American History Tellers - The Fight for the First U.S. Olympics | The Home Stretch | 3

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

In the summer of 1904, the young women of the Fort Shaw Indian School basketball team took the St. Louis Olympics and the World’s Fair by storm with their fast-paced, dynamic play. But could they keep their undefeated record and win the world championship against their toughest opponent yet -- a team of white all-stars from the best high school team in Missouri? As the Fort Shaw girls prepared for their championship game, another Olympics drama unfolded: the marathon. Covering 25 miles of steep hills and dusty dirt roads, it would be the ultimate test of athletic endurance. But for some runners, it would nearly end in disaster.Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/historytellersSupport us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's June 1904. You're a St. Louis sports writer covering the World's Fair and the first American Olympic Games. You've seen some incredible feats of athleticism over the past several weeks, but you've never seen anything like what you're watching now. You're sitting in bleachers overlooking a plaza outside the fair's model Indian school. It's been turned into a makeshift basketball court for a group of Indian girls from Port Shaw, Montana.

They're playing an exhibition game, and their style of play leaves you slack-jawed. The girls move up and down the court with blinding speed, passing the ball and scoring with incredible ease. The man in the seat next to you notices you scribbling on your pad and leans over. Newspaper man, huh? Well, I tell you what you can print in your paper. Young girls don't belong on display like this. Especially not Indian girls. They should stick to basket weaving, not basketball. But not everyone agrees with your neighbor.

A cheer goes up from the crowd as the tallest girl on the team makes a jump shot and a whistle brings the game to an end. As the crowd disperses, you clamber down the bleachers toward the sidelines. Excuse me, excuse me, ladies. I'm a reporter for the St. Louis Republic. Perhaps I could talk to one of you, get a couple of quotes? The girls glance at each other and snicker, then push someone forward. She's got her hair tied back and is fanning herself with a rolled-up newspaper. You guess she's about 18, but there's a defiant gleam in her eye that makes her seem much older. And what's your name? Nettie Worth.

Well, Nettie, that game was very impressive. How do you and your teammates feel playing in front of such a large audience? Oh, we're used to big crowds. There are about as many people here at this game as there are back in Montana. I think the crowd helps us play better. Good, good. Helps us play better. Good. Do you worry that your style of play might upset some people? Upset some people? Why? Well, it's just very aggressive for women's play. Have you had any problems playing other schools?

Nanny smirked. Other schools? Well, yeah, you problems playing other schools? Nettie smirked. Other schools? Well, yeah, you know, other schools. You mean white schools? Yeah, I'm sure some people have told you, yeah, it's improper for Indian girls to play basketball at all, let alone against white girls. Yeah, there have been some people who don't agree with it, but we've gotten used to that. We just want a chance to play, same as anyone. Do you

think you'll get that chance here? I mean, play some real games against other teams? Oh, I hope so. Right now we're just scheduled to play exhibition games, but we came here to prove we can beat anyone. Well, I think you're doing a great job, and I hope you get your chance. Good luck to you, and all of you. Nettie bounds back to her teammates giggling, and you're reminded how young she really is, how young they all are. But you're impressed by her poise and maturity, both on and off the court. The girls have an energy about them, an electricity you've seen in other winning teams. Tucking your notebook into your pocket, you hurry back to the newsroom to file your copy. You're going to push your editor to make this the lead story on tomorrow's sports page.

These Fort Shaw girls are something special. You can't wait to tell the world about them. Now streaming. Welcome to Buy It Now, where aspiring entrepreneurs get 90 seconds to pitch to an audience of potential customers. If the audience liked the product, they'd pitch them in front of our panel of experts. Gwyneth Paltrow. Anthony Anderson. Tabitha brown tony hawk oh my god buy it now stream free on freebie and prime video from the team behind american history tellers comes a new book the hidden history of the white house each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles

intimate moments shocking scandals that shaped our nation. From the War of 1812 to Watergate. Available now wherever you get your books. From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. The Fort Shaw girls' basketball team quickly became one of the most popular attractions at the 1904 World's Fair. The sight of ten young Native American women excelling at the relatively new game of basketball brought in curious crowds and converted many casual spectators into full-blown fans. Basketball was not yet an Olympic sport, but many others were, and athletes battled for Olympic gold on the track, in the water, and wherever else their sports took them. Despite problems with weather, attendance, and a lack of international competition, the Games would continue and soon feature a marathon unlike any before or since. This is the final episode of the fight for the first U.S. Olympics, the game of basketball was barely a decade old.

