ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:

It’s Thanksgiving, and for football fans that means watching the Detroit Lions. The team has played on Thanksgiving almost every year since 1934. That year the Lions lost 19-16 to the Chicago Bears. So it’s fitting that the Lions face the Bears again today, 90 years later. Bill Morris, author of “The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, The Detroit Lions, And The Road To Redemption In The NFL,” joins us to talk about how this Thanksgiving tradition was born. Bill Morris, welcome to the program.

BILL MORRIS: Happy Thanksgiving, Rob.

SCHMITZ: Happy Thanksgiving to you. And you know, football, Thanksgiving is like turkey and stuffing for a lot of us. How far does this tradition go back?

MORRIS: Well, in Detroit, as you said, it started in 1934. But in the 19th century, when football was first invented, college teams – Yale and Princeton – played on Thanksgiving Days. It wasn’t a tradition like it is now. But you know, it was a holiday and people were off. And people thought, we’re going to have a football match and people will come and watch it. And indeed, they did. And some professional games were played on Thanksgiving Day before 1934. But it was the Lions who made it an enduring event every Thanksgiving Day, starting in 1934, the year the team moved to Detroit from Portsmouth, Ohio.

SCHMITZ: Wow. And why did that happen? How did this come about? Why Detroit?

MORRIS: When the Lions moved to Detroit, they were struggling in Ohio. You know, it was the depression, they didn’t draw many fans, they played in a small stadium on the Ohio River in Portsmouth, Ohio. So a man named George Richards, owner of WJR Radio in Detroit, paid just under $8,000 for the team, brought them to Detroit and…

SCHMITZ: (Laughter) Oh, my God.

MORRIS: Yeah, I know.

SCHMITZ: Wait a minute. $8,000?

MORRIS: A lot of money back then. You know, this was a struggling team that was losing money…

SCHMITZ: Oh, my God.

MORRIS: …So he had to. But you know, the Detroit Tigers baseball team was very entrenched.

SCHMITZ: Sure.

MORRIS: And so he realized he needed a gimmick to draw fans to this newfangled thing called pro football. Well, he had the brilliant idea that he could put it on WJR. And WJR was an NBC affiliate, and he was able to get it broadcast nationally on 94 stations.

SCHMITZ: (Laughter).

MORRIS: So it became a media event in 1934. It was a great success. The game was sold out. Twenty-six thousand fans showed up at the University of Detroit football stadium. They had to turn fans away. It was a national event. You know, people all over the country are listening to their radios. And the Lions play the mighty Chicago Bears in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day. So that was the start of a tradition that still continues 90 years later.

SCHMITZ: Eight thousand dollars for a football team. What did they pay their quarterback? (Laughter) I’m just curious.

MORRIS: You know, a friend of mine talked to one of the guys on that team and he made $4,000 that year. And that was a lot of money. I mean, that was a top price for a player at the time, so…

SCHMITZ: Wait. He made half of what the team was worth (laughter)?

MORRIS: Exactly. I mean, he got the… it was a purchase agreement when he brought the team to town…

SCHMITZ: Amazing.

MORRIS: …When George Richards took the team there.

(LAUGHTER)

SCHMITZ: So, okay, Bill, I’m going to apologize in advance to Lions fans. I’m a Vikings fan. And one of my team’s most memorable wins came on Thanksgiving Day in 1998 against the Cowboys during the Randy Moss era. What are some of the most memorable Thanksgiving football games that stand out in your mind?

MORRIS: Well, there’s one, Rob, that’s still imprinted on my eyeballs. I was 10 years old – and I’m going to date myself here – but in 1962.

SCHMITZ: Okay.

MORRIS: The mighty Packers, undefeated, came to Detroit to play Tiger Stadium. I was in the stands that day. The Lions absolutely destroyed the Packers, jumping out to a 26-0 lead and eventually winning 26-14. It was a much more lopsided game than that. And to this day, people of a certain age in Detroit still call the game the Thanksgiving Day Massacre. And it was the only loss the Packers suffered that year. They won the championship. The Lions finished second as usual. But that was a memorable Thanksgiving Day. People in Detroit still talk about that (laughter), believe me.

SCHMITZ: The Thanksgiving Day Massacre (laughter).

MORRIS: Yeah, 1962. Everyone remembers that one.

SCHMITZ: So these days there are three football games played on Thanksgiving, including the annual home game for the Lions and an annual home game for the Dallas Cowboys. When those other games were added, did it threaten the Lions’ role in this tradition?

MORRIS: Well, I don’t think so. The Lions still have a very solid fan base. But even in their lean years, fans in Detroit were always fiercely devoted to the Lions. And the Lions, as long as they had that home game every Thanksgiving, it didn’t really matter to them or, I guess, to the team’s management or ownership, and certainly not to the fans, if Dallas had. a game, so to speak, or whatever. Dallas started playing in the 1960s. And I think it was in ’78 that they got a permanent deal to always have a Thanksgiving Day game. And the Lions always kicked off first, and then the Cowboys. And finally, in 2006, they added a third game. You know, the NFL is never shy about an opportunity to make money, so they (laughter)…

SCHMITZ: Of course not.

MORRIS: They jumped on a third one. If two is good, three is probably better, so now they have a third game (laughter). But the Lions are still involved in that home game every Thanksgiving. And there was talk a few years ago, when the Lions were really in trouble, in 2008: they went 0-16, the first team to ever lose all 16 games. And the league started talking about possibly moving the game away from Detroit because they had such a bad TV draw. But the powers that be in Detroit, including the Ford family, convinced the owners to leave it alone and let the Lions continue to play on Thanksgiving Day.

SCHMITZ: Bill, the Lions are looking really good this year. But as I’m sure you know, despite being one of the oldest NFL teams, they’ve never been to a Super Bowl. Will this be their year?

MORRIS: Well, a lot of people are starting to think that. You know, they have a beautiful record. They have a powerful team. They’ve had a ton of injuries, and they still seem to be trudging along. In fact, when I started writing the book, I thought I was writing a story about the futility the Detroit Lions have experienced year after year.

(LAUGHTER)

MORRIS: And as I was writing the book, I had to change my tune because they suddenly became good while I was writing the book (laughter). You know, my original title was “Natural Losers.” And once they started winning, I had to come up with a new title. And that’s how I ended up with ‘The Lions Finally Roar’. And they are indeed roaring, and many people think they are going to the Super Bowl this year. I’d hate to predict it because Detroit fans are used to getting their hopes up and then having them crushed. So I don’t want to have too high expectations, but they look very good at the moment.

SCHMITZ: Well, Bill, as a Minnesota Vikings fan, I can certainly relate to it.

MORRIS: (Laughter).

SCHMITZ: That’s Bill Morris. His latest book is “The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, The Detroit Lions, And The Road To Redemption In The NFL.” Bill, thank you so much for joining us.

MORRIS: Thank you, Rob.

(SOUNDBITE OF SAM SPENCE’S “CLASSIC FIGHT”)

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