Touch football in Greenfield has a long, storied history.

Greenfield YMCA program director Pete Duffy founded and served as league director for the original Greenfield Recreational Men’s Touch Football League in 1971. The league served as a competitive outlet for players, many coming over from the adult softball circuit, and used a system based on UMass’ intramural touch football team. The field was 80 yards instead of UMass’ 60-yard space, with seven players per side playing 15-minute periods.

Duffy asked that each player bring 50 cents “to cover the cost of practice jerseys,” according to a Recorder article from Oct. 1971. Four teams played that initial year — the 49ers, Colts, Redskins and Lions — with team captains Dick Howe, Bob Lively, Bill Martin and Bob Laskowski guiding their squads through the fall and early winter months at Beacon Field and Green River Park.

“This will be the only sport in Greenfield to report their games to the Sports Desk with a body count as well as a score,” joked Recorder scribe Denny Wilkins of expected bumps and bruises in his “Sports Notebook” column.

The league changed, and sponsors came into the mix by 1973. Teams were sponsored by the likes of Wrisley Funeral Home, Mt. Mohawk Ski Area, Northwestern Mutual and Merrigan Real Estate in the early days.

Lou Grader ran the Greenfield Touch Football League for decades, with sponsors like Taylor’s Tavern, Alberti’s Restaurant and Shelburne Falls Bowling Alley coming into the mix. Grader would call the Recorder each week with stats and scores from the weekend’s games.

Eventually, Rich Clark took the baton – about 15 years ago, he said.

Some 50-plus years removed from the very first pass, the venture continues as the last remaining touch football league in western Massachusetts.

The 2024 season will come to its conclusion on Sunday, when Green River Park hosts the championship game between defending champion Gill CC Woodworking and the Titans at 10:30 a.m. Quarterbacks Pat Viencek and Julio Rivera will sling passes to Cody Underwood and Gio Ortiz, as the top two seeds in the league playoffs battle it out for a title.

“It’s been great,” explained Clark of the league’s longevity. “We’ve done everything in our power to make it a family-friendly environment and it’s worked. After games, people stick around, have cookouts… it’s a real community environment.”

That community environment enticed Diana Nunez, who went to a game as a spectator for the first time about 10 years ago. Fast forward a decade, and she now helps run two teams sponsored by Namaste Restaurant — the Rockets and the Panthers.

Nunez, who runs social media and handles community events for Namaste, said she was hosting an event and found out that a team in the touch league had lost a sponsor. Her son also wanted to start a team in the league, and the restaurant has now sponsored both squads for two seasons.

“It’s really such a good community thing that a lot of people don’t know about,” said Nunez. “It’s a great group of people getting together to play football and have a good time.”

This year’s league had seven teams, with upward of 100 players participating. Clark said a team from Holyoke joined the mix this fall, and competition is fierce with a number of former college football players on rosters. Teams play 8-on-8 across two 80 yard fields that Clark sets up every Sunday morning — two games played simultaneously.

For Clark, a longtime football official and coach, every Sunday is an opportunity to see former players continue to light it up as adults.

“So many of the people who we have playing in the league, I coached them when they were 8 years old,” he said. “I really enjoy keeping a league going where these guys can still play.”

Despite touch football leagues folding in Holyoke and Springfield in recent years, Clark’s devotion, and the passion he says still resonates from the league’s players, has the Greenfield Touch Football League chugging along.

“I always said I’ll stay in the league as long as I’ve got teams that want to play,” he said. “If we’re gonna dwindle down and not have guys show up on Sunday, I might consider passing it off but as long as there are teams and players that want to play, yes, I plan to stay.”