Great history doesn’t just run in Philly. It practically gallops.
Long before European settlers arrived, the Lenni Lenape built their world at the confluence of the region’s great rivers. Centuries later, that same ground would become the young nation’s first capital. Even our sports lore carries weight: the Phillies aren’t just an old ballclub; they’re the oldest continuous professional sports franchise in the United States. Good luck out-aging that.
But for the sake of argument, let’s say that you aren’t particularly impressed with the marketing of the gorgeous late autumn foliage as a selling point for Europeans to flock to Philadelphia. Or the great Elm tree that provided shade for the Thanksgiving signing of the Treaty of Shackamaxon (in present-day Fishtown) during November 1682.
Or perhaps you aren’t easily impressed by the fact that the oldest Thanksgiving Day Parade, started in 1920 by Gimbel’s Department Store, was right here in Philadelphia. Also, America’s first Thanksgiving Day Declaration was made by President George Washington, who served the majority of his term from the President’s House in Philadelphia in 1789.
So if you still insist that Thanksgiving’s lineage belongs solely to a rock called Plymouth, allow Philadelphia to offer one final rebuttal — football.
America’s first Thanksgiving Day game took place in 1869 on the Grounds of the Germantown Cricket Club. Philadelphia’s first NFL franchise, the Yellow Jackets, played the Green Bay Packers in one of the NFL’s earliest traditions. And during FDR’s “Franksgiving” shuffle in 1939 and 1940, it was the Steelers and the Eagles who played on Thanksgiving.
