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For so long as most of us can bear in mind, the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions have performed video games on Thanksgiving Day. However why?
Let’s begin with the Lions. They’ve performed each Thanksgiving since 1934, apart from 1939-44, regardless of the very fact they haven’t been group most of these years. The Lions performed their first season in Detroit in 1934 (earlier than that, they had been the Portsmouth Spartans). They struggled their first yr in Detroit, as most sports activities followers there beloved baseball’s Detroit Tigers and didn’t come out in droves to observe the Lions. So Lions proprietor George A. Richards had an concept: Why not play on Thanksgiving?
Richards additionally owned radio station WJR, which was one of many largest stations within the nation at the moment. Richards had a whole lot of clout within the broadcasting world, and satisfied NBC to air the sport nationwide. The NFL champion Chicago Bears got here to city, and the Lions offered out the 26,000-seat College of Detroit subject for the primary time. Richards saved the custom going the subsequent two years, and the NFL saved scheduling them on Thanksgiving after they resumed enjoying on that date after World Battle II ended. Richards offered the group in 1940 and died in 1951, however the custom he began continues at present when the Lions play the Inexperienced Bay Packers.
The Cowboys first performed on Thanksgiving in 1966. They got here into the league in 1960 and, as arduous as it’s to consider now, struggled to attract followers as a result of they had been fairly dangerous these first few years. Common supervisor Tex Schramm mainly begged the NFL to schedule them for a Thanksgiving recreation in 1966, considering it’d get them a reputation enhance in Dallas and in addition nationwide for the reason that recreation could be televised.
It labored. A Dallas-record 80,259 tickets had been offered because the Cowboys defeated the Cleveland Browns 26-14. Some Cowboys followers level to that recreation as the start of Dallas turning into “America’s group.” They’ve missed enjoying on Thanksgiving solely in 1975 and 1977, when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle opted for the St. Louis Cardinals as an alternative.
The video games with the Cardinals proved to be losers within the scores, so Rozelle requested the Cowboys if they’d play once more in 1978.
“It was a dud in St. Louis,” Schramm instructed the Chicago Tribune in 1998. “Pete requested if we’d take it again. I stated provided that we get it completely. It’s one thing you must construct as a convention. He stated, ‘It’s yours endlessly.’ ”
Dallas takes on the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on Thursday.
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