The tradition of playing football games on Thanksgiving continues to this day. And Southerners find out that the holiday isn’t that bad after all." Robert Tracy McKenzie, a history professor at Wheaton College, remarked: "I joke-but also sort of mean it seriously-that one of the things that ultimately reconciles Southerners to Thanksgiving is the development of football (.) and well before 1900, the tradition of having football games on Thanksgiving Day is sweeping across the country. The introduction of Thanksgiving football is credited with encouraging the Southern United States, which had historically rejected the celebration of Thanksgiving, to embrace the holiday. This is considered the first American football game ever played in Europe. On November 25, 1897, American students of the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian played a game in Paris, France. For at least the three previous years, the championship had been a matter of dispute as a result of Yale and Princeton playing to scoreless ties on three Thanksgiving Day games in a row. Previously, the 'Champion' was to be determined by a team's records over the entire season against all members of the association. The Thanksgiving Day football game became an institutionalized fixture of organized football in 1882, when the Intercollegiate Football Association determined to hold an annual collegiate championship game in New York City on Thanksgiving Day between the two leading teams in the association. Princeton played Yale in the New York City area on Thanksgiving Day from 1876 through 1881. On November 17, 1869, the Evening Telegraph newspaper of Philadelphia published the following announcement: "Foot Ball: A foot-ball match between twenty-two players of the Young America Cricket Club and the Germantown Cricket Club will take place on Thanksgiving Day at 12 1/2 o'clock, on the grounds of the Germantown Club." The proximity of Philadelphia to both Rutgers and Princeton invites speculation that this game may have been played under similar rules and perhaps involved some of the same participants, or at least people familiar with the game played at Rutgers, and a second match at Princeton, earlier that month. The first Thanksgiving Day football game took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving Day of 1869, less than two weeks after Rutgers defeated Princeton in New Brunswick, New Jersey in what is widely recognized as the first intercollegiate football game in the United States, and only six years after Abraham Lincoln declared the first fixed national Thanksgiving holiday in 1863. Thanksgiving Day football games in the United States are nearly as old as the game-and the organized holiday-themselves. Virtually every level of football, from amateur and high school to college and the NFL (including the CFL on Canadian Thanksgiving), plays football on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday) or the immediately following holiday weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Thanksgiving postcard circa 1900 showing a turkey and football player.Īmerican football is one of the many traditions in American culture that is associated with Thanksgiving Day. JSTOR ( December 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "American football on Thanksgiving" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
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