For nearly a century, Calvert Hall's season has culminated with the Turkey Bowl, one of the nation's oldest Catholic school rivalries. More than 10,000 people would fill the seats of Memorial Stadium on Thanksgiving morning.
"I remember telling him, you're going to be running down the same runway that Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Artie Donovan, the runway that all of them ran onto the field from," Bruce Lippy says. "I remember him, saying, 'Dad, this is an honor.' "
'Quiet but confident'
Calvert Hall lost the Turkey Bowl during Mickey's senior season, but the Cardinals still finished 9-2. Mickey was named All-Metro as an offensive lineman, but, as The Sun reported at the time, he could've easily made the team as a linebacker, too.
"I think back to those days, and I get goose bumps," says Joe DeSimone, a former offensive lineman. "Mickey probably didn't have time to think twice about it, but I still think about it all the time. I still think about him all the time. Once you're teammates, you're always teammates, you know?"
Mickey injured his ankle late in the season. Thinking it was only a sprain, he played on it in the final two games, plus a postseason all-star game. He would later learn there was a break and it required surgery.
He missed his senior season of lacrosse but didn't veer far from the locker room. He served as a student trainer.
"Even in football, when you twisted an ankle, you wanted Mick to tape it up," Antonelli says. "He knew what he was doing. The trainer might do it, but then Mick would say, 'Let me see that,' and he'd redo it for you."
The day after graduation, Mickey and his buddies piled into his Isuzu Rodeo and drove to Ocean City, a rite of passage for Maryland graduates. They crammed clothing, food and beverages into the car, but Mickey's giant "box of life" took up most of the space. The giant tackle box was packed with first-aid equipment hard to find outside a hospital. It went everywhere Mickey went, and with a crew of recent grads hitting the beach, it was definitely going to Ocean City.
The following fall, Mickey took a football scholarship to Shepherd University in West Virginia. Still bothered by his ankle, though, he was unable to play and eventually continued his education closer to home at Essex Community College.
Even though his future wouldn't necessarily be in sports, no one really worried about Mickey.
