The Pull: The tug-of-war tradition continues this weekend at Hope College

HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — This weekend, Hope College students will partake in one of the longest-running college traditions in the country: The Pull .

It’s a simple tug-of-war contest that has taken on a life of its own at Hope since its inception in 1898. The location has changed, rules have changed, strategies have changed and the contest has changed as society moves forward. But the basics are the same. There are two teams, four classes and one rope.

No one knows more about The Pull than historian Bruce Geelhoed. Not only has he lived it, but he has also studied it and explored its history in a new book published by the college’s Van Raalte Press, “The Pull: Hope College’s Legendary Tug-of-War, 1898-2023.”

His connection to The Pull started in 1967 when he transferred to Hope as a sophomore. The next year, he was one of the students responsible for organizing it.

“I was completely hooked by the whole thing — the practices, the spirit, the conversations, the competition, and on and on and on,” Geelhoed said in a news release for his new book. “It produces a full range of emotions. You have this great joy when you win, and this terrible, terrible crushing feeling when you lose.”

Geelhoed explained to News 8 that Hope wasn’t the first school to hold a tug-of-war contest, but it is certainly the one that has kept unique the tradition alive.

Harvard and MIT — the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — had an infamous tug-of-war rivalry. The Wolverines at the University of Michigan also held a tug-of-war competition that predated Hope’s.

“The University of Michigan started having one in the 1880s. … Now I can’t prove it, but it’s possible … that (Hope students) saw what was going on down in Ann Arbor and kind of modeled what they were doing on that,” Geelhoed said.

It took a while for Hope’s tradition to take off. In fact, after the first contest in 1898, another one wasn’t held for another 11 years before becoming an annual event.

According to Geelhoed, only two things have managed to postpone The Pull: wars and pandemics.

“The event has gone on every year since 1909 with the exception of a year during World War I and World War II, not the full war, but two or three years of it,” he explained. “There was a bad flu epidemic in 1956 and then there was the pandemic in 2020.”

THE RULES

The competition fuels a rivalry between the even-year and odd-year classes. The contest itself pits the freshmen versus the sophomores. Juniors serve as coaches for the freshmen, while the sophomores are coached by the seniors.

Each team sets up in shallow pits with 18 pullers and 18 “moralers” — people who can help coach strategy, fetch water and provide moral support.

Originally, The Pull lasted as long as it took for a team to win. Since 1909, there have been four draws : 1916, 1926, 1952 and in 1977. The ’77 Pull lasted three hours and 31 minutes before eventually being declared a tie, leaving neither team satisfied. Now, The Pull is firmly capped at three hours. At that point, judges measure the rope to determine the winner.

The record for the shortest Pull was set in 1956, when the sophomores dominated the freshmen in 2 minutes, 40 seconds.

THE ROPE

According to Hope’s website , the rope currently used for The Pull was purchased in 2013. It is 600 feet long, 2.5 inches in diameter and weighs approximately 1,000 pounds.

Bizarrely, because the rope gets stretched, it is possible for both teams to end the contest having gained rope. This happened in both 1995 and 1999.

The rope can break, as well. The 1974 Pull had to be postponed after the rope snapped at the beginning of the contest.

“The rope was tied in a knot, put back in the boat, reeled in, and broken again on the first heave. After this, the pull was rescheduled,” the school stated on its website.

THE CHANGES

There have been some slight rule changes through the years. The first two pulls were strictly male affairs. Starting in 1910, women were allowed to join in as “moralers,” but that has changed in recent years.

Hope College says Nina Bieliauskas, a class of 1997 graduate, was the first woman to try out as a puller for the 1994 Pull. The following year, Keri Law, class of 1999, was the first woman to be chosen as a puller.

The location of The Pull has also changed over the years. The 1909 Pull was held across a creek at a nearby cemetery. In 1910, The Pull moved to the banks of the Black River. It stayed there until 2019 when the event was moved to campus because the area around the river had turned to swampland.

There is one other change that Geelhoed wishes would be reversed: the victory celebration.

“The current custom is that after the pull, the members of the winning team get the privilege of jumping into the river to celebrate their victory while the losing team can only stand on the riverbank and watch their opponent’s jubilation,” Geelhoed wrote in his book.

Previously, once the event was decided, participants met halfway across the river and shook hands. Geelhoed included a quote from an old news report in his book which echoed his sentiments.

“It warms the heart of any Hope-ite to see men hang on like bulldogs, and when they do enter the river, they meet the others with a smile and a handshake. Whether you win or lose, you are first and last a gentleman,” the reporter said.

THE ATMOSPHERE

Lizzie Lam is gearing up for one last go at The Pull. The senior serves as one of the two representatives for the Odd-Year Team and will be coaching her heart out Saturday. She told News 8 that the campus is already starting to buzz about the upcoming Pull.

“There’s definitely a huge buzz, a stir in the air,” Lam said.

She said the event is about more than having fun; it’s about connecting with your fellow students and developing camaraderie.

“It’s a way for (students) to rally behind their graduating class and feel proud to be students at Hope College and feel proud of their class. Really, it’s an opportunity for everybody to come together over something so big and cool and wonderful that’s been going on for so long,” Lam told News 8.

This year’s Pull will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday on the campus’ west athletic fields, south of Wolters Softball Stadium.

Geelhoed’s book, “The Pull: Hope College’s Legendary Tug-of-War, 1898-2023,” can be purchased through Amazon and the Van Raalte Institute.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.