History of sport

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History of sport
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• History of sport is probably as old as the
  existence of people.
• Sport has been a useful way for people to
  increase their mastery of nature and the
  environment.
• The history of sport can teach us a great deal
  about social changes and about the nature of
  sport itself.

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• Sport seems to involve basic human skills being
  developed and exercised for their own sake, in
  parallel with being exercised for their
  usefulness.

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Examples of skills which have become sports

• Gladiators in Rome fought and killed for the
  delectation of the audience, rather than to
  protect the Empire.
• Yachting is the travel across water for enjoyment
  or competition rather than for transport or
  commerce
• Running is done on a course for a fixed length of
  time or distance, rather than simply to catch a
  bus.

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• Stone-age drawings were discovered in the Libyan
  desert depicting among other activities, swimming
  and archery.
• The art itself is an example of interest in
  skills unrelated to the functional tasks of
  staying alive, and is itself evidence of there
  being leisure time available.

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• It also depicts other non-functional activities
  such as ritual etc.
• Therefore, although there is scant direct
  evidence of sport from these sources, it is
  reasonable to extrapolate that there was some
  activity at these times resembling sport.

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• Captain Cook, when he first visited the Hawaiian
  Islands, in 1778, reported on the native people
  surfing.
• The native American Indians engaged in games and
  sports before the coming of Europeans, such as
  lacrosse type ball games, running, and other
  athletic activities.

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• The ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations played
  serious ballgames. The courts used at that time
  are still used today.
• Individual sports, such as wrestling and archery,
  have been practiced worldwide since ancient times.

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• Sport has been increasingly organized and
  regulated from the time of the Ancient Olympics
  up to the present century.
• Activities necessary for food and survival became
  regulated activities done for pleasure or
  competition on an increasing scale, e.g. hunting,
  fishing, horticulture.

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Ancient China

• There are artifacts and structures which suggest
  that Chinese people engaged in activities which
  meet our definition of sport as early as 4000
  years BC.
• The origin and development of China's sports
  activities seem to have been closely related to
  the production, work, war and entertainment of
  the time.

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Ancient China

• Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport
  in China's past. It certainly remains so today,
  as the skill of Chinese acrobats is
  internationally recognized.
• Any other reason they are excellent in acrobatic
  endeavors?

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Ancient Egypt

• Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a range
  of sports were well developed and regulated
  several thousands of years ago, including
  swimming and fishing.
• This is not surprising perhaps given the
  importance of the Nile in the life of Egypt.

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Ancient Egypt

• Other sports included javelin throwing, high jump
  and wrestling.
• Again, the nature of the sports popular at the
  time suggests close correspondence with everyday
  non-sporting activities.

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Ancient Greece

• A wide range of sports were already in operation
  at the time of the Ancient Greek Empire.
• Wrestling, running, boxing, javelin, discus
  throwing, and chariot racing were prevalent.
• This suggests that the military culture of Greece
  was an influence on the development of its
  sports.

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Ancient Greece

• The Olympic games were held every four years in
  Ancient Greece.
• The games were held not simply as a sporting
  event, but as a celebration of individual
  excellence, cultural and artistic variety, and a
  showplace for architectural and sculptural
  innovation.

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Modern history of sport

• The Industrial Revolution and mass production
  brought increased leisure which allowed increases
  in spectator sports, less elitism in sports, and
  greater accessibility.
• With the advent of mass media and global
  communication, professionalism became prevalent
  in sports.

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• This furthered sports popularity in general.
• Perhaps in a reaction to the demands of
  contemporary life, there have been developments
  in sport which are best described as post-modern
  extreme ironing being a notable example.

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• There is also a move towards adventure sports as
  a form of escaping or transcending the routines
  of life, examples being white water rafting,
  canyoning, BASE jumping, and more genteelly,
  orienteering.

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History of Sport in America
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Topical Outline

• Reason for study of sport history
• Pre-Colonial America
• Colonial America
• Technological and Industrial revolutions
• Post Civil War
• The 20th Century
• Summary

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Why is the History of Sport Important?

• To truly understand the sociology of sport, it is
  first important to understand the history of
  sport.
• How sport was developed
• How sport was affected by the historical,
  cultural and social traditions of the time period

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Pre-Colonial America

• Population spread widely across the country
• Physical Activity and games were very important,
  and often linked to spiritual beliefs
• Common Sports lacrosse, archery, running
• Staying fit was very important

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Colonial America (1600s-1800s)

• Religion (Puritanism)
• Hard work (to stay alive, and for religious
  purposes)
• Sport was most prevalent in remote areas
• Sport mirrored the challenges of the times and
  region
• horse racing, shooting, cockfighting

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Industrial Revolution (1800s)

• Factories developed
• Population moved into the city
• New recreation needed
• More time and money available
• Horse racing still popular

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Technological and Industrial Revolutions (late
1700s- 1861)

• Increased technology
• Increased recreation time because production was
  faster
• People moved to cities
• Travel was faster and easier
• 18th century, boat, horse and walking
• Steam engine (1807) for boats and railroad
• Very important for organized sports

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Technological and Industrial Revolutions (late
1700s- 1861) (cont)

• Population expands west
• Big companies are formed
• Immigrants brought their own sports
• Modern spectator sports rise (boxing, running,
  horse racing)

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Post Civil War (1865-1900)

• Civil War slowed sporting activities
• Even more movement towards cities
• More time and money available
• New working structure was seen as femanizing
  society (make it soft).
• Sports helped to masculinize society

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Post Civil War (1865-1900) (Cont)

