And Southerners find out that the holiday isn’t that bad after all." The tradition of playing football games on Thanksgiving continues to this day. At the high school level, the tradition is declining rapidly as schools drop their Thanksgiving games and shorten their regular season in favor of playoff tournaments and allowing players to focus on winter sports such as basketball. High school football games played on Thanksgiving are often called a Turkey Day Game or a Turkey Bowl (not to be confused with Turkey bowling), as Americans typically eat turkeys on Thanksgiving, although the title varies with each game. Most commonly these games are between high school football rivalries although in many cases, when poor weather requires a shorter season, the game can be the culmination of league play among a high-school league, in which the winners of this game will be the league champions for the year. (Statewide playoffs were generally rare until the 1970s and 1980s, which allowed for longer regular seasons.) The custom dates back more than 100 years and is particularly prevalent in the Northeast. In most cases, games are contested with kickoff times as early as 9 a.m., allowing the participants to have the rest of the holiday off. This list is sorted alphabetically, first by state, and then by school, with team leading the series listed first wherever possible. State and regional championship tournaments are listed ahead of rivalries. If the rivalry involves two states, the rivalry is listed under the school whose state comes first alphabetically (e.g. a New Jersey-Pennsylvania rivalry is listed under New Jersey). Connecticut has at least 48 Thanksgiving games. Some of the better known ones are as follows:     Maine has only one Thanksgiving football game  Maryland is home to one of the Oldest rivalries nationally, also known to be two of the oldest rivalries in the Southeastern United States. In Massachusetts, where high school football is not nearly the draw it is in other parts of the country, the Thanksgiving Day game is a long-standing tradition that brings out thousands of alumni and other fans. Virtually every school in the Bay State has a traditional rival and the holiday game is a focal point for all of them, no matter how unsuccessful the regular season may have been. Agawam vs. West Springfield: Since 1924, the two schools have met every year but 1949. Boston College High School vs Catholic Memorial School rivalry, with both all-male schools drawing students from similar seas. The winner of the game wins the Pumpkin Trophy. BC High has dominated the series, with a 38-18-1 record.