1919 Cane Rush
(“Long Gone Campus Traditions” is a continuing series of posts where we explore some of the more unusual, sensational and even violent student traditions that have been obsolete from OSU’s campus for quite some time.)
The Cane Rush was undoubtedly one of the most brutal student traditions to ever taken place on OSU’s campus. In fact, some have described the event as a mixture of rugby, football and WWF wrestling.
The Cane Rush, which originated in the 1880s, was a contest between classes of undergraduate men. The object of the game was to find and obtain the rival’s walking cane and move it across the opponent’s goal line. The teams, which often numbered in the hundreds, could be quite brutal. Students tackled each other, wrestled one another on the ground, and tore each others clothes, all in an effort to obtain the cane.
The Cane Rush in 1894 was so violent that one Lantern reporter wrote:
“If our young men are to do that for which in the ordinary walks of life they would have to answer to the law of the land, it is high time that the iron hand of discipline be imposed. University history should not be blotted by the record of many such affairs as occurred last Thursday.”
The first presidents of the university and many of the faculty agreed that the Cane Rush disrupted classroom activities. The competition was normally an unplanned event and the early rushes had few rules or authority figures involved. One Cane Rush in 1889 reportedly lasted for an hour and a half.
President Thompson holds the cane, 1920
However, when William Oxley Thompson became president in 1899, he confronted the controversy of the Cane Rush head-on. Rather than waiting for the event to begin spontaneously, Thompson organized the event himself. The President said that as long as the students conducted the event in an orderly manner, he would allow it to continue. Under his direction, the competition had official rules, a specific date and location, and a set time of 20 minutes.
The Cane Rush became a beloved student tradition under Thompson’s administration and in 1908 it reportedly drew some 10,000 spectators. Because of its reputation, students even began charging admission to the event.
The popularity of the Cane Rush began to decline in the late 1920s and by 1932 the event was no long held. Lack of interest, the shift away from class as the focus of student life, and the fact that Thompson retired, were some of the reasons that caused the demise of the Cane Rush. There were efforts to revive it in the 1930s and 40s, but those efforts never took off.
Cane Rush on the Oval, 1891
Students pose with cane in front of University Hall, 1894
1919 Cane Rush
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