But it had caught on quickly across America, mostly through promotion at the nation's YMCAs. A woman's version of the game proved less popular, most likely because of its more restrictive rules aimed at keeping the games less physical. But that changed as many women's teams began playing by men's rules, including the team from Fort Shaw, Montana. The Fort Shaw girls arrived at the St. Louis' World Fair in June of 1904, ready to take on all challengers. The ten girls and their coaches and chaperones lived and played their games at the fair's Model Indian School, an ornate three-story building on a hill overlooking the fairgrounds in Forest Park. The school was part of the fair's larger Native American exhibition,

where members of 14 different tribes performed cultural displays for the fair's mostly white visitors. Besides their twice-weekly basketball exhibitions, the Fort Shaw team also gave musical concerts and poetry recitals dressed in buckskin costumes. But it was in their team uniforms that they dazzled the most. The Fort Shaw girls played with a speed and intensity few at the World's Fair had ever witnessed. A local reporter covering one of their exhibition games wrote that they played as streaks of lightning and called them the fastest thing of the sort ever seen in this city. The crowds were thrilled. Attendance at Fort Shaw exhibition games even outstripped that of official Olympic events, which were struggling to draw spectators due

to a lack of international athletes, oppressive heat, and frequent thunderstorms. But on the court, spectator demand had the Fort Shaw team playing several times a week. Still, neither the Olympics or Olympic organizer James Sullivan's other organization, the Amateur Athletic Union, would assign them any opponents. Sullivan doubted the propriety of women's sports altogether and restricted nearly all of the Olympic competitions to only men. Women playing non-Olympic events, like basketball, garnered even less of Sullivan's attention. So the Fort Shaw team scrimmaged against each other in hand-sewn cotton uniforms, blue versus red. Until word of their skill spread. Soon enough, the Fort Shaw girls began receiving challenges from other teams.

In late July, they squared off against the Illinois State champions and defeated them 14-3. The score was typical for the era. Each basket counted only as one point, and the game clock never stopped running, even if the ball bounced into the stands. After that, the Fort Shaw team found more opponents. They defeated another Native American girls squad and several local high school teams. Then in August, they receive a challenge worthy of their talents. A coach at St. Louis' Central High School, the reigning Missouri State champions, invited Fort Shaw to play a best of three series with an all-star team made up of Central's best current and former players.

The winner would be declared the World's Fair Women's Basketball Champions. The Fort Shaw players eagerly accepted the challenge and then began training for the first game, scheduled to take place the following month. Olympic events were spread out between the months of July and November. But most attention was focused on the last week of August, which would be dedicated to track and field events. Track and field was the premier international sport of the decade, and Olympic organizers hoped that these contests, unlike so many others, would be well attended. Athletes representing 10 nations competed in 26 different events, including races, hurdles, high jumps, and others.

Because international turnout was low, Americans were able to sweep up gold in most events. Among the many American gold medalists, one of the most popular was a mechanical engineer from Indiana named Ray Urey. He was nicknamed the Human Frog because of his sensational abilities at the standing jump. As a child, he'd been stricken with polio, which temporarily paralyzed his legs. To recover from the disease, Urey exercised constantly, eventually developing leg strength that bordered on the superhuman. He won three gold medals at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. And in St. Louis, at the age of 30, he won three more. All told, Urey would collect 10 gold medals, a record that stood until 2008.

While Urey was raking in medals, elsewhere at Olympic Stadium, another contest was underway, the tug-of-war. Held as an Olympic event until 1920, the tug-of-war was a team sport. To win, one team had to pull the other over a line six feet from their starting point. Competing against squads from Greece and South Africa, the Milwaukee Athletic Club emerged victorious. Another member of the Milwaukee Athletic Club became one of the first African Americans to win an Olympic medal. George Pogue competed in multiple track and field events and earned two bronze medals,

coming in third in the 200 and 400 meter hurdles. Not long after Pogue's 400 meter showing, a black track and field star from Cleveland named Joseph Stadler did him one better, taking silver in the standing high jump. The only competitor to outjump him was Ray the Human Frog Urie. But despite their success, Pogue and Stadler's presence at the games was not without controversy. Many prominent black athletes had chosen to boycott the Olympics

to protest the organizers' decision to segregate the spectators. In the end, Pogue and Stadler were the only two African-American athletes to participate. But as popular as these track and field contests were, they were overshadowed by what many considered to be the Olympics' main event and its greatest test of endurance, the marathon.

