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Throwing Down on Thanksgiving (1885-1905)

You might know that waaayy back in the day, Michigan used to play season-ending games on Thanksgiving. In fact, in the early years of the program, it was actually a regular deal, with the work primarily performed in Chicago.

There were a few historically huge match-ups including the 1903 tilt against Amos Alonzo Stagg’s Chicago Maroons. That game was the subject of a recent edition of This Week in Michigan Football History.

Here’s a tally of Michigan football’s Thanksgiving Day games – each played on the last Thursday in November:

By my tally, that’s 17 games with Michigan coming out on top 9 times.