Sibling rivalry

Late in the fourth quarter of the SLUH-DeSmet freshman game Oct. 11, Pete Klug (right), in at wide receiver for the Spartans, leaped, reached and hauled in a long pass near the SLUH 10-yard line.

DeSmet, leading 30-16, had the game well in hand after putting up 23 unanswered points in the third quarter.

Klug’s reception was icing on the cake for the Spartans, who outplayed the Jr. Billikens on their home field and would end up winning by the same score. But it was so much more.

It was bragging rights in a sibling rivalry: Eli Manning on Monday Night Football while Peyton watches; Prince Harry getting the best of Wills in a polo match; Curley out-Stooging Shemp.

It was DeSmet beating SLUH, which meant dinner at the Klug house was going to be very interesting that night.

Pete Klug’s big brother, Mitch (left), you see, is one of the top athletes at St. Louis University High School, a Div. I football prospect and a five-tool baseball player that has made Major League scouts take notice. Not only that, Mitch excels academically and he bleeds blue.

Would you want to be in that shadow?

His younger brother, Pete, chose his own path, one that started on Ballas Rd. instead of Oakland Ave. So this year, Paul and Christine Klug divide their loyalties, wearing blue at Mitch’s games and maroon at Paul’s.

Boys. What can you do except love them? And there’s nothing else to do but love their schools.

Not that the two schools needed any help in the rivalry department. They are brother Jesuit schools. DeSmet is a spin-off of SLUH, opening in 1967 after, according to the DeSmet website, “the need for the second Jesuit high school arose from the fact that over 800 boys were applying to SLUH for the 230 available seats.”

SLUH alumni raised money for the school, SLUH Jesuits were among the first teachers, and SLUH traditions have made their way to west St. Louis county.

And over the years, some pretty big games have involved SLUH-DeSmet — in football, basketball, baseball, hockey, cross country. SLUH-DeSmet games in any sport are hotly contested and a hot ticket, even for this Tuesday afternoon freshman football game that drew hundreds to SLUH Stadium on Oakland Ave.

They are family reunions, these SLUH-DeSmet games, if your family is the kind that likes a free-for-all and fisticuffs with your Sunday dinner.

And so walking up and seeing Christine Klug wearing maroon and sitting on the visitor’s side – the same Mom decked out in blue each Friday night – was like walking into an alternate universe.

“Hey, are you sure you’re on the right side?” I asked her before the game.

“It is weird,” she said, smiling, pointing out that Pete wore No. 25 for the Spartans.

Afterward, with the DeSmet victory well in hand, Christine was still smiling. “We’re just so happy for Pete because it has been such a good choice,” she said.

Of course it is. DeSmet is a fine institution, a place where a young man can carve his own place in the world and occasionally earn bragging rights on his brother.

Besides, blue is not everyone’s color.

Just don’t tell Mitch that.

Christine said Mitch watched a portion of the game, coming over to the stadium after his varsity practice and visiting with his family — including his grandmother – on the visitor’s side.

“All Mitch said,” Christine said later, “was ‘Grandma, you look better in blue.’ ”

Photographer Nancy Winkelmann got nearly identical shots of brothers hauling in passes, three weeks apart. Coincidence? No, talent. To view more SLUH freshman football pictures from Nancy, visit nancywinkelmann.zenfolio.com/freshmanpix.