Rivalry Game Leads To Cannon Theft At US Grant High School

A metro rivalry that spans several decades reached new heights this week.

U.S. Grant High School and Southeast High in Oklahoma City have swapped pranks every year, but something happened overnight that shocked everyone.

When Grant High School employees showed up to work Friday morning, they noticed their huge, real cannon that sat at the school since 1965 was gone and they knew Southeast High School had stolen it.

A bulldozer had to push the giant cannon back into place after employees retrieved it from the front lawn of Southeast High School this morning.

“We missed it, even it was just for a couple of hours, we missed it,” said Kandy Hunt, the assistant principal for U.S. Grant High School.

In a back-and-forth game of one-upping, this was a first.

“Did no one see the cannon driving from here to Southeast,” asked Hunt.

Southeast cut the bolts and stole the cannon in the middle of the night, then painted it with its school color of blue.

“My initial reaction was, ‘That's a pretty good prank,’" Hunt told News 9. “The rivalry has gone a little too far when they are taking the cannon.”

Grant plays Southeast in football this week, and while the cannon has always been painted blue as a prank, it has never been downright stolen.

“I was kind of amazed that they figured out how to do that, considering last year when they got us…they spelled their own name wrong,” Hunt explained.

“I will definitely use that in the pre-game speech tonight. We'll definitely talk about that and not letting them come over and take our stuff,” said Andy Chishko.

Chishko graduated from Grant. Then he was an assistant coach at Southeast the past 18 years. Now he is back as Grant's head coach.

“It's always fun to have a rivalry and to have that animosity towards another school, but it's all in good fun and no one gets hurt,” Chishko said.

The cannon is a source of school pride. It was donated to the school in 1965 by the class of ‘65 and the theft of it will be settled on the football field.

“It's actually wonderful to see the pride come back to our schools because for so long, kids quit coming to games,” Hunt added.

The kickoff between the two schools is 7 p.m. at Speegle Stadium.