He’s been at every varsity football game for 18 years, speaking with fans, encouraging players, and thumbing his nose at opponents.

It’s Hodar the Viking, and who better to fill us in on the Thanksgiving Day rivalry between Wareham and Bourne?

Hodar said that the big question in the Thanksgiving Day matchup is “whether you eat turkey, or whether you eat crow.”

While Hodar guessed that the rivalry originally developed along with each town claiming to be the entrance to Cape Cod, the rivalry that Hodar best remembers was mainly perpetuated by the Bourne and Wareham Fire Departments .   And crow was a major feature of the rivalry. One night before Thanksgiving, members of the Wareham Fire Department gathered and constructed a six-foot crow out of papier-mache.  Wareham won the game, and the crow appeared in front of the Bourne Fire Station the next day.

“For years, it bounced back and forth,” Hodar said, depending on the victor.

But, alas, the crow is no longer a part of the festivities.  Hodar said he doesn’t know what happened to it, but he suspects that it was a little battered up over the years, as he shared his experience joining some members of the Fire Department on a midnight, stealth raid on Bourne to deliver the bird.

“It may have sustained some irreparable injuries,” Hodar said.  “You had to go in a back of a pickup truck, and there were two or three guys in the back trying to hold the thing, and two in front.”

But the crow’s disappearance provided an opening for Hodar to make his debut.

He remembers his first game well.

“I just put the costume together with friends, never tried to get permission or anything” to be the mascot, Hodar said.  “I snuck in through the back gate, and the announcer made some comment on it, and Wareham took Bourne 40-0.”

Although Hodar said that a family member on the field was not pleased when he recognized the Viking’s boots as his own…but he kept silent.  It wasn’t until years later that people began figuring out Hodar’s real identity - but he refuses to reveal it in print.

Today, Hodar admitted he is a little dismayed at the lack of enthusiasm at the game.   He said that his most frequent “cheer” seems to be mocking the crowd by motioning to them that they are asleep.

“Years ago, Wareham and Bourne, so many people knew each other, you don’t have that anymore,” said Hodar.

But some traditions remain.

Hodar said that he still knows a family that lives both in Bourne and Wareham and that splits up – one on the Bourne side, one on the Wareham side – for the game.