Flag Rush: 1910

Flag rush was similar to the Japanese game of botori, most notably played by the sophomore and freshman classes at Amherst College in Massachusetts. A small flag is set upon a padded post about 6 feet high and defended by one class while the other tries to overthrow it. If the flag is not captured or torn down within a certain time the defending side wins. This came from an earlier game almost exactly like it called cane rush, but the cane was actually very heavy and the tuffle for it could prove to be dangerous with a lot of injuries. Typically a flag rush could become "rambunctious," which is why you see disheveled hair and torn clothes.

Looks like a few of these guys got their shirts torn up and torn off in the melee!

looks like the view from 116th Street.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag-rush

Basically it is capture the flag I guess.

from the New York Times, 1910

FLAG RUSH AT COLUMBIA.; Sophomores Victorious and Freshmen Come Out Short of Clothing.
"Before 1,500 people ranged along the sides of South Field yesterday the Columbia freshmen and sophomores engaged in their annual flag rush. Three five-minute periods were fought, but not a freshman was able to gain the top of the pole from which the pennant floated."

http://tinyurl.com/64penq

Flag rush was a game played between the freshman and sophomore class. It was very similar to capture the flag. Basically, it was a fight.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902E7D6103AE733A25754C0A...

According to the linked article, it was an annual contest between sophomores and freshmen. Sophs put a Columbia flag in a tree and surrounded it, and the frosh tried to fight through them to get to the flag.

Wiki to the rescue!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag-rush

Flag Rush, or Botori, was once played at naval, military and other schools. Botori is played with two sides of equal number, usually about one hundred, each of which defends a pole about 8 ft (2.4 m) high firmly set in the ground, the poles being about 200 yd. distant from each other.
Flag-rush was instituted at the request of the faculty to take the place of the traditional Cane-rush, a general fight between the two classes for the ultimate possession of a stout walking-stick, which became so rough that students were frequently seriously injured.

This was an annual fall event at Columbia whereby the freshmen competed against the sophomores to climb a flagpole and retreive the flag for their side.
Three five minute "periods" were played, with the victorious team then performing a snake dance through the streets of New York.

A very good article describing this exact event of October 11 1910 can be found here:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D06E7DA1F39E333A25752...