The Day the 'Bulldog' Came to Tacoma
A high-stakes, controversy-filled football match between Portland and Tacoma ends in a lopsided defeat and an injured player, all under the watchful gaze of a brindle mascot.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The return amateur football game between the Multnomah Athletic Association of Portland and the Tacoma Athletic Association was won this afternoon by the former by a score of 24 to 0. Fully 2,500 people witnessed the struggle at the baseball grounds on Eleventh Street. As the game progressed, the enthusiasts swarmed about the lines. Portland had a mascot, a great deep-chested gray and white bull pup. Owing to a protest over the eligibility of player Pope, the Tacoma team was severely handicapped. During the scrimmage, player Simpson had two bones in his ankle broken after being fouled, and Dudley received an ugly cut on his forehead. Despite the physical toll and the lopsided score, the Portlanders 'took the town' in high spirits, their victory celebrated with discord from fish horns and kazoos.
“The yell of the victors was 'Rah, 'Rah, Mult-no-mah!' and every person within the radius of a mile heard it.”
The intense regional rivalry between Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland is a century-old tradition that persists today in everything from transit projects to sports. Much like the 1892 protests over 'professional' ringers in amateur games, modern Seattle sports fans remain obsessed with player eligibility, roster integrity, and the bitter sting of losing to rivals on the field.
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