By: HISTORY.com Editors

1876

First Thanksgiving college football game played

HISTORY.com Editors

Published: November 09, 2021

Last Updated: January 30, 2025

On November 30, 1876, Yale defeats Princeton, 2-0, in Hoboken, New Jersey in the first collegiate football game played on Thanksgiving. Nearly 1,000 fans attend the game, played in cold, rainy weather. "The friends of both colleges mustered in good force," the New York Times reports. "Several carriages containing ladies were on the ground, and a goodly number of Alumni were there to cheer the contestants."

The football was oval and made of leather, the Times noted, "similar to those used in Rugby Union rules." The game resembled rugby more than a present-day football game.

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Playing conditions were not ideal. "[T]he ground was so hard that terrific thumps and bruises were the rule and not the exception," the New York Daily Herald reported. But each team was superbly outfitted.

"The Yale team wore blue skullcaps, shirts, stockings of the same color and white flannel trowsers," the Daily Herald reported. "The Princeton lads were gorgeous in their orange and black uniforms."

Play became ragged, with the game reportedly resembling Greco-Roman wrestling. Perhaps the first example of college football trash talk was noted by the Daily Herald. "Just wait awhile, and we will show these fellows something," a Princeton player was quoted.

The Yale-Princeton Thanksgiving game started a collegiate tradition. Later in the 19th century, the universities of Kansas, Missouri, Michigan and others began playing football on the holiday.

On November 6, 1869, a little more than four years after the end of the Civil War, Rutgers defeated Princeton, 6-4, in the first college football game.

How the First Thanksgiving College Football Game Kicked Off a Holiday Tradition

In 1876, Yale beat Princeton before a sparse crowd. By the mid-1880s, their annual contest was a major social event that attracted thousands of fans in New York.

Wood engraving from Harper's Weekly magazine depicts onfield action during a football match between Yale and Princeton on Thanksgiving Day, November 1879. The match was a draw

By: Christopher Klein

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Citation Information

Article title: First Thanksgiving college football game played
Author: HISTORY.com Editors
Website Name: History
URL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-30/first-thanksgiving-college-football-games-yale-princeton-1876

Date Accessed: April 29, 2025
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: January 30, 2025
Original Published Date: November 09, 2021

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