The Mountain Road Rumble trophy, presented annually to the winner of the Northern Lehigh-Northwestern football game, will have a new look this season.

The updated trophy will honor two former stars whose legacies extend well beyond the football field — Northern Lehigh quarterback Bo Tkach and Northwestern running back Brett Snyder.

Tkach was a two-time first-team all-state football player who led the Bulldogs to their first District 11 championship in 1999. He also was a two-time District 11 javelin champion. He later graduated magna cum laude from Wilkes University.

Tkach struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression and died in 2007. He was inducted posthumously into the Northern Lehigh Ring of Honor in 2011.

Bo was the son of Jim Tkach, Northern Lehigh’s football coach from 1994-2005 and one of the winningest coaches in Colonial League history.

Snyder died in 2019 at age 41 after battling ALS, a progressive nervous system disease. As a fullback at Northwestern, he set single-season school records with 2,376 rushing yards and 33 touchdowns in 1995, helping the Tigers share the Colonial League championship and capture the District 11 Class 2A title.

He finished his career with 4,281 rushing yards and 49 touchdowns, both school records at the time of his graduation. He later helped Lehigh University win Patriot League championships in the 1990s.

Both athletes were remembered not only for their accomplishments on the field, but also for the impact they made in their communities.

Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder praised his older brother’s influence both on and off the field.

“It’s tough losing an older brother, especially one with the quality and character that Brett had,” Snyder said in an article published on the Bo Tkach Foundation website. “He has touched so many people above and beyond athletics. That’s one of the great things about athletics. You can use it as a platform to touch so many lives and Brett certainly did that. So many people today have told me that Brett was such a role model for them.”

In an interview with Lehigh University’s Football Nation, Josh Snyder also reflected on his brother’s determination.

“What a fighter. He fought to live to the very last second, to his last breath.”

Northwestern athletic director Jason Zimmerman said the heavy slate trophy will also feature the players’ jersey numbers — No. 3 for Tkach and No. 35 for Snyder. A new wooden base also will include the results of every game between the schools since the rivalry began in 1971.

Although Northwestern has won seven of the last eight meetings, Northern Lehigh (formerly Slatington High School) leads the all-time series, 29-27.

Zimmerman has had a close relationship with the Snyder family for many years.

“Brett was very close to my family, as are all the Snyders,” he said. “Brett and my sister were classmates. I knew both the Snyder boys from when they were young as I worked on their relatives’ farm growing up. As I got older, I had the fortune of watching both Brett and Josh play at both Northwestern and Northern Lehigh on a regular basis. In our adult lives, we spent a lot of time together, especially in November, where a group of us, including Brett, got together to celebrate Josh’s and my birthday.

“Keeping the Bo and Brett legacy alive is extremely important to us. Those two young men were two of the best to grace our schools and our programs. You might even say they were instrumental in paving the way for the consistent success of both programs.”

Jim Tkach spoke at Marian High School in 2018 as part of the Bo Tkach Foundation’s “Under Every Helmet and Hat Is a Child Who Needs Us” fundraising campaign.

“We can help each other and look out for each other,” Tkach told the Marian student body. “Or we can just keep going like we are. I hope you choose to help each other and go out of your way to do what you can without telling people you’re doing it.”

He told students that despite his son’s success on the football field, Bo was not defined by his athletic ability.

“Bo was known for captaining gym class teams so he could choose students who weren’t necessarily the most athletically gifted individuals.”

Jim also learned shortly after Bo’s death that his son had been having weekly uplifting phone conversations with a girl battling cancer, but he didn’t tell a soul.

“In hindsight, he got it,” Jim said. “He got what life is about. We give, we care and we love, and we don’t tell anyone that we do it.”

Northern Lehigh head coach Joe Tout has fond memories of Bo.

“He was a great kid, and the Bo Tkach Foundation has been raising awareness of the need for therapy for mental illness. I’ve been privileged to be friends with his family for many years.”

A football rivalry that has been played for more than five decades will carry even greater significance this season when Northern Lehigh and Northwestern meet Sept. 3 at Northwestern.