Tomorrow — Thanksgiving — will be the last day of Cathedral High School football. The Purple Panthers finish their season . . . and history . . . in the traditional game against Westfield.

According to an article in the Springfield Republican on Monday, sports teams from the former Cathedral High will be the Pope Francis High School Cardinals beginning next year. And Cathedral’s athletic director is quoted as saying it is “very doubtful” Pope Francis (the high school) would field a football team.

Also quoted in the article is classmate Gene Ryzewicz.

“Gene Ryzewicz, one of Cathedral’s all-time great three-sport athletes. remembers playing in his first Thanksgiving game as a freshman in 1960.

” ‘I was completely overwhelmed by the speed of it,’ he said. ‘But that game was always special — the last one of the year, and on Thanksgiving morning. Even after I went on to play football at Dartmouth. I would make it back for the Thanksgiving game, because our season always ended a week earlier.’

“Regarding the fate of his old school, Ryzewicz said, ‘So many people got so much from Cathedral. It was really special for our class of 1964, because we were the first to go all four years in the new building on Surrey Road (it opened in the fall of 1959).’

“His graduating class had 726 members, and the school’s total enrollment then was 2,800.

” ‘I’m a little disappointed in the naming of the new school,’ Ryzewicz said. ‘To me, naming it Cathedral Catholic would have been a way to keep more alumni involved and have a sense of belonging — but nobody asked me.’ “

Cathedral goes into its likely last game with a 2-7 record. Go Purple Panthers!