A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age 1350024058, 9781350024052

Table of contents :
Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
SERIES PREFACE
Introduction: One Hundred Years of Sport in Modern Society, 1920–2020
THE SPORTING WORLD, 1920–45
SPECTATOR SPORT
BRITISH SPORT AND IMPERIALISM
THE OLYMPIC GAMES
SPORT DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
SPORT SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR
OLYMPIC DIPLOMACY
SOCCER IN THE POSTWAR ERA
SPECTATOR SPORT IN THE USA
BIG-TIME AMERICAN INTERCOLLEGIATE SPORT
SPORT AND GENDER
THE UNDERSIDE OF SPORT
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER ONE The Purpose of Sport
DOES SPORT HAVE A PURPOSE? AN OBJECTION
THE INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTER OF SPORT
THE INTERNAL PURPOSE OF SPORT
THE EXTERNAL PURPOSE(S) OF SPORT
THE HYBRID INTERNAL PURPOSE(S) OF SPORT
CONCLUSION
NOTES
CHAPTER TWO Sporting Time and Sporting Space
THE GOLDEN AGE OF SPORT STADIUMS
SPORTING SPACE IN AN ERA OF NATIONALISM AND GLOBAL CONFLICT
RISE OF POSTWAR SPORTS VENUES
IMPACT OF MODERN MEDIA AND CONSUMERISM
HIDDEN COSTS OF MODERN STADIUMS
SPORTING TIME IN THE GLOBALIZING TWENTIETH CENTURY
REIMAGINING SPORTING SPACE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER THREE Products, Training, and Technology
INTRODUCTION
SPECTATOR PRODUCTS
PLAYER PRODUCTS
ASSOCIATED PRODUCTS
ENTREPRENEURIAL MOTIVATIONS
DARK PRODUCTS
GLOBALIZATION
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FOUR Rules and Order
THE CONSTITUTIVE RULES OF SPORTS
AMATEURISM
ALLOWING WOMEN ON THE FIELD
OPENING GAMES TO NON-WHITES
TEACHING CULTURAL VALUES
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FIVE Conflict and Accommodation
POLITICS AND PROTEST
RELIGION, GAMBLING, AND VIOLENCE
BOXING AND BLOOD SPORTS
PLAYING AND WATCHING
SPORTING RIVALS, SPORTING FRIENDS
SPORT, UNITY, AND COOPERATION
CHAPTER SIX Inclusion, Exclusion, and Segregation
EXCLUSION: SPORT AS AN AGENT OF SEGREGATION
“SEPARATE GAMES”: SPORT AS AN AVENUE OF RESISTANCE
BARRIER-BREAKING ATHLETES AS SYMBOLS OF CHANGE
DESEGREGATION AND INCLUSION IN SPORT
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER SEVEN Minds, Bodies, and Identities
INTRODUCTION: WAR BODIES, SPORTING BODIES
IDENTITIES
INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS
NATIONAL AND LOCAL ALLEGIANCES
MARGINALIZED IDENTITIES
MINDS AND EMOTIONS
ATHLETES AND MORALITY
FAITH
SEXUALIZED BODIES, HEALTHY BODIES, BROKEN BODIES
CHAPTER EIGHT Representation
SPORTING FICTION
FILM AND SPORT
MUSIC AND SPORTS
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX

Citation preview

A CULTURAL HISTORY OF SPORT VOLUME 6

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A Cultural History of Sport General Editors: Wray Vamplew, John McClelland, and Mark Dyreson Volume 1 A Cultural History of Sport in Antiquity Edited by Paul Christesen and Charles Stocking Volume 2 A Cultural History of Sport in the Medieval Age Edited by Noel Fallows Volume 3 A Cultural History of Sport in the Renaissance Edited by Alessandro Arcangeli Volume 4 A Cultural History of Sport in the Age of Enlightenment Edited by Rebekka von Mallinckrodt Volume 5 A Cultural History of Sport in the Age of Industry Edited by Mike Huggins Volume 6 A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age Edited by Steven Riess

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A CULTURAL HISTORY OF SPORT

IN THE MODERN AGE Edited by Steven A. Riess

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BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2021 Copyright © Steven Riess, 2021 Steven Riess have asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. Series design by Raven Design Cover image: Wilma Rudolph, Winning the Women’s 100-meter dash, Stanford California, July 21, 1962 © Bridgeman Images All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: Set:

978-1-3500-2405-2 978-1-3500-2410-6

Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters.

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CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS SERIES PREFACE

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Introduction: One Hundred Years of Sport in Modern Society, 1920–2020 1 Steven A. Riess 1 The Purpose of Sport William J. Morgan

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2 Sporting Time and Sporting Space Brian M. Ingrassia

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3 Products, Training, and Technology Jean Williams and Wray Vamplew

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4 Rules and Order Sheldon Anderson

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5 Conflict and Accommodation Matthew Taylor

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6 Inclusion, Exclusion, and Segregation Kevin B. Witherspoon

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7 Minds, Bodies, and Identities Mike Cronin

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8 Representation Steven A. Riess

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

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INDEX

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ILLUSTRATIONS

INTRODUCTION 0.1

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Czechoslovakia Bohemia Praha Prague: Workers’ Olympics, calisthenics of 5,000 members of the Prague section, June 25, 1921. They were a left-wing alternative to the sokols, drew athletes from thirteen nations, and considered an unofficial Workers’ Olympics. A. & E. Frankl bild. Published by Vossische Zeitung 23/1921 Vintage property of Ullstein bild. Getty Images. International Workers’ Olympics, Frankfurt am Main, 1925. The first official Workers’ Olympics drew eleven nations who competed under a red flag. Photographed by Willibald Krain. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. In 1907, Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman was arrested in Boston for wearing an indecent one-piece suit that showed her neck, legs, and arms. She redesigned the suit, which became “the Annette Kellerman,” which was soon used in the Olympics. Bain News Service. George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. LC-Dig-ggb-03569. Three young women posing in swimsuits and wearing their swimming competition medals (between 1910 and 1930). George C. Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC. LC-DIG-ppmsca-19489. World Championship Women’s Bowling in New York, May 8, 1929. The Chicago team poses before facing the New York team. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone. Getty Images.

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Bing Miller of Philadelphia A’s being tagged out at home by Muddy Ruel of Washington Senators, 1925. Washington Nationals Baseball Club Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC. LC-USZ62-135437. India national cricket team 1932. First Test match – England vs All India. England captain Douglas Jardine steers a ball from All India bowler Amir Singh past second slip during the inaugural first Test match between England and All India, played at Lord’s cricket ground in London, June 25, 1932. The non-striking batsman is Eddie Paynter. England won the match by 158 runs. Photo by Popperfoto. Getty Images. Jesse Owens Winning Long Jump at Berlin Olympics, 1936. Jesse Owens of the United States leaps to gold with a jump of 8.06 meters (26.44 feet), just 7.6 centimeters (3 inches) below his world record. Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis. Getty Images. Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento). World’s greatest football player. The Brazilian played for Santos (1956–74) in Brazil and the New York Cosmos (1975–7). Photo by Schirner /Ullstein picture. Getty Images.

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CHAPTER 2 2.1

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Largest college football crowd in American history. On October 13, 1928, an estimated 120,000 fans at Soldier Field, Chicago saw the University of Notre Dame defeat the Navy, 7–0. In the fourth period on fourth and three, Johnny Neimiec tossed a pass to Johnny Colrick for the game’s only touchdown. Photo by George Rinhart/Corbis. Getty Images. Diagram of Proposed Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, September 23, 1957. Photo by Los Angeles Examiner. USC Libraries/Corbis. Getty Images. Panoramic view of Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata, the oldest cricket ground in India established in 1864. This is a 2008 match in the Indian Premier League. Partha Bhaumik photographer. Source: Flickr Garden of Eden. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Nippon Budokan Hall in 2018, originally constructed for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It was later the site of a famous series of Beatles concerts in 1966. Photo by Kakidai. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The Houston Astrodome Scoreboard pictured during a June 7, 1969 game between the Astros and Cardinals. The Houston Astrodome’s innovative scoreboard photographed on June 7, 1969

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with 26,764 spectators. Photo by Bill Wilson. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Chicago Stadium prepared for a Chicago Blackhawks game in 1930. The arena operated from 1929 to 1994, replaced by the United Center in 1995, best remembered for its deafening acoustics. Photo from The Sporting News Archives. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

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Football Crowd circa 1925: Crowds pack the stands to watch the football match. Photo by General Photographic Agency. Getty Images. 82 Betty Cuthbert’s Running Spikes. Cuthbert was Australia’s “Golden Girl,” who won three Olympic gold medals in the Melbourne Games of 1956, and a fourth gold in 1964. Pool/Pool. Getty Images. 83 Riley, Buick, and Bugatti on the start line at a Surbiton Motor Club race meeting, Brooklands, January 9, 1928. Brooklands was a 2.75-mile (4.43-kilometer) motor-racing circuit built in 1907 near Weybridge, in Surrey, England. It was the first facility built specifically for motor racing. Heritage Archives. Getty Images. 85 Crowd scene on the opening day of the 1952 Olympics. Helsinki Stadium, Finland. Photo by Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection. Getty Images. 91 Marco Pantani of Italy, rider for the Mercatone UnoScanavino team cycling on the Courchevel–Morzine Stage 16 of the Tour de France on July 18, 2000 at Courcheval, France. Photo: Doug Pensinger. Hulton Archive. Getty Images. 93 Kenilworth Cigarette Advertisement, March 20, 1920 in the Illustrated London News issue. The ad features a pair of golfers. A woman offers a wager of twenty cigarettes to the male player that he cannot make his shot. Photo by Mansell/Time & Life Picture/ The LIFE Picture Collection. Getty Images. 101 CHAPTER 4

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The dominance of some players such as Minneapolis Lakers’ George Mikan prompted rule changes. The NBA widened the three-second lane because of Mikan’s unstoppable low-post scoring. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN. 108 Harold “Red” Grange of the Chicago Bears, December 8, 1925. The University of Illinois halfback (1923–5) was the greatest

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college football player of all time. He turned pro late in 1925 and is wearing his Chicago Bears uniform. National Photo Company Collection. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. LC-DIG-npcc-15254. 111 Joyce Hill Westerman of the AAGPBL sliding into third base. A catcher-first baseman, she played in the league between 1945 and 1952, batting .228. Courtesy A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. 116 CHAPTER 5

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Crowd gives the Nazi salute during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Photo by Universal History Archives. Getty Images. The Boxer. 1942 bronze sculpture by Richmond Barthé (1901–89). Modeled after Cuban world featherweight champion Kid Chocolate, renowned for his ballet-like movement. Simeon B. Williams Fund. Courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago. Heysel Stadium Riot, Brussels, Belgium, May 29, 1985. Juventus vs Liverpool, European Cup Final. Liverpool fans threw rocks from the decrepit stadium before the game at Juventus fans, compelling them to flee. They ran into a wall that collapsed, killing thirty-nine and injuring 600. The game was still played, and Juventus won 1–0. English fans were subsequently banned for five years from attending games in Europe. Photo by Liverpool Echo/ Mirrorpix. Getty Images. Bleacher crowd at Ebbets Field in early 1950s comprised of a broad cross-section of Brooklyn’s residents by gender, race, and age. Courtesy Brooklyn Central Public Library.

