For those of you who think Christmas Day should remain sacred and out of professional sports, you might want to look away now.
Fields and courts across the country fell silent for nearly half a century on December 25, but not anymore as the NBL prepares to host its first Christmas Day match.
Melbourne United will travel to the Superdome in Sydney to face the Kings at 6.30pm AEDT.
The NBL billed the game as “the last scheduling frontier in Australian sport” when it was announced back in July, and from a modern perspective, that’s about right.
However, Christmas Day was once a staple around the world and, in some places, still is.
Football, a UK Christmas tradition
In the UK, football is a staple of the festive season, with Boxing Day games fans looking forward to all year round.
However, football was also regularly played on Christmas Day from the earliest days of the leagues in 1889, when Preston North End beat Aston Villa 3-2 at Deepdale, until the last Christmas game in 1965.
Playing games on one of the few public holidays of the year actually made sense, especially in the pre-television era, and the crowds were regularly very healthy.
Christmas Day saw some memorable matches, often with many goals scored.
Christmas 1940 was particularly wild, with Norwich beating Brighton 18-0, although Brighton had to turn to young players and even recruited some from the crowd to form a team; Southend United beat Clapton Orient 9-3, Bournemouth. Beat Bristol City 7-1 and Bury drew 5-5 with Halifax.
In 1937, Charlton’s goalkeeper Sam Bartram not only had to play on Christmas Day, but he was left on the pitch for 15 minutes by himself.
After heavy fog descended on Stamford Bridge during the Chelsea-Charlton match, the referee ordered everyone to leave, but Bartram didn’t realize he had stayed on the pitch until a policeman emerged from the fog to tell him everyone had left.
Christmas games came to an end in the late 1950s when the last English Football League game was played on Christmas Day, Blackpool v Blackburn Rovers in 1965, with Blackpool winning 4-2 in front of 21,000 people.
However, it wasn’t just men who played on Christmas Day.
Dick, Kerr Ladies, a leading women’s team that once drew 53,000 to a Boxing Day match, played their first game against Arundel Coulthard Foundry on Christmas Day 1917, with 10,000 supporters turning up at Deepdale Stadium in Preston North End to watch.
Christmas Day matches in Scotland continued to be scheduled until 1976.
The most famous game to take place on Christmas Day though was to take place in 1914, when German and British troops stopped their fighting to play a series of impromptu games between the trenches.
Around the world, football continues at a brisk pace throughout Christmas, with matches scheduled in a number of leagues in Africa and Asia this year.
American professional sports leagues love Christmas
Christmas Day in the US has traditionally been a busy time for basketball fans, and this year is no exception.
Five NBA matchups are scheduled for Christmas Day: New York Knicks-Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks-LA Lakers, Celtics-Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors-Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets-Phoenix Suns.
This year, three NFL matchups have joined that bumper schedule: Miami Dolphins vs. Green Bay Packers, LA Rams vs. Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The NFL usually only holds games on Christmas Day, when it falls on a weekend.
It first happened in 1971 when there were two playoff games between the Dallas Cowboys vs. the Minnesota Vikings and the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Miami Dolphins; the game was later notarized as the longest in NFL history after going into double overtime.
The NBA has played games on Christmas Day since its second season in 1947, and has played five games each year since 2008.
It also tries to make them big games by featuring the defending champions or other matchups, such as when Kobe Bryant and Shaq O’Neal faced off in 2004.
The other major North American winter sports league, the NHL, does not schedule games on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Boxing Day as part of their bargaining agreement with players.
It used to hold games on Christmas Day, however, starting in the 1920s and ending the tradition only in 1971.
Christmas cricket?
Christmas cricket is far from unheard of. For example, Bangladesh and India are playing a Test match right now, one of seven times the match has taken place or is scheduled to take place on Christmas Day in Test matches.
No sport is as steeped in tradition and idiosyncrasy as first-class cricket, so the fact that games were played on Christmas Day may come as a surprise to some.
It is even more surprising given the strictness where traditionally no game is scheduled on Sunday. i mean it wouldn’t just be cricket would it?
This has led to some surprising anomalies, such as the second Test between Australia and England at the MCG in 1950, where the match started on Friday 22 December, had two days off, Sunday 24 December and Monday 25 December. before resuming to another. two days as Australia completed a 28-run victory.
It was one of 29 Tests played on Christmas Day, including 10 in Australia, the earliest being against England at the SCG in 1924 and the most recent being against the same opponents at the MCG in 1994.
The first Christmas Day Sheffield Shield match was played in 1926 between South Australia and Queensland at Adelaide Oval.
By the way, that game started on Christmas Day, Saturday. The next day was Sunday, which was supposed to be a rest day.
As a brief aside, the Sunday off for a Test match dates back to the Sunday Official Act of 1780, a United Kingdom law that prohibited the use of any building or room for public entertainment or debate on a Sunday.
The last Test to feature a rest day in Australia was Pakistan’s visit to the Gabba in 1995, when November 12 was decided for the players’ rest.
As far back as 1926, CricInfo reported that 13,000 people thronged the gates on Christmas Day to see Test opener Arthur Richardson score 232 runs to help South Australia finish at 6-432.
The hosts were winning the game by 10 wickets and starting a tradition. this was the first of 29 Christmas Day matches to be played at Adelaide Oval between 1926 and 1969, including two test matches.
In 1951-52, the West Indies touring side finished with a six-wicket victory over the Australians on Christmas Day 1951.
Interestingly, however, the touring South Africans have not been forced to play on Christmas Day next year at the MCG, instead being given a rest day.
In 1967, however, Australia beat India in the opening Test of their tour, a game that fell on Christmas Day and saw Bob Simpson and Bob Cowper score centuries on 25 December.
Paul Sheehan and John Gleeson both made their debuts in that game; an open wrapping of greenery under the tree wouldn’t be a bad Christmas present, but at the same time spare the thought of Bill Lowry, who endured a terrible Christmas day by being fired for a golden present. duck caught by Farooq Engineer off the bowling of Umesh Kulkarni.
Incidentally, Don Bradman bowled for a duck on Christmas Day in 1940 in a home first-class match against Victoria.
Australia also played Test cricket overseas on Christmas Day, beating India by 77 runs in the fifth Test at the Madras Cricket Club.
Since then, however, there has been no first-class or List A cricket in Australia on Christmas Day, although Big Bash bosses may be keeping a close eye on how the NBL game is received.
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