10 LISTS OF TEN FOR THANKSGIVING : 10 Thanksgiving Day Football Facts to Impress the Relatives

1 In 1934, the Detroit Lions played host to the NFL’s first Thanksgiving Day game. The Lions lost, 18-16, to the Bears, but the experiment was a sellout and attracted a large national radio audience. The Lions have played a home game on Turkey Day since, except from 1939 to ’44.

2 In 1974, Clint Longley, 22, electrified a nationwide TV audience by coming off the bench to rally the Cowboys to three late touchdowns and a 24-23 victory over Washington. He is related to a notorious Texas outlaw, Wild Bill Longley, who was hanged in 1878, Sports Illustrated says.

3 For years, Lions veterans have pulled a free-turkey-at-the-supermarket scam on unsuspecting rookies. Six players fell for it in 1988 alone.

4 The wishbone formation was created by Emory Bellard in the late ‘60s, when he was the offensive coordinator at Texas.

5 In 1883, Johns Hopkins defeated Navy, 2-0, at Annapolis, Md.

6 O.J. Simpson, who played for San Francisco’s Galileo High, never made it to that city’s championship game, which has been played every Thanksgiving since the 1950s in Kezar Stadium.

7 In 1979, Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell ran for 195 yards for Houston against Dallas.

8 Teams at Cuero High School in Cuero, Tex. are nicknamed the Gobblers. The name dates to at least 1911 and represents “the uniqueness and the cleverness of the wild turkey. He’s hard to kill,” said Principal Ray Kelley.

9 No high school in or around Plymouth, Mass., is nicknamed the Pilgrims.

10 On Thanksgiving, 1916, the University of Texas unveiled its mascot, a longhorn steer, with the intention of later branding it “21-7”--the score by which Texas beat Texas A&M; that day. But a few days before the branding ceremony, A&M; pranksters sizzled a giant “13-0” into the animal’s hide--A&M;’s winning score in the 1915 game. Texas boosters skillfully altered the “13-0” to read “BEVO,” after a popular beer of the era. The nickname survives on mascots to this day.