SAN ANTONIO -- The 67th annual Chili Bowl featuring Fox Tech and Lanier on Saturday will be the final game of the gridiron tradition.

Fox Tech learned Tuesday that beginning in 2010, it will no longer field a football team because the San Antonio Independent School District plans to turn the campus into a magnet school for health careers.

"I feel for the players, I feel for the coaching staff," said Mark Rodriguez, a Fox Tech linebacker. "If I put myself in their shoes, I'd be devastated. It's a football program. It's all these guys know."

Denny Peel, Fox Tech head football coach, said Tuesday that he was busy preparing his team for the game and "hadn't had time to sit back and see what the ramifications would be."

Don Gaitan, Lanier head football coach, said that the Chili Bowl has the atmosphere of a college football game.

"We've got people coming in from Chicago, California, you name it," he said. "They've flown in just for the game."

The end of the football tradition will not only affect current Fox Tech players, coaches, and families, but many generations who have passed through the doors at the inner city school over the past seven decades.

"My whole entire family played here," said Daniel Manjarrez, a former player. "My brother, my nephews, my cousins. We all played here. Just to know that there's not going to be a football program, it hurts."

As a result of the news, Saturday's game is expected to attract a standing-room-only crowd at Alamo Stadium.