Tug-Of-War at the 1904 St. Louis Summer Games:

This event was won by the Milwaukee AC team, which was actually composed of athletes from Chicago, who were members of other athletic clubs in that town. Apparently, Milwaukee, looking for team points, had in some way induced the Chicago tuggers to pull for them. They won two easy matches.

The New York Athletic Club withdrew after losing to Milwaukee and did not pull as scheduled against the first St. Louis team. As a result, although New York had finished fourth, Chicago tried to protest their finish, which was worth one point in the team race, but to no avail.

Each match had a five-minute time limit. The winner was the first team to pull the other team over a line six feet from their starting point. If no team pulled the other over the line by the time limit, then the losing team was the team closest to that line.