After seeing the reports of police officers in Dallas being killed in the streets and the news covering the constant battle between police officer and citizen, the Southeast Missouri State football team decided to do something about it.

On July 8, head coach Tom Matukewicz (more commonly known as Coach Tuke) sent a tweet to the Cape Girardeau Police Department saying, “Hey @CapePolice with what’s going on in America, how about a football game? DM if interested.”

The Cape Girardeau Police Department obliged and on July 21, the first ever Cops vs Hawks Bowl was held at Houck Stadium.

“I was watching the news after the Dallas events and sent a text to our leadership council and just said, ‘Hey we gotta do something, does anyone have any thoughts?’” Coach Matukewicz said. “Dante [Vandeven] texted back, ‘How about a flag football game?’ and then we kinda got to this point.”

The team’s leadership committee consists of sophomore quarterback Dante Vandeven, senior running back Tremaine McCullough, senior inside linebacker Roper Garrett, senior defensive end Travis Sanders, junior outside linebacker Chad Meredith, senior guard Garrett Baker, senior center Jake McCandless and senior strong safety Eriq Moore.

The Cops vs Hawks Bowl consisted of four teams -- red, black, white and gold -- with a combination of Redhawk players and Cape Police officers on each team playing two simultaneous games of flag football. The event was free to the public, but donations were accepted for Backstoppers, a charity that provides insurance and financial assistance to families of fallen or injured police officers.

“This is the way it’s supposed to be,” patrol sergeant Rick Schmidt said. “We as cops should be able to go to other functions and fit in. It’s all we want to do, is just not be looked at from the inside out. This was spectacular tonight, it was good.”

During the first two games, the White team defeated the Red team 22-14 and the Gold team defeated the Black team 31-26. The final game pitted the White team against the Gold team; White won the final game 21-20.

The teams did more than score points -- they formed bonds between student-athletes and local police officers.

“It was really great to meet the officers and get to hear their stories,” Vandeven said. “There’s a lot of fellowship getting to talk with them and I think it really benefitted some of the guys on the team getting to intermingle like this.”

Twenty-two police officers played in the game and teams were coached by Cape Girardeau Chief of Police Wes Blair, Jackson Chief of Police James Humphreys, Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan and Kenny Mayberry of Southeast’s Department of Public Safety.