Spirit Week 2024

Thank you for participating in Spirit Week! It’s an exciting time on campus and throughout our PBDA community as we prepare for the Tina Barbieri Knowledge Bowl and the Walter H. Butler Field Day. This is a week of sportsmanship and participation; there is room for everyone to play a role in their teams’ success.

FIELD DAY FUN FACTS: 1931 - 2024

FIELD DAY WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1931. THE FLAMINGO CAPTAINS WERE MARIE BASSETT AND FRANK QUIGLEY. PELICAN CAPTAINS WERE ALICE WYETH AND WILEY R. REYNOLDS.

Until the late ‘50s, Field Day was an all-day event that included a buffet lunch. Family races were held in the afternoon.

Until the 1960s, parents joined their children in competitions that included wheelbarrow, three-legged and sack-races, and child-parent relays.

Ivan Skinner, a long standing Latin teacher from the late 1940s to the 1970s, would eloquently narrate Field Day on a loudspeaker in the Greek tradition of the Olympics.

Boxing competition took place in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

The Tug-of-War was added in the 1960s as the final event of the day.

Until the 1970s, Pelican and Flamingo competition lasted all year long with Field Day as the highlight. The winner of Field Day was not always the winner of the year.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Alumni Association used to sell hot dogs and sodas to raise money for Alumni events.

In 1994, Field Day was named after Walter H. Butler, the beloved Head of School from 1965 to 1968 who valued competition and sportsmanship.

The Knowledge Bowl was added in the early 1990s as an academic competition to be held the day before Field Day.