Photos from an Austinian yearbook show Austin High School’s Junior-Senior Field Day in 1943, including the annual Tug of War battle on Turtle Creek in an area that was west of Austin at the time.

LOOKBACK: Turtle Creek once site of annual Tug of War battle in May

Austin High’s seniors, juniors battled in Field Day through 1952

By Tim Ruzek, CRWD outreach coordinator

Standing in 1938 on the banks of Turtle Creek, Austin High School’s senior boys were on the verge of victory.

They had pulled several junior boys into Turtle Creek downstream from Oakland Avenue during a Tug of War contest for the school’s annual Junior-Senior Field Day.

But a comeback was in the making.

“With a supreme effort, the juniors overcame the opposition and dragged (the seniors) into the chilly waters of the creek,” the Austin Daily Herald wrote May 21, 1938.

Class of 1938 students decorate the Austin High rock and sidewalk.

Along with the junior girls’ Tug of War victory, the junior Class of 1939 completed the Field Day upset. This earned the juniors the right to paint the campus rock with their class colors and letters.

For years, Austin High’s junior and senior classes battled every May in a Field Day, likely starting in 1927 at Lafayette Park (end of South Main) before being staged for years at the Athletic Field (Wescott Athletic Complex).

In 1927, the Herald wrote that Field Day was created to reduce the “bitter street fighting” of past years in which rival classmen roamed “the streets at night in quest of members of the opposing group.”

May 23, 1938, Austin Daily Herald

Two years earlier, the Herald wrote a front-page article about the antics between junior and senior boys in fighting for possession of the school rock — “a trophy of class battles for a quarter of a century.” This involved moving the rock around town, student “kidnappings,” dangerous driving and, at times, law enforcement.

A May 1937 photo in the Austin Daily Herald of a Field Day football game between junior and senior boys at the Athletic Field (today’s Wescott Athletic Complex).

Field Day would provide a way for upperclassmen to battle under the school’s supervision for a short time rather than over days. Sometimes, a dance followed Field Day for juniors and seniors in Austin High’s cafeteria.

Other Field Day activities varied over time and included boys basketball, soccer, softball, touch football, baseball and sandbag rushes along with girls softball, soccer, basketball and speedball (a game combining elements of soccer, football and basketball). There also were track events for all as well as greased pole races; balancing contests; obstacle course races; barrel fights; “rooster” fights; and wall scaling.

Pushball was the main event in 1927, involving teams working to push a 10-foot-wide ball over their opponent’s goal line to earn 5 points. This led to many torn shirts and bruised elbows in rainy, muddy conditions.

“Here a piece of shirt. There a strip torn from a pair of pants. A badly torn up field of grass at Lafayette Park,” the Herald wrote. “These were tell-tale signs yesterday afternoon that a terrific struggle of some kind had taken place.”

May 21, 1927, Austin Daily Herald

Upperclassmen facing off in pushball was “so much better than the gorilla warfare which the rival classmen used to stage for weeks during the wee hours of the night,” the Herald wrote.

Tug of War seems to have replaced pushball as Field Day’s main event with students competing at Turtle Creek, west of Austin, possibly starting in 1934 when the juniors won.

“The seniors were sadly outnumbered, and their rivals, taking no pity whatsoever, pulled the defeated graduates-to-be through the cold waters (of Turtle Creek),” the Herald wrote.

In 1941, a “chilly Turtle Creek” welcomed the junior girls and senior boys when they lost their Tug of Wars.

Students compete in 1940 in a Tug of War battle at Turtle Creek for Austin High’s annual Field Day.

Students that year also competed in a “sandbag rush” in which they risked “life and limb in an effort to pull the bags of sand over each other’s goals.” The Herald reported it was “a marvel a few bones weren’t snapped during the roughhouse brawl” while the Tug of Wars were “nothing more serious than a good wetting.”

“Close supervision by school authorities halted any pending rivalries before serious damage could occur between parties but many are the aches and bruises suffered in the melee by the participants,” the Herald wrote.

Two years later, the Herald wrote about the upcoming “mortal combat” between the Classes of 1943 and 1944, with a headline stating: “Who’ll Get Bath in Turtle Creek? Tug Will Decide.”

Austin High’s seniors “trampled the juniors into the dust of the Athletic Field and the mud of Turtle Creek” to win Field Day, the Herald wrote in 1943. Seniors then added their class colors of silver and blue to the campus rock.

As for Tug of War, most losing participants in 1943 avoided Turtle Creek’s waters.

“When defeat became certain, many of the participants simply dropped the rope and quit.”

May 21, 1949, photo of spectators at the annual Junior-Senior Field Day at the Athletic Field.

That possibly led to Tug of War remaining at the Athletic Field in succeeding years, where the losers were sprayed with water from fire hoses.

In fall 1952, the Austin School Board voted to abolish Field Day. Months earlier, the board authorized a study by a committee of parents, teachers and students found Austin to be the only large school in Minnesota still doing a Field Day.

School board members voted to permanently eliminate Field Day because graduation classes had grown too large for adequate supervision; the day led students into “unsafe practices;” and administrators and faculty felt the day was not in the best interests of the school, students, parents and community.