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CHAPTER 6 6.1

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Jackie Robinson (1919–72) in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. Robinson was the first African American in MLB in the twentieth century. He overcame enormous racism, starred from 1947 to 1956, leading his team to six pennants and one World Series. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration, Maryland. 150 Young people – go to the stadiums! 1947. A political poster by Leonid Fyodorovich Golovanov, a highly acclaimed Russian graphic artist. The USSR promoted competitive sport after the Second World War for men and women to promote physical fitness

ILLUSTRATIONS

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and national defense. Russia did not participate in the Olympics from 1912 until 1952 when it was well prepared to compete. Found in the collection of the Russian State Library, Moscow. Hulton Archives. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images. Getty Images. 1930–1 Homestead Grays. Experts rate this team as the best African-American team ever. Standing: Cumberland Posey*, Bill Evans, Jap Washington, Red Reed, Smokey Joe Williams*, Josh Gibson*, George “Tubby” Scales, Oscar Charleston*, Charlie Walker, Jr. Kneeling: Chippy Britt, Lefty Williams, Jud Wilson*, Vic Harris, Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe. Photo by Wright & Riley. Harrison Studio/Heritage Auctions. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The Harlem Globetrotters representing the United States Information Agency in 1958 in Vienna, as the American government sought to promote better diplomatic relations overseas. The team previously drew a record 75,000 spectators to a game on August 22, 1951 at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. Courtesy National Archives and Record Administration. Pvt. Joe Louis says – “We’re going to do our part, and we’ll win because we’re on God’s side.” Louis was not only a symbol of American heroism, but served his country during the Second World War, fighting ninety-six exhibition matches before more than two million troops, and donating over $100,000 to Navy and Army war relief from his two title bouts in 1942. Courtesy National Archives and Record Administration. Wilma Rudolph at the first USA vs USSR track and field meet, July 1961. Rudolph crosses the finish line just ahead of Tatiana Shohalkanova in Lenin Stadium, Moscow, to help the US women’s 400-meter relay team win in a world record time of 44.3 seconds. National Archives and Records Administration. Jack Klugman, Bobby Riggs, and Billie Jean King in an episode of the television series The Odd Couple, October 30, 1973. ABC Television. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. CHAPTER 8

8.1

Time magazine cover “Horse Feathers.” – 1932 Paramount film with the Marx Brothers. The title was a 1920s colloquialism for “nonsense.” The satire focuses on a game between two colleges that employed imaginative schemes to recruit professional talent and evade the prevailing amateur code. This photograph reflects

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how the brother scored the game-winning touchdown. Pictorial Press. Alamy Stock Photo. American tennis player Helen Wills Moody (1905–98). She was the best women’s player in the world in 1927–33, 1935, and 1938, winning thirty-one Grand Slam tournament titles. She was a worldwide celebrity, admired for her beauty and graceful play. Photo by Agence de press Meurisse. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Centennial of Baseball, 1839–1939, by U.S. Post Office. The U.S. government published a stamp to honor the anniversary of Abner Doubleday’s supposed inventing of baseball in Cooperstown, NY in 1839. Hi-res scanning of postage stamp by Gwillhickers. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Woman relay runner at the Moscow Spartakiada, 1928. Postcard commemorating the Russian All-Union Spartakiade. Color lithograph on off-white wove postcard. Artist Gustav G. Klutsis (1895–1938). Private collection. Photo by Fine Art Images/ Heritage Images. Getty Images. Cover of Spartakiada RSI magazine, 1928. Female discus thrower. Artist Gustav Klutsis. State Art Museum of Republic Latvia, Riga. Hulton Archive. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images. Getty Images. Dempsey vs Firpo, 1924. Oil on canvass by George Bellows (1882–1925). Purchased with funds from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Champion Jack Dempsey fought Argentinean Angel Firpo on September 23, 1923 at the Polo Grounds. Firpo was knocked down seven times in the first round, Dempsey twice, and the second time was knocked out of the ring. It took him 14 seconds to return to the ring. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Fanny Blankers-Koen (1954). Dutch heroine who won four gold medals in track at the 1948 London Olympics. Blijdorp District, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Sculpture by Han Rehm. Photograph by Door Wikifrits. Courtesy of wikimedia commons. The Olympic Black Power Statue at San José State University honoring Tommie Smith and John Carlos was completed in 2005 by “Rigo 23.” The sculpture purposefully omitted second-place medalist, Australian Peter Norman, a supporter of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, as per his request to ensure attention was focused on Smith and Carlos. Photo by Lawrence Fan. Courtesy of Lawrence Fan.

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SERIES PREFACE

A Cultural History of Sport is a six-volume series reviewing the evolution of both the internal practices of sport from remote Antiquity to the present and the ways and degrees to which sport has reflected—and been integrated into— contemporary cultural criteria. All of the volumes are constructed in the same pattern, with an initial chapter outlining the purposes of sport during the time frame to which the volume is devoted. Seven chapters, each written by a specialist of the period, then deal in turn with time and space, equipment and technology, rules and order, conflict and accommodation, inclusion and segregation, athletes and identities, and representation. The reader therefore has the choice between synchronic and diachronic approaches, between concentrating on the diverse facets of sport in a single historical period, and exploring one or more of those facets as they evolved over time and became concretized in the practices and relations of the twenty-first century. The six volumes cover the topic as follows: Volume 1: A Cultural History of Sport in Antiquity (600 BCE –500 CE ) Volume 2: A Cultural History of Sport in the Middle Ages (500–1450) Volume 3: A Cultural History of Sport in the Early Modern Period (1450–1650) Volume 4: A Cultural History of Sport in the Age of Enlightenment (1650–1800) Volume 5: A Cultural History of Sport in the Age of Industry (1800–1920) Volume 6: A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age (1920–present) General Editors: Wray Vamplew, Emeritus Professor of Sports History, University of Stirling, UK, and Global Professorial Fellow, University of Edinburgh, UK John McClelland, Professor Emeritus of French Literature and Sport History, University of Toronto, Canada. Mark Dyreson, Professor of Kinesiology, Affiliate Professor of History, and Director of Research and Educational Programs for the Center for the Study of Sports and Society, Pennsylvania State University, USA xiii

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Introduction: One Hundred Years of Sport in Modern Society, 1920–2020 STEVEN A. RIESS

The basic elements of sports were already well established by 1920, but major changes have occurred since then. Notable developments include increased professionalization and commercialization, the democratization of sport by class, race, and gender, and the heightened role of nationalism, ideology, and diplomacy in a globalized sporting world. The British and Americans, who created most modern sports—the former, cricket, soccer, and track and field, and the latter, baseball, basketball, volleyball, and football—controlled subsequent growth, dominated competition, and exported their sporting cultures abroad to promote in their formal and informal empires cultural hegemony among subject people, economic exploitation, and diplomatic interests. One unanticipated result, however, was that players and workers used sports as a way to oppose colonial control and create space for sports to promote their own identity (Oonwumechili and Akindes 2014: 7). The British were particularly prominent in introducing their sports overseas, and also exporting their cherished conception of the amateur—a gentleman who played sport solely for pleasure. At home the British were particularly loyal to their traditional pastimes, encouraging of gambling sports, and also 1

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supportive of professionalized working-class soccer (Van Bottenburg 2001: 209, 212–13). The American sporting culture owed a great deal to the British, from whom they got such major sports as pugilism and thoroughbred racing, and values like amateurism, honor, and muscular Christianity. The American sporting experience would differ in significant ways from the British by being far more democratic and much more supportive of commercialization and professionalization. The American sporting culture was also influenced by the hunting and fishing skills of Native Americans and their sport of lacrosse, and the immigrant German and Scandinavian traditions of physical culture.

THE SPORTING WORLD, 1920–45 Male Participatory Sport Opportunities to participate in sport in this era were heavily influenced by economic factors. The United States was spared from the ravages of war, and its post-First World War economy thrived, producing the world’s highest standard of living. Europe’s economy, by contrast, was in great distress because of its 41 million casualties, incredible property destruction, the decline in international trade, huge national debts, dismal farm conditions, and inflation. This preceded the coming of the Great Depression, when sporting options declined substantially all over the world. Other factors influenced sporting culture than economics, notably cultural diffusion, local traditions, climate, and physical geography. Soccer, exported by British businessmen, military personnel, and government workers, became globally popular, and cricket became well established throughout the empire. American businessmen and missionaries, abetted by returning foreign students, particularly promoted baseball in Latin America, the Caribbean basin, and East Asia. Cold temperatures shaped the popularity of ice hockey in Canada and skiing in Scandinavia and Alpine Europe, while a warm climate and access to the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii facilitated swimming, boating, and surfing. Traditional sports often survived like buzkashi in Afghanistan, and various versions of martial arts around the globe, supporting the maintenance of indigenous cultures. Wealthy sportsmen around the world in the 1920s enjoyed numerous sporting options as members of prestigious and restrictive sports organizations, including cricket, horse racing, polo, skiing, golf, and yacht clubs. Their manifest function was entertainment, but also important were such latent functions as demonstrating manliness, sociability, and for business purposes. Upper- and middle-class Europeans, Americans, and Canadians, who enjoyed short working hours and earned ample incomes, belonged to more democratic

INTRODUCTION

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sports clubs of lesser stature and prestige, for similar purposes. White-collar central Europeans particularly enjoyed gymnastics, hiking, and track clubs. Sons of North American and British upper- and middle-class families played arduous team sports at secondary schools and colleges (Birley 1995; Davies 2017; Holt 1989). Working-class Anglo-American inner-city lads continued to enjoy selfdirected sport on city streets, playgrounds, and parks, but also benefited from adult supervised sport at settlement houses and neighborhood schools that were purportedly uplifting (building character, morality, and manliness), while promoting health and acculturation. Slum youth were particularly drawn to boxing at settlement houses and boxing gyms where they learned to defend themselves and friends from rival ethnic groups, a skill that occasionally led to a prize fighting career (Riess 1989: 151–68). American working-class youth loved to play baseball, if they had the space, while the working class elsewhere preferred soccer. However, team sports became less viable once young men grew up, got married, and had to support a family, and also because their strenuous daily labor often left them too tired for vigorous sport. They also found suitable options at readily accessible taverns where they could drink and play billiards, bowl, or throw darts, or they could bowl at neighborhood bowling alleys. These inexpensive sports were not physically taxing, and were a means to demonstrate prowess. Taverns and billiard halls drew rough crowds and a lot of gambling, while bowling lanes had a higher status, and offered opportunities to meet members of the opposite sex. Bowling among urbanites was often an adjunct to street corner life. Chicago in the 1930s had about 500,000 male and female bowlers in 900 leagues (Riess 1989: 73–81). Inner-city Anglo-American men also raced pigeons, while their rural brothers enjoyed outdoor sports like hunting and fishing (Holt 1989: 186–7, 190–2). Blue-collar Germans were more into physical culture than other Europeans, particularly the 1.75 million turners, whose festivals featured non-competitive mass rhythmic exercises (Van Bottenburg 2001: 69–76, 112). Next came soccer with over 1 million registered players by 1932 (Murray 1996: 45). However, critics disliked its English origins, competitive character, and the promotion of the wrong kinds of heroes (Goldblatt 2006: 617). Post-war working-class sporting opportunities were substantially enhanced through welfare capitalism, initiated by the late nineteenth century by British, German, French, and American industrialists to counter labor unrest. By the 1920s, hundreds of American manufacturers sponsored sports programs that included such participatory sports as baseball, basketball, bowling, golf, softball, and tennis. Many firms also sponsored teams in baseball, basketball, football, and track that vied against other companies. Chicago alone had fortysix semipro industrial baseball teams in 1918. Players got time off to practice and earned $10–$20 for Sunday games, plus side bets. Certain Midwestern

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companies sponsored football squads like the Decatur Staley Starch Company, which became the Chicago Bears. Certain unions, like the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, countered management with their own sports programs (Riess 1989: 82–6). European leftists employed sports to challenge existing bourgeois sporting culture to enhance their appeal, promoting a theory of physical activity that advocated men’s and women’s physical fitness as a base for a workers’ culture and the upcoming class struggle. Their ideology emphasized mass participation under socialist values that stressed friendship, cooperation, and mutual support rather than capitalist values that stressed elite athletic competitiveness, economic profit, individualism, nationalism, and record breaking (Krüger and Riordan 1996). The Socialist Workers Sport International (SWSI) , founded in 1920, consisted of six national federations, peaking in 1931 with about 1.9 million men and women in twenty nations, primarily Germany. SWSI staged Workers’ Olympiads at six-year intervals from 1925 to 1937, starting with winter and summer games in Germany. The summer games in Frankfurt were highlighted

FIGURE 0.1: Czechoslovakia Bohemia Praha Prague: Workers’ Olympics, calisthenics of 5,000 members of the Prague section, June 25, 1921. They were a left-wing alternative to the sokols, drew athletes from thirteen nations, and considered an unofficial Workers’ Olympics. A. & E. Frankl bild. Published by Vossische Zeitung 23/1921 Vintage property of Ullstein bild. Getty Images.

