Q 01/05

The NFL has played games on Thanksgiving Day since its founding in which year?

A) 1920

B) 1925

C) 1933

D) 1946

Answer · why

A) 1920

The league scheduled no Thanksgiving games in 1941 as war loomed, and only the Lions' home game survived when play resumed in 1945.

Q 02/05

Which team has hosted a game every Thanksgiving since 1934, apart from a wartime gap?

A) Chicago

B) Green Bay

C) New York

D) Detroit

Answer · why

D) Detroit

The franchise had only just arrived in Detroit that year, having started life as the Portsmouth Spartans in Ohio.

Q 03/05

Lions owner George Richards began the Thanksgiving game to sell tickets. What other asset spread it nationwide?

A) A newspaper chain

B) A department store

C) A railroad

D) A radio station

Answer · why

D) A radio station

He owned WJR, a big NBC Blue Network affiliate, and got NBC to carry his Thanksgiving games live across the country.

Q 04/05

Whom did the Lions host in their first Thanksgiving game in 1934?

A) Green Bay Packers

B) New York Giants

C) Chicago Cardinals

D) Chicago Bears

Answer · why

D) Chicago Bears

George Halas's team won 19-16 in front of 26,000; the tradition then paused from 1939 to 1944.

Q 05/05

The Lions' Thanksgiving tradition was interrupted from 1939 to 1944 because of what?

A) A players' strike

B) A stadium fire

C) A ban by the league

D) World War II

Answer · why

D) World War II

Shortened wartime seasons meant no Thanksgiving games at all in 1941; the Lions resumed in 1945.