Fun and games are always an inevitable part of entertainment for the young and the old alike. People in America celebrate this festival of charitable giving through their avid participation in the game of football that brings in waves of sheer joy and pleasure in the hearts of multitudes of fanatic football fans who are driven mad by football mania during this festive season. Over the years, football has become synonymous with this joyous festival of Thanksgiving.
Many interesting traditions permeate deep into the festival of Thanksgiving such as the game of football compliments this festival of merrymaking. Professional football was the last of the contemporary trends of celebrating the spirit of Thanksgiving. In 1874, eleven years after Lincoln's proclamation, the first intercollegiate football game was played. Two year later the Intercollegiate Football Association was formed in the northeast, which instituted a championship game principally to amuse the people on Thanksgiving Day. Every year, strong competitors like Princeton and Yale would vie with each other to bag the most coveted winner's trophy. Players, students and fans would wear their school colors as a mark of representation with banners flying high from carriages, hotels and business establishments of New York City. On Thanksgiving Day church services would wind up early to accommodate the fans, with the game kicking off the season of festivity for the social elite in New York. It had gained such popularity that soon by mid-1890s, 1,20,000 athletes from colleges, clubs and high schools partook in 5,000 Thanksgiving Day football games across the nation.
The custom of watching a match of football on Thanksgiving Day has evolved during the early decades of twentieth century. As football paved its way into the heart of the people winning hearts of millions, giving it a huge popularity as early as 1920s and 1930s and earning itself the much prestigious position that it enjoys at present, many people began to visit the football stadium to watch the same. Renowned teams playing for the world famous football league of America eventually established the
UFA Web tradition of playing nationally televised games on Thanksgiving afternoon. Besides the conventional competition organized by the nationally recognized football league in America, many high schools and colleges also organize "Turkey Day" football games over Thanksgiving weekend, often between regional or historic rival. However, Thanksgiving football played in schools and colleges of America, has now more or less faded into oblivion in most sections of the country with it being kept alive only in two franchise cities of this globally recognized football league of America, namely Detroit and Dallas, where Thanksgiving football is very much a way of life.