• Sport became very class specific
• Upper class tried to exclude lower classes
• Different sports adopted by different classes,
  African Americans no longer accepted in sport
• Rise of Intercollegiate Athletics
• First event in 1852, many events 1870s
• Society became highly attached to the sport
  industry

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Post Civil War (1865-1900) (Cont)

• Corporate involvement in sport
• Lots of money for sport and fitness

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The 20th Century

• Period of dramatic sport growth
• Corporate Sport and health push
• More spent on sports equipment than by all
  schools
• Improved Equipment
• Social Involvement
• Part of educational system

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Major Factors Affecting Sport

• In your mind, what was the major factor affecting
  sport during each of the following periods?
• Pre-Colonial America
• Colonial America
• Technological and Industrial revolutions
• Post Civil War
• The 20th Century

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Women's roles in sports

• Women's experiences in the sporting life of the
  United States defy neat historical
  generalizations.
• In part this is because women never constituted a
  single group, and their behaviors and attitudes
  never conformed to a single general pattern.

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Women's roles in sports

• The evolution of womens role in sport in the
  United States can be divided into three major
  periods the colonial era, the transitional
  nineteenth century, and the age of modern sports.

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The Colonial Era Women and Traditional Sports
and Games

• About 1600, before Europeans colonized the land
  that would become the United States, the earliest
  American sportswomen were Native Americans
• Sports and other displays of physical prowess
  were embedded in the rhythms and relations of
  ordinary life.

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The Colonial Era Women and Traditional Sports
and Games

• Religious ceremonies, for example, called on
  women, and men, to dance for hours at a time,
  while rites of passage from maidenhood to
  womanhood included physical displays and tests.
• Ball games occurred in the context of women's
  daily tasks, and the outcomes could affect one's
  place in the family or the village.

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Mid-17th century

• On warm summer days in New England, husbands and
  wives fished and sailed on the numerous
  waterways.
• Towns like Boston, Providence, and Hartford
  offered an even broader variety of sports and
  recreations, ranging from dances to races to fist
  fights.

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Mid-17th century

• By the early eighteenth century, emerging cities
  were sites for public, commercial, and physical
  displays, including tightrope dancing by women
  and men.

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The Nineteenth Century Domesticity

• The pursuit of active sports by women was not to
  persist, however.
• During the second half of the eighteenth century,
  a series of complex changes altered gender roles
  and relations.
• Enlightenment ideology and the emergent
  capitalist economy combined to redefine women's
  place, to move them into the home and away from
  public activity, and to emphasize biological
  differences (from men) as grounds for keeping
  them there.

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The Nineteenth Century Domesticity

• During the first half of the nineteenth century,
  perceptions and real experiences suggested to
  some people that the health of middle- and
  upper-class women in urbanizing areas was
  declining.
• Educators, doctors, and writers of popular
  magazine articles responded with analyses and
  prescriptions for improving women's health,
  including calls for renewed physical exertion via
  exercises and games.

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The Nineteenth Century Domesticity

• The logic of the health literature was simple if
  women were to fulfill their roles as caretakers
  of families, they needed to maintain their
  physical and mental health.
• People such as Catharine Beecher and Mary Lyons
  argued for the physical education of women,
  started schools, and laid out regimens of
  calisthenics, domestic exercises (e.g.,
  sweeping), and traditional activities such as
  walking and riding.

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The Nineteenth Century Domesticity

• An even more significant challenge to the nearly
  century-old ideology that placed women in the
  home and in subservience to men came in the form
  of a machine, the bicycle.
• Invented in Europe in the early 19th century,
  early versions of the bicycle had appeared in
  various forms and had become the object of
  short-lived fads through the 1860s.

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The Nineteenth Century Domesticity

• Then came the invention of the ordinary (one
  large and one small wheel) and, subsequently, the
  safety cycle, and the latter especially
  appealed to women.
• Bicycle riding, and even some racing, became
  popular, and the practice afforded women with a
  means of physical mobility and freedom that they
  had not known for generations.

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Impact of war on sports

• After 1941 more and more women took jobs that had
  once belonged to the men who went abroad to
  fight.
• Even professional baseball opened its doors to
  women via the All-American Girls Baseball League
  financed by Philip Wrigley of chewing gum and
  Chicago Cubs fame.
• Now famous in part because of the movie, A League
  of Their Own, the All-American Girls Baseball
  League began play in 1943 in mid-size cities in
  the Great Lakes region.

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African-American women and sports

• In the 1940s as well, an even more significant
  movement developed in African American colleges.
• Track and field teams were training at places
  such as Tuskegee Institute and Tennessee State,
  and these colleges would produce the athletes
  that would integrate U.S. women's Olympic teams
  and revolutionize the contests and the records.

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African-American women and sports

• By the early 1960s African-American athletes such
  as Wilma Rudolph ran record-pace after
  record-pace, opening doors for other black women
  and paving the way for Jackie Joyner-Kersee and
  Florence Griffith Joyner, among numerous others.

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Effects of title IX

• Legislation that made colleges (that accepted
  federal funds) have to offer the same amount of
  sports teams for women as there are for men
  (1972).
• How many sports leagues for women are out there
  now?

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Conclusion

• There has been a dynamic and continuing growth of
  women's sports since the late 1960s.
• Triathlons, marathons, soccer, aerobics,
  weightlifting, rugby, skiing, two professional
  basketball leagues (although one folded in late
  1998), athletic clubs, and even cheerleading are
  among the many sports available to women, none of
  which existed a century ago and few of which
  existed a generation earlier.

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Conclusion

• What remains unknown is the full impact of the
  generation of women who are now maturing and who
  grew up with opportunities that their mothers and
  grandmothers never dreamed of.