•August 1, 2018•

By David Porter
Of the Arcola Record-Herald and the Tuscola Review

At the end of 2016-17 school year, there were only four schools in Illinois that had won more than 700 football games in their team’s history. And two of them are small-school rivals just 8 miles apart.
Tuscola, population 4,391, and Arcola, population 2,864, have been battling it out on the gridiron since the 1890s. At times, including present day, their conferences have kept them apart, but the “Cola Wars” are set to resume Aug. 31, 2018, during the Illinois’ Bicentennial.
They narrowly missed facing off in 2017, as both teams climbed the brackets in the state Class 1A playoffs. Arcola, which has four championship titles, was eliminated in the first round while Tuscola was runner-up in the Final.
The Arcola Purple Riders have title bragging rights with four championships — the most recent was 2015. They also won the state title in 1978, 1985 and 1988. The Tuscola Warriors won in 2006 and 2009.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.