Sunday Trivia Answer

Well, what an overwhelming response to this week's Sunday Trivia. First of all, thanks to everyone at the RevGalBlogPals for the warm welcome. In amongst the answers were greetings from old friends and people with roots just next door. Thanks to everyone for their words of welcome.

A number of people were correct that the Thanksgiving Classic usually refers to the NFL game hosted by either the Dallas Cowboys or the Detroit Lions. Dave rightly pointed out that the Lions game is much older than the Cowboys game. St. John's webmaster, Hal, was the only one to get right that the Lions game began in 1934.

When the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans moved to Detroit, new owner G. A. Richards was looking for a way to increase interest in the new team (which was overshadowed in Detroit by the Tigers). Thus, he invited the Chicago Bears (who were the World Champions in 1933) to play in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day, 1934. Prior to the game, Detroit was at 10-1, and the Bears were at 11-0. Chicago squeaked out a 3-point win that day, 19-16, and a Thanksgiving day tradition was born. (picture at left is of the '34 game, copyright by the NFL archives)

It was pointed out that this year is a re-match of an old Thanksgiving rivalry, as the Lions are playing the Green Bay Packers this year. In the 1950's-1960's this was the Thanksgiving match-up, but the Turkey day line-up has varied in every other period.

We were at home watching a History channel special on Thanksgiving day, and they started talking about Turkey Day football. My wife (a native southeast Texan) was in shock. She didn't realize that the NFL played on Thanksgiving. Like many respondents to this week's trivia, she assumed that the only Thanksgiving football that mattered was college ball, in particular the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry game.