INTRODUCTION

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FIGURE 0.2: International Workers’ Olympics, Frankfurt am Main, 1925. The first official Workers’ Olympics drew eleven nations who competed under a red flag. Photographed by Willibald Krain. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

by mass rhythmic exercises. The 1931 meets were in Austria where Vienna’s summer games drew 80,000 athletes and 250,000 spectators (Krüger and Riordan 1996: vii, 31). The Russian Revolution and the ensuing civil war turned asunder much of Russian society and culture. The government in 1921 founded the Red Sport International (RSI) to promote physical culture to develop a healthy and disciplined Soviet body, support national defense, and operate its own international sporting network. The RSI emphasized mass gymnastics, but in time supported competitive sporting games, most notably at the 1928 Moscow Spartakiad (Krüger and Riordan 1996). The regime also established multisport clubs, notably Dinamo Moscow (NKVD) in 1923 and TsDka (Red Army) in 1928, both preceded in 1922 by the union-organized Spartak Moscow. The principal team sport was soccer, although there was no national league until 1936. The sports movement was retarded by Stalin’s purges of thousands of sportsmen and women, physical educators, physicians, and five ministers of sport (Goldblatt: 313–14).

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Workers’ sporting options with the coming of the Great Depression lessened. Unemployment in 1932 was over 22 percent in the UK, 43.7 percent in Germany (Clavin 2000: 112), and 25 percent in the USA in 1933. Private sports clubs, schools, and clubs had to cut back on operations to stay operational. Many corporations reduced or cancelled sports programs during the Great Depression. President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal stepped in to provide public sporting facilities, doubling the number of public sponsored recreational programs from 1933 to 1935, mainly through the Civil Works Administration, set up to create jobs for the unemployed. Then in 1935 the Works Progress Administration was organized (renamed Works Projects Administration in 1939). The WPA from 1935 to 1941 spent about $1 billion to construct 5,898 new athletic fields and playgrounds and 770 swimming pools (Riess 1989: 142–3, 148). Women’s Participatory Sport Women’s sporting opportunities in Western nations increased significantly during the Roaring Twenties when they had greater social and sexual freedom

FIGURE 0.3: In 1907, Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman was arrested in Boston for wearing an indecent one-piece suit that showed her neck, legs, and arms. She redesigned the suit, which became “the Annette Kellerman,” which was soon used in the Olympics. Bain News Service. George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. LC-Dig-ggb-03569.

INTRODUCTION

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FIGURE 0.4: Three young women posing in swimsuits and wearing their swimming competition medals (between 1910 and 1930). George C. Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC. LC-DIG-ppmsca-19489.

than ever before. Changes in fashion were more conducive to athletics since instead of wearing garments from the neck to the ankle, women were wearing shorter and looser skirts, and lightweight and looser blouses. However, their options were still severely limited to sports considered gender appropriate, which meant feminine and not very rigorous. Opinion-makers considered sport a male sphere that taught manly values, harmed women’s health, and made them unappealing marital partners; however, social scientists and the press countered with scientific research about the positive physical impact of sport upon women. Middle- and upper-class wives and daughters joined sports clubs that sponsored sports like figure skating, golf, and tennis. Champions at those sports included, respectively, Sonja Henie, Suzanne Lenglen, and Edith Cummings, all from well-to-do families. Henie (Norway) and Lenglen (France) were national heroes, along with American swimmer Gertrude Ederle and tennis player Helen Wills (Skillen 2013: 229–30, 233–4, 236; Birley 1995: 203–13). Prominent American female physical educators in the 1920s believed their students should suppress their competitive instincts and focus instead on cooperative play and companionship through intercollegiate “play days,”

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thereby avoiding competition and other negative aspects of male sports. However, the dominant view was quite different at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), where educators and fellow students supported women’s intercollegiate basketball and track and field, as long as coeds maintained their femininity (Liberti 1999; Grundy 2001: 169–70). The 20 percent of inter-war American working-class women who worked outside the home could gain status, recognition, and self-esteem through sports, especially if they worked for companies that sponsored athletics through their welfare capitalism programs. Factory girls at the Western Electric (WE) plant in suburban Chicago had wonderful facilities, including a 10-acre (4-hectare) athletic field for its 28,000-member athletic association, purportedly the world’s largest. Their employees organized a comprehensive lunch-hour program that included baseball, basketball, bowling, cycling, golf, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, and track and field. In 1930 the WE sponsored a women’s track meet that attracted more than 10,000 spectators (Riess 1989: 86; Cahn 1994). A 1930s survey in Chicago found that bowling was by far the most popular women’s sport (35 percent). The Women’s International Bowling Congress,

FIGURE 0.5: World Championship Women’s Bowling in New York, May 8, 1929. The Chicago team poses before facing the New York team. Photo by Keystone-France/ Gamma-Keystone. Getty Images.

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founded back in 1916, staged national tournaments, and by 1937 offered $95,000 in prize money. After the war, middle-class women comprised 40 percent of suburban bowlers. The next most popular sports in the 1930s were softball (11 percent) and tennis (10 percent). The Chicago American sponsored a huge softball tournament in 1933 that included a women’s division. The Amateur Softball Association, founded one year later, had 2 million members, including a large number of women (Betts 1974: 278–9). Women’s sport in Europe got a significant boost in 1921 when Alice Milliat challenged the negative view of rigorous sport for women, founding La Fédération sportive féminine internationale (Leigh and Bonin, 1977). A number of Central European women were prominent athletes, including Jewish women, who dominated table tennis, and gained fame in swimming and track and field. The middle-class Berlin Sports Club was 25 percent Jewish, and included Lilli Henoch, a world record holder in the 1920s in the discus, shot put, and 4 x 100-meter relay. However, Jewish working-class women were more likely to join Zionist sports clubs like Hakoah Vienna that supported fencing, swimming, team handball, and tennis, promoting muscular Judaism, a Jewish identity, and fitness for future motherhood (Pfiester and Niewirth 1999: 287–325; Bowman 2011).

SPECTATOR SPORT The US Scene Spectator sports were enormously popular in 1920s America when wages were up and working hours down, formerly illegal sports were legitimized, and there were countless sports heroes. The prime spectator sport was Major League Baseball (MLB), well covered by the press, broadcast by radio, and accessible by mass transit, with an annual average attendance of 9.3 million. The season lasted 154 games, tickets cost as little as $0.25, with the pennant race a prelude to the World Series. Fans watched in modern and spacious fire-resistant ballparks, including New York’s Yankee Stadium, built in 1923 with over 60,000 seats. The national pastime started the 1920s under the shadow of the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, but the indicted players were acquitted. The sport’s stature was further restored by the performance and charisma of star performers, primarily Babe Ruth of the Yankees, who hit a career record 714 home runs, and earned a record $80,000 in 1930 ($1,153,328 in 2018). The Yankees won fifteen pennants and five World Championships in the 1920s and 1930s. Ruth was the preeminent of many sports idols of the 1920s, an icon of prowess and consumption, despite personal flaws unreported by the press. Sports icons like aviator Charles Lindbergh and “Red” Grange of football

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FIGURE 0.6: Bing Miller of Philadelphia A’s being tagged out at home by Muddy Ruel of Washington Senators, 1925. Washington Nationals Baseball Club Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC. LCUSZ62-135437.

seemed to encapsulate the values, beliefs, and behavior that promoted national character, just as the national pastime represented some of the myths, symbols, and legends needed to bind the nation together (Riess 1989: 7, 22–30). In 1929 the typical player made between $5,000 and $7,000, and the average team made $83,484 ($1,203,556 in 2018). Players were mostly native-born urban white Americans, but immigrants were underrepresented. There were a handful of Cubans and Native Americans who seemed to prove the sport’s democratic recruitment policies, but African Americans were barred by a common understanding. Fans felt their presence would lower the status of the national pastime, and white players were afraid skilled blacks would take their jobs. In 1920 Andrew “Rube” Foster organized the Negro National League to encourage black capitalism, provide jobs for black players and ancillary personnel, and promote black pride. MLB attendance peaked in 1930 with a record attendance of 10.1 million, and profits of $1,965,007 ($122,813 per team). However, the sport soon struggled with the Depression, and attendance in 1933 was down to 6.1 million. Teams lost money in the early 1930s, and cut salaries by 25 percent. MLB tried to recover by introducing night baseball, an annual all-star game, and permitting teams to sell local radio broadcast rights (Riess 2008: 102–11). Baseball was back in the black by 1935.

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The other leading professional sports in the 1920s were thoroughbred racing and boxing, both formerly banned nearly everywhere, the former due to wagering, the latter because of its violence and ties to organized crime. Thoroughbred racing had a long-standing tradition on the continent, but prize fighting was rare outside the Anglo-American world. Several state legislatures in the 1920s legalized these sports to reward war veterans for their service, to gain ethnic votes, and to secure needed revenue. The turf boom declined sharply in 1931 because of the Depression. Yet two years later, ten states legalized on-track gambling to help raise revenue. By 1936 growing public interest produced record gates, purses, receipts, and state revenue, yet most betting was still with illegal off-track bookmakers offering convenience and credit. Seabiscuit, the leading stallion who lost his first seventeen races, ended up earning a record $437,730, becoming a national symbol for how average people might overcome bad times by working hard (Riess 2014: 29–54). New York in 1920 legalized boxing under the aegis of a state boxing commission. Major matches staged at Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium drew huge crowds, including elegantly dressed, wealthy men and women. The most famous bout was the 1927 “Long Count” heavyweight championship between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney at Chicago’s Soldier Field, drawing over 100,000 spectators and a $2.6-million gate. Pugilists were mainly poor inner-city Irish, Jewish, Italian, and African American seeking fame and fortune in a brutal occupation heavily controlled by the underworld (Riess 1989: 109–16). Blacks fought for titles in all divisions except the heavyweight where the color line was redrawn in 1915 after Jack Johnson lost his title. Then, in 1937, Joe Louis, carefully molded to be a nonthreatening person, won the title from Jim Braddock, making him a big race hero. Louis became a national hero one year later, knocking out in round one former champion German Max Schmeling, considered a representative of Nazism. The United States had several other professional spectatorial events in the interwar era, ranging from six-day indoor bicycle racing and the Indianapolis 500 car race to team sports like the National Hockey League (NHL, founded 1917). The NHL started as a totally Canadian operation that began adding American teams in 1924 that for years lacked stability. Pro basketball was a minor regional sport, centered on the eastern American Basketball League (1925–31, 1933–55) which had only white teams. The top black teams were the touring New York Renaissance, founded in 1923, and the Harlem Globetrotters, established in Chicago in 1926. They captured the World Professional Basketball Tournament in 1939 and 1940, respectively. The American Professional Football Association, founded in 1920, and renamed in 1922 the National Football League (NFL), also started as a

