The first college football game played on Thanksgiving Day was between Yale and Princeton.

Quick Scoop

On November 30, 1876, Yale and Princeton met in Hoboken, New Jersey, in what is widely recognized as the first college football game held on Thanksgiving Day. The matchup, played in cold and miserable weather before roughly 1,000 spectators, ended with Yale defeating Princeton 2–0 under early rugby-style rules.

Why This Game Matters

  • The Yale–Princeton Thanksgiving clash helped cement the idea of football as a holiday tradition in the late 19th century.
  • It was one of the earliest showcase games of the young sport, at a time when rules were still evolving away from soccer and toward rugby-style play.
  • In the years that followed, Thanksgiving college games—often featuring Yale, Princeton, and sometimes Harvard—became major social events, paving the way for the NFL’s modern Thanksgiving showcases.

In short: the answer to “which college teams played in the first Thanksgiving Day football game?” is Yale vs. Princeton —a rainy 1876 showdown that quietly launched one of America’s favorite holiday traditions.

TL;DR: The first Thanksgiving Day college football game was played in 1876 between Yale and Princeton, with Yale winning 2–0 in Hoboken, New Jersey.

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