This is the true story of an upstart Anchorage hockey team called the "Butchers," their left wing Vern "Spare Ribs" Johnson, and how the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous 80th Anniversary celebration is one year ahead of itself.
I just purchased the 2015 Rondy pin, which proudly proclaims "1935-2015" and "FUR RENDEZVOUS 80th ANNIVERSARY." Unfortunately the very first Anchorage Winter Sports Tournament, which became our ever popular Fur Rondy, was a four-day tournament started in 1936. I discovered this while doing research for the Anchorage Centennial documentary. By correcting the historical record, perhaps all the Rondy pins and posters with the 1935 start date will become even more collectable and fetch higher prices on eBay.
If you visit Rondy's website and go to the history page you'll read (until they change it) that Fur Rondy "began as a sports tournament, Feb. 15-17, 1935, and featured skiing, hockey, basketball, boxing and a children's sled dog race down Fourth Avenue." (The Rondy history page also records that there were no movie theaters in Anchorage in 1935, which somehow ignores that the Empress Theatre on Fourth Avenue was showing a film titled "The Party's Over" that weekend.)
The Anchorage Daily Times was diligent in coverage of everything Anchorage. From their pages, here's what I know is true. On Feb. 15, 1935, butter sold at the Piggly Wiggly three pounds for $1.19. The American Legion held its annual Masque Ball on the 16th. The junior class in high school had a successful candy sale. A five-team basketball tourney featuring the City Pirates, City Sweethearts, Antlers, High School Eagles and High School Beauties attracted a huge crowd that Saturday night. A three-day sporting event with dog races and a bonfire? Didn't happen in February 1935. But the idea of an Anchorage sports carnival was just a month away.
"Spare Ribs" Johnson is called the father of Fur Rondy. He, along with hockey coach Vic "Tenderloin" Brown and goalie Dick "T-Bone" Harry (the team was sponsored by Ship Creek Meat Market), were among the 59 athletes and city boosters who took the train to Fairbanks to participate in the Second Annual Fairbanks Ice Carnival in March 1935. Our hockey boys were thrice defeated by College, Dawson and Fairbanks. But they reported that all had a grand time.They returned home by train, arriving Monday, March 12. Vern recalled later that It was on that train ride from Fairbanks that he and others came up with the idea to have a sports festival in Anchorage too.
The March 26, 1935, editorial in the Anchorage Daily Times recorded: "Anchorage enthusiasts -- in order to give something more definite in the way of an attraction in winter to neighbors of other towns -- are planning some form of sports festival." Jump ahead in the Rondy space-time continuum to February 1936.
The Anchorage Daily Times editorial on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1936, encouraged "Citizens of Anchorage" to entertain visitors and help make the "first annual sports tournament" a success. Under a headline "Everyone Can Help," the editor predicted, "If it pays its way the sports tournament in Anchorage can well become one of the outstanding features of Alaskan winters." As we know, the forecast for winter fun is now an almost eight-decade tradition. Seventy-nine years exactly.
On Valentine's Day 1936 the Anchorage City Aces (a basketball team) faced Fairbanks High School. Other events on Feb. 14 included a snake dance, bonfire and welcome party. The next day featured this front page headline: "Anchorage Decks Cleared For Week End of Sports." Many stores closed, locking their doors to allow their employees to attend the hockey and basketball matches. "Anchorage washed her routine affairs through the sluice box and into the creek today when decks were cleared for all citizens to join with several hundred visitors from neighboring communities in the foremost athletic tournament in the history of the territory," the Times reported.
The details of all that weekend's activities were duly and enthusiastically reported in the Anchorage Daily Times. A year later, the second annual event was held Feb. 17-22. ( I have the program on my desk.) The souvenir program for the Second Annual Anchorage Winter Sports Tournament also introduced for the first time the words "Fur Rendezvous." Sports teams from Anchorage and at least 12 other Alaska communities participated. The third annual event, Feb. 19-22, 1938, was officially called "Anchorage Fur Rendezvous."
A few months ago, I asked the good Rondy folks about this and shared my historical journey. I was informed that someone in the Pioneers' Home remembers that it started in 1935. End of story. Not for me. Someone must be held accountable, right? As I looked back at Fur Rendezvous programs from years past, I can tell you that as of 1955 the Rendezvous organizers had their timeline correct. On the history page, this headline, "Rendezvous 1936 to 1955," is followed by "since it's beginning as a sports carnival in 1936 …"
Personally, I blame former mayor Tony "Ham-bone" Knowles for the confusion. Or maybe his then-special assistant Mark "Roast Beef" Begich. The 1985 program proudly presented itself as the "Official 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition." Good Mayor Knowles issued a "Golden Anniversary" proclamation printed inside the program. It started, "WHEREAS, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Anchorage's annual Fur Rondy celebration …" Page 6 of the same program reads, "On February 15, 16 and 17, 1936 the first winter carnival was held."
LOL, I hope we all have fun at the 79th Annual Fur Rendezvous -- and the 80th too. Next year.
Emmy-winning Anchorage filmmaker Todd "Meatloaf" Hardesty was chosen to produce the Anchorage Centennial documentary "Anchorage Is…" chronicling the 100 years of Anchorage's history. The film will play March 20-22 at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub. Todd is the owner and co-founder of Alaska Video Postcards Inc,. filming and sharing the beauty of Alaska since 1987. Or was it 1988?
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.