Like much of the Olympics, the modern-day marathon was inspired by Greek antiquity. According to legend, in the 5th century BC, a messenger was tasked with announcing the Greek victory over the Persian army at the Battle of Marathon. The messenger ran 40 kilometers, almost 25 miles, from Marathon to Athens, made his announcement, then collapsed from exhaustion and died. Early marathons, including the one in St. Louis, covered 24.85 miles, the same distance that ancient messenger had run. In 1908, the length would be increased to the current standard of 26.2 miles. Olympics organizer James Sullivan was himself a former

track and field athlete, and he wanted the marathon to be the centerpiece of his games, because it would not only be a contest, but an experiment. Sports science was still in its infancy, and Sullivan and other researchers were eager to study the effects of exercise and physical fitness on the human body. They would use the marathon to test their theories on how body type, diet, and ethnicity might make some athletes more successful than others. They also wanted to investigate the use of chemical stimulants. Drug use was not yet banned from the Olympics, so Sullivan and several personal trainers brought various substances with them on marathon day to administer to some of the runners. Even in the best conditions, running a marathon can be risky. Runners contend with dehydration, cramps, foot and leg injuries, a host of other physical challenges. But this marathon would be especially dangerous.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, August 30th, the temperature at Olympic Stadium was a scorching 90 degrees. Braving the heat, 32 runners representing four different countries slowly began to arrive, and a sluggish crowd took their seats in the grandstands, fanning themselves with their programs. Top American runners included Arthur Newton, one of the youngest in the race but a veteran of the Paris Olympic Marathon. There was Sam Meller, who at 24 was already one of the best runners of the decade, and had recently won the Boston Marathon. Less celebrated was Thomas Hicks, a Massachusetts metalworker and professional clown, who had run four times in Boston, where his best finish was second place. Ten runners came representing Greece, eager to claim gold in a competition

their country had inspired. Another pair of runners, Len Teonyane and Jan Masciani, were in St. Louis as part of the South African World's Fair exhibit. They were members of the Tswana tribe and worked as actors in daily reenactments of the recent Boer War, which they had served in as messengers. Teonyane would run the marathon barefoot. As the 3.03 p.m. starting time drew near, the runners began making their final preparations, wondering if they could go the distance in the oppressive St. Louis heat. Imagine it's August 30th, 1904, a hot, sweltering afternoon. You're on the practice field at Olympic Stadium, doing some exercises to prepare for tomorrow's shot put competition.

You hurl a practice weight towards a target about 40 feet away, then go retrieve it, wiping sweat from your forehead. You're glad all you have to do today is practice. The late August sun is brutal. But as you pick up your weight, you look over towards the track where today's marathon is about to begin. You watch the runners stretching and warming up, and thank God you're not one of them. It's suicide to run 25 miles in heat like this. Then you notice someone else, a little guy, wearing long pants and what appears to be hot nail boots.

He looks a bit lost, so you call over to him. Hey, buddy, how's it going? You doing okay? The man looks at you and smiles, curling up the ends of his waxed mustache. I'm doing very good, very good. You're surprised to see him pull a crumpled number out of his pocket and start pinning it to his shirt. Are you one of the athletes? What event? Marathon. Marathon. In those boots? Yeah, it's no problem. I run in them all the time. Really? Yeah, sure. I'm a mailman. Usually I walk, but you know, if there's a dog, I run. You can't believe your ears. A mailman running a marathon. Now you've heard everything. Still

smiling, he gestures at his long woolen pants. But if you don't mind, there is something I could use some help with. I like these pants, but they are quite hot. Do you have a knife or some scissors? I think I might turn them into shorts. Now you're smiling, too. This guy is too much. Sure. Yeah, let's find something to give you some ventilation. Wait right there. You set off towards the sidelines and find a pair of scissors.