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minor regional venture. The NFL had many small-town teams, drew negligible crowds, paid modest wages, and received minimal press coverage. Its low status was reflected by the presence of an all-Native-American team, the Oorang Indians (1922–3), and the employment of African Americans through 1933. During the Depression, the NFL made some important innovations, including a championship game in 1933 and a player draft in 1936 (Crepeau 2014). Amateur high-school basketball and football were more popular than the professional version, promoting a strong sense of local community and tradition, especially in small towns like Martinsville (Indiana) whose highschool gym seated 5,200, more than the town’s population. The biggest team sports crowd ever was 120,000 for the 1937 Chicago city football championship at Soldier Field. Intercollegiate football enjoyed a popularity boom in the 1920s, reflected by new stadiums that seated over 60,000. Such edifices, along with high-quality teams, enhanced school spirit and state pride, promoted institutional stature and the state’s progressive character, and satisfied local demands for entertainment. National attendance reached 27 million in 1927, but dropped by 25 percent between 1929 and 1933 (Watterson 2000: 177). College football downsized in the Depression, but administrators cancelled few programs, claiming it instilled such American values as perseverance, competitiveness, and democracy (Austin 2016). Urban boosters in warm-climate locations responded to the downturn by initiating post-season “bowl” games to promote tourism and economic development. Spectator Sport in Europe Spectator sports were less prominent overseas. English crowds enjoyed amateur sporting events like the Oxford and Cambridge rowing and track meets, the Wimbledon tennis championships, and the Henley regatta, but cricket was still the national game, while football was the game of industrial workers and Rugby Union of the middle class. Cricket was extremely slow paced, especially multiday test matches, and did not draw big crowds, but fans loved the game, the rituals, and how it “provided a shared vocabulary of ‘fairness’ and embodied a set of principles for the decent organization of public life.” The sport produced the first knighted working-class athlete, Jack Hobbs, a hero and a gentleman (Holt 1989: 267–8). The British masses were fans of thoroughbred, greyhound, and motorcycle racing, and like the Irish and French were heavily into gambling sports. Ontrack betting was legal since 1906, as was off-track betting on a credit/cash basis. The Racecourse Betting Act of 1928 created a state-controlled bookmaker presence at racetracks employing pari-mutuels, and in 1933 the Royal

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Commission on Lotteries and Betting concluded that gambling did not create serious social or economic problems, and supported licensing horse-race gambling (Donoughe 2000; Hudson 2014; Huggins 2007a: 291–2; Huggins and Williams 2006: 184–5). Racing historian Mike Huggins argues that “racing both symbolized and reflected the undemocratic nature of British society” and postulates their acceptance of “its inequality and snobbery may have helped [the working class] acquiesce in society’s wider inequalities” (Huggins 2003: 206–7; Gambling Commission 2018). By 1939, off-track gambling had about 8 million customers betting around £500 million a year. There are currently around 1,000 legal betting shops in London alone (Donoughue 2000; Gambling Commission 2018; Hudson 2014; Huggins 2003: 206–7, 213, 291–2; Panja 2018). Dog racing was an evening sport first commercialized in the USA, but widely banned because of the gambling and connections to organized crime. By 1927, 5.5 million Britons attended dog races and sixty-two companies took bets on dogs. A decade later, there were 220 tracks attended by 38 million (Birley 1995: 293; Huggins 2007: 98–120). Professional football was a big working-class spectator sport in the UK, promoting a sense of community among fans. Holt argues they saw soccer as “an area of free expression and cultural independence” and an outlet for competition unavailable at work. The Football League’s ninety-two clubs operated as a lowrisk, low-reward business, with little interest in increasing press coverage, adding evening or Sunday games, or encouraging gambling. Owners paid very low wages and exercised enormous power over players through the transfer system. Some 6 million people bet on soccer pools in the 1930s (Goldblatt 2014: 183–4; Murray 1996: 82–3, 109–10, 159, 165, 169–70). Central Europe in the 1920s became a center for professional soccer, though Germany did not have pro soccer until 1932. Vienna’s vigorous sporting culture was heavily influenced by its strong working-class identity and left-wing politics. The Wiener Fußball-Verband organized the first pro league outside of Britain in 1924, won by the Zionist Hakoah sports club (Murray 1996: 45; Goldblatt 2014: 176, 193, 200). Interwar soccer was played at a very high level in South America, reflected by Uruguay’s gold medals at the Paris and Amsterdam Olympics, and the first World Cup in 1930. One year later Argentina became the first South American nation to have pro soccer, followed by Uruguay and Brazil. Crowd control was a severe problem, leading soccer pitches to have moats and barbed wire-lined fields (Murray 1996: 46–50). Italy became a dominant soccer force in the 1930s when Mussolini became the first dictator to use soccer to manipulate and distract the masses, promote nationalism, and impress other nations. Il Duce’s support of La Liga contributed to consecutive World Cup victories in 1934 and 1938 (Goldblatt 2014: 273–4; Murray 1996: 47, 56–67, 121, 124).

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BRITISH SPORT AND IMPERIALISM The British were highly successful in employing sports to maintain cultural, if not political, ties with their empire and former colonies, institutionalized by the British Empire Games (later the Commonwealth Games) in 1930. India became so adept at the British sport of field hockey that they won three straight Olympic gold medals (1928–36), and its cricket team competed against England in a test match in 1932, giving the colonials a chance to evaluate themselves against the mother country. Cricket was equally important in the Caribbean where top players at elite secondary schools became local heroes and English gentlemen. Athletes like author C. L. R. James were strong believers in the game’s ethic. However, local cricket clubs were divided by skin tone and education. Consequently cricket had different political meanings for white officials, brown-skinned clerks, and black dockworkers (Holt 1989: 202–12, 218–23; Bateman 2009, 122, 157–95).

FIGURE 0.7: India national cricket team 1932. First Test match – England vs All India. England captain Douglas Jardine steers a ball from All India bowler Amir Singh past second slip during the inaugural first Test match between England and All India, played at Lord’s cricket ground in London, June 25, 1932. The non-striking batsman is Eddie Paynter. England won the match by 158 runs. Photo by Popperfoto. Getty Images.

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Modern cricket began to dramatically change in 1962 when county cricket clubs began playing a one-day version of the game. The first international oneday match was played in 1971, and in 1975 the Cricket World Cup was established. British citizens of West Indian and South Asian descent today often support teams from their parental homeland on tour in the UK as a protest against prejudice and an affirmation of their self-identification. Sociologists argue that sport today is still one of the main means through which notions of “Britishness” are constructed, contested, and resisted (Fletcher 2014: 293). Britain’s sporting relationship was different with its former white colonies, enabling Australia, Canada, and New Zealand to reconcile nationalism and British culture. Hockey-mad Canada, with a large francophone population, did not follow English sports, but preferred Scottish curling, First Nation’s lacrosse, and American baseball, while vigorously respecting the English amateur code. Australia and New Zealand were heavily involved in cricket, rugby, and track and field, and competition between metropole and periphery was so fierce that British teams sometimes bolstered a touring team with “ringers,” including an Indian in the 1932 cricket tour of Australia. Two years later the British relied on the new bodyline bowling tactic to intimidate Australian batsmen, leading to political repercussions, though the English aesthetic remained dominant (Bateman: 145–56). Afrikaners in the Union of South Africa regularly played in the Commonwealth Games through 1958, but did not identify with British values. They preferred the more manly game of rugby to cricket to assert their ethnic pride and independence (Holt 1989: 212–15, 221, 224–36).

THE OLYMPIC GAMES The preeminent worldwide sporting event was the quadrennial Olympic Games, significant not only for the competition, but also for its symbolic value and impact on international relations. In 1920 the Games resumed in Antwerp, Belgium after an eight-year hiatus, with twenty-eight countries, many of whom struggled to send a team. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the losing Central Powers (Germany, Austria, Turkey, Hungary, and Bulgaria) and the radical USSR. The IOC introduced the five-ringed Olympic flag and the releasing of doves to represent peace. The USA won 95 medals, well ahead of second-placed Sweden (64), a major athletic power that was neutral in the Great War. American women competed for the first time since 1900 and captured all three women’s swimming events in world record time. Four years later, France hosted the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix, as well as the Summer Games in Paris. The Winter Games were modest festivals, staged in out-of-the-way winter resorts frequented by the social elite. The Paris Games cost FF10 million ($6,801,067 in 2018), but, despite very good attendance, expenditures ran about 45 percent more than receipts. The USA

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took 99 medals and France 38, while Finland, taking 37, and led by national hero Paavo Nurmi, dominated the distance races (Zarnowski 1992: 21). The 1928 Summer Games in Amsterdam cost $1.2 million and nearly broke even. The USA dominated, with 56 medals, followed by Germany’s 31 in its first appearance since 1912. The press incorrectly reported that all runners in the women’s 800 meters were totally exhausted or did not finish, “confirming” negative attitudes about women in sports. The event was discontinued until 1960. The 1932 Olympic Games were held in the USA at Lake Placid, site of the country’s best winter sports facilities, and Los Angeles, whose boosters had previously constructed the Coliseum to secure the Olympics to promote property values, tourism, and the city’s international stature. The world economy limited participation to 1,408 athletes, half the number of the Amsterdam Games, with 42 percent from North America. Men were housed in the first Olympic village, while 127 women stayed at an upscale hotel. The USA easily triumphed with 103 medals, far ahead of Italy’s 36. American Babe Didrikson starred, though limited by IOC rules for women to three events, winning the javelin (Olympic record), 80-meter hurdles (new world record, or NWR), and tied for first in the high jump (NWR), losing in a jump-off for leaping head first. The Games were a huge financial success, ending up with a $1 million profit (Olympic Century X 1996: 21–3, 28, 168). Germany was selected as the site of the 1936 Winter and Summer Games prior to the rise of Adolf Hitler. On April 1, 1933, shortly after Hitler became Chancellor, the government imposed a boycott of Jewish businesses, and a week later fired all Jewish civil servants. The Nazi oppression continued for two years, and on September 15, 1935, the Nuremberg Laws took away the Jews’ citizenship and civil rights. Calls went out to boycott the games because of Nazi anti-Semitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, and oppression of socialists and labor unions, but no nation boycotted the Games. Forty-three percent of Americans, led by organized labor and leading journalists, favored a boycott, but the Amateur Athletic Union narrowly voted to send a team (58 to 55.5) (Large 2007: 69–109). The Nazis had not originally supported the Olympic Movement, but decided to spend $30 million to show the world how Germany had risen from the shadows of the First World War. The German Olympic Committee tried to ameliorate widespread negative publicity by inviting foreign Olympic officials to visit Germany to examine prevailing social conditions and by placing two Olympic medalists with Jewish fathers on their squad. German planners invented two rituals to tie the Third Reich to Ancient Greece: the Mt. Olympus torch lighting, and a relay carrying the torch to Berlin for the cauldron-lighting ceremony. The Summer Games were attended by a record 3 million people, and provided a grand venue for Nazi propaganda. German athletes performed exceptionally well, capturing 89 medals to 56 for

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FIGURE 0.8: Jesse Owens Winning Long Jump at Berlin Olympics, 1936. Jesse Owens of the United States leaps to gold with a jump of 8.06 meters (26.44 feet), just 7.6 centimeters (3 inches) below his world record. Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis. Getty Images.

the USA. Hungary, fascist Italy, and Japan came in third, fourth, and eighth, respectively. However, the spectacle’s star was African-American Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in track and field, a huge symbolic statement against Nazi racism.

