Why Do the Lions and Cowboys Play Every Thanksgiving? Who started Thanksgiving football? – Every year since 1934, the Detroit Lions have played a Thanksgiving game, no matter how dismal their record. It all started when the Lions were still a relatively new franchise. The Spartans were created in 1929 in Portsmouth, Ohio. While Portsmouth was undoubtedly a charming town, it was not large enough to support a pro club in the fledgling NFL. In 1934, Detroit radio station owner George A. Richards purchased the Spartans and relocated the team to Detroit.
Although Richards’ new team was a quality one, they were playing second fiddle in Detroit to the Hank Greenberg-led Tigers, who had won the American League Pennant with a record of 101-53. In the early weeks of the 1934 season, the Lions could only gather a very small audience of 15,000 for a game. Richards came up with the concept of playing a game on Thanksgiving as a desperate marketing ploy to get Detroit excited about its embryonic football franchise. Because Richards’ WJR was one of the country’s larger radio stations, he wielded great power with his network and persuaded NBC to broadcast a Thanksgiving game on 94 stations nationally.
The strategy worked perfectly. The defending NFL champion Chicago Bears arrived in town undefeated, and because the Lions had only one loss, the winner of the first Thanksgiving game would win the Western Division. The Lions had to turn spectators away at the gate after selling out their 26,000-seat stadium. Despite the fact that the Bears were victorious, the custom stuck, and the Lions have been playing on Thanksgiving ever since.
HOW ‘BOUT THEM COWBOYS?
The Cowboys, too, took advantage of the opportunity to play on Thanksgiving to boost their popularity. When the Cowboys were given the opportunity to play on Thanksgiving Day in 1966, it may not have been a tremendous benefit. Even while the Lions had sold out their stadium for their Thanksgiving games, there was no guarantee the Texans would warm up to holiday football as soon.
Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm, on the other hand, was a marketing genius who created the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, among other things.
Even though the club was struggling under inexperienced head coach Tom Landry, Schramm saw the Thanksgiving Day game as a fantastic way to gain the team some national attention. Even though the NFL was concerned that the spectators might not come up, Schramm signed the Cowboys up for the game since the league guaranteed the team a specific amount of gate revenue if no one bought tickets. Fans came out in droves, as the team set a new attendance record with 80,259 people packed into the Cotton Bowl. That day, the Cowboys defeated the Cleveland Browns 26-14, and a new Thanksgiving pigskin tradition was born. The Cowboys have only missed two Thanksgiving games since 1966.
WHAT’S WITH THE NIGHT GAME?
Because six hours of holiday football wasn’t enough, the NFL added a third game to the Thanksgiving schedule in 2006. The Pittsburgh Steelers will host the Baltimore Ravens in this year’s game, which is not assigned to a certain franchise.
Who started Thanksgiving football?
The Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day heritage gained national attention in another way, starting with the very first game in 1934. Knowing the publicity potential of radio, Richards along with NBC Radio, set up a 94-station network to broadcast the Lions-Bears showdown.
Thanksgiving Day football, once a tradition among the high schools and colleges of America, has more or less faded into oblivion in most sections of the country.
But it is still alive in the National Football League in two franchise cities, Detroit and Dallas, where Thanksgiving Day football has become a normal, expected way of life. Beginning in 1966, Dallas has missed playing on the holiday only in 1975 and 1977.
However, when it comes to Thanksgiving Day football, NFL style, most fans first think of the Lions and the tradition that was started in 1934. It was their first year in Detroit after a local radio executive, George A. Richards, had purchased the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans and moved the team to Detroit. The Spartans were members of the NFL from 1930 to 1933.
With the Spartans, not only was Richards bringing a proven, quality team to Detroit, he was also bringing at least one super-star, Earl “Dutch” Clark, one of the most versatile backs ever to play the game. Clark had an outstanding supporting cast in the Detroit backfield with a big, talented line anchored by Frank Christiansen.
Even though he knew there was some risk in scheduling a game on Thanksgiving Day, Richards also recognized that his Lions were taking a back seat to the baseball Tigers on the sports pages. So as one way of attracting Motor City fans during the team’s first season, he opted for the Thanksgiving Day contest.
The matchup between the Lions and the World Champion Chicago Bears proved to be an all-time classic. The 1934 Lions had not allowed a touchdown until their eighth game and entered the game with the Bears with a 10-1 record. But with 11 straight wins, Chicago had an even better record. Still a win would put the Lions into a first-place tie with the Bears with only a game left, a repeat clash with the Bears in Chicago, just three days later on December 2.
The 26,000 tickets for the Turkey Day clash in the University of Detroit Stadium, were sold out two weeks in advance of the game. It was estimated that another 25,000 would have attended had there been seats available.
The Bears edged out the Lions 19-16 in the classic holiday struggle and then prevailed 10-7 three days later to clinch the NFL Western Division crown.
Not despondent over the last two losses, Richards reasoned that his team had done well in its first year in Detroit. His confidence was rewarded the next year when the Lions won the 1935 NFL Championship. The key game in the title drive came on Thanksgiving Day, when the Lions defeated the Bears 14-2 to clinch the West championship.
Thus the football-on-Thanksgiving tradition became firmly established in Detroit. With the exception of a six-season gap from 1939 to 1944, the Thanksgiving Day game has been played with no interruptions.
The Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day heritage gained national attention in another way, starting with the very first game in 1934. Knowing the publicity potential of radio, Richards along with NBC Radio, set up a 94-station network to broadcast the Lions-Bears showdown. The famous announcing team of Graham McNamee and Don Wilson described the action.
You may also like:
- Omicron in Australia: what does the new Covid variant mean, and how worried should we be? | Coronavirus
- Six cases of Covid Omicron variant found in Scotland | Coronavirus
- Man jailed for murder of Meredith Kercher is freed from prison and points the finger at Amanda Knox
- Knife-wielding mugger who committed three crimes in 36 hours bragged to cops he’d be freed each time
