"A Mild Form of Massacre" - Sandlot Football in Wheeling

Name: "A Mild Form of Massacre" - Sandlot Football in Wheeling
Start: 2025-11-18T12:00:00-05:00
Location: Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library

Schedule

Tue, 18 Nov, 2025 at 12:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library | Wheeling, WV

"A Mild Form of Massacre"
"It's a mild form of massacre" Wheeling News-Register Sportswriter Arnold Lazarus wrote in his Sport Spot Column, "but the victims seemingly don't mind at all." Lazarus went on to describe the annual urge felt by local young men, "many of them former high school football players who can't resist the desire to knock noggins again" to play tackle football, despite the "reckless risk of life and limb" ... "That's sandlot football!" he concluded. Indeed, though it never stirred the fever-pitch passion of sandlot baseball regionally, semi-pro, amateur, or "sandlot" football was quite popular up and down the Ohio River Valley in the 1920s and 30s, and even into the 50s when Lazarus penned his analysis. Teams like the Benwood Bearcats, South Side Columbia Club, East End Yankees, and Bellaire Bijou Billiards were heavily stocked with ex-high school and college players who, while not quite good enough for pro ball, were plenty fast and strong enough to brutalize each other every weekend in bloody grid contests that all too frequently resulted in serious injuries and even deaths. In this program, Sean Duffy will explore this wide-open era of "Cleats, Sweaters, and the Old Pigskin" and the carnage it wrought.