The Football Fever Hits the West
As college football grows in popularity nationwide, Seattle and Tacoma prepare for a highly anticipated Thanksgiving Day rivalry match.
The story, cleaned up
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The day of exclusiveness in football has passed. Time was when Yale, Harvard, and Princeton stood alone. The Western colleges are already beginning to talk of measuring strength with the East. In the far West, California has teams at most of its institutions. At Stanford, the enthusiasm has reached such a pitch that Walter Camp, the famous Yale coach, will be brought clear across the continent. Football supremacy seems at present as important a question to Seattle and Tacoma as was politics a few weeks ago. The Thanksgiving Day game at Madison Street Park has succeeded speculation on the next president as a general topic of conversation. The Seattle Athletic Club is making preparations for a great crowd. The Tacoma team is in fine fettle and full of confidence; a considerable amount of money has been posted at Tacoma on its team, and as yet it has not been covered by Seattle backers.
“Football supremacy seems at present as important a question to Seattle and Tacoma as was politics a few weeks ago.”
The transition of football from an elite East Coast pastime to a regional obsession in the West mirrors the way sports became a fundamental component of civic identity and urban competition in the late 19th century.
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