You're always happy to do anything you can to help your fellow athletes. And this is an easy task. Not that you think it'll do much good. As far as you know, no one's ever completed a marathon in wool trousers, let alone hobnail boots. And even though you like your new mailman friend, you don't think he has a chance of changing that. The most talked-about runner of the 1904 marathon was a 29-year-old Cuban mail carrier named Felix Carvajal. Carvajal was only five feet tall, but stood out among the runners because of his white dress shirt, beret, and work boots. In Cuba, Carvajal served as a messenger during the Spanish-American War and once ran the entire 700-mile length of the island in just 16 days. After the war, he got a job in Havana as a mailman and raised money for his journey to the Games by running around City Hall.

But Carvajal nearly missed the marathon entirely. After arriving in New Orleans, he lost all his traveling money in a dice game and was forced to walk and hitchhike to St. Louis. When he did arrive, American discus and shot put hurler Martin Sheridan helped him cut his long pants into shorts just minutes before the race began. As three o'clock arrived, Carvalhal joined the other runners at the starting line. On the sidelines, James Sullivan looked on eagerly. He was sure that this event would be the one for which his Olympics would be remembered. And he would be right, but not for the reasons he hoped.

At precisely 3.03 p.m., former Missouri Governor and World's Fair Director David Francis fired the starting pistol into the air. For a few minutes, as the runners circled the stadium track before a cheering crowd, it looked like the marathon might live up to Sullivan's lofty expectations. But soon, like so much of the 1904 Olympics, it became clear that this marathon would not go according to plan. And for many of the athletes, who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic, bats and crucifixes. Even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot of the 19th century, but it also has so much resonance today.

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Join Wondery Plus and The Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For more than two centuries, the White House has been the stage for some of the most dramatic scenes in American history. Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. altering decisions and shocking scandals that have shaped our nation. You'll be there when the very foundations of the White House are laid in 1792, and you'll watch as the British burn it down in 1814. Then you'll hear the intimate conversations between FDR and Winston Churchill as they make plans to defeat Nazi forces in 1941. And you'll be in the Situation Room when President Barack Obama approves the raid to bring down the most infamous terrorist in American history. Order The Hidden History of the White House now in hardcover or digital edition, wherever you get your books. The 1904 marathon began with five laps around the stadium, which gave the crowd plenty of time to observe and comment on their running styles and attire. Michael Spring of New York took the lead as the runners trotted

out of the stadium gates and onto the streets of St. Louis. From there, the runners went deep into the humid, muggy countryside on a course made up of mostly dirt roads. Making matters worse, race officials and trainers followed along in a fleet of automobiles, kicking up clouds of thick dust that, as one reporter wrote, choked the life out of all the runners. Other problems with the race developed almost immediately. One runner gave up after a bout of intense vomiting, only half a mile outside the stadium.

The race route hadn't been blocked off, so runners often found themselves dodging cars, bicycles, and horse-drawn wagons at intersections. And there were seven hills along the route, some brutally steep, which slowed many runners to a walking pace. New Yorker Michael Spring maintained his lead until around the fifth mile, where he was overtaken by the young favorites Arthur Newton and Sam Meller. And then by mile nine, Spring bowed out completely because of cramps, as did another American runner named Fred Lors.

Lors and Spring both climbed into the back of an automobile for a ride back to the stadium. Meanwhile, Thomas Hicks had picked up his pace and was closing in on Newton and Meller around the 13-mile mark. Just behind him ran the Cuban Carvajal, hobnail boots and all. But around this time, several runners began to collapse, one by one. One competitor, William Garcia, swallowed so much dust that it ruptured his stomach lining. He fell to the ground, coughing up blood, and was rushed to a nearby hospital. For other runners, the main obstacle was not dust, but thirst. James Sullivan wanted to study the effects of

dehydration on athletes, so there were only two water stations for the entire marathon, and none for the last 13 miles. Runner Hicks chose to get his liquid refreshment by carrying a flask of brandy. But when he began to falter around mile 18, his trainer supplemented the brandy with a mixture of egg whites and strychnine, a chemical commonly found in rat poison, but at the time was believed to enhance physical performance. It was the first documented case of doping at the Olympics. Maybe it worked. By the 20th mile, Hicks was now in the lead, with his two athletic trainers following his every step in an automobile. But with three miles to go,

