Why Do the Lions and Cowboys Play on Thanksgiving Every Year?

On Thursday, the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys will each host an N.F.L. game.

If that sounds familiar, it should, because for decades the Lions and Cowboys have always hosted N.F.L. games on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys have played a home game on that day all but two years since 1966, and the Lions’ streak goes back uninterrupted to 1945.

People in Detroit or Dallas don’t celebrate the holiday with any more gusto than other Americans. There is nothing particularly turkey-like about a lion or a cowboy. So how did it come to pass that Thanksgiving in America became synonymous with two particular football teams?

Origins in the Leatherhead Era

Professional football has been played on Thanksgiving since before the N.F.L. got its name; the league was initially saddled with the name American Professional Football Association.

There were six Thanksgiving Day matchups in the inaugural season in 1920, with such mighty sides as the Dayton (Ohio) Triangles and the Rochester (N.Y.) Jeffersons hosting games.

Pro football was mostly a Midwestern thing then, far overshadowed by the college game, which also held many Thanksgiving Day games. The day after the 1920 games, The New York Times sports report breathed not a word on the A.P.F.A. action, but it did have headlines like “Cornell No Match for Pennsylvania” and “Hobart and Rochester Tie.” College football games had already been played on the holiday for decades by then, a tradition begun by Princeton and Yale way back in 1876.

The pro league, renamed the N.F.L. in 1922, continued to hold Thanksgiving games, including matchups featuring teams like the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers that remain familiar to modern fans.

In 1925, Thanksgiving pro football came to Detroit when the Rock Island (Illinois) Independents defeated the Detroit … Panthers.

The Lions Look for Fans

The more familiar feline arrived in Detroit in 1934 when the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans picked up stakes and moved, becoming the Lions. The team was an immediate success on the field, winning its first 10 games. But the owner, George Richards, wanted to increase ticket sales and thought a Thanksgiving game might do it.

It worked: The team, which got 12,000 fans for a typical Sunday game the previous week, drew 25,000 fans for the Thanksgiving game against the Bears. The Lions lost, though, 19-16.

The Lions hosted four more Thanksgiving games, all against the Bears, and then stopped until after World War II. They resumed hosting games on the fourth Thursday in November in 1945, and have done so every year since.

Unfortunately for Lions fans, that 1934 loss was a sign of things to come. Despite all the home games, the Lions have a losing record overall on Thanksgiving, 37-45-2, including losing the last seven years. The team is 10-1 this year, though, and favored to beat the Bears by about 10 points. It will be the 20th Thanksgiving Day meeting between the division rivals.

The Cowboys Seek a Higher Profile

In 1966, Tex Schramm, the Cowboys’ general manager, wanted more national attention for his team and thought Thanksgiving would do the job. Sure enough, more than 80,000 fans packed the Cotton Bowl that year. The Cowboys soon became one of the most popular teams in the league, even gaining the nickname America’s Team.

The new American Football League, which would eventually merge with the N.F.L., also held a Thanksgiving game that year, giving fans three pro games in total. “The starting hours are so staggered that devotees can watch all three in their entirety — if their eyes hold out,” The Times wrote, clearly underestimating ocular stamina of the typical football fan. The A.F.L. went on to have two Thanksgiving games in its final three seasons, letting fans feast on four games for a time.

Dallas has continued to host a Thanksgiving game every year since, except in 1975 and 1977 when the struggling St. Louis Cardinals were given the slot in a league effort to boost the team’s fortunes.

The Cowboys have a 33-22-1 record on Thanksgiving and will be the slight favorite to improve it on Thursday against the New York Giants.

A Tradition Continues

The Cowboys and Lions became the only hosts of the two N.F.L. Thanksgiving games until 2006, when the N.F.L. added a third game, which rotates through a different host each year. Typically the Lions play first (this year at 12:30 p.m. Eastern), then the Cowboys (4:30 p.m.), and the third game is in the evening.

This year the Green Bay Packers will host the Miami Dolphins at 8:20 p.m. The Packers have been a frequent opponent of the Lions, their division rival, in Thanksgiving games in Detroit, but this is only their second time playing at home on the holiday since 1923.

The college menu has become smaller over time: There is only one major game on Thursday, Tulane vs. Memphis.

Though in decline, some high schools continue to play on the holiday, often in long-running rivalry games, often in the morning — like New York City’s Fordham Prep and Xavier, and Boston Latin and Boston English, who meet at Harvard Stadium for their 137th Thanksgiving game. In San Francisco, a city public school championship game will be held at Kezar Stadium, a tradition that dates back to the 1920s.

High school football on Thanksgiving is even protected by state law in Connecticut.

Enjoy the action. If your eyes hold out.