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Category: Seasonal

Print shows a late 19th century college football game between Yale University and Princeton University; it has more the appearance of a brawl than an organized sporting event. Spectators line the side of the field in the background and the trees are glowing with autumn color

Thanksgiving, Football, and the Emergence of an American Game

Posted by: Patrick Hastings

On Thanksgiving Day in 1876, Princeton met Yale in Hoboken, NJ for the first football game played under the new rules agreed by the Intercollegiate Football Association. As innovations in the rules gradually shaped a distinctly American game, the tradition of playing and watching football on Thanksgiving spread across the United States.