he began to stumble. His trainers jumped out of the car to hold him up and help him continue. While they were attending him, another runner flashed past him. In his haze of fatigue and strychnine poisoning, Hicks wondered how anyone could have so much energy left after 22 miles. The runner was Fred Lors, well-rested after his car ride back to the stadium. Knowing that he'd already been disqualified, Lors climbed from the car and ran the last five miles into Olympic Stadium, greeted by thousands of cheers as the victor. Lors later insisted that he finished the race

only as a joke, and given that several of his competitors had seen him waving to them from the back of the car, it was probably true. But in the confusion caused by his fake finish, Lors allowed President Teddy Roosevelt's daughter Alice to place a victory wreath on his head. But Fred Lors was a good runner. He would go on to win the 1905 Boston Marathon fair and square. Meanwhile, Thomas Hicks inched his way closer to the stadium. His trainers had given him a second dose of egg whites and strychnine to keep him going. The poisoned Hicks had begun to hallucinate, but was able to walk up and jog down the last hill.

Thousands of spectators crowded around the entrance to the stadium, cheering the exhausted runner as he staggered inside. With barely enough strength to break the tape, the real winner of the Olympic marathon collapsed onto the finish line. Hicks' final time of 3 hours, 28 minutes, and 53 seconds set a new low for American marathons up to that point. And after his victory, Hicks was too exhausted to even accept his gold medal. He had lost 8 pounds during the race. Later, he would say, never in my life have I run such a tough course. The terrific hills simply tear a man to pieces. But the fact that he finished the race at all was an achievement. More than half the field had dropped out. Among those who did

finish, though, were the two South Africans, Len Taanyane and Jan Masiani. They finished ninth and twelfth, respectively, which was remarkable considering neither man had ever run a marathon before. Taanyane would have likely placed even higher had he not been chased a mile off course by a dog. The Cuban, Felix Carvajal, fared much better. Still wearing his heavy boots, Carvajal kept an even jogging pace, but stopped several times to chat with race fans

on the side of the road. When he passed a roadside orchard, he ran in and pilfered some apples. But later, when they upset his stomach, he laid down and took a nap. Astonishingly, despite his many detours, the Cuban mailman placed fourth. According to one of the race officials, Carvalhal must have lost 60 minutes in time. If he had run with assistance, as some others had, he would not only have won the race, he would have set a new Olympic record.

For James Sullivan, the marathon was a disaster for his Olympics. Despite his role in making the race so grueling, he immediately tried to distance himself. He told a reporter, When the Games are held at Rome in 1908, I do not think that the marathon run will be included in the program. I personally am opposed to it, and it is indefensible on any ground. As the marathon debacle unfolded, the Fort Shaw basketball team continued to play exhibition games at the Model Indian School, preparing for their Best of Three championship series against the Central High All-Stars. The date for the game had been set, Saturday, September 3rd, and the Fort Shaw girls were ready. The two teams met at a city park on the north side of St. Louis on a cool, cloudless afternoon.

Several hundred spectators arrived, as did some local reporters. And from the opening tip-off, the Fort Shaw girls controlled the game. They were furious players, attacking from every angle, passing all around the court. Playing on a sprained ankle, Emma Sansaver stole the ball from the All-Stars and passed it to Fort Shaw's star forward Minnie Burton, who scored the game's first point. Burton followed that up with a pair of free throws. After that, the game's outcome was never really in doubt. The Central High All-Stars had expected the home court advantage of a friendly crowd.

But in their months of exhibition games, the Fort Shaw team had won over plenty. But in their months of exhibition games, the Fort Shaw team had won over plenty of St. Louis fans of their own. As Fort Shaw advanced the ball, hundreds of fans joined in the team's signature chant, Shoot, Minnie, Shoot. And despite playing with the setting sun in their eyes, Burton and her teammates continued to sink shots with ease. The crowd, one reporter wrote, looked on in open-mouthed astonishment as the score became more and more lopsided. Another reporter wrote, the Indian girls were more active, more accurate, and cooler than their opponents. When the referee blew the last whistle,

the All-Stars had managed just one basket plus a foul shot. The final score was 24-2. News of Fort Shaw's resounding victory spread like wildfire. Soon the Indian girls from Montana were the talk of the World's Fair. One spectator declared, I would not have missed that game for $50. The playing of these Indian girls is simply marvelous. They can easily defeat any team in the world. But it was still a best-of-three series. And the second game was set for two weeks later, on September 17th. In the meantime, the Fort Shaw girls had to resume their duties as entertainers at the Model Indian School.

