The Muddy Victory of 1892
Seattle defeats Tacoma on a rain-soaked field in a hard-fought Thanksgiving football match.
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 game was to be wound up with a whirl. Atkinson makes a short run around the left end, and Randall gains a little through the center. Then Folsom gets the ball and darts off around the right end, his course taking him right along the rope where the Tacoma rooters were massed. As he races down toward the line, half a dozen of his comrades close around him and form an impenetrable shield. It is as beautiful a piece of interference as the football field ever saw. Ten yards out, the gallant half-back sprints ahead and completes his run of forty yards, making a touchdown close by the goal post. It is Seattle's game. Now, what a scene of wild enthusiasm follows. The air is full of white and blue silk, fluttering everywhere. The noise is deafening. All Bedlam seems turned loose. The crowd pours down across the field in frantic joy. Folsom and Atkinson are tossed up aloft on the arms of their friends and borne off in triumph.
“The air is full of white and blue silk, fluttering everywhere. The noise is deafening. All Bedlam seems turned loose.”
Long before the Seahawks, the rivalry between Seattle and Tacoma defined local sports culture, involving steamship 'Flyers' to ferry fans and massive pageantry. This match serves as a reminder that the Pacific Northwest’s deep-seated passion for football predates the modern professional era by well over a century.
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