Sabrina Thaler, Contributing Photographer

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Thad and My-Hanh Eastep had a hectic Thanksgiving celebration this year.

At 5:30 p.m. Thursday, they left from an early dinner at a friend’s house to catch a flight from Phoenix to Cleveland, where they stayed in a hotel overnight. On Friday, the couple drove a rental car through heavy lake-effect snow — courtesy of Lake Erie — until at around 3 p.m. they reached their final destination: Youngstown, a northeast Ohio city of about 60,000 people.

The Easteps, parents of Yale football defensive back Billy Eastep ’28, are among dozens of family members who traveled here to support the Yale football team for their Saturday game against the Youngstown State University Penguins.

The game, part of the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, marks Yale’s first playoff football game in the program’s storied history. The Bulldogs earned the Ivy League’s inaugural automatic bid to the playoffs thanks to their victory over Harvard in last Saturday’s 141st playing of The Game.

“A mom last weekend said it the best. She said, ‘Our boys just made history,’” My-Hanh Eastep said in an interview in the lobby of the Youngstown hotel where the team was staying. “I didn’t even think about it that way, but they made history.”

The opportunity to witness that history drew the Bulldogs’ most devoted supporters to Youngstown, where families arrived, mingled and ate dinner at the team’s hotel downtown on Friday.

A week after The Game, the playoff matchup in Youngstown became an opportunity for the team and its extended network of support staff and relatives to spend quality time together.

“We have parents from all over the United States, and we all come together every tailgate, and it’s like you become family,” Lori Partin, the mother of linebacker Steven Partin ’28, said at the hotel. “Even the football players do that too. They become so close because all they have is each other to depend on. They’re with each other so much during the day that they become brothers.”

Partin was part of a crew of six — alongside her husband, sister, niece, nephew and mother — who drove a truck six and a half hours from Flat Lick, Kentucky, to support Steven in Youngstown.

Kim Nelson, an aunt of Mack Johnson ’28, came with an even larger group. Twelve people, mostly from North Carolina, journeyed to Youngstown to support Johnson, Nelson said.

Nelson flew between North Carolina and Connecticut just last week to catch the Yale-Harvard game. When she learned her nephew would be playing in Youngstown, she was quick to rearrange Thanksgiving plans to be sure she could make the eight-hour drive.

The family of wide receiver Aidan Stephens ’26, meanwhile, made a much shorter journey.

Stephens is from Braceville, Ohio, about 20 miles from Youngstown, and played football at LaBrae High School in nearby Leavittsburg.

His father, Tony Stephens, said their family normally drives nine or 10 hours to New Haven to make it to his son’s games. This time, the trip takes just 20 minutes.

Tony Stephens said that other players donated some of their free allotments of tickets to his son to help him bring local family and friends to the game. He ultimately collected enough tickets to invite 30 guests, his father said.

“We got a lot of people here, from Connecticut, from all over, coming to visit and watch this game. I’m usually doing all the traveling. And now I’m in my backyard. It’s a great feeling,” Tony Stephens said in an interview at the hotel. “That doesn’t happen too often. First time they made the playoffs, first time for the Ivy, and they’re actually playing here.”

The Yale-Youngstown State game kicks off at noon on Saturday.