SPORT DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR World sport was first strongly affected by the impending conflict in 1938 when Japan dropped its commitment to host the 1940 Games because of the SinoJapanese War. The site was shifted to Helsinki, but canceled after the Russian invasion in late 1939 (Collins 2007: 161–3). The Nazis employed sports at concentration and POW camps primarily to entertain their guards. There were football matches between guards and captives, and boxing matches were staged at the death camps between prisoners who could be killed if they lost (Gomet 2016: 1099–115; Simpson 2016: 65–88). Thirty former Jewish Olympians died during the Holocaust.

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The war curtailed sport on the home front. The Football Association (FA) immediately cancelled its season because of a national ban on the assemblage of large crowds (Woodlock 2017), and in May 1940 the government closed around ninety racetracks to conserve gasoline and rubber, though the classic races were still staged to provide some normality to the home front. A few tracks were employed for military purposes, like Bath, converted into an RAF landing site, Nottingham into military camps, and Ascot into a prison for POWs (Saville 2009). The White House kept baseball operating to keep up public spirit though the quality of play dropped sharply with many players in the military. Attendance in 1943 was down nearly 25 percent from 1941. Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley was so worried that MLB might close that he organized the professional All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) in 1943. The players were far more skilled than fans anticipated, but public interest waned after the war with the return of veteran major leaguers, along with a renewed opposition to women in non-traditional women’s roles. American racing was hindered by the rationing of rubber, gas, and steel, and the closure of certain tracks for wartime needs. Nonetheless, the sport was extremely popular among people starving for entertainment, setting yearly national records during the war for purses, gates, and mutual handles. In January 1945 the Office of War Mobilization closed all tracks as a defense measure, but they were back in business following VE Day (Devereux 1980: 311–3; Robertson 1964).

SPORT SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR Post-war sport was heavily shaped by diplomatic, political, and cultural developments. The coming of the Cold War had a very strong influence on international sport because it was employed as a soft form of diplomacy to demonstrate the relative superiority of American or Russian social, economic, and political systems. Other notable developments included the demise of amateurism, sport’s globalization, the fight against racism, women’s increased participation, and the impact of performance enhancement drugs.

OLYMPIC DIPLOMACY The 1948 Winter Games at St. Moritz, Switzerland was the first Olympics in twelve years, followed by the $32 million London “Austerity Games.” Germany and Japan were not invited and the USSR felt unprepared and stayed away. Fanny Blankers-Koen, a 30-year-old Dutch mother captured the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints, the 80-meter high hurdles, and the 4 x 100-meter team relay. She was later voted the female athlete of the century by

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the International Association of Athletics Federations (Beck 2012b: 28–42; Bijkert 2004). The USSR rejoined the Olympic Movement in 1952 in Helsinki. American and Russian athletes were under strong pressure to prove their nation’s superiority. Russian athletes were ostensibly amateurs, supported by college scholarships like many Americans, or by sinecures in the military or secret police, and further incentivized by cash prizes. The USA won 76 medals, while the Russians did superbly with 71. The People’s Republic of China participated for the first time, but left after the IOC recognized the Republic of China (Taiwan). Russians dominated the 1956 Winter Olympics with 16 medals at the Italian ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, and captured 98 medals at the Summer Games. However, Melbourne was a diplomatic disaster following the Red Army’s suppression of the Hungarian Revolution. Russian athletes were booed by spectators, fighting occurred in the Olympic Village, and Hungary won a bloody semifinal water polo game over Russia 4–0 (Reinhart 1996: 120–39). Two years later, annual track meets were initiated between the USA and USSR (1958–1985) to promote cultural exchanges. The Russians dominated, winning fifteen of nineteen meets. US men outscored Russian men at thirteen meets, but Russian women outpointed the Americans eighteen times. This convinced many American sporting groups to seriously promote women’s athletics (Turrini 2001: 427–71; Turrini 2010). The 1960 Rome Games was widely televised to Europe and broadcast on “live” delay elsewhere. Russia outclassed the USA by 103 medals to 71, but the Games’ heroine was Wilma Rudolph, of Tennessee State University, an historically black college, who won the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints, and the 4 x 100-meter relay. In 1964 the Tokyo Summer Games, the first in Asia, signified Japan’s redevelopment since the war. Civil rights leaders in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) initiated a boycott of its Olympic team to pressure the sports-minded government to halt apartheid. Newly independent sub-Saharan states convinced the IOC to bar the RSA. 1968 was a major year of worldwide social protests and the Vietnam War. Harry Edwards’s Olympic Project for Human Rights called for an Olympic boycott to banish the RSA and Rhodesia from the Olympics, and fire President Avery Brundage of the IOC, but it fizzled out. Days before the Mexico City Games, a major protest in the Tlatelolco neighborhood of Mexico City called for greater civil and democratic rights and social revolution, resulting in over 300 deaths. The 1968 Games are best remembered for the African-American protest against American racism, most notably by 200-meter medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos. They bowed their heads on the medal stand when the

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National Anthem was played, representing their belief that its theme of freedom did not apply to black Americans. The IOC responded by expelling them from the Olympics (Bass 2002: 81–184). The US team won the medal count over Russia (107 to 91) for the first time since 1952. African runners swept the five longest distance races, foreshadowing future dominance in distance running. West Germany promoted the 1972 Munich Olympics as “the Games of Joy,” demonstrating national rehabilitation and its newly respected world stature. The USSR captured 99 medals, the USA 94, and the GDR 66, a huge result for a nation of 17 million. Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in swimming, all NWRs. However, the Games are mostly remembered for Black September, a Palestinian terrorist group, who killed eleven Israelis, generating fears of future terrorism at major sporting events. Amateurism was then on its last stand, as equipment manufacturers were widely known to be paying athletes for endorsements. In 1978, the IOC recognized “state amateurism,” enabling athletes to receive appearance money, consulting fees, and payments for TV ads when filtered through their national sports organization (Llewellyn and Gleaves 2016: 147–8, 152–3, 156, 164; Bertling 2007: 53). Eight years later, the IOC permitted international sports federations to allow professionals to compete in the Olympics. This culminated with the “Dream Team” in Barcelona in 1992. The 1976 Summer Games in Montreal was a financial disaster, costing $1.5 billion. The USSR won 125 medals to 94 for the USA, and 90 for the GDR, whose suspiciously muscle-bound women captured eleven of thirteen swimming events. Taiwan was banned from Montreal, leading four years later to the return of the People’s Republic of China to the Olympics for the first time since 1952. In 1980 the Winter Games were back at Lake Placid. One of the most shocking results in international sport occurred in the semifinals when a ragtag American hockey squad won a 4–3 victory against the USSR, winner of every Olympic tournament except for the similarly stunning American upset in 1960. International intrigue returned to the Summer Olympics when American president Jimmy Carter called for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games after Russia invaded Afghanistan. Russia retaliated by refusing to go to Los Angeles for the 1984 Summer Games. Los Angeles was the sole bidder that year because potential rivals were worried off by fears of terrorism, Montreal’s financial disaster, and the limited expectations for long-term benefits. The IOC revised its constitution to allow private corporate sponsorship, enabling businessman Peter Ueberroth of the Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC) to finance the games through a $225-million TV deal with ABC, minimum $4 million commercial sponsorships, and ticket sales. The LAOOC produced a $222.7 million profit.

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Russia returned for the Seoul Games in 1988, winning 132 medals, followed by the GDR with 102, embarrassing the USA with 94. However, four years later, following the breakup of the USSR and the impending end of South African apartheid, the Olympics would lose its geopolitical significance. The new big Olympic issue was the escalating costs of the mega event, which reached $44 billion for the Summer Games in Beijing (2008) and $51 billion for the Winter Games at Sochi (2014). This was directly connected to the widespread corruption among officials who voted on Olympic sites, and the growing opposition of countries to even bid on the Games.

SOCCER IN THE POSTWAR ERA Soccer is the world’s most popular team sport reflected by the participation of 211 nations in the 2018 World Cup qualifications. England was the most prominent soccer power after the Second World War, but did not compete in the World Cup until 1950 when it lost 1–0 to the United States, the greatest upset in soccer history. Uruguay won the title by upsetting Brazil 2–1 before 173,850 at Rio’s Maracana Stadium. In 1955 the Union Européenne de Football

FIGURE 0.9: Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento). World’s greatest football player. The Brazilian played for Santos (1956–74) in Brazil and the New York Cosmos (1975–7). Photo by Schirner /Ullstein picture. Getty Images.

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Association (UEFA) staged the first European club championship (renamed the European Cup in 1992) (Goldblatt 2006: 287–304). South American teams dominated the World Cup from 1950 to 2002, winning eight of fourteen. Pelé, the world’s greatest player, scored 1,282 goals in 1,364 career games, and led Brazil to three World Cup championships (1958, 1962, and 1970). He had great flair and charisma, epitomizing the Brazilian style of “beautiful soccer,” combining art, dance, drama, and spectacle (Goldblatt 2006: 375–81). The English Football League (EFL) only became big time in the mid-1960s. Owners had opposed TV coverage, Sunday matches, and gambling, although soccer pools employed 100,000 people. Coaches preferred brawn to skill and operated as dictators over modestly-paid athletes (Murray 1996: 109–10, 115, 118; Goldblatt 2006: 402, 406). In 1966 England captured the World Cup, and thirteen years later EFL teams won eight straight European Cups, emphasizing competitiveness, energy, and pace. The Spanish Liga then was known for technique and ball control, Italy’s Serie A stressed defense, and Germany’s Bundesliga encouraged movement, efficiency, and team play (Goldblatt 2006: 560; Subramanian 2015). European revenues mainly came from attendance until the late 1960s since their governments resisted commercialized TV, and owners believed that free TV would cost them business. Once the move to TV began, teams earned more money, and big pay raises followed. Teams became increasingly owned by rich men willing to spend to promote their primary business or for ego gratification (Murray 1996: 155, 157; Goldblatt 2006: 402–3). In 1992, twenty-two English teams left the EFL and formed the new English Premier League (EPL) which in 2016–17 had £4.5 billion in total revenue, the most of any soccer association. It is the world’s most-watched sports league, broadcasting in 212 countries, and generating £8.45 billion in world TV rights. However, the Bundesliga, which still has standing room, draws the largest crowds, 44,646 per game in 2017–18. Manchester United made £581m in 2016–17 (Germany 2018; Keegan 2017; Onwumechili and Akindes 2014: 7–8; “Premier League Soars” 2018; Sunday Times 2013). Real Madrid was the third most valuable sports franchise in 2019 ($4.24 billion). The next most valuable soccer squads were Barcelona ($4 billion), Manchester United ($3.8 billion), Bayern Munich ($3 billion), and Manchester City ($2.69 billion). The highest paid team in all sports in 2019 was Barcelona (£10.5m), followed by Real Madrid (£8.9m) and Juventus (nearly £8.1m). The next seven highest were all from the NBA. By revenue the top teams in 2020 were Real Madrid ($796 million), Manchester United ($795 million), and Barcelona ($724 million) (“Global Sports Salaries, 2019” 2019; “Forbes’ list of the most valuable football clubs” 2020). Big profits since the 1980s enabled European teams to buy up the world’s best players, like Argentine superstar Diego Maradona who transferred to

