Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

Miss Fanny Bickley, physical director of North Central High School, led 450 girls in black bloomer costumes through a spectacular athletic display.

As 1,000 people watched in the school gym, the girls exhibited their skills in rope-climbing, vaulting and dumbbell drills.

“Probably the best and hardest work was done by the rope climbers, who, apparently without exertion, climbed to the ceiling as fast as a midshipman would,” said the paper.

The “wand and dumbbell drills” had an artistic flair. They were performed in time to music. The girls also performed Russian, Swedish and Irish folk dances and “La Polka Boheme.”

The girls “showed their mettle” on the vaulting horse, and by “clearing the bar at five feet, aided by a run and jump from the flying rings.” 

“Not a slip or an accident happened, though many of the feats were really difficult.”

The bloomer-clad girls apparently did not lack for an appreciative audience. The gym was filled to capacity with parents. Meanwhile, “glued to every window pane and hanging from narrow terra cotta ledges on the second floor were the faces of scores of boys who applauded every difficult feat.”