# Tug of war at the 1904 Summer Olympics

A tug of war competition was held August 31 and September 1 at Francis Field in St. Louis, Missouri, as part of the 1904 Summer Olympics. Thirty athletes participated from six teams across three countries, and six games were played. Four American teams took the top four places, followed by Greek and South African teams unplaced.

## Background

Tug of war was first held during the 1900 Olympics, when it was won by a mixed team from Scandinavia, featuring three Danish and three Swedish athletes. For the 1904 games in St. Louis, six teams entered. Four of the teams were representing the host nation, the United States, while there were also teams from Greece and South Africa. For the United States, the Milwaukee Athletic Club entered a team, the Southwest Turnverein of St. Louis entered two teams, and the New York Athletic Club were the final entrant. A team from the Pan-Hellenic Athletic Club represented Greece, while South Africa was represented by the Boer Team. The contests were held on turf ground with no shoes on, over a period of five minutes. If within that five minutes, a team succeeded in pulling the other team across a line six feet (1.83 m) from their starting position, they were deemed to win. Otherwise, the team that had pulled their opponents closest to the line after five minutes would be the winner. Three local judges were selected to officiate in the competition; Clark Hetherington of the University of Missouri, and John Meyers and Myles McDonough, both of St. Louis.

## Results

August 30 was the first day of the tug-of-war competition, with the two quarterfinal matches and the first semi-final match (between the two teams who had byes in the quarterfinals) being held. The rest of the competition was conducted on 1 September.

### Quarterfinals

Losers were eliminated.
| Winner | Loser |
| Milwaukee Athletic Club (USA) | Boers (RSA) |
| Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 1 (USA) | Pan-Hellenic (GRE) |
| New York Athletic Club (USA) | Bye |
| Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 2 (ZZX) | Bye |

### Semifinals

The losers were sent to the repechage to face each other: the winner would face the loser of the final for second place.
| Winner | Loser |
| Milwaukee Athletic Club (USA) | Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 1 (USA) |
| New York Athletic Club (USA) | Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 2 (ZZX) |

### Final

The winner received the gold medal, while the loser had to face the winner of the repechage in the silver medal match.
| Winner | Loser |
| Milwaukee Athletic Club (USA) | New York Athletic Club (USA) |

### Silver medal semifinal

The winner of this match faced the loser of the final for the silver medal.
| Winner | Loser |
| Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 1 (USA) | Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 2 (ZZX) |

### Silver and bronze medal matches

The New York team failed to appear for either the silver medal match or the bronze medal match: both matches were scratched, with the silver medal being awarded to the Saint Louis No. 1 team and the bronze medal being awarded to the Saint Louis No. 2 team.

## Final standings

| Place | Team | Nation |
| | Milwaukee Athletic Club | United States |
| | Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 1 | United States |
| | Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 2 | Mixed team |
| 4 | New York Athletic Club | United States |
| 5–6 | Pan-Hellenic | Greece |
| 5–6 | Boers | South Africa |

## Participating nations

6 teams of 5, for a total of 30 athletes, competed. The host team had four teams, and two other nations each sent one.
* Greece (5)
* South Africa (5)
* United States (20)

## Rosters
### Milwaukee Athletic Club

Patrick Flanagan Sidney Johnson Oscar Olsen Conrad Magnusson Henry Seiling

### Southwest Turnverein of St. Louis No. 1

Max Braun August Rodenberg Charles Rose William Seiling Orrin Upshaw

### Southwest Turnverein of St. Louis No. 2

Oscar Friede Charles Haberkorn Harry Jacobs Frank Kugler (GER) Charles Thias

### New York Athletic Club

Charles Chadwick Charles Dieges Lawrence Feuerbach Sam Jones Jim Mitchel

### Boer Team

Pieter Hillense Pieter Lombard Johannes Schutte Paulus Visser Christopher Walker

### Pan-Hellenic Athletic Club

Dimitrios Dimitrakopoulos Nikolaos Georgantas Anastasios Georgopoulos Periklis Kakousis Vasilios Metalos

## Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | United States | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | Mixed team | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (2 entries) | Totals (2 entries) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |