Bloodied Noses, Broken Fingers A Look Back on a UC Tradition

It was a tradition that really put the red in UC’s red-and-black class spirit – blood red, that is. UC’s Archives & Rare Books hosts the first of its quarterly lecture series, “Broken Noses and Class Spirit: Flag Rush at the University of Cincinnati,” at

3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, in the reading room of Archives & Rare Books, located on the eighth floor of Blegen Library.

The lecture is free and is open to the public.

Kevin Grace, head of the Archives & Rare Books Library and University Archivist, will host the illustrated lecture. He says Flag Rush was a nationwide tradition dating from just after the Civil War to World War One. “Basically, it was a violent version of ‘Capture the Flag,’” he explains, saying the competition would be held between the school class levels. “Juniors, for example, would run through the halls, yelling that the rush was on. Classrooms emptied, leaving professors standing in front of empty chairs.

“The challenging class would lock arms around a pole in the ground, located where the Teachers College now stands,” Grace continues. “The pole would have a class flag atop it, and the challenged class (seniors, sophomores or freshmen) would try to break through the human barricade, shinny up the pole, and tear down the flag.”

Grace says the end result of the tradition – meant to build class spirit – could often be bloody noses, broken fingers, even concussions. That’s until parents, faculty and administrators put a stop to the tradition because of its violence.

“Sometimes after the flag was captured, the class leaders would be tied up, taken to the Cincinnati Zoo, and put in the monkey cages. Other times, it spilled into factories and buildings near Over-the-Rhine,” Grace says.

UC’s Archives & Rare Books hosts lectures that examine the rich history of UC’s collections.