Historic Images
Annual St. Patrick's Day Fight, Wesley College front campus, 1929
[University of Winnipeg Archives & Records Centre. Photo ID: AO501-16049]
The St. Patrick's Day Fight was a short-lived but well-documented event at Wesley College (forerunner of the University of Winnipeg). The first event took place in 1921 when a group of freshman attacked some senior students who were bragging about their new spats (shoe accessories) ? the spats were captured. For the next decade, on the 17th of March each year, students gathered on the front lawn of the College to engage in a ritual of rough-housing, the prize being a green flag claimed by the victors. The St. Patrick's Day Fight was cancelled in 1931, and not repeated in subsequent years. (Cf. Bedford, The University of Winnipeg: a history of the founding colleges, pp. 197-199.)
Annual St. Patrick's Day Fight, Wesley College front campus, 1929
[University of Winnipeg Archives & Records Centre. Photo ID: AO501-16049-B]