion, to serve and respect all citizens with valor.

“I’m so glad this sacred Purple Heart is home where it belongs.”

The actual Purple Heart of fallen Sacred Heart graduate Jerry Mahoney / Photo courtesy of Mahoney family