The Dallas Cowboys Once Held Training Camp in Marquette – and 11 Other Michigan Cities to Host NFL Training Camps

Certainly the Detroit Lions hold their training camps in Michigan. But you'll be surprised at other NFL teams have held camps in the state and all the cities that have been host to NFL training camps.

Arizona, née CHicago Cardinals

Even before the Detroit Lions were a team there were NFL training camps being held in Michigan by the Chicago Cardinals.

Today's Arizona Cardinals held camp in Coldwater in 1929 and Sturgis in 1930. Today the Coldwater High School teams are known as the Cardinals, perhaps in honor of a few weeks during the summer in '29.

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Dallas Cowboys

In 1962, likely to beat the Texas heat, the Dallas Cowboys held training camp in the Upper Peninsula at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. The team was only here for one season before beginning a 27 year run holding camp in Thousand Oaks, California.

Detroit Lions

Today the Lions hold training camp at a team facility in Allen Park, a downriver suburb of Detroit. While it keeps the team's travel down and eliminates the need for hotels or college dorms, it also does not provide any of the fanbase outside of metro Detroit a chance to see the team without travelling as they would for any game at Ford Field. So where else in their history have the Lions done training camp? While, not surprisingly, many of the locations were nearby, there were some locations quite far with the longest distance being nearly to the tip of the mitten at Charlevoix.

In total, the Detroit Lions have held training camps in 9 different cities around the state. Here they are:

• Bloomfield Hills at Cranbook Schools
• Charlevoix at Charlevoix High School
• Grosse Ile at West Shore Golf Club
• Alma at Alma College
• Ypsilanti at Eastern Michigan University
• Rochester at Oakland University
• Pontiac at the Silverdome
• Saginaw at Saginaw Valley State University
• Allen Park at Lions Training Facility

All research from the outstanding FootballGeography.com.