They continued playing exhibition games, too, while also giving performances and recitals. On September 6th, just three days after their win over the All-Stars, they donned white robes and performed a rhythmic dance as part of Oklahoma Day, a World's Fair celebration of the land formerly known as Indian Territory. Eva Sansaver participated, sprained ankle and all. As anticipation for their rematch with the Central High All-Stars reached a fever pitch,

the Fort Shaw girls tried their best to ignore their newfound fame and focus on day-to-day life at the model school. Imagine it's September 16th, 1904. You're the captain of the Fort Shaw girls basketball team, but today you're just getting back from one of the twice-weekly recitals you have to perform, a mandolin performance outside on the porch of the model Indian school. Walking alongside you, your teammate Emma is trying to wiggle out of her buckskin costume. These outfits get stiffer every week. I'm just glad it's not August anymore. God, these are hot. Crossing into your dormitory room, Emma starts to help you undo the ties to the beaded breastplate you have to wear. I don't think I did well today. I could barely remember the songs.

All I can think about is tomorrow's game. Yeah, me too. The crowd was good today, though. We got lots of applause. But I bet they'd rather see us playing basketball than strumming mandolins. Come in. Another of your teammates, Nettie, rushes in holding a letter. This just came from the Missouri High All-Stars.

Did you read it? What does it say? They want a forfeit. You grab the letter and scan it as quickly as you can. It's from their team captain, written in loopy cursive script. They don't say anything about forfeiting. They just want to postpone the rematch. Emma grabs the letter out of your hands. Well, it's the same thing, isn't it? We agreed we'd play tomorrow, so if they can't come,

we should win automatically. Well, but they've requested a formal extension. You know why? Because they're scared. We beat them so badly, they're afraid to play us again. You know Emma is right, but you also know better than to take the easy way out. You go to your desk and grab a pencil and some paper. What are you doing? I'm writing them back and telling them that we accept their request for postponement. But why? Do you really want to win because of forfeit? People will say, sure, those Indian girls were good, but they only won on a technicality. No, I don't want that. I want to beat them fair and square, so I'm going to suggest that they take all the time they need. Nettie nods her head in agreement, but Emma rolls her eyes. Fine,

but if they postpone again, I say that's it. You understand Emma's frustration. You'd love it too, an automatic win that would put the trophy in your hands, but you know this will be better. You have what it takes to win, no matter how much the All-Stars practice. And you can't wait to see their faces when you prove it to them on the court. The day before their scheduled rematch with Fort Shaw, the Central High All-Stars requested a few weeks' delay. Team captain Belle Johnson wrote back, agreeing to the postponement. She saw no upside to arguing or demanding a forfeit. The Fort Shaw girls were already scheduled to stay in St. Louis until the World's Fair ended in November, and they were confident that no amount of additional practice

could make the All-Stars any likelier to defeat them. As summer turned to fall, the Fort Shaw girls continued to play their twice-weekly exhibition games and perform their various concerts and recitals in their stifling costumes. But at night, they lay shivering in their beds. Like all buildings constructed for the World's Fair, the model Indian school had been hastily erected and lacked any kind of central heating or fireplaces. There was even talk of closing the school early, which would leave the girls with nowhere to stay while they waited for their rematch with the All-Stars. And they were waiting. Days turned into weeks, and waited for their rematch with the All-Stars. And they were waiting. Days turned into weeks, and there was still no word from the All-Stars.

If the Fort Shaw girls were forced to leave the Model Indian school and return to Montana before their rematch, they would be the ones required to forfeit. But all they could do was wait, and hope that soon, they'd get their chance to play for the championship. This is the emergency broadcast system. A ballistic missile threat has been detected inbound to your area. Your phone buzzes and you look down to find this alert. What do you do next? Maybe you're at the grocery store, or maybe you're with your secret lover, or maybe you're robbing a bank. Based on the real

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Stream free on Freeview and prime video. As the Fort Shaw team waited for their rescheduled rematch with essential high all-stars, the Olympics and the World's Fair were winding down. The crowds at Olympic Stadium grew thinner still. Only a handful were there to watch one of the game's most unique events, the only official Olympic contest to feature female athletes. Unlike other sports where it was seen as improper for women to compete, archery had been an upper-class leisure pastime for both sexes for much of the 19th century. Of the six Olympic women archers, one of the most popular was Emma Cook, representing the Potomac Archers Club in Northern Virginia. At 20, Cook was already one of the best archers in the country. But she knew that she was going to have to climb a nearly impossible mountain to take the gold medal.

