W
y o m i n g ' s P r e m i e r H i s t o r i c H o u s
e M u s e u m
Trail End State Historic Site
400 Clarendon Ave ▪ Sheridan WY 82801 ▪ Ph 307-674-4589 ▪ Fx 307-672-1720
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Trail End State Historic Site 400 Clarendon Ave ▪ Sheridan WY 82801 ▪ Ph 307-674-4589 ▪ Fx 307-672-1720
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You Are Here: Home > Trail End Exhibits > Days of Wonder > Fun and Games
Fun & Games Baseball | Boxing & Wrestling | Equestrian Arts | Outdoor & Indoor Games
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While games resembling it had been played in America since the
early 1800s, legend maintains that modern baseball was invented by Army officer Abner
Doubleday in 1839. It quickly became all the rage. By the middle of the Civil War,
nearly 100 amateur clubs belonged to the National Association of Baseball Players. In
1869, the first professional team was formed
the Cincinnati Red Stockings. By the 1910s and 20s, baseball was firmly
seated as America's favorite summer pastime. In newspapers across the country, front
page stories were as likely to be about baseball as they were politics. It didn't
matter who was President as long as Babe Ruth was King! 
Writers like Sopris made newspaper readers
want to go to the games
if only to see if they were as good as he made them sound! If there was any kind of special event in
Sheridan, there was almost always an exhibition baseball game scheduled to go along
with it. On Registration Day 1918, when men of age were required to sign up for the
draft during World War One, the occasion was marked by a parade down Main Street, a
solemn ceremony at the steps of the courthouse, and a baseball game. Not ones to sit by the sidelines, the cowboys
working for the Kendrick Cattle Company managed to get together a team of their own.
The K Ranch team played against Arvada and other small teams in eastern Sheridan
County. 
It is four days until the leather flinging satellites of local
and imported fight talent are welcomed by the June third bout on the cards for the
Orpheum theater next Tuesday. Thirty fast rounds of mitt heaving are slated for the
bugs' entertainment, and the Forces of Fistiana this time will include such knowns as
"Bob" Arndt of Buffalo, Ted "Kid" Brown of Sheridan, the two Woodhead brothers Billy
and Clarence; Martin the Billings middleweight, and "Terrible Terry" Mitchell of
Sheridan. For preliminary whetting of the appetite for thuds and claret there'll be
Barbula of the mines and Jack Sollars of our fair city. 
Sopris, a frequent contributor to Wrestling News, also brought
professional wrestling to Sheridan. Throughout the twenties, he was a proponent of
nationally-ranked wrestlers such as John "The Swedish Heavyweight Champion of the
World" Freberg, light heavyweight champion Clarence Eklund (a Wyoming resident),
Chicago wrestlers George D. Kotsonaros and Marin Plestina, and Canadian heavyweight
Jack Taylor. To entice world-class wrestlers to visit Sheridan, Sopris used
his many business and sports contacts to come up with large purses to be split between
the contestants. To boost interest and attendance, he promoted the matches at no cost
in his daily newspaper column, as this 1925 series of headlines indicates: 
Even though Henry Ford was churning out his Model T automobiles
as fast as he could, most people in the western United States relied heavily on the
horse as their principle means of personal transport. Even after they purchased their
first automobiles, most ranching families in Wyoming kept horses both at the ranch and
in town. 
Perhaps
the "equestrian art" most identified with Sheridan is rodeo. Although the Sheridan-Wyo
Rodeo itself wasn't organized until 1931, plenty of rodeo action could be found in
earlier years. Just about every ranch worth its salt had a cowboy or two on the
payroll that could ride, rope or race well enough to take part in the ranch rodeos
that took place throughout the spring, summer and fall. Most local rodeos were low-key
events that drew in folks from the neighboring ranches, but didn't cause much of a
ripple otherwise. 
Tennis, croquet, swimming and golf were among the favorite outdoor
activities during the first third of the century. Rosa-Maye and Manville Kendrick
often invited friends to play tennis on the grass court located next to Trail End's
carriage house. Croquet was popular, too, even on the ranches. When the Kendricks
visited their friends at the Quarter Circle U Guest Ranch in Birney, Montana, croquet
was nearly always on the list of activities. 
If Manville and Rosa-Maye Kendrick were having
friends over during periods of bad weather when it wasn't possible to entertain
outdoors, they might work on jigsaw puzzles or play games such as checkers, Mahjongg,
charades or cards. When they were younger, the card games might have been Old Maid or
Hearts. By the time they were teenagers, Bridge had become the most popular card game.
Though the younger Kendricks were very good Bridge players, their mother preferred not
to play at all. Eula Kendrick once remarked that she only liked to do the things that
she excelled at and since she was only a mediocre Bridge player, she felt it best to
avoid the game altogether. 
