The Platteville Tuggers hosted a tug of war tournament Jan. 30 in the Williams Fieldhouse.

There were three women’s and six men’s teams at the event, with four of the nine teams belonging to the United States Amateur Tug of War Association. These teams included Oregon (women), Girls Love Dirt, Mt. Vernon (men) and the combined Minnesota and Iowa team.

The UW-Platteville campus contributed five teams of their own, the men’s and women’s Platteville Tuggers, the Tugger Naughtz, the Porter Pullers and Scoop n’ Score. Matches consisted of two teams facing off in a best two of three format, each team must pull the other teams’ marked rope over the center line to win a pull.

The tug of war event welcomed newcomers who wanted to participate and many teams saw their first competition in indoor tug of war. UW-P team Scoop n’ Score lost early matches and witnessed firsthand the rigors of tug of war.

“Tug of war is more than just muscle, it is all technique and 45 seconds of going as hard as you can,” Brian Snyder, junior accounting major said.

The Tugger Naughtz went undefeated and faced undefeated Mt. Vernon in the finals. The Tugger Naughtz pulled the upset leaving Mt. Vernon in second, Minnesota/Iowa in third, Scoop n’ Score fourth, Porter Pullers fifth and the Platteville Tuggers in sixth place. In the women’s division, Oregon placed first, the women’s Platteville Tuggers placed second and the women’s Platteville Tuggers placed second and GLD came in third.

Platteville Tugger and tournament coordinator, Amber Langmeier, noted that different outcomes could have taken place had teams been made to weigh in. “I chose, however, to not follow through with weighing in to allow for every team that came to be able to pull and enjoy what tug of war is really about,” Langmeier said.
“Overall, I feel it went amazingly, a lot of people’s eyes were open to a new sport, and I think a lot of them realized that tug-of-war is more than just having brute strength, being the biggest and just pulling on a rope.” Langmeier said. “One of my goals with having this tournament was to get more people aware of the sport in the hopes of getting it back to what it once was.”

If anyone would like to get involved in tug of war, e-mail Amber Langmeier at langmeiera@uwplatt.edu.