50 Fun Facts About Tug of War

In tug of war, what is the puller at the very back of the rope called?

The anchor alone runs the rope across the back and over the opposite shoulder, a hold that would be a foul for any of the seven pullers in front.

Under international rules, a competition tug of war rope must be free of what?

Knots are banned along with any other handhold, so pullers have nothing but a bare-handed grip on a rope about 11 centimetres round, though resin on the hands is allowed.

In formal tug of war, what must cross the centre line to win a pull?

A rope marker: outdoors, tapes sit 4 metres either side of the centre mark, so a pull is won once the rope has moved just 4 metres and nobody has to be dragged over the line.

In tug of war, what is the foul called when a puller drops an elbow below the knee?

Locking: an elbow braced against the leg stops the rope running freely, and judges signal the foul by touching an elbow to a raised thigh.

In formal tug of war, the rope must pass under which part of each puller's body?

The arms: every puller grips palms-up with bare hands and keeps the rope between body and upper arm, and looping it round a hand, a cause of the sport's worst injuries, is banned.

Which physical property explains why heavier tug of war pullers have an advantage?

Static friction with the ground rises with weight, so a heavier team can push harder against the turf before its feet slip, which is why formal contests are split into weight classes.

The line 'When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war' comes from a 1677 play about which ruler?

Alexander the Great is the hero of Nathaniel Lee's The Rival Queens, where the phrase meant the decisive struggle; only in the 1800s did it become the name of the rope game.

Which name did Victorian boys' game books give the rope-pulling contest now called tug of war?

French and English: Every Boy's Book set two parties on a strong rope under that name and called it an old Greek game, and 'tug of war' only took over as the usual name later in the 1800s.

A Tang dynasty book says the state of Chu used tug of war for what purpose?

Training warriors: the book says a Chu general used the game, then called 'hook pulling', to drill troops before attacking rival Wu, and Tang emperors later staged it with over a thousand pullers.

In the Hindu myth carved at Angkor Wat, gods and demons pull from opposite ends of what?

A giant serpent: gods and demons haul on either end of the naga Vasuki, coiled round a mountain as a churning rope, to raise the elixir of immortality from the ocean of milk.

In Homer's Iliad, which god challenges all the others to a tug of war on a golden chain hung from heaven?

Zeus boasts that every god and goddess hauling together could not drag him down from heaven, while he could pull them all up, earth and sea included, and leave them dangling from Olympus.

Which city hosted the last Olympic tug of war contest, in 1920?

Antwerp: Britain, beaten in the 1912 final, came back after the war to win every one of its pulls there and take the last Olympic tug of war gold.

Why could the USA sweep the 1904 Olympic tug of war medals?

Entries were by club, not just by nation: four of the six teams were American clubs, with Milwaukee Athletic Club taking gold ahead of two St. Louis sides, and only Greek and South African Boer teams came from abroad.

The 1900 Paris Olympic tug of war gold went to a mixed team from which two countries?

Denmark and Sweden: three pullers came from each, and one Dane, Edgar Aabye, was only in Paris as a sports journalist until the team drafted him in.

Why did the United States team withdraw from the 1900 Olympic tug of war?

It clashed with the hammer throw: three of the six Americans were entered in that event, and they stayed with it and swept its medals.

Three of France's six tug of war pullers at the 1900 Olympics won gold that year in which team sport?

Rugby: Jean Collas, Charles Gondouin and Émile Sarrade lost the tug of war final in July, then won the Olympic rugby title with France that October.

Why do some record books wrongly list the USA as 1900 Olympic tug of war medallists?

It pulled an unofficial match afterwards: with the real contest over, an American team took on the winners, and some reports recorded that friendly as if it had been the final.

In a Polish twist on tug of war, two crews sit facing each other in a single craft of which kind?

A dragon boat: two crews of six sit face to face in a single boat and paddle against each other until one side drives it their way, a craze quickly nicknamed 'tug of oars'.

At the 1908 London Olympics, all three medal-winning tug of war teams came from which profession?

Police officers: Germany and Greece withdrew, leaving three British police teams to face only Sweden and the United States, and City of London Police beat Liverpool Police in the final.

What did the Americans protest about after losing their 1908 Olympic tug of war to a Liverpool team?

The winners' heavy service boots were ruled legal as everyday work footwear; Liverpool then offered to pull again barefoot, but the Americans declined and withdrew.

Which Netflix series has contestants play tug of war on raised platforms, with the losers falling to their deaths?

Squid Game: in the third of its deadly children's games, the hero's weaker-looking team survives thanks to an old man's tug of war strategy and a teammate's quick thinking.

In an 1845 Royal Navy tug of war between two steamships, which new invention out-pulled the paddle wheel?

The screw propeller: HMS Rattler, tied stern to stern with the paddle sloop Alecto, towed her backwards while Alecto's wheels thrashed ahead, a show the Admiralty staged to convince sceptics.

Why was the 1912 Olympic tug of war decided by a single match?

Three entered teams never turned up: Austria, Bohemia and Luxembourg were all missing, so a planned round-robin of ten matches shrank to hosts Sweden against Britain.

How did Sweden win the second pull of the 1912 Olympic tug of war final?

British pullers sat on the ground in a long stalemate, which the rules forbade, so the judges gave Sweden the pull and the gold; reports differ on whether exhaustion or a bid for leverage put them there.

Which Canadian pop singer's 2008 debut album was called Tug of War?

Carly Rae Jepsen made the folk-pop album Tug of War after finishing third on Canadian Idol, three years before 'Call Me Maybe' turned her into a global star.

Since 1981, tug of war has been on the programme of every edition of which multi-sport event?