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Barcelona in 1982 for a then record £5 million. By 2002 there were over 600 Latin Americans in Europe’s top leagues. A newer source of talent are secondgeneration immigrants reared in low-income housing projects like those surrounding Paris (les banlieues), who comprised much of France’s World Cup champion squad. Les bleus were once a highly homogeneous white eleven, but are currently heavily staffed by players of color (Murray 1996: 161; Goldblatt 2006: 778; Badenhausen 2018; Dawson 2018). Professional soccer has had its share of problems, most notably hooliganism, which mainly began in England in the 1950s and 1960s, and subsequently spread throughout Europe (Dunning et al. 1988; Stott and Pearson 2007). Hooligans were mainly poorly educated, unskilled, racist, and sexist young white men, who berated and attacked rival fans before, during, and after matches. Most soccer riots were attributed to hooliganism (Cronin 2017; Dunning et al. 1988; Holt 1989: 329–42; Murray 1996: 125–6, 163–6). Soccer also suffers from mismanagement and corruption by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), which runs international soccer, including the men’s World Cup, viewed on TV in 2018 by 900 million people. Former presidents João Havelange (1974–98) and Sepp Blatter (1998–2015) were very corrupt and poor managers. Blatter facilitated Russia securing the 2018 event, on which it spent $11.6 billion, and enabled Qatar to get the 2022 games, despite its insignificant soccer history, disregard of human rights, and likely climatic problems (Murray 1996: 130–1, 144, 146; Zimbalist 2015: 3–4, 145–6, 148–51). The US women’s team has been a dominant force in world play, winning three World Cups (1991, 1999, 2015) and four Olympic championships (1996, 2004–12). The 1991 World Cup game against China drew 90,185, a record for a woman’s sporting event. The 2015 World Cup match against Japan drew 23 million American televiewers, earning a higher rating than the NBA or NHL championships. However, this popularity has not transferred well to pro soccer.

SPECTATOR SPORT IN THE USA Commercialized sport boomed in the USA after the Second World War, a time when fans had money to spend on sporting contests they had often missed during the war. The exception was thoroughbred racing which had thrived for much of the war. Beginning in the late 1940s, flat racing annually achieved the largest attendance of any sport for over thirty years. Fans enjoyed outstanding tracks, superb jockeys, and great horses, including three Triple Crown winners between 1973 and 1978. Attendance peaked at 74.7 million in 1980. The huge interest led to renewed interest in urban harness racing that had languished for decades. New York promoters initiated in 1940 evening racing at Long Island’s Roosevelt

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Raceway to appeal to a working-class audience. However, the sport’s expansion was not feasible until after the war when entrepreneurs in other cities, especially Chicago, established their own politically connected tracks and racing clubs which became huge successes (Riess 1989: 190–1; Riess 2014: 40–2). Thoroughbred racing was not surpassed by MLB as the leading spectator sport until 1984. Crowds declined because of the huge takeouts by state governments, competition from illegal bookmakers, harness racing, state lotteries and state sponsored off-track betting, the rise of legalized sports betting in Las Vegas in the 1970s, and the emergence of riverfront casinos (Riess 2014: 42–7). While horse racing is currently struggling in the USA, it remains successful in Great Britain where it is the second most popular spectator sport, in Japan which stages about 21,000 races annually, and especially in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, where in 1996 the $10 million Dubai World Cup was initiated, offering the biggest purse in the world. It was only surpassed in 2016 by Gulfstream Park’s $12 million Pegasus World Cup, increased a year later to $16 million (Riess 2014: 43–4; “The Pegasus World Cup Invitational Returns” 2017). Prize fighting did not get a lot of attention during the war when healthy young men were away fighting, but fan interest grew afterwards. The sport was one of early TV’s biggest attractions, with network bouts on as often as six days a week, featuring stars like heavyweight champion Joe Louis and welterweight champion (1946–51) Sugar Ray Robinson, 128–1–2 in his first eleven years. However, too much TV coverage ended up saturating the market. The sport was also hurt by fighters absorbing too much brutality, and the underworld influence in the sport, depicted in movies, by Sports Illustrated’s investigations, and the 1960 Senate inquiry into boxing corruption (Riess 1988: 29–52). Worldwide interest in pugilism revived with the rise of Muhammad Ali. Cassius Clay stunned the sports world in 1964 by upsetting heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, and announcing his new name and membership in the militant anti-white Nation of Islam. Ali was perceived as a threat to white Americans, especially after refusing induction into the Army in 1966 as a conscientious objector, which led to losing his license and championship. However, he became a popular hero to African Americans and American youth by standing up for his principles. He returned to the ring in 1970, and one year later the Supreme Court overturned his conviction for draft dodging. Ali regained the championship from George Foreman in 1974 in the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire. Boxing’s popularity dropped significantly after Ali’s retirement. The sport lacked prominent heavyweights, was beset by weak regulation, and had a poor image due to shady promoters like Don King. Furthermore boxing was so violent that around 120 American fighters died from boxing blows between 1945 and 2005 (Abreu 2011: 95–113).

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Major League Baseball MLB did superbly after the war as attendance doubled from 1944 to 1948 reaching 20,938,388, the most ever until 1962. The minor leagues also boomed, setting a record in 1949 with fifty-nine leagues, and a record 39.6 million spectators, that lasted for fifty years. Television coverage became widespread by 1947, increasing fan interest, but also enabling them to stay home and watch ballgames or other free TV shows. This led to baseball attendance at all levels declining in the early 1950s. By 1970 there were just twenty minor leagues drawing 10 million spectators. (Jay 2004: 18; Official Site of Minor League Baseball 2018; Kronheim 2011: 1–62). MLB integrated in 1947 when the Brooklyn Dodgers signed African American Jackie Robinson despite the opposition of other owners, white fans, and many ballplayers. Dodgers president Branch Rickey selected Robinson because of his extraordinary athleticism, military service, attendance at a white university, and upcoming marriage. Critics worried that integration would hurt profits and the status of the game, open up rosters to more African Americans. and promote integration in the broader society. Robinson persevered despite enormous prejudice, and led the Dodgers to the 1947 pennant. MLB did not integrate speedily, and it was not until 1959 that the last team, the Boston Red Sox, integrated. MLB had several African-American stars by then, including Hank Aaron, Roy Campanella, and Willie Mays, but people of color were still underrepresented. The proportion of African-American major leaguers rose to 10.1 percent in 1962, peaked in 1981 at 18.7 percent, but was down to 8.4 percent in 2018, reflecting inadequate inner-city youth programs, and the African-American focus on the NBA and the NFL. However, the Latino presence rose from 5 percent in 1955 to 29.8 percent in 2017 (Armour and Levitt 2017). MLB salaries in the 1950s averaged around $5,000 a year due to the glut of talent, its exemption from anti-trust legislation, and a weak union. In 1966 labor economist Marvin Miller became director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, and negotiated salaries for 1967 that averaged $19,000. Then in 1975 arbitrators awarded free agency to pitchers Andy Messersmith and Jim McNally, which led to a big escalation in salaries, reaching $144,000 in 1980, $1.9 million in 2000, and $4.52 million in 2018 (Grundy and Rader 2015: 210). MLB teams began to relocate in 1953 when the Boston Braves moved west to Milwaukee, the first franchise shift since 1903. One year later, the St. Louis Browns migrated to Baltimore and, in 1955, the Philadelphia Athletics to Kansas City. These moves were motivated by decaying ballparks, promised publicly owned ballparks, and white flight to suburbia and the sunbelt, leaving behind declining inner-city neighborhoods with large black populations.

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The biggest move came in 1958 when the financially successful Dodgers and Giants relocated from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, made viable through air travel. The Dodgers started off playing in the Coliseum, but in 1962 moved to publicly owned land where the team built the $23 million Dodger Stadium, the first privately financed park since 1923. Thereafter all new major league parks were publicly subsidized until 2000, when the Giants built A&T Park. These developments led to league expansion in 1961, and there are currently thirty franchises. Annual MLB attendance rose from 16.2 million in the 1950s to 80.9 million in the 2000s, but declined to 73.5 million in the 2010s (“1950–1959 Baseball Attendance” n.d.). The average MLB team in 2017 was worth $1.54 billion, led by the Yankees, who play in the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium, at $3.7 billion. The average ball club’s value was far below the $2.4 billion for the NFL, but higher than $1.355 billion for the NBA and $517 million for the NHL, and just slightly above the $1.458 billion for the world’s top twenty soccer teams (“Average Player Salary in Major League Baseball . . .” 2018; Badenhausen 2019; “Business of Baseball” 2018; Ozanian 2017; Ozanian et al. 2019). The National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association The NHL was a six-team league from 1942 until 1967 when it first expanded to what is now a thirty-one-team league with seven Canadian franchises and twenty-four in the USA. European players first entered the NHL in 1965, and currently comprise 27.2 percent of the rosters, compared to 27.4 percent Americans, and 45.3 percent Canadians (“Active NHL Players Totals by Nationality – Career Stats” 2018). In 1946, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) was organized with eleven big-city teams, ten of which were owned by arenas seeking to fill empty dates. The BAA merged in 1949 with the regional National Basketball League, whose teams were located in small and mid-sized Midwestern cities, to form the seventeen-team NBA. The NBA struggled at first, and was down to eight teams in 1954, dropping nearly all the smaller-city teams, but currently has thirty-two teams. The Boston Celtics is its most successful franchise, winning seventeen NBA championships. The average NBA player in 1967 made $20,000, which rose to $170,000 in 1980 because of free agency and competition from the American Basketball Association (founded in 1967), which merged with the NBA in 1976. The average salary in 2019 was $6.67 million (“2017–18 NBA Player Contracts” 2018; Grundy and Rader 2015: 354; “2019–20 NBA Player Contracts 2020”; Williams 2019). The NBA did not integrate until 1950, and maintained an unofficial quota system until the 1960s. Black players introduced a different style of play that was faster, played above the rim, and more creative. Since 1990, about 75

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percent of NBA players have been black, and they have been more successful achieving management roles than in any other sport. By 2017 there had been seventy-one black coaches, including nine that year (“History of Black NBA Coaches” 2017), and the Charlotte Bobcats have had black ownership since 2004–5. NBA globalization has risen markedly since 1990 when there were just twelve Europeans in the NBA, reaching seventy-four in 2017, far surpassing the forty-three white American players. The record for foreign-born players was set in 2016–17 at 113. By 2004, the NBA was televised in 205 countries, and currently 20 percent of NBA merchandise is sold overseas. Its biggest face overseas is still Michael Jordan, whose Nike line sold $500 million in the past five years (Badenhausen 2018; “New Record Number of 74 Europeans in the NBA” 2017; NBA.comStaff 2020). The National Football League The NFL struggled during the Second World War, but by 1946 was on the edge of financial success. This led to the rise of the rival All America Football Conference (AAFC), an integrated league with franchises in Los Angeles and San Francisco, innovations which the NFL copied. Four years later, three AAFC teams joined the NFL, making it a thirteen-team league. Early TV coverage produced mixed results, but would soon be the key to the NFL’s future. The turning point came with the 1958 championship game at Yankee Stadium, won by the Baltimore Colts 23–17 in overtime against the New York Giants, viewed by 30 million people. Commissioner Pete Roselle thereafter convinced owners to support the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 that legalized the pooling of national TV revenue. The NFL’s growing popularity led to the creation of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960, which struggled at first, drawing just 41 percent of the NFL’s 40,000 average crowds. The AFL’s big moment came in 1964 when it signed a five-year $36 million contract with NBC, enabling it to enter a high-priced bidding war for rookies with the NFL. The leagues merged two years later, the season culminating with an inter-league championship game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I. In 1967, the average player made $25,000, higher than MLB or the NBA, but future gains were more modest due to their short careers and a weak Players Association. Average salaries rose to $79,000 in 1980, $352,000 in 1990, and $2.1 million in 2017. Jobs in the thirty-twoteam league are very dangerous and a study of 111 recently deceased players found 99 had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (“Here’s what the average NFL player makes in a season” 2019; Rader 2009: 354; Renzulli and Connley 2019; Sifferlin 2017; Woodruff, 2018). The NFL reintegrated slowly, beginning in 1946. The Washington Redskins were the last team to integrate in 1962. Black players soon composed about 30

