Bell Game rivals pump up fans for annual rivalry

Two high schools in Pueblo are getting their fans pumped up for the oldest high school football rivalry west of the Mississippi River.

Centennial and Central high schools have been playing each other for 115 years. The two schools started playing for the Bell 65 years ago.

After all those years, there are generations of students and graduates who have ties to the Bell Game.

Centennial graduate Michele Arellano said her family has never experienced a Bell Game loss.

“We had the Bell all four years of high school,” she said.

Now, she gets to watch her sons play in the Bell Game.

“Since it is my last one, I put everything I have into it, every spirit week we have, everything I can possibly do to make the most of my last Bell Game,” Centennial student Jacob Arellano said.

Centennial has won the past five Bell Games, but Central wants to start its own legacy.

Central student Devean Johnson said he wants to make his great-grandfather, Central graduate Jimmie Walker, proud by winning the Bell.

“We’re going to get that thing here, it’s going to ring blue,” Johnson said.

Walker was a quarterback for Central in the 1950s and he said he won it three years in a row.

The Bell is a brass train bell that was donated in 1950 by a Pueblo businessman.