American Sports The Early Years 1600s1880s Colonial America

American Sports: The Early Years 1600’s-1880’s Colonial America and early United States culture was mixed in its view of sports.

*Puritan’s in northern colonies frowned upon sports. *Games and sports were part of excessive worldly joys. Human nature was untrustworthy and too much leisure was dangerous. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop”.

English heritage of games endured with some. A Leisure ethic vs. Work ethic endured in many colonies.

Eventually in the South a more Aristocratic form of life emerged with slaves and servants doing the work and the (Gentry) ruling class doing the playing , with high wagers to show off their wealth. Horse racing, cockfighting, boating, wrestling, fencing and hunting were popular amusements.

The Puritan view was not the only view in the North and as a gentry class emerged in big cities like Boston and Philadelphia, so did games. (Urbanization) Rural areas had forms of simple ball or folk games.

Games were outlawed during the revolution as a waste of precious time.

John Cox Stevens started to develop commercialization of sports. In 1835 he offered $1000 to the first man to run ten miles in under an hour 30, 000 showed up to watch this display of Pedestrianism. Average income=$200 a year. Many athletes sought the money. Crowds started to watch, eventually 50, 000 people watched athletes compete for $4000. Also, founded the New York Yacht Club in 1844. America’s cup race 1851 Stevens boat beat British contenders.

QOD 11/28 Is baseball America’s game?

Who invented Baseball? British folk games of Rounders, Cricket, Stoolball, Tip-cat, Trap-ball, and Cat and Dog

The Abner Doubleday myth • Veteran of Civil War, Mexican War and the Indian wars The myth was created by Al Spalding, to end the years of controversy on the creation of the sport. Claimed Doubleday invented the game in rural Cooperstown, NY

The Truth? • The game probably was developed with influence from the English folk games. • Alexander Cartwright gets the credit for being the first person to formally introduce the game of baseball

Knickerbocker Nine • Club of elitist that wanted to practice playing the game called the national pastime. 1845 Beat in their first competition to the New York Nine (23 -1)

Knickerbocker Rules • Used as a guide for baseball in the New York area. • Become the basis for the rules of the modern game. • Revised in 1857 by the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) • By 1862 The NABBP was offering games in enclosed stadiums for an admission price • Knickerbocker Baseball Rules

The Civil War’s influence • The movements of soldiers and exchanges of prisoners helped spread the game. • 1865 Teams emerged as far west as Kansas and as far south as Tennessee • 1869 the first openly professional team forms: The Cincinnati Red Stockings • http: //www. gametrailers. com/player/usermovies/21509. html

African Americans in Baseball • Few AA’s played baseball in the early years. • The first major league AA baseball player is Moses Fleetwood Walker who played for the Toledo Blue Stockings which joined the Major league American Association in 1884

African Americans in Baseball Cont. • Shortly after Walker’s debut a “Gentlemen’s Agreement”/ Color Line was made that did not allow blacks in the major leagues until Jackie Robinson in 1947. • Players such as Cap Anson refused to take the field if a black player was on it.

Today’s leagues form • The National Association fields 9 teams in 1871 and grows to 13 in 1875. • Gambling, liquor sales, and other corruption drives away crowds. • 1875 National League forms with businessmen owning the teams instead of the players. • 1882 American Association competes with lower ticket prices. • An agreement is made that makes the major league owners gain control of player contracts.

Today’s leagues form • Players revolted and tried to start their own league (The Players League) in both 1884 and 1890 both failed by going bankrupt. • The American League formed in 1901 and raided many of the best National League players. • The National League reaction forced the leagues to select a 3 man panel to run the leagues as they coexisted peacefully.

Progress and controversy • Up to this point is referred to as the dead-ball era. • Strategy, bunting, base/place hitting, and base running was the way to generate offense. • The ball was used for a long time maybe even 100 pitches before being replaced. • 1914 the Federal League sued claiming the major leagues were a monopoly. The supreme court responded by saying that baseball was exempt from anti-monopoly legislation.

The stage is set for what is to come!!!!!

Is this America’s game?

Boxing: Is it too violent? Your attention is “requested”!

How did such a violent sport start? Is it no longer violent enough?

Some questions to consider: Answer the following boxing questions in your groups • Why does someone want to watch/do this? • What can we learn about the society that supports it?

The beginnings • Ancient Olympic games Fight to the death! • Rome- banned the practice • England-Prize fighting • Early America outlawed Prize fighting

Prizefighting- illegal, yet it happened Rise of prizefighting was integral part of American social and economic development Working class activity - workingclass sensibility For the upper and middle classes boxing symbolized urban depravity

Blood and Wages Industrialization Working class as “wage slaves” of modern capitalism Ideal of working-class prizefighters vs ideal of the “model” worker Partially as a reaction to the wage system, workers revitalized blood sports

Another Round? Saloons - the heart of working-class life - prizefights Working-class culture deprived men of freedom, self-governance, and thus “masculinity” Day-labor undermined masculinity by making it nearly impossible for a man to prove his manhood by being a good breadwinner

A Man Among Men Boxing as a rejection of the “cult of domesticity” Maleness and masculinity confirmed not in the company of women but in the company of other men Boxing as a means of bestowing male honor

Sweet Science? Boxing shaped violence into art, gave it order and meaning The pit rendered mayhem rule-bound instead of anarchic, voluntary rather than random A properly carried out fight was a performance, a pageant, a ritual, that momentarily imposed meaning on the savage irrationalities of life The ring offered a form of cultural opposition or resistance

John L. Sullivan (1881 -1892) • Irish • Boston Strong Boy “Yankee” • Challenged anyone to fight him for $500 • Symbol of selfdetermination • Last bare-knuckle champion/1 st gloved champion

James J. Corbett (1892 -1897) • “Gentleman Jim” • Father of Modern Boxing • Knocked out Sullivan in 21 rounds in 1892 • Boxing instructor in the manly art of selfdefense

James J Jeffries (1899 -1905) “Boilermaker” 6’ 3” 225 (100 Yards in about 10 seconds) The Champions of the time would not fight black challengers but they claimed white supremacy. When Jeffries retired in 1905 as heavyweight champ there was a lack of good fighters to fill the gap.

Boxing: Has it passed it’s prime? • The biggest gains in boxing popularity have been in women’s participation! • Lack of bad guy we love to hate or hate to love • Lack of identification with a “barbaric” sport • Other ways to fill the thirst for blood • Decline of industrial America • Pay-Per-View

Football • Nov. 6, 1869 Rutgers beat Princeton 6 -4 in the “first” football game. (Rugby style) • 25 men on each side • Columbia joined the game in 1870

Walter Camp “Father of American Football” • Played at Yale from 1876 -1880 and coached them from 1888 -1891 and then Stanford from 1892 -1895 (81 -5 -3 record) • Served on every rule committee in collegiate football from 1878 -1925. • Responsible for changing the game from a rugby (kicking game) to modern football.

Camp cont. • Contributed the following rule changes: snap-back from center, safety, the system of downs, and the points system (touchdowns vs. kicking , and the 7 man offensive line formation. =

Michigan Football • 1879 first season • 1887 taught Notre Dame the game • “Hail to the Victors” 1898 after last minute victory over the University of Chicago • Champions of the West?

NCAA is Born • Football was a bloody sport in its beginning and many people called for it to be outlawed. • TR called together the major colleges to discuss the matter in 1905 out of this meeting the NCAA is born