5/15/2010:
Seeing how far you can spit tobacco isn't exactly a class sport. However, on this date in 1952, students from the North Dakota School of Forestry in Bottineau were lining up to do just that.
The reason behind this was Lumberjack Day-not to be confused with the current Lumberjack Day, which began in 2005 and celebrates, among other preconceptions of lumberjacks, eating waffles with syrup.
The 1952 Lumberjack day in Bottineau consisted of picnics, and contests of smoke chasing, fishing, tug-of-war between students and the faculty, girls' string burning and, of course, the tobacco spitting, where they proved they had some great expectorations: the record was held by Chuck Chapman of Hazelton, who spat a distance of 23½ feet in 1948.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
http://www.dakotacollege.edu/aboutbottineau.shtml
Minot Daily News, Thursday, May 15, 1952, p. 5