The Gridiron Arrives in Seattle
A historic clash between the Seattle Athletic Club and the State University marks the beginning of the football craze in the Northwest.
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.
Football has become a permanent feature of the fall season, as ingrained as elections or Thanksgiving. While the sport is in its infancy on the Pacific Coast—or perhaps not yet born in some sections—the potential for local excellence is immense. American-style rugby was served to a Seattle audience for the first time in Saturday’s match between the Seattle Athletic Club and the State University. The game immediately jumped into popular favor, and it seems assured of taking deep root here. Both teams showed great determination and pluck, with the University boasting ambitious, sturdy youngsters and the Athletic Club relying on the grit of experienced, if slightly out-of-condition, former college men. The recent rule changes by the Intercollegiate Football Association, moving the ball to the middle of the field after failed goal kicks, will likely prevent the lopsided scores seen in previous years, signaling a new era of competitive balance.
“On the Pacific coast the sport is an infant in swaddling clothes. Indeed, in many sections the child has not been born.”
The 1892 football match between the Seattle Athletic Club and the University of Washington was the dawn of a massive cultural obsession. Today, Husky football remains a primary engine of Seattle’s fall identity, mirroring the same 'craze' that the editor described over 130 years ago.
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