Welcome to our column highlighting people, events and traditions across Bentley’s 100 years and counting. To suggest a topic, email magazine@bentley.edu.

Begun in spring 1918, Field Day offered students a fresh-air respite from crowded downtown Boston. Sports and games like three-legged races were typical of the annual event. Guests included Harry Bentley and other administrators, who would play or serve as umpires for class baseball tournaments. One popular venue was Norumbega Park in Newton; its Totem Pole Ballroom was a go-to for dinner and dancing.

Field Day seems to have fallen from the record between 1968 and 1975. Its spirit re-emerged in 1976, when the student-run Campus Activities Board debuted a weekend of food and outdoor recreation. A live concert, initially held on the library steps, joined the lineup in 1977. Through the 1980s and 1990s, an expanded “Spring Week” featured film screenings, pie-eating contests and even hot air balloon rides. The tradition returned to a weekend format in the early 2000s, then settled into the single, jam-packed Spring Day.

While we don’t know for sure if Mr. Bentley himself created this tradition, he certainly was a booster. “There is a time for work and a time for play,” wrote the lifelong baseball fan and practiced tumbler. “We know when, and how much, to use both.”