Tug of war to compete sporadically starting in the 1960s and would become regular participants as sorority teams in the mid-1980s. The Hope College Pull is an annual tug-of-war contest held across the Black River in Holland, Michigan on the fourth Saturday after Labor Day. Competitors are 40 members of the freshman and sophomore classes. Two teams of eight, whose total mass must not exceed a maximum weight as determined for the class, align themselves at the end of a rope approximately in circumference. The rope is marked with a "centre line" and two markings to either side of the centre line. The
Tug of war (8th century BC to 5th century BC) to train warriors. During the Tang dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang promoted large-scale tug of war games, using ropes of up to with shorter ropes attached, and more than 500 people on each end of the rope. Each side also had its own team of drummers to encourage the participants. In ancient Greece the sport was called "helkustinda" (Greek: ἑλκυστίνδα), "efelkustinda" (ἐφελκυστίνδα) and "dielkustinda" (διελκυστίνδα), which derives from "dielkō" (διέλκω), meaning amongst others "I pull through", all deriving from the verb "helkō" (ἕλκω), "I draw, I pull". "Helkustinda" and "efelkustinda" seem to have