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Twelve weird Thanksgiving facts

[additional-authors]
November 27, 2013

1. Since 1934, The Detroit Lions always play on Thanksgiving                                                     

Detroit radio station owner, George A. Richards, bought the Lions (then known as the Spartans) and moved the team from Ohio to Detroit in 1934. In the early weeks of the 1934 season, the biggest crowd the Lions could draw to a game was 15,000 people. Richards was desperate to find a marketing trick to get Detroit excited about its new football team, so he came up with the idea of playing a game on Thanksgiving. Since Richards' radio station was one of the bigger radio stations in the country, he was able to convince NBC to broadcast the Thanksgiving game on 94 stations nationwide. The Lions played the undefeated Chicago Bears (who went on to win the Western Division) and sold out their 26,000-seat stadium. Ever since then, the Lions play on Thanksgiving.

2. The first TV dinner was Thanksgiving leftovers

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