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percent of rosters, but were usually “stacked” into positions that required athleticism, but little decision-making. This changed by the mid-1980s when blacks regularly played quarterback and middle linebacker. The NFL has been about 70-percent black over the last decade (Reid and McManus 2018; Ross 1999). Football in the 1970s supplanted baseball as the national pastime. The greater popularity came from rule changes promoting a fast-paced passing offense, an ideology more in line with dominant social values, and especially excellent TV coverage. Annual team TV revenues more than doubled from $6 million in 1977 to $14.2 million in 1982. By 2018, league revenue was over $16 billion, with $8.78 going to the team, and 48 percent to the players. The average team had an operating profit of $91 million, and the league had twentyseven of the fifty most valuable sports franchises in the world. Half of the revenue came from TV ($244 million per team), and the rest from admission fees, concessions, parking, and stadium naming rights. One year later the Dallas Cowboys were up to $5.5 billion, and the average team was worth $2.86 billion. The most expensive stadiums in the world were MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, and Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which each cost $1.6 billion (Badenhausen 2017, 2019; Colangelo 2019; Kaplan 1917; “NFL Evaluations 2918; “Sports Money” 2018; Ozanian et al. 2019). Other Professional Sports Auto racing, golf, and tennis are prominent worldwide professional sports. European racing is mainly grand-prix racing over closed public roads. The British manufactured thirty-seven winning vehicles from 1950 to 2018, though Ferrari cars won the most (fifteen), while British drivers captured the most wins (eighteen) (“F-1 Formula Champions” 2018). The Indianapolis 500, with open-wheel and open-cockpit automobiles, draws as many as 300,000 fans, making it the biggest single spectatorial sporting event in the world, with a winning prize of $2.5 million. However, North American racing is dominated by NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Racing), founded by Bill France, Sr. in 1948. It sanctions over 100 racetracks employing stock cars (ordinary vehicles modified for racing). The sport represented an invented tradition that became part of white southern memory, reminiscent of the 1930s when many drivers delivered untaxed liquor by outrunning revenuers. Ironically, most drivers are no longer southerners, 40 percent of spectators are women, and the big increase in fandom is outside the South (Davis 2009; Hugenberg and Hugenberg 2008). Postwar professional golf was dominated by Americans Ben Hogan, who won nine majors, and Sam Snead who won seven. Public interest boomed in the 1960s due to TV, the charisma of Arnold Palmer, who won seven majors

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between 1958 and 1964, altering golf’s country-club image to a people’s game, and Jack Nicklaus, who won nineteen major titles. Tiger Woods reigned over golf from the late 1990s to 2013, winning fourteen majors, and was PGA Player of the Year eleven times. He became the first athlete to earn over $1 billion, and his multiracial background helped make the game appear more accessible. Pro golf today is highly globalized. Swedish star Annika Sörenstam dominated the women’s tour with ninety international championships, $22 million earnings, and Player of the Year eight times between 1995 and 2005. She was followed by Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, #1 in the world (2007–2010). In 2018, eight of the top ten women players in the world were Asian (Badenhausen 2009; “Career Money” 2016; “Official Money” 2018). Amateurism dominated tennis until 1968 when open tennis was initiated at the British Hard Court Championships. There were a number of professional tours at this time, but the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1972 eventually won out, and since 1990 has organized the worldwide men’s tour. The main women’s pro competition was originally the Virginia Slims Tour (VST) established in 1970 by leading female players, notably Billie Jean King, irate that women were getting as little as 8.5 percent of men’s earnings in the same tournament. The VST was supplanted in 1973 by the Women’s Tennis Association, the year when the US Open offered men and women equal prizes. The dominant women pros were Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Serena Williams. Ms. Williams won thirty-nine Grand Slam events, and was selected “Sportsperson of the Year” in 2015 by Sports Illustrated. One year later she earned $27 million from purses and endorsements (“#51 Serena Williams, Athlete Tennis” 2017). The most successful men’s pro was Roger Federer of Switzerland, who won twenty Grand Slam tournaments, and was top player in the world for 237 weeks straight.

BIG-TIME AMERICAN INTERCOLLEGIATE SPORT The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a huge operation with a budget of $1.1 billion in 2017, supervising twenty-one sports for women and nineteen for men in three divisions. The NCAA was a weak organization prior to the Second World War, with authority limited to settling playing and eligibility rules, and protecting amateurism (NCAA Surpasses $1B in Annual Revenue” 2017). It did not even run the most prestigious post-season basketball competition, the National Invitational Tournament in Madison Square Garden, established in 1938, one year before the NCAA’s national championship. The NCAA encountered two major crises in 1951 when there was widespread cheating at the United States Military Academy, then a football powerhouse, that led to the expelling of thirty-seven football players, and a nationwide plot

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to fix basketball games that involved thirty-two players at seven schools who were paid off by gamblers to keep the score close, but not necessarily lose. Former math teacher and professional gambler Charles K. McNeil invented the “point spread,” which in the 1940s became a successful method to encourage wagering on mismatches by predicting the anticipated point differential (Boyle 1986). A second major basketball betting scandal occurred in 1961, leading to the indictment of forty-nine players from twenty-seven colleges. Integration was a big long-term issue for the NCAA. African-American athletes were excluded from virtually all predominantly white southern universities until the late 1960s and black athletes were underrepresented in northern colleges. Major southern institutions would not even play teams with black players. The first steps toward southern integration occurred in the mid1950s at lower-prestige state institutions like North Texas State whose student body had already integrated (Marcello 1987). Hostility to integration was especially fierce in the prestigious Southeastern Conference (SEC), abetted by racist state governors like George Wallace of Alabama. In 1967 the University of Kentucky became the first SEC football team to integrate, pushed by a coach who badly wanted to win. He recruited ideal candidates who were star athletes, academically well prepared, and not considered potential troublemakers. The last major institutions to integrate their football elevens were Louisiana State and Mississippi in 1972 (Henderson 1997; Martin 2010). The NCAA’s power today comes from its control over lucrative football and basketball telecasts. Intercollegiate football boomed in the 1960s when annual attendance reached 30 million, and then rose to 40 million in the 1970s, accompanied by big increases in TV revenues. In 1984 the NCAA lost its monopoly control when the courts ruled individual teams and leagues could arrange their own deals. The SEC alone generated $375 million in TV sports revenue in 2016. CBS currently pays $1.1 billion a year to telecast “March Madness,” the source of 90 percent of NCAA revenue (Garcia 2018; Smith and Ourand 2016).

SPORT AND GENDER Sport remains a primarily male sphere, a socially constructed masculinitybuilding institution in a patriarchal society, an important male bonding ritual that serves as a shared topic of mutual interest among males to help socialize boys and young men. Organized youth sports help participants strengthen their gender identity by displaying their strength, aggression, competitiveness, speed, bravery, and heroism (Fine 1987). However, since the 1970s, physical culture has increasingly become an activity appropriate for all genders, an important activity for acculturating girls and young women, giving them a sense of identity and community through organized play, sports clubs, and school sports.

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The push for female physicality took an important forward step in the 1950s through the rise of an American fitness movement that emerged following research that found that nearly 60 percent of American children failed at least one physical test compared to 9 percent in Europe. Newly elected president John F. Kennedy, in 1960, became a strong proponent of fitness for health and for Cold War purposes, criticizing the sedentary male American lifestyle (Kennedy 1960). The fitness movement was especially appealing to housewives worried about their own health and appearance, who became the main market for TV exercise gurus Debbie Drake and Jack LaLanne. The fitness movement promoted jogging in the late 1960s. Running clubs sprang up to promote fun runs, mental health, and socializing, along with private health clubs with professional trainers, classes in activities like aerobic dance, and such amenities as restaurants with juice bars. Jogging’s popularity created a boom in fancy running gear that enriched manufacturers like Nike (worth nearly $30 billion in 2017). Huge numbers of men and women participated in such long-distance races as the New York Marathon, which by 2000 drew over 50,000 competitors (McKenzie 2013: 106, 109–42; Martin 2011). Traditional constraints on women’s athletics weakened in the mid-1960s with the rise of the women’s rights movement that demanded equal rights with men; the counterculture, which questioned traditional ideas and beliefs about physical activity; the sexual revolution of the 1960s–70s, which challenged traditional gender behavior; and the aforementioned dismal performance of Americans against Russian women. Leading politicians, sports leaders, and the national media urged high schools and colleges to prepare athletic women for sport’s Cold War. One outcome was the formation in 1971 of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women to promote non-scholarship intercollegiate women’s competition and national championships. Tennis star and role model Billie Jean King, an advocate for women’s sports and equal pay, won in 1973 the winner-take-all $100,000 “Battle of the Sexes” against 55-yearold hustler and former tennis champion Bobby Riggs. The most important development was the revolutionary Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 that outlawed sexual discrimination by school districts and colleges receiving federal aid, leading to a huge increase in female participation in competitive sports. The proportion of girls playing interscholastic sports rose from 3.7 percent in 1972 to 40 percent in 2012 and women in varsity college sports sharply increased from under 30,000 in 1972 to 212,000 in 2012 (Lee and Dusenbery 2012). A long-term impact of Title IX was that in 2012 and 2016 American women won more Olympic medals than their male teammates. Another group defined by their sexuality whom conventional wisdom considered non-participants were gay men, presumably because they were

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effeminate and not “real men” (McKenzie 2013: 99–100). In the 1980s, homosexual athletes slowly began “coming out.” Straight men were threatened by their presence in the locker room, and a new reality that dramatically challenged a traditional criterion of manliness. On the other hand, the conventional wisdom about lesbians was that they were disproportionately athletic, and thus “unwomanly.” Public concerns about lesbian athletes date at least to the 1930s, when women’s softball became controversial because of widespread suspicions that physically strong and masculine-looking players were lesbians who enjoyed sport and used the playing field to make social connections that threatened their straight teammates (Cahn 1994: 164–206). Skilled LGBTQ long felt compelled to keep their sexual orientation secret, concerned that publicizing their sexuality could threaten their athletic careers and livelihoods. Bill Tilden, winner of six Wimbledon and fourteen US Open championships remained “in the closet” while active, and multisport star Babe Didrikson hid behind her sewing skills and marriage to a professional wrestler (Hornblum 2018: 397–401; Cayleff 1996). Gay athlete visibility was boosted the 1980s by the Gay Rights Movement, the Gay Games, first held in San Francisco in 1982 with 1,350 athletes, and being “outed,” as happened to Billie Jean King in 1981. Today proud lesbian women are prominent in several sports, especially tennis, basketball, softball, track and field, soccer, speed skating, and track. However, there are still overtly few homosexual athletes. They are most prominent in sports that stress elegance and style, like figure skating and diving, most notably Greg Louganis, winner of four Olympic gold medals (1984–8). Sports leaders today have a difficult time resolving how to resolve certain sexual identity matters like the gender identity of particular female athletes and how to deal with transgendered athletes. The latter issue surprisingly dates to 1936 when two very prominent European track stars altered their identification from female to male following surgery (“Change of Sex” 1936). Afterwards President Avery Brundage of the American Olympic Committee called for examinations of women Olympians. A couple of years later, Dora Ratjen, who came in fourth in the high jump at the Berlin Olympics, was discovered to have been a boy raised as a girl. In the 1960s many observers questioned the gender of the Press sisters, Russian athletes who won a combined five track-and-field gold medals, and they retired once gender verification was introduced. The Olympics in 1968 introduced chromosome testing, but it was banned as inconclusive in 1999, replaced by testosterone testing. In 2018 the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) limited the test to races of 400 meters to one mile (Guilford 2012; Berg 2009; Garza 2018).

