A Brief History of the Dallas Cowboys' Annual Thanksgiving Day Game

There are only two teams in the NFL with established traditions of hosting an annual Thanksgiving Day game: The Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys. The Lions' tradition is much older, but one could argue that the Cowboys' annual Thanksgiving Day classic is more significant because, unlike Detroit (Lions fans are no doubt hopeful that this will soon change), so many of the Cowboys' Thanksgiving Day games have been instrumental in advancing them to the playoffs. What's more, the Cowboys are arguably the most successful and storied team in NFL history. Among other astonishing successes, they have played in more Super Bowls (8) than any other NFL team, and have won 5 of them (a record matched only by the San Francisco 49ers and the Pittsburgh Steelers). Here, then, is a brief history of what has understandably become one of the country's - and the National Football League's - most enduring Thanksgiving traditions.

During the first half of the 1960s, televised NFL games grew exponentially in popularity. In an effort to capitalize on this success, the league began shopping around for a team to host an annual Thanksgiving Day game in addition to the game hosted by the Detroit Lions. Every single team turned down the offer on the grounds that scheduling a Thursday game so late in the season would be too disruptive. Every team, that is, except for the Dallas Cowboys. General Manager Tex Schram recognized this as a golden opportunity for the Cowboys to establish their own Thanksgiving Day game tradition. Clearly, his decision was a prescient one. The game caught on and has become wildly popular.