To do that, she would have to beat Lyda Howell. Lyda Howell was twice Emma Cook's age and an undisputed national champion. She had grown up with an archer father and married a fellow archer not long after winning her first competition. She spent the next two decades dominating the sport. In a 1904 interview, Howell claimed that winning wasn't even on her mind anymore. Instead, it was the colors she concentrated on. She described archery as a picturesque game. The range, with its smooth green, the distant target glowing gold, red, blue, black, and white. The colors make the picture beautiful. Dressed in white full-length skirts and feathered hats, Cook,

Howell, and the other competitors took their places on the vast Olympic Stadium infield. There were two rounds, each requiring a total of 72 shots at targets placed 30 to 60 yards away. Howell won each round handily, taking home two gold medals. Her 71-year-old father, Thomas Scott, also competed in the men's division. Though he didn't win any medals, he remains the oldest American ever to compete in the Olympics. Young Emma Cook came in second, winning a silver medal. She would finally win a national title of her own in 1906, the first year that Lyda Howell did not compete. On October 7th, Fort Shaw team captain Belle Johnson received a phone call from her counterpart

on the Central High School All-Star team. The All-Stars were finally ready to play the second game of their Best of Three championship series. They asked that their rematch with Fort Shaw take place the very next day, perhaps hoping that the short notice would keep turnout low, in case they suffered another embarrassing defeat. But news of the highly anticipated rematch traveled fast. That Saturday afternoon, on the plaza outside the Model Indian School, so many spectators turned up that World's Fair security guards had to be called in to push the crowd back from the court. The St. Louis team had improved with all their extra practice time. But once again, they were no match for the Fort Shaw players.

The All-Stars were able to only score three points in the second half, all of them on foul shots. And the crowd was again solidly on Fort Shaw's side. According to one newspaper account of the game, the Central High players appeared disconcerted at the applause every time Fort Shaw scored. Once again, the win was solid. Fort Shaw, 17. All-Stars, 6. And with their second victory, the Fort Shaw team was presented with a championship trophy, the Silver Cup for women's basketball. Even though they had not competed in a sanctioned Olympic event and would not receive any individual medals, the trophy was the same one all Olympic winners received in 1904. It symbolized both their overall contribution to the World's Fair and

their athletic achievements. Officially, it only made them champions of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, but their many supporters in the press and in the general public began referring to them as world champions. The young women of the Fort Shaw Indian School had arrived at the World's Fair as unknowns, but they would leave as some of the most popular athletes of the 1904 Games. Now, with their victory secure and the fair winding down, they began to pack up to make the long journey back to Montana. Imagine it's November, 1904. You're a member of the Fort Shaw basketball team.

According to the newspapers, you're a world champion. But today, you're just a girl from Montana, carrying all her belongings in a small cardboard suitcase. The rush of adrenaline and the cheers of the crowd are just happy memories. Now, your footfalls echo in the hallway of the Model Indian School as you and your younger teammate Flora take one last walk through the building on your way to the train station. I wonder if the others made it back by now. No, I don't think so. Remember how long our train ride out here was? Flora shrugs. She's felt very lonely these last five days. Most of your teammates took the first train home to Montana. And because of a mix-up with your tickets,

you two had to stay behind with your coach in the days since the school building has emptied out. I just miss them. I miss being a team. Well, we're still a team. We'll play more games in Montana. Well, you know it won't be the same, though. You hope that's not true.

But it probably is. Several of your teammates will be graduating soon and leaving Fort Shaw, and for those of you who remain, nothing will compare to these past few weeks in St. Louis. You step outside onto the school's spacious portico. From up here on the hilltop, you can see down into the World's Fair. The gleaming white palaces, the lakes, the pike with all its games and rides. Flora still looks sad, but you have something that might lift her spirits. Hey, Flora, here. I saved this for you. You hand her a folded piece of newspaper.

Flora slowly opens it. It's a clipping from one of the St. Louis newspapers. In it is a picture of the Fort Shaw team. You and Flora are right there in front, kneeling side by side, surrounded by your teammates. Flora gazes at it, then hugs you tightly. When she pulls away, there's a couple of tears in her eyes. And I've got something else for you, too. It's a surprise.

