Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time ever … your Tuesday Night Football logo. (Feeling dizzy. Must sit down). Yes, I’ve been waiting all day for Tuesday night; now let’s just hope Faith Hill has updated the intro song. A Tuesday NFL game is kind of cool; it’s like when you gathered all your friends to play tackle football in the park on a weekday during Christmas vacation. Favre can be that one friend who’s still in high school even though he’s 22.
As we know, the last time the NFL played on a Tuesday was on Oct. 1, 1946, with the Boston Yanks playing host to the New York Giants. It’s been widely reported that the game was played at Fenway Park, which was the primary home of the Yanks that season. But that’s not true; the game was actually at Braves Field, home of the Boston Braves. From SB Nation:
The Oct. 1, 1946 game took place at Braves Field, former home of the MLB’s Boston Braves and now Nickerson Field, home of many of Boston University’s sports teams. According to the October 2, 1946 Boston Globe (currently only available through ProQuest Library Holdings and microfilm), the season-opening game was a disappointment on many levels.
“The New York Giants did everything but usher the surprisingly few patrons to their seats at Braves Field last night…(the Giants) gave the Boston Yanks a statistical shellacking of proportions far greater than the 17-0 score.”
The recap, written by Jerry Nason, went on to say that the game was considered “a financial catastrophe” for the Yanks franchise because less than 16,000 were in attendance. The star of the game was New York Giants’ fullback Merle Hapes, who scored the Giants’ two touchdowns, one each in the opening and closing quarters of the game.
But why Braves Field, and why Tuesday? This is speculation on my part, but I’m guessing that they couldn’t use Fenway because the Red Sox were in the World Series that year, and they didn’t want to reconfigure the park. The Yanks, however, also played home games at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Mass., so I’m not sure why they didn’t use that. It was a night game, so maybe the Manning Bowl was unequipped with lights.
Perhaps the Yanks didn’t want to play on Sunday because the Red Sox were winding up the regular season that day at home vs. the Washington Senators, and they felt that would be a drain on attendance. Anyone know the particulars on all of this?
By the way, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter would like to remind everyone that he had nothing to do with postponing the game. Thank you.
***
Boston Hosted The Last Tuesday NFL Game, In 1946 [SB Nation]
