Thanksgiving morning football

I've read some stories that especially in the east and New England. It was fairly common to have big prep (or small college) football games on Thanksgiving morning up until the Sixties and Seventies.
Supposedly this has been mostly ended by the rise of season- ending playoff games.
Anybody remember this actually taking place?

 

There's a Thanksgiving morning game between two schools about two miles apart on the PA-NJ border, Easton and Philipsburg.

Both schools are so determined to keep the tradition, they have occasionally played the game on Thursday and come back to play a state playoff game on Saturday. And both have made it clear that if they are forced to choose between the two, the state playoffs lose.

 

Can't remember any colleges in NJ NJ or PA playing on Thanksgiving, but for hs it was very big. Through the 90s it was still big, just the last decade lot of teams have stopped playing them. There are still some very big rivalries though, Easton PA (Larry Holmes city) Phillipsburg (NJ) is huge and gets 14 or 15k whatever Lafayette's stadium holds with however many they let stand. Few years ago they showed the 100th game on espnu and couple years after that they had a reunion game of one from the mid 90s that ended tied. I know a guy who played for PBurg in that one. They practiced for a few weeks and 30-something year-old guys got together with their hs teammates to play a game against their rivals. Eli Manning was the honorary coach for PBurg and Peyton for Easton. In south Jersey there is Millville (Mike Trout's town) vs Vineland, which I'm pretty sure has been played a few more years than Easton-Pburg but is played at a hs field so doesn't draw as many as the other. In apout the 90s a lot of traditional rivalries ended when one team would be in the playoffs and decide to not play. Easton and PBurg though have both played on Thanksgiving and then two days later in a state game on a few occasions. Now in NJ there are no state games this week but still there are very few Thanksgiving games.

 

Every school in Massachusetts has a Thanksgiving morning game. For many schools, it's the only time they draw a significant crowd. It used to be a great day of work for me at the Herald. Go to game, come back home, stuff turkey and put it in oven, write story, you're done by 3 at the latest. And it was time and a half for everyone!

 

On the Jersey Shore, my wife's alma mater Red Bank Regional play Long Branch every Thanksgiving.

 

LB is Sam Mills' alma mater. The shore has some good rivalries, Brick-Brick Memorial, Middletown North vs South, although that's pretty lopsided. Here's a list of the oldest Thanksgiving games. Didn't realize it is a much bigger deal in Northeast than other parts of the country.

Oldest High School Thanksgiving Football Rivalries | Mitchell & Ness : Mitchell & Ness

 

Two games were played at Fenway today, Needham-Wellesley, oldest rivalry in the country, and Boston Latin-Boston English.

 

The tradition of my in-laws hosting Thanksgiving every year came about because my sister-in-law was in the marching band so they couldn't make it to Maryland or Delaware Thanksgiving Day.

 

Alabama State used to host Tuskegee every year in the Turkey Day Classic (which doubled as ASU homecoming) until three years ago when Tuskegee finally decided it wanted to go to the playoffs.

 

2nd oldest, a year after Norwich Free Academy and New London

Oldest High School Thanksgiving Football Rivalries | Mitchell & Ness : Mitchell & Ness

 

They always call it the oldest here, maybe it's oldest continuous.

 

If that chart is accurate it's 7 years, was looking at the 1 year difference between that one and Fordham-Xavier.