Thanksgiving Football Still Attempting To Hold On In South Jersey

by Marc Narducci | Dec 1, 2025

Years ago nearly every team played on the holiday, but now the tradition is being upheld by a dwindling few schools.

Last week there were seven games – one the night before Thanksgiving and six more on the holiday that involved teams from the seven-county South Jersey area.

Here were the participants

Thanksgiving Eve

Audubon 56, Haddon Township 0

Thanksgiving

Atlantic City 37, Holy Spirit 14

Camden 41, Eastside 0

Clayton 20, Pitman 7

Haddonfield 25, Haddon Heights 7

Millville 55, Vineland 7

Paul VI 49, Camden Catholic 13

Audubon’s convincing win over host Haddon Township was plagued by terrible weather, as during the first quarter, it began raining heavily.

That put a damper on the evening, but it was still a special event because it marked the first game that Haddon Township played at the high school with its artificial turf field and lights.

There were more than 2,200 tickets sold to this game, by far the biggest crowd that either team played in front of this season.

We know there are negatives to having games on Thanksgiving and most of it deals with the playoff system.

This year the regular season ended on the weekend of Oct. 25 in New Jersey, with the playoffs beginning the next week.

Teams obviously can’t get power points by playing on Thanksgiving.

For some schools that could be the difference between qualifying for the playoffs or not.

In addition, teams that don’t make the playoffs have a long wait until the Thanksgiving game.

The NJSIAA allows teams to schedule consolation games, so they aren’t going more than a month without a game.

Haddon Township, for instance, scheduled two consolation games, while Audubon scheduled one.

Still, there is nothing like the tradition of Thanksgiving and the players truly feel it.

A great example of tradition came at the game between Pitman and host Clayton. It was the 100^th anniversary of the game and players from both sides who competed in the rivalry returned and were honored in a pre-game ceremony.

There were upwards of 50 former players from each school who took to the field pregame and almost all of them said among their greatest memories was playing on Thanksgiving.

Even a team like Camden, which will compete in the state Group 2 championship game this Wednesday at Rutgers against xx, was able to not only play on Thanksgiving but score a decisive victory over its city rival Eastside.

If a school wants to make it work, Thanksgiving football can work, whether a team didn’t qualify for the playoffs, or faces a state championship game the week after.

We can understand why some schools don’t want to play on Thanksgiving, but old-fashioned South Jersey football fans can also appreciate the effort that some schools still make to preserve on dwindling, but still great tradition in South Jersey football.

Photo: Pitman’s Jay Craig runs the ball vs Clayton on Thanksgiving / Marc Narducci

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Author: Marc Narducci

Thanksgiving Football Still Attempting To Hold On In South Jersey

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