Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Football
Thanksgiving has always been one of my most favorite holidays. The short week at school. The great food and my Mom’s cooking. The lead up to Christmas. Thanksgiving will always hold a special place for me. It is also the last day that I got to spend with my Dad alive.
I remember the conversation at the dinner table clear as day. It was just me, my Mom and my Dad. After enjoying my Mom’s cooking somehow they got in a discussion about which of them were going to die first. When my Mom left the table, my Dad turned to me and said, “Listen, it’s likely going to be me, and I need to know that you guys will take care of everything for her.” “Dad,” I replied. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this.” Little did I know that he would pass within just over a week of this conversation. But this doesn’t make Thanksgiving sad to me, it makes it even more special.
A quick look at the History Channel website shows that the holiday of Thanksgiving was established during Abraham Lincoln’s administration while the Civil War raged in 1863. The first thanksgiving was a celebratory autumn harvest feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe in 1621.
Rituals are important to the culture, whether it be to a country or to a family. For us, a touch football game on Thanksgiving morning became a highlight of that holiday. It first started with a bunch of high school friends getting together to play touch football, rain or shine. One time, it did rain…hard! And it was a memorable mess.
As we got older and started our own families, it became more of a family event than a friend event. And as family moved further away, I continued to host the annual game with a combination of family members that lived nearby, high school friends that also remained in the area, and extended the tradition to new friends and families of my children’s classmates.
Here's how you set up a Thanksgiving Football Game.
Buy a football and some orange cones to mark the field.
I highly recommend investing in a pair of football shoes as well.
Order bagels, donuts, and coffee ahead of time and put them on the folding table.
Get a cooler full of ice and fill it with water, juice, and cream cheese and jelly for the bagels.
Make your own trophy to award to the MVP (Most Visible Player)
Get packs of football cards and See’s Candies Lollipops to give to the kids afterwards. Buy extras because the adults will want them too!
Put out a container as a donation box for charity. Ask people, especially the kids, to bring their loose change to fill up the donation box. Make sure to let them know what good cause they are supporting.
At halftime, you can add a turkey bowling game while everyone is getting refreshments. Get a frozen turkey and some plastic bowling pins. Line them up and let everyone take a turn heaving the turkey at the pins. This feature was added by my friend Steve Foster one year and was a big hit.
The Campbell Cup:
I mentioned earlier that when you plan a game, you should make a trophy.
The original Campbell Cup has been lost to the ages. It consisted of a piece of railroad tie, with a small trophy at the top and two handles on the side. It was created and built by my Dad.
The trophy was given to the most outstanding player, but that didn’t mean based on best performance. Outstanding meant that they did something remarkable during the event. One year, my Mom won it in a family football game because she lost her balance and ended up recovering a fumble by sitting on it!
The rule was that if you won the Campbell Cup, you had three obligations:
You must display it in a prominent, non-garage or basement, room in the house until the next event.
You were required to add something to the trophy prior to the next event.
You were involved in choosing who it was to be awarded to at the next event.
The second version of the Campbell Cup was started by my brother, Jim. He took a surplus silver vase from his wedding gifts and this became the start of the new Campbell Cup. Since I won it that year, I added a wooden base and a Campbell’s Soup can to it. As part of the wooden base, I started a name list so that each winner could write his or her name in Sharpie on the trophy and the year they won. It wasn’t the same as the Stanley Cup, but it had the same spirit. Unfortunately, the second Campbell Cup is also gone. Maybe someday, I’ll make a new one for my grandkids.
Thanksgiving Football is one of my Trees Of Joy. Even though it is now just a memory, I get messages every year from people mentioning how much fun it was and how their kids continue to talk about it. Some have even started their own games. Would be fun to see if they have also built their own trophies as well!
Get out on the field and Look Up! But make sure you warm up and stretch really well first!!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!