Boston Hosted The Last Tuesday NFL Game, In 1946

Tuesday night, the Philadelphia Eagles will host the Minnesota Vikings in the first Tuesday evening National Football League game since 1946. That last Tuesday night football game took place in Boston, with the New York Giants defeating the Boston Yanks, 17-0.

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.

The Boston Yanks - who were named as such because their owner really wanted to field a team in New York - played at Braves Field, Fenway Park and Lynn's Manning Bowl during their four years in the area. They never had a winning season, and moved to New York in 1949, becoming the Bulldogs. After a stopover in Dallas, pieces of the franchise would eventually become one of the New England Patriots' current rivals - the Indianapolis Colts.