issue of January 2, 1891, has the faults of the sports writing of the previous decade and the one before that. Here is how the game was handled, under "Local News in Brief"—for separate sports columns and pages were just beginning to come in:
The Portlands Are Kickers.—A large and enthusiastic crowd assembled at the baseball grounds in East Portland yesterday to witness the return championship match between the Tacoma and Portland Wanderers football clubs. Despite the fact that the ground was in poor condition, a magnificent game was witnessed. The Portland Wanderers entered the field with the knowledge that they had to play against a team of giants in football. The splendid forward play of McMarsh, backed by the Brigham brothers, frequently called for the applause of the spectators, as also the fine play of Messrs. Patton, Bowman, and Hamilton of the Tacomas. The result of the game, each scoring one goal, showed how evenly the teams were matched, and still leaves undecided whether Portland or Tacoma can claim the championship honors.
Sports gossip was beginning to appear, reflecting the development of the sports gossip technique in the eastern papers. In the issue of January 6, 1891, the Oregonian carried a one-column gossipy article on the forthcoming middleweight battle between the original "Non-pareil" Jack Dempsey and Bob Fitzsimmons. Apparently some actual reporting had been done with Portland sports-followers as news sources, but there continued the old indisposition to use names if they could possibly be omitted. And direct quotations were not yet standard equipment. So here's the way this gossip story ran:
Sporting men in Portland are taking more interest in the Dempsey-Fitzsimmons contest as the battle draws nigh, and a number of large bets have already been made.
. . . . .
Those who are inclined to take a doubtful view of Dempsey say that his day has come. He has run his race. . . .
This was followed by about 300 words of football gossip.
The football gossip, apparently, was written without extensive knowledge of the technique and vocabulary of football. The sportswriters of those days were still more prolific of words than ideas. Much of the trouble, no doubt, arose because the busy local reporter was merely adding this field of work to his regular load.
Development of headlines in the other departments of the paper was accompanied by similar development in sports heads. A standard head of these times carried as a key line "The Field of Sport" with three lower decks. For example:
