Like Many Parts of Thanksgiving, The Pigskin on Thursday Is All Us.
Ok, Pilgrims. Do you want the credit for creating the legacy of Thanksgiving?
For first, grilling that wild turkey and sharing the feast with the Native Americans near the rock named Plymouth? Go ahead, take it.
We won’t mention that Philly’s founder, William Pen,n marketed Philly’s surrounding, gorgeous late November foliage like a resort getaway at Sandals, or that Mr. Penn would sign a Thanksgiving Treaty (Shakamaxon) under a great Elm tree, or that President George Washington signed an official Thanksgiving Day Proclamation while serving most of his Presidential term in Philadelphia.
But football on Thanksgiving afternoons is all ours (Don’t even try to claim otherwise).
It had hardly been five years since the conclusion of the Civil War in 1869 when the first US collegiate football game was played sixty miles north of Philadelphia in New Brunswick. They’ve never forgotten the College of New Jersey (Rutgers) vs Princeton 6–4 final score. They’ve even got a historical marker to prove it. Two weeks later — two cricket clubs got together for the first football game ever on Thanksgiving Day (Germantown Cricket Club vs. Young Man Cricket Club) in Philly. No winner was documented.
But Thanksgiving Football became more meaningful when Henry Holman and his 1926 Frankford Yellow Jackets went 14–1–1 and won Philadelphia’s first NFL Championship. Homan wasn’t just talented; he was clutch in late-game situations. As one of the most popular players on the Yellow Jackets — Homan scored a pivotal late touchdown in 1926 during what was a 1920s Thanksgiving Day tradition vs. the Green Bay Packers.
With George Halas’ Chicago Bears right on Frankford’s heals with twelve wins. After the Bears lost 7–6 at Frankford Stadium on December 4th (thanks to another late 27-yard score by Homan), Chicago tied the Green Bay Packers 3–3 in the last game of the season. Back in Philadelphia, Frankford also ended the 1926 season with a tie against the Pottsville Maroons 0–0. A short time after, the NFL awarded Frankford the 1926 NFL Championship.
The record of the Yellow Jackets fourteen-win season wasn’t broken until the San Fransico 49ers and Roger Craig, Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice, and Joe Montana did it in 1984 — just two years after John Madden started calling Thanksgiving Games in 1982.
This is just another subtle, historical reminder that Thanksgiving Day Football originates in Philly (nope, you still can’t have it).
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