In a recent donation to the Historical Society of Cecil County, we received a medal from the “Cecil County Girls’ Winter Carnival 1931”. On the front of the medal was a female, dressed in knee-length pants throwing a ball. No information about this medal was included with the donation, so research was needed!
A Google search for “Cecil County Girls’ Winter Carnival 1931” led us to a listing on eBay for a 1928 Track and Field Championship Playground Athletic League Sports Medal. (It’s available for $65!) Part of this medal was very similar to the donated one, and on the reverse side was engraved “Track and Field Championships Cecil County Public Schools 1928”!
Attached to this medal was a pin that says “Playground Athletic League”. Another Google search was done and the Playground Athletic League was found to be an organization out of Baltimore City. Further research revealed that the organization originally was two separate groups, the Children’s Playground Association and the Public Athletic Leage. In 1922, the two groups merged, creating the Playground Athletic League. They sponsored track and field meets, basketball games, and all manner of the “social, vigorous, fighting plays of youth throughout Baltimore’s parks and across the state”.
That same Google search led us to the Library of Congress website and the Maryland Archives website. The Official Handbook of the Playground Athletic League was found on both websites. This booklet, from 1922-1923, was written by Dr. William Burdick, head of the Playground Athletic League. This booklet contained a wealth of information.
The information included Baltimore City and County Public Schools, girls’, institutional, parochial, park, and swimming activities, medical and ‘colored’ sections, and a list of Maryland counties’ track and field meets in 1922 and 1923. The organization sponsored spring meets and winter girls’ “carnivals” in Cecil County until the mid-1930s.
Cecil County had been having spring county-wide track and field meets for at least nine years, according to this handbook. The 1922 track and field meet included events arranged by age and weight of the participants and the sex of the participants. Running events included the 50, 60, 70, 80, 100, and 220 yard dashes as well as the 440, 660, and one-mile relays. Field events included the standing broad jump, the hop step and jump, and the running broad jump. Other field events included the baseball throw, the 12 lb. shot put, and the running high jump. Team sports were end ball (a game that involved throwing and catching a ball), volleyball (boys and girls), and dodge ball (boys, girls, and mixed).
Separate track and field meets were held for white and colored schools. All of the Cecil County events were held at the Elkton Elementary School grounds and in the armory across the street.
Rising Sun’s Midland Journal newspaper regularly published the results of the girls’ winter meets. In 1930, the newspaper shared the results of the girls’ winter carnival meet on January 31. The winning school that day was North East, followed by Elkton High, Elkton Elementary, Rising Sun, Chesapeake City, Kenmore, Johnson-Elk Mills, Principio Furnace, Perryville, and Mitchell.
This event didn’t last forever. The Midland Journal reported on January 22, 1932 that the Cecil County Board of Education decided to omit the Girls’ Winter Carnival” for the school year 1931 – 1932. No reason was given!
