PARIS — On a warm June afternoon in 1919, a large crowd from Norway and Paris gathered at the Paris High School diamond to cheer on their baseball teams during the last game of the season — a week after classes ended for the school year.

The two rival teams concluded their season with a victory for the Norwayites from Norway High School who with a “wicked pounding won the bacon” in the ninth inning. The celebration was had with “no open hostilities,” reported the Advertiser Democrat.

Only a week earlier, 12 Paris High School seniors had gathered at the local Baptist Church, standing on a platform covered with flags, ferns and the class flower, roses, to receive their diplomas.