Seattle's Church Basketball Rivalry Was Already a 500-Person Spectacle in 1895
St. Mark's Episcopal beat First Baptist 4–2 at the YMCA gym, in a game so physical that a few spectators objected.
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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 excitement of the night was the basketball game between St. Mark's Episcopal and the First Baptists, called at 8 o'clock. Fully 500 spectators watched the contest, and when the result was announced—two goals to four for St. Mark's—the enthusiasm exploded in loud applause for the victors. The game was, in fact, the hardest fought of the series this season. The teams were: St. Mark's, B. R. O. Phillips, L. S. Robe, G. C. Griswold, C. Van Wyck, L. D. Gilmer; Baptists, H. R. Raymond, P. Leather, W. Douglas, Otto Rank, W. Meyer. The actual merits of the two teams were about balanced, the game being won for the Episcopalians on fouls. Both sides fought hard; in fact, played a little too roughly for the aesthetic inclinations of some few of the spectators, but none of the players were seriously hurt. For the Baptists, Meyer played a wonderful game as center, as did Phillips for St. Mark's. Both sides did excellent team work, and perhaps the game was the prettiest exhibition of scientific basketball ever given on the Y.M.C.A. gymnasium floor. The game supplied a perfect finish to a perfect evening's enjoyment.
“Both sides fought hard; in fact, played a little too roughly for the aesthetic inclinations of some few of the spectators.”
Basketball was barely four years old when Seattle church teams drew 500 people to the YMCA. The city's appetite for the game—and for arguing about how physical it should be—was already in place.
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