104: Six Day Race Part 10: Grand Walking Tournament (1876)

Ultrarunning History

By Davy Crockett You can read, listen, or watch The year 1876 was a particularly important year in ultrarunning/pedestrian history and thus several episodes have covered the events held that year. It was the year when the six-day races started to spread across America for the first time. Lost in ultrarunning history, is the story of the first major six-day race held in America with twelve competitors. It was called “The Grand Walking Tournament for the Championship of the World,” held in May 1876, in the massive Exposition Building in Chicago, Illinois. For the first time, the story of this historic race will be retold. In addition, that year, Daniel O’Leary, took the six-day race to California. Please consider becoming a patron of ultrarunning history. Help to preserve this history by signing up to contribute a little each month through Patreon. Visit https://ultrarunninghistory.com/member Daniel O’Leary’s influence upon American Pedestrianism In America, in 1876, Daniel O’Leary, the true pedestrian champion of America, was the driving force to spark interest in the sport. He competed, trained and encouraged other athletes, and invested his own time and money to make events successful. Early in 1876, he especially supported Chicago’s female pedestrians (see episodes 101 and 102). But with his success, outspoken critics emerged. Oleary had been criticized by some for his handling of the first women's six-day race between Bertha Von Hillern and Mary Marshall that ended in controversy. (see episode 101) “Mr. O’Leary may be a splendid walker, and he may have lined his pockets by this last appearance in public, but as a manager he has proved a lamentable failure and has not added to his reputation as a gentleman.” Challengers to O’Leary’s Title O’Leary received continual six-day challenges from others. Now that he was the champion over Weston, he was careful not to waste time with pretenders. When Caleb W. Sidnam (1829-1902), age 57, a travel agent from Chicago, publicly challenged him, O’Leary’s response included, “Of course, I am most desirous of preserving my championship medal, as also the reputation already acquired.” But he countered with strict conditions for the contenders to put up or shut up. Put up guaranteed money to show that they were serious. He said, “During the past few months I have been much annoyed by persons requesting me to give them a start of several miles. I will give no odds whatever, being convinced of the necessity of having such persons make a record on strength of their own merits.” Henry Schmehl (1851-1932), a German-American, and O’Leary’s friend, was one who hoped to be a challenger. He made it clear that he wanted no handicaps or favors, “that I had better establish a record for myself before I presumed to challenge him.” Thus, he first participated in the six-day race against Ellen Wickers and reached an impressive 502 miles, second only to O’Leary (see episode 102). When Weston was only able to reach 450 miles in six days in England (see episode 99), Chicago called him a “fraud” and wondered why no international attention was being paid to O’Leary or Schmehl who both exceeded Weston’s best. “Verily, if the Englishmen are astonished at Weston, will they not be amazed at O’Leary if he brings his match to England?” O’Leary heads to California Daniel O'Leary O’Leary took the Overland Railroad across the country in March 1876 to San Francisco, California. He then published a challenge to any man on the Pacific Coast, to race against him from 100-500 miles for as much as $10,000. If a challenger didn’t come forward, he would do a solo six-day walk for 500 miles and try to beat the world best time of 142:54:00, which was a little more than an hour less than six days. How would California react to this new sport and O’Leary’s brash challenges? One newspaper wrote, “If O’Leary would devote his leg-ability to some useful employment, say,