The Prairie Rose Games may be today’s big statewide sports event, but on this day in 1895, it was the Saint Thomas Day of Sports. Athletes from Cass, Pembina, Walsh, and other area counties made an appearance at the big event..

The field day kicked off with the gun club shoot, followed by tennis matches and a baseball game. Though the gun club shoot attracted as many participants as the state match in Fargo of June that year, the bicycle races generated much excitement from the crowd of 2,500. A highlight of the races was the record setting mile ride of R. Gould of St. Paul with a time of two minutes, seventeen seconds. A two-hundred yard foot race and football game followed the bicycle races.

The games were a success and the Times added, “To those who think prohibition is a failure the Times wishes to say St. Thomas entertained 2,500 visitors on Tuesday and not a drunk man was seen in or about the city. Could such a result occur under license?”

By Tessa Sandstrom
“A Field Day,” St. Thomas Times. August 2, 1895: 4.

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