During the 1800s, Fordham Preparatory School was officially known as the Second Division of St. John’s College, Fordham’s original name. The school would only begin to be called Fordham Prep in the early 1900s — first as a nickname, and ultimately as our official title.
Neither the College nor Prep teams were yet known as the Rams. In fact, the first instance of the word ram in Prep history does not occur until 1906. During the 19th century, the various Second Division teams had a series of colorful names. At first, our varsity squads were known as The Live Oaks. By 1862, Prep varsity would be styled The Invincibles. Maroon, however, was already proudly our school color at the time, and had been since 1874. Go Fordham Prep! Go Rams! Go Invincibles! Go Maroon!
The first “Turkey Bowl” - November 27, 1887
The first recorded Turkey Bowl took place on November 27, 1887, as chronicled in a Fordham Monthly article: “The Xaviers came up on Sunday, November 27th, and played a good game. It grew dark before either team scored a single point.” The author of the piece was David Arellano, Class of 1887, one of our Central American boarding students and a truly fascinating figure in school history, who, incidentally, had been a pitcher for our baseball team – not a footballer. He was still at Rose Hill, but in St. John's First Division, or Fordham College, when he wrote the article.
While there are earlier Fordham-Xavier football games on record, those games were between the college-level teams, not the high schoolers. (Xavier originally had a college division, as well.) And while Prep football had existed embryonically for a few seasons before 1887, our boys either played against each other, or served as practice squads for the College’s team. Therefore, Fordham Prep also looks to November 27, 1887 as the official launch of our district formal interscholastic football program. In other words, that first legendary “Turkey Bowl” — called on account of darkness — was also our first official football game.
The 1887 game was not held on Thanksgiving itself, but rather, as part of the long holiday weekend. Other early “Turkey Bowls” were also not played on Thanksgiving proper, but at some point over the holiday weekend, or on other long fall holiday weekends. Recall that while Thanksgiving had long been part of the American story, the holiday in its modern iteration as a national observance had only been ushered in by President Lincoln some decades earlier. And so, during these days, other fall celebrations, like Election Day, for instance, were still marked by parades, bonfires, and other festivities that we would associate with Thanksgiving. Some early Prep-Xavier gridiron match-ups would be held on these weekends, as well.
As American-style football was still a new sport, it is worth noting that the Prep team did not have official football uniforms, yet. Instead, they were wearing the baseball’s team’s uniforms off-season. As reported after football season in the Monthly, “There has been some talk lately of getting genuine football suits for our eleven. The game is somewhat wearing on the baseball jerseys.”
