Football in the Year of Two Thanksgivings

Football and Thanksgiving have been linked since Harvard and Yale played on Thanksgiving in 1876. A few years later, the Intercollegiate Football Association decided that the top two teams each year would play one another in New York on Thanksgiving of the following year. That game soon became a major social event, attracting large crowds and setting the stage for future high school and college rivalry games on Thanksgiving Day.

Until the 1960s, college teams played nine or ten games per season, opening in late September and ending before or on Thanksgiving, with a few exceptions. For decades, the Big Ten had a rule requiring teams to finish their seasons before Thanksgiving and did not allow participation in bowl games.

The pages below are from a gas station premium, the 1939 Atlantic Refining Football Book. Atlantic was an Eastern brand, so the schedule listed Eastern radio broadcasts.

Pages 4 and 5 show most teams kicked off the season on September 30.