Wood engraving from Harper’s Weekly magazine depicts on
field action during a football match between Yale and
Princeton on Thanksgiving Day, November 1876.

On November 30, 1876, Yale defeated 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.

An illustration of the first football game held on Nov. 6,
1869 (Photo: Special Collections and University Archives)

On November 6, 1869, Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4, in the first
college football game. The game, played with a soccer ball before roughly 100 fans in New Brunswick, New Jersey,
resembled rugby instead of today’s football.

Even off the playing fields, the rivalry between the New Jersey
schools, located 20 miles apart, was heated. At the time,
Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey. 

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Associated Press’ global headquarters located
in New York City.

On August 20, 1920, seven men, including legendary all-around
athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, met to organize a professional football league at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in
Canton, Ohio. The meeting led to the creation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), the forerunner to the
hugely successful National Football League.

James Francis Thorpe
(May 22 or 28, 1887 – March 28, 1953)

Anthony Siragusa Sr. (May 14, 1967 – June 22, 2022)

(WP) – Tony Siragusa, a Super Bowl-winning NFL defensive tackle
and television personality whose massive physique was matched
by his outsize public persona, died in his sleep.