The World Games exist to showcase sports left off the Olympic programme, so tug of war, dropped by the Olympics after 1920, has been pulled at every edition since the first in Santa Clara, California.

The Basque rural sport of rope pulling is known by what name?

Sokatira belongs to the Basque herri kirolak, rural sports that grew out of everyday farm and fishing work, alongside contests in log-chopping and stone-lifting.

Korea's traditional tug of war, juldarigi, is typically played with two giant ropes made from what?

Rice straw: whole villages spend up to a month twisting it into ropes as much as a metre thick, though some regions use hemp or kudzu vine instead.

In Korea's juldarigi, what is driven through the looped ends of the two giant ropes to join them?

A wooden log, the binyeomok, pins one rope's loop inside the other's; the teams trade bawdy taunts over the suggestive join, which ties the contest to hopes of fertility.

Tugging rituals from Korea, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam joined which list in 2015?

UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list took in all four countries' rituals in one joint file, as farming customs enacted to ensure abundant harvests and prosperity.

The Cambodian tugging game lbaengteanhprot normally has which two teams facing off?

Women versus men: Cambodian villages stage the pull at Khmer New Year in a village square or monastery compound, as one of the farming rites meant to secure an abundant harvest.

Roughly how heavy is the giant rope pulled at Okinawa's Naha Great Tug-of-War?

40 tonnes: the rope is far too thick to grip, so thousands of people haul on 280 thinner ropes that branch off it.

After Okinawa's Naha Great Tug-of-War, what do the crowds do with the giant rope?

Cut off pieces for luck: people set about the rope with pocket knives, scissors and even hacksaws, because a length taken home is said to bring good fortune.

Kagoshima's Sendai Great Tug of War was reportedly started by a warlord to boost morale before which 1600 battle?

Sekigahara: the Shimazu clan is said to have begun the pull in 1600 to rouse its soldiers, who then fought on the losing side; the festival's rope still runs 365 metres.

In Myanmar, tug of war forms part of the ceremonial cremation of whom?

High-ranking Buddhist monks: at a phongyibyan the funeral pyre itself is hauled back and forth between two sides, a contest believed to generate religious merit.

New Zealand's own form of tug of war has its five-strong teams pulling in what position?

Lying down on cleated boards: bracing their feet on the cleats lets pullers generate more power than standing teams, says the sport's national president, who traces it to Boston whalers of the 1790s.

LeClaire, Iowa and Port Byron, Illinois stage a tug of war each August across which river?

The Mississippi: since 1987 teams of 20 have hauled on a 2,700-foot rope laid from bank to bank, and the state that wins most pulls keeps an alabaster bald eagle trophy for the year.

Which 1970s and 1980s American TV sports special ended each edition with a celebrity tug of war?

Battle of the Network Stars pitted casts from ABC, CBS and NBC against each other; the lowest scorer was knocked out and the last two settled the day on the rope, with Howard Cosell calling the action.

Which league added a five-a-side tug of war to its all-star skills competition in 2024?

The NFL had already swapped its tackle all-star game for the Pro Bowl Games, a set of skills contests and flag football, and in 2024 added a best-of-three tug of war between five AFC and five NFC players.

Which former Beatle released an album called Tug of War in 1982?

Paul McCartney's Tug of War, made with Beatles producer George Martin, was his first album after John Lennon's death, and its song 'Here Today' is his tribute to their friendship.

How do competitors pull in Miami University's Puddle Pull tug of war, held since 1949?

Seated: each puller sits in a pit dug into a level field, a twist on the original standing contest, whose losers were dragged into the mud or water between the teams.

Which law of physics describes how a tug of war rope stretches under tension, storing dangerous energy?

Hooke's law says a rope's stretch grows in step with the pull on it, so a taut rope holds energy like a drawn spring, and if it snaps the ends whip back fast enough to maim.

In Isaac Asimov's 'tug of war' test of gravity, which body out-pulls the Earth on our own Moon?

The Sun pulls on the Moon more than twice as hard as the Earth does, which Asimov, who coined the 'tug of war' value in 1963, used to argue that Earth and Moon are really a double planet.

In which country is tug of war known as tarik tambang and played at Independence Day celebrations?

Indonesia: tarik tambang is among the neighbourhood contests held every 17 August, alongside pillow fights, clog races and the scramble up a greased pole for prizes.

Which British singing game traditionally ends with a tug of war between two lines of captured players?

Oranges and Lemons: each child caught under the arch chooses one fruit and lines up behind that leader, and once everyone is caught the two lines settle it with a tug of war.

In Myanmar, a traditional tug of war called mo khaw is held to call for what?

Rain: when a heatwave drags on, Myanmar towns still stage tugs of war in the belief that they bring showers, a custom said to date from a drought under a Bagan-era king.

At Japan's Sendai Great Tug of War, squads do what to rival pullers?

Shove them aside: pushing squads charge into the other side's ranks to knock its pullers off the 365-metre rope, a scrum once nicknamed the 'brawl tug', a label the organisers have since dropped.

Each January, men in Mihama, Japan, leap off a bridge into a canal for an 'underwater tug of war' praying for what?

A big fishing catch: the men wrestle a thick rope strung across the canal, pulling and even biting it until it snaps, then float what is left out to sea as an offering.

Stinson Beach and Bolinas, California, face each other across an inlet for a tug of war on which holiday?

Fourth of July: women's and men's teams from each shore haul on a rope stretched across the channel, a yearly chance for two very different neighbours to spar.

The Pull, Hope College's three-hour tug of war held since 1898, pits which two groups against each other?

Freshman and sophomore classes: each puller lies in a pit, unable to see the signals, so a partner called a moraler relays the calls and keeps them going for up to three hours.