Tug of war is a contest of strength and skill that pits two
teams of grunting, groaning, and grimacing competitors against each other as they pull on opposite ends of
a thick rope. To the uninitiated, the spectacle seems to
involve only brute strength. In actual fact there are significant elements of skill and technique and, during the
event, there is a remarkable level of team cohesion as
members pull together and maintain a high degree of
tension on the rope.
Tug of war is said to have originated in the harvestgathering of ancient China; to have been used to train
slaves to haul stones up the Sphinx; to have developed
from the routines used by sailors in hoisting sails and
by soldiers in hauling guns up the mountains of India’s
northwest frontier.
According to the Rev. Dr. Gregor of Rossshire the tug
of war game was orchestrated to the following rhythmic tempo where the emphasis seems more on a romantic pairing off than athletic competition.
Apples and oranges, two for a penny,
Come all ye good scholars, buy ever so many.
Come choose the east, come choose the west,
Come choose the one you like the best.
(Gomme 1898)
As early as the 1840s, tug of war appeared on the
programs of various Scottish Highland Games. By
1880, the Amateur Athletic Association recognized tug
of war and it became (albeit more as a more sinewy
sideshow than as team sport) at track and field meetings. In 1900, the event was first featured at the
Olympics and continued to be an event through 1920.
In 1958 a Tug-of-War Association was formed in
Great Britain and there have been national outdoor
championships since then with European championships inaugurated in 1965.
In the United States, tug of war retains a niche in
agricultural and county fairs, circuses, carnivals, celebrations, and picnics. Tug of war also continues to be a
popular recreational pastime of fraternities and sororities on U.S. college campuses. It has also found a regular place in what has come to be known as corporate
challenge “character building” workshops that strive to
develop teamwork. Its simple organization, with group
rather than individual focus, convinces many management executives that it may be a key to forging strategies for creating optimum team goals and objectives—
a theory remote only in time from using tug of war to
train sailors or slaves to pull together.
—SCOTT A. G. M. CRAWFORD
Bibliography: Gomme, G. L., ed. (1898). A Dictionary of
British Folk-Lore. Part 1: Traditional Games. Vol. II. London: David Nutt. Hoffman, F. W., and W. G. Bailey. (1991)
Sports and Recreations. New York: Harrington Park Press.