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Sports History. Scope and Description. Almost all sports have their roots in Europe. The history of sports in America is about how sports came here from other countries as well as how these sports grew and developed.
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Scope and Description • Almost all sports have their roots in Europe. • The history of sports in America is about how sports came here from other countries as well as how these sports grew and developed. • American sports historians study the organization and administration of athletic programs from community recreation to school and collegiate levels to professional leagues.
Ancient History • Prehistoric to Fourth Century B.C • History of sports begins with the funeral games of ancient times. • Greek games • The early Greeks practiced track and field; wrestling; boxing; chariot racing, the precursor to horse racing and modern auto racing and pankration, the first version of today's ultimate fighting. • Roman spectator sports • Roman citizens entertained with their prison captives in life-threatening gladiatorial combats and mock naval battles in the flooded Coliseum.
Ancient History • Periods when sports were outlawed or otherwise rejected by the masses are also a part of sports history. • During the fifth through ninth centuries sports fell into disfavor with the rise of Christianity. • Christians disfavored sports because athletes often participated in the nude and glorified the “sinful” body.
Later Middle Ages and the Renaissance • After sports near demise during the middle ages, military brought it back into societies good graces. • The Knights in the chivalric period used sports to prepare for war. • They learned fencing, boxing, archery, swimming, horsemanship, gymnastics, and other sports in their quest to become good soldiers.
Colonial America: 1607-1776 • Animal sports of cockfighting, bear baiting, gander pulling, and rat killing became common activities of colonial America. • In the south horseracing, hunting, fishing, and boxing became popular. • Boxing was practiced on southern plantations where landowners pitted slaves against each other in the ring. • In 1875 14 of 15 jockeys in the Kentucky Derby were black. • Once money, recognition, and status became associated with winning black boxers and jockeys were replaced with white fighters and riders.
Beginning of Organized Sports in America. • The history of organized sport in the U.S. begins with the New York Knickerbockers in the 1840s. • Knickerbockers were a social club composed of professional men that had to be voted in by members. • This club formed the fist known baseball club. • When competition and winning became more important to the Knickerbockers than social status, membership rules changed to allow low working class ballplayers free membership. • The importance of producing winners is obvious from the earliest accounts of sporting practices.
Collegiate Sports • History of collegiate sports in America can be traced from Native Americans, who engaged in perhaps the first team sport on the continent, lacrosse. • The earliest sporting practices in Colleges in the U.S. were most influenced by British sporting practices. • Sports were first played as class competitions and were much like today's intramural sports programs in Colleges.
Collegiate Sports • In 1852 intercollegiate sports began with a rowing contest between Harvard and Yale. • From the 1870s through the end of the century, men’s collegiate sports continued to expand on college campuses but their was no administrative control. • As a result, in 1906 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was founded.
The NCAA played a role in bringing fledgling athletics into the physical education fold through its recommendation for coaches to be regular educators in the institution. • This had an important effect on the field of physical education. • Amos Alonzo Stagg became the first coach-physical educator when he was hired for both positions in 1892 by the University of Chicago.
The Rise of Women and SPort • The emergence and growth of women's sports was quite different from that of males due to society being less accepting of women athletes. • In the mid-nineteenth century, sports outside the collegiate world for upper-class women consisted of proper activities, such as croquet, archery, and tennis. • Women’s sports were acceptable to society only if they were considered social affairs, promoted health, were noncompetitive, and were not strenuous to require a uniform.
From the mid- 1860s, college women were instructed by physical educators in such sports as bowling, boating, ice skating, archery, swimming, and horseback riding. • By the 1890s college women were playing class competitions in tennis, baseball, golf, track and field, field hockey, volleyball, and basketball • Basketball became the first intense game that women played, and it quickly became popular and controversial.
The two women most prominent in the growth and development of women’s basketball were Senda Bernson of Smith college and Clara G. Baer of Sophie Newcomb College. • These women were generally responsible for the rules of the game and did much to promote acceptance of the game. • The beginning of intercollegiate sports for women began in 1896 when University of California played Stanford and University of Washington played Ellensburg Normal School. • Educators were the leading opponents of intercollegiate sports and fought the notion of women copying the highly competitive programs.
Women’s sports were born and raised through the matriarchal hands of women physical educators whose objective was to promote recreational sports for all girls while prohibiting highly competitive sport for any. • Women formed their first intercollegiate association in 1971, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) • However 10 years later it was dismantled due to Women’s membership in the NCAA.
Professional Sports • The earliest signs of professional sports in the U.S. was the baseball players of the mid-nineteenth century who charged gate receipts to spectators and then dividing the money among themselves. • Baseball and boxing were the front runners in organized professional sports in the U.S.
Boxing matches between slaves became popular in the colonial period as entertainment for white landowners. • White fighters soon took over when money was to be made. • African Americans were denied access to the heavyweight division until Jack Johnson got a match with Champ Tommy Burns and won easily to become the first Black Champion in 1908.
Baseball became the first professional team sport. • The first recognized baseball team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869. • Because of the Jim Crow laws, black and white players were not able to play on the same team. • As a result, African American formed their own league in the 1880s. • Negro leagues were very popular by the 1920s. • By the 1930s baseball had the National and American Leagues.
Since baseball was racist like most of society, the National and American Leagues were made up of only white players from 1897 until 1947. • In 1947 Jackie Robinson was brought into the Dodgers’ organization. • This brought on a major change of integration throughout both leagues. • Once pro baseball was integrated, the only major changes in the sport was the creation of its divisions and the playoff wildcard.
Football was the next sport to move into the professional arena. • The first all-professional teams were Canton and Massillion of Ohio in 1902. • These early pro teams were backed by independently wealthy men but had no organization and corruption was commonplace. • In 1920 the American Professional Football Association (APFA) was formed by “Papa Bear” George Halas.
The APFA adopted two principles in an effort to appease college dissatisfaction with football going pro. • The first was they agreed to keep their hands off players until their colleges eligibility expired. • The second was and agreement that teams would not steal other team’s players so fans could recognize the players each week. • The first principle was upheld until 1983 when the USFL broke the unwritten rule by drafting Hershel Walker from the University of Georgia. • The second principle was violated with great frequency, as a result in 1922 the APFA changed its title to the NFL and the league rules were enforced more strictly.
Pro basketball for white males began in the 1890s, the same decade in which the sport was invented by James Naismith at Springfield College. • There was little organization until the National Basketball League was formed in 1898. • After 5 years this league folded and another was not organized until 1925. This league was also short-lived. • In 1949 stability was finally achieved with the merging of the NBL, which was formed again in 1937, with the Basketball Association of America to become the NBA.
As America grew to be a nation of different cultures prejudice and discrimination was inanimate. • African Americans have been discriminated against in sporting arenas since the colonial period. - First recognized as outstanding boxers and horse racers - Due to Jim Crow laws their success was kept from the dominant society • Women too, were discriminated against in the sport world - Before the twentieth century a women’s place was thought to be in the home. - Even after women were allowed to play in sporting events strict rules were set out to so call “keep our femininity”. Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice and Discrimination Cont. • Lower-class white Americans also felt the hurt from prejudice - They could not partake in many sporting events because of their 12 hr a day, six days a week work schedule • Some religious groups were unable to make time for sports having rules against sports on Sundays
Breaking the color Barrier • In 1947 Jackie Robinson was brought into the National League playing for the Dodgers. • Baseball was no longer seen as having only white teams or only black teams - Robinson had opened the doors to other African Americans, Cubans, Hispanics, Chicanos, and other non-white groups • There is evidence that sporting opportunities are greater for all groups today than any other time in United States history.