We're not going back home. What? What do you mean? Coach told me this morning. We're going to get off the train and cascade. The rest of the team is already there. They're waiting for us. Cascade is a little town 20 miles from Fort Shaw. Flora frowns at you, obviously wondering why on earth you'd disembark there.

You don't get it, do you? Flora, we're going to have a victory parade. We need to get off the train and cascade so we can parade into Fort Shaw. Now, Flora bursts into tears, but they're tears of happiness. She wipes them away, embarrassed, as your coach comes out of the school with her suitcase. You hug Flora again.

All right, let's go. It's time. We don't want to miss our train. As you put your arm around Flora, you feel the crinkle of your own newspaper clipping in your pocket. That one you kept for yourself. So years from now, you can show people that you were once a champion. Fort Shaw's triumph over the white players of the Central High School All-Star team made an enormous impression in St. Louis.

One editorial claimed, We have learned to be humble before the achievements of other peoples whom we have fancied we long ago left behind in the march of progress. But the Fort Shaw team's achievement was quickly forgotten by the wider world. The 1905 edition of Spalding's Athletic Almanac made no mention of it, And none of the members of the Fort Shaw team ever had a chance to compete again on so large a stage. But their legacy lives on in other ways. To this day, basketball remains the most popular team sport on Indian reservations all over the western U.S., played in an up-tempo style called res ball that the Fort Shaw girls would recognize. And in 2004, on the grounds of the old Fort Shaw School, a monument was built,

looking out over the vast prairie land of central Montana. It reads, 1904 World Champions. By the end of the World's Fair, more than 12 million paying visitors had passed through the gates, 24 times the population of St. Louis. As for the Olympics, attendance records were not reliably kept. In the 1920s, Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin wrote a scathing critique of the 1904 Games in his memoirs. He never admitted

any personal responsibility for letting the Games get so off track, despite his role in allowing St. Louis to hijack the Olympics from its original host city of Chicago. But the 1904 Olympics were not a total failure. Just as Coubertin had hoped, bringing the Olympics to the United States greatly increased their popularity among American athletes and sports fans alike, which in turn helped establish the Olympics as a truly international competition. St. Louis Olympics organizer James Sullivan died in 1914 at the age of 52. His organization, the Amateur Athletic Union, continued working with the International Olympics Committee until the 1970s. Several years later, in 1986, the IOC voted for the first time

to allow professional athletes to compete in the Olympics. And in 2012, for the first time ever, women competed in every sport on the Olympic program. Today, the Olympic Games are an international sporting powerhouse, generating billions of dollars in revenue. They can still also be a flashpoint for controversy, as scandals over performance-enhancing drugs, bribed officials, and massive cost overruns have plagued some competitions. This year, the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, have taken place despite widespread concern that the Games will spread COVID-19 in a country where more than two-thirds of the population remains unvaccinated.

But for sports fans around the world, the Olympics remain a source of inspiration and excitement. And for athletes, there is no bigger stage on which to compete. Today's professionally organized, internationally broadcast Olympic Games may look very different than the ones that took place in St. Louis over a century ago. But at their heart, they remain the same celebration of the competitive spirit that drives Olympic athletes from all walks of life to be the best. Next on American History Tellers, I'll speak with Susan Brownell,

a nationally ranked track and field athlete turned Olympic historian and anthropologist. We'll talk about what the 1904 Olympics can teach us about the Olympics of today and how the games have fared in times of war, political tension, and global pandemics. From Wondery, this is episode three of the fight for the first U.S. Olympics for

American History Tellers. If you like American History Tellers, you can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. If you'd like to learn more about the Fort Shaw basketball team, we recommend Full Court Quest by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith.

And for more about the Olympics, we recommend Power Games by Jules Boykoff. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Molly Bach. Sound design by Derek Behrens.

Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by George Ducker, edited by Doreen Marina. Our senior producer is Andy Herman. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman and Marsha Louis for Wondery. How did Birkenstocks go from a German cobbler's passion project 250 years ago to the Barbie movie today? Who created that bottle of red Sriracha with a green top that's permanently living in your fridge? Did you know that the Air Jordans were initially banned by the NBA? We'll explore all that and more in The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy. This is Nick. This is Jack. And we've covered over a thousand episodes of pop business

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