What would Thanksgiving Day be without . . . football?  And so it was on November 29, 1917, at Camp Funston, an exciting game between the undefeated Funston Fighters and the University of Illinois.  Coaches on both teams were confident of victory.

The Funston team was made up of players who were now with the 89th Division, and had previous collegiate experience.  This included Adrian Lindsay, who had starred at the University of Kansas.

While 20,000 soldiers and people from the surrounding towns and cities attended the game, it was not a good day for the Fighters.  Illinois outplayed them, winning 28-0.

The game site can be seen here:  http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/226921

One must wonder what it was like, to see Thanksgiving football without endless commercial breaks, without play-by-play announcers struggling to find something interesting to say, and without the Detroit Lions!

Blair Tarr is the Museum Curator of the Kansas State Historical Society. He oversees the three-dimensional collections of the Society, but has special interests in the Civil War, Wichita-made Valentine diners, and Leavenworth's Abernathy Furniture. In the last few years he has also done a lot of cramming on The Great War. He is a past president of the Kansas Museums Association and the Civil War Round Tables of both Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. He is currently a board member of the Heritage League of Greater Kansas City.