The first comprehensive history of 91自拍论坛鈥檚 storied freshman-sophomore Pull tug-of-war blends an academic鈥檚 scholarly training and an insider鈥檚 understanding and love of the subject.
鈥淭he Pull: 91自拍论坛鈥檚 Legendary Tug-of-War, 1898-2023鈥� was researched and written by Dr. E. Bruce Geelhoed, a 1970 Hope graduate and longtime member of the history faculty at Ball State University who as a student competed in and later helped organize the Pull. It was published by the college鈥檚 Van Raalte Press in August, just a handful of weeks before the contest鈥檚 next installment. This year鈥檚 Pull will take place on Saturday, Sept. 28, featuring teams fielded by the Classes of 2027 and 2028 as they continue a tradition that began with the Classes of 1901 and 1902.
The college鈥檚 Van Raalte Institute is hosting a reception on Thursday, Sept. 12, from 10 a.m. to noon in the rotunda of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication to celebrate the book鈥檚 publication. Geelhoed will make a presentation at 10:15 a.m. about the Pull and the development of 鈥淭he Pull: 91自拍论坛鈥檚 Legendary Tug-of-War, 1898-2023.鈥� Light refreshments will be served, and copies of the book will be available for purchase.
鈥淣o event in the history of 91自拍论坛 has captured the national, and even international, imagination like the Pull,鈥� Geelhoed notes in the introduction. 鈥淲riters from Sports Illustrated (twice), and USA Today, for example, have reported on the Pull. ESPN has announced Pull results on SportsCenter broadcasts. Documentarians from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) produced a lengthy documentary some years ago that explored the Pull in great detail. The Pull is also listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest tug-of-war in recorded history.鈥�
鈥淲ithout question, the Pull continues to be one of the (if not the) longest-running college traditions in America. It certainly is the longest-running tug-of-war held anywhere in the United States,鈥� Geelhoed writes. 鈥淥ne could even add another distinctive by noting that the Pull is most likely the longest-running intramural athletic contest held on American college campuses.鈥�
In the competition, freshman and sophomore teams, entrenched in shallow pits on opposite sides, attempt to gain the most rope through their strength and stamina, their efforts coordinated by an upperclassman who provides signals from the front of the team. Each team has the same number of members, with up to 18 students apiece on the rope as 鈥減ullers鈥� and an equivalent total acting as guides and morale boosters, or 鈥渕oralers.鈥� The freshmen are coached by the junior class while the sophomores are instructed by the seniors. The coaching arrangement also leads to a rivalry between the even-year and odd-year classes.
Following the introduction, Geelhoed explores the Pull through seven chapters that reflect what he has found to be distinct eras across the event鈥檚 first 126 years. In an epilogue he speculates on the future, and appendices include a chronology of the Pull and the Pull results through 2023.
He provides historical context that includes a brief survey of tug-of-war competition around the world going back centuries, and the popularity of tug-of-war at other colleges and universities at the same time that Hope鈥檚 event began, including a large-scale contest at the University of Michigan that began in the 1880s and lasted into the 1970s.
鈥淥n a lot of these other campuses, Michigan included, it faded out,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 do wonder if the original organizers of the first Pull at Hope had either seen or heard of the Michigan one.鈥�
At the same time, Geelhoed noted, the Pull鈥檚 approach to tug-of-war is one-of-a-kind. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 come up with anything close,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing like this that combines an athlete puller and an athlete moraler.鈥�
鈥淭he Pull: 91自拍论坛鈥檚 Legendary Tug-of-War, 1898-2023鈥� draws on period accounts and other materials, interviews that Geelhoed conducted with past participants and members of the college staff, and his experience attending the event multiple times through the years. He chronicles the Pull鈥檚 evolution from an informal contest across a small stream to a highly organized competition with a constitution and a priority on training and teamwork. He shares details such as the codification of the 18-puller maximum (1939), when pullers began lying on the rope (early 1960s) and the introduction of team t-shirts (1970s). Along the way he considers topics ranging from controversial outcomes, like the 1977 Pull that the college declared a draw 鈥� against the wishes of the teams 鈥� after 3 hours, 51 minutes; to participants' affection for the event that has seen the Pull become a family tradition across generations; to concerns elsewhere on campus about the teams鈥� intensity; to the Pull鈥檚 progression, as society itself has evolved, from male-only to coeducational.
Geelhoed first became involved with the Pull in 1967 as a sophomore, when he transferred to Hope and was seeking to become involved in a campus activity.
鈥淚 was completely hooked by the whole thing 鈥� the practices, the spirit, the conversations, the competition, and on and on and on,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t produces a full range of emotions. You have this great joy when you win, and this terrible, terrible crushing feeling when you lose.鈥�
The experience was so important to him that the next year he served as one of two students responsible for organizing the contest.
After Hope, Geelhoed went on to earn a master鈥檚 degree in history from Central Michigan University and a doctorate in social science education from Ball State University. He joined the Ball State University in 1975, and during his tenure there has held a variety of teaching and administrative positions, including three terms as chair of the History Department. His research interests are focused primarily on the foreign and defense policies of the Eisenhower Administration in the 1950s, and his scholarly publications include the book 鈥淒iplomacy Shot Down: The U-2 Crisis and Eisenhower鈥檚 Aborted Mission to Moscow, 1959-1960鈥� (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020).
The Pull might simply have remained a fond collegiate memory, but in 2016 he stopped on the Hope campus during a summer visit to Holland.
鈥淢y son Steven and I were visiting Holland and, one afternoon, we parked by Pillar Church,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 looked down the street and saw the Theil Research Center [which at the time housed the college archives], and I thought, 鈥楬as anybody done anything about the Pull?鈥欌��
With that impulse, he dropped in and met with archivist Geoffrey Reynolds, who showed him two file boxes filled with materials. And so, the project was born and the rest, now literally, is history.
鈥淭he Pull: 91自拍论坛鈥檚 Legendary Tug-of-War, 1898-2023鈥� is available for $25 and can be purchased through the college鈥檚 Van Raalte Institute at hope.edu/vri as well as through Amazon.