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THE UNDERSIDE OF SPORT American Sports Betting While legalized sports betting flourished in the United Kingdom, legalized sports betting in the United States was limited to on-track racing until 1970 when New York State instituted legal Off-Track Betting (OTB) at government storefronts, which other states and Canada subsequently emulated. However, in 2010, New York’s OTB closed, having failed to adequately raise revenue and eliminate illegal gambling, while simultaneously on-track profits declined. Nevada was the only state with legalized sports betting (1931) before OTB, but it was a minor operation. In 1954 the federal government enacted a 10 percent tax on sports wagers, making it increasingly difficult for the state’s legal bookies to operate. However, in 1974, Congress lowered the tax to 2 percent. The Nevada Gaming Control Board thereafter approved sports wagering inside casinos. Sports gambling significantly picked up, and after the tax was further dropped to 0.25 percent in 1983, every major Nevada hotel had sports betting. The latest innovation in sports gambling came in the 1990s when it was introduced to the Internet in the Caribbean, Mexico, England, and Australia (Davies 2017: 397). By 2000 Nevada handled over $3 billion in sports wagers, and $4.2 billion in 2015, mainly on the Super Bowl and March Madness (Schwartz 2006: 351– 68 ). However, illegal gambling still thrived. The American Gaming Association estimated that in 2017 $150 billion was illegally wagered on sports (American Gaming 2017). One year later, the courts ruled that the Bradley Act of 1992, which banned sports betting everywhere except Nevada and three other states with sports lotteries, was unconstitutional. This ruling is expected to dramatically increase state-supervised legal sports gambling. Betting in the UK Gambling in the United Kingdom has been a flourishing enterprise, abetted by the 1960 legalizing of off-track betting. The main sources of sports betting are soccer, horse racing, and dog racing. The government owned the on-track betting business until sold to Betfred in 2011, which sold to the UK Tote Group, which services sixty race courses, high-street betting shops, and the Internet. London alone has over 1,000 betting shops. The online sports betting market in the 2010s was worth about £650 million, serving 2.1 million customers. Thirty-five percent of gambling is currently on sports, led by football (46.7 percent) and horse racing (27.3 percent) (Hudson 2014; “New Ownership Heralds New Era for the Tote” 2019; “What are the most popular sports to bet on in the UK?” 2020).

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The Abuse of Athletes Drugs were employed by trainers in the nineteenth century to speed up racehorses (strychnine), let them run without pain (morphine), or stifle them (tranquilizers). Human cyclists, distance runners, and swimmers have used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) like strychnine, caffeine, and cocaine for well over a hundred years. In 1928 the International Amateur Athletic Federation banned performance-enhancing drugs, but without requiring testing (Gleaves 2012, 30, 33; Rosen 2008: 3–17). By the 1950s, scientists had moved on from studying the influence of testosterone on athletic performance to synthetic anabolic steroids. Steroids were soon used to enhance performance by football players, weightlifters, and competitors in field events, leading to new world records. PED use became an Olympic issue in 1960 after Danish cyclist Knud Jensen died during a 100-kilometer race after using vasodilators to enhance blood circulation. However, the IOC left drug-usage control to each sport’s own international federation. The GDR and the USSR in the 1960s spent millions on scientific research and training programs, anticipating impressive results for little risk. Many of their athletes were unaware of being manipulated, though young women developed substantial muscularity, deepened voices, and facial hair, and damaged their reproductive organs. In 1990, after the collapse of the GDR, uncovered Stasi records provided evidence of the misdeeds (Dennis and Grix 2012; Hunt 2011). The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), in 1999, under the aegis of the United Nations, various national governments, and leading private sports organizations drew up anti-doping rules to help the IOC enforce doping regulations, but proved ineffective. Thirty percent of athletes at the 2011 IAAF world championships admitted to taking PEDs, yet almost none had tested positively (“More than 30 Percent of Athletes” 2017). A major 2015 WADA report found widespread doping was so rampant in Russia that the IOC banned 111 athletes for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, and barred the Russian Olympic Committee from the 2018 Winter Olympics. Since 1968, Russians have been stripped of 46 Olympic medals, 32 percent of the 143 medals stripped for drug usage ( “List of Stripped Olympic Medals” 2018). PED usage was rampant among pro football players by the 1970s, when around 75 percent of linemen and linebackers were regular users. MLB’s drug situation was nearly as pervasive, and became well known because of the homerun barrage of the late 1990s, accompanied by Barry Bonds’s and Sammy Sosa’s physical transformation. Mark McGwire hit a record 70 home runs in 1998, but later admitted to taking androstenedione, an androgen then permitted by MLB that increases testosterone production. Bonds’s home-run production skyrocketed at age 37 as he stroked 209 in four seasons, including a record 73

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in 2001. Four years later MLB introduced a new drug policy calling for yearround, unannounced testing, with suspensions as long as one year. As of 2018, sixty-four Major Leaguers had received suspensions for drug use (Davies 2017: 409–19; “List of Major League Baseball Players Suspended for PerformanceEnhancing Drugs” 2018). The past few years has seen shocking revelations of coaches and physicians physically abusing athletes, particularly children and young women. Assistant Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was sent down for rape and child sexual abuse, former speaker of the US House of Representatives Dennis Hastart was found guilty of abusing teenage wrestlers when a high-school coach, and Dr. Lawrence Nassar of Michigan State University and the USA Gymnastics team was convicted of molesting more than 150 girls and women.

CONCLUSION By 2020 the US was still at the apex of world sport, but Great Britain was no longer a major player, long supplanted by the Soviet Union/Russia as the prime US rival. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia and its many former minions has faltered a bit as the major foil of American sporting hegemony, particularly in the Olympics. Since 2008, China has emerged as the central rival of the USA in overall medal counts, perhaps a portent of the future beyond 2020. Sport is a major recreational and commercial activity around the world, exemplified by the 206 nations participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics, more than the number of states in the United Nations. Sport was no longer an exclusively male sphere, but an area of substantial activity for women in the Western world, providing a means of displaying prowess, now considered appropriate to their gender. The once highly-respected status of the amateur athlete has virtually disappeared outside the Anglo-American world, and is increasingly seen as antiquated in big-time intercollegiate sport. The leading male and female athletes in major sports like football are international celebrities, although for the most part, just the men still make the big money.

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CHAPTER ONE

The Purpose of Sport WILLIAM J. MORGAN

To say some object or activity has a purpose might seem to be a simple, uncomplicated matter. For instance, suppose I’m cleaning out my garage and find a hammer I had misplaced some time ago behind a stack of old magazines. The very moment I spy it I know, without having to think about it, that any time I need, say, to put up another shelf in my garage or my upstairs office, I can use my hammer to do so. That is because the purpose of a hammer is to build and construct things like shelves. Indeed, it was made specifically to accomplish such purposes, which is why it has the physical shape and properties it does. That same hammer, however, might come in handy to achieve other purposes. Suppose, for instance, while repotting some plants in my garage one day I am attacked by an intruder who intends to do me harm, spotting the hammer nearby I pick it up to ward off my would-be attacker. True, this time I had to think first—and given the situation without a moment to spare—about using the hammer for the purpose of protecting myself. But, again, my realization that I could use my hammer for this very different purpose was as simple as it was straightforward—the mere sight of it was all I needed to put it to this protective use. Can the same be said regarding the purpose of a complex, highly structured social practice like sport? After all, sport, too, has an easily recognizable purpose, which is roughly winning. And, of course, like the hammer, it, too, was specifically created and crafted to serve this purpose. Furthermore, it can also serve very different purposes, such as a providing a public gathering place for members of a group to socialize, or to talk over a business proposal while playing a round of golf. However, I want to claim that, in the case of sport, determining what is its purpose is a much more complicated matter. It is 37

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decidedly more complicated because unlike hammers, tools, and other sorts of human projects and endeavors, what its purpose is can’t be directly read off of the physically observable movements that players actually make within its carefully demarcated athletic confines. The complicating factor here is that sport is an institutional creation, and as such confers certain institutional statuses on the physical actions that take place on the playing field. If one is unfamiliar with these institutional statuses, then one won’t have the foggiest idea that when they see, for instance, a person kicking a ball into a net that a goal has just been scored, or a person wielding a small stick and using it to propel a small ball into a small hole that a putt has just been sunk. In other words, the bare physical actions of kicking a ball and striking a ball with a stick will give the uninformed observer (one not acquainted with the institutions of football or golf) nary a clue as to what is the point of either of these actions. Unlike hammers and other such artifacts, then, determining what the goal of sport is can’t be read directly off of the bodily actions that take place there or the physical properties of the various objects that are used in athletic contests. Since my aim in this chapter is to shed light on the purpose(s) of sport, I will begin by offering an account of its complex institutional character. Next, I will argue that sport answers to three different kinds of rationales. The first is what I call its internal purpose, which derives from its intrinsic structural composition and makeup. The second I call its external purpose, which depends upon but has no intrinsic connection to sport itself, to its internal constitutive features. The third I call its hybrid internal purpose, which has to do with the particular historical and social contexts in which it is played and observed, and, more particularly, with the way the larger conventions and mores of the communities and societies that populate these historical and social contexts inform its overall goal and practice.

DOES SPORT HAVE A PURPOSE? AN OBJECTION But before we begin our inquiry into the purpose of sport, we first need to get out of the way an obvious, if seemingly far-fetched, objection that sport, in fact, doesn’t have a discernible purpose. What seems so counterintuitive about this objection is that sport, like most social practices, is nothing if not a goaloriented, purpose-driven activity. Nonetheless, the claim that it is unlike most other human endeavors in lacking such an evident purpose has been made by no less an august figure than the former, now deceased, United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia argued such in a dissenting opinion regarding a case brought by a professional golfer whose congenital leg disability prevented him from walking a golf course, and who sued under the American with Disabilities Act for the right to use a cart contrary to the rules of the Professional Golf Association (PGA). The Supreme Court found in his favor

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arguing that walking is not an essential skill of golf. Scalia’s dissent reasoned that “To say something is ‘essential’ is ordinarily to say that it is necessary to the achievement of a certain object” (Sandel 2007: 43). By “object” here he clearly, if clumsily, meant the achievement of the goal or purpose of golf. To Scalia’s way of thinking, however, the problem with the golfer’s case is that “it is the very nature of a game to have no object [goal] except amusement (that is what distinguishes games from productive activities),” therefore, “it is quite impossible to say that any of a game’s arbitrary rules is ‘essential’ ” (43). Scalia thus concluded that because the aim of sport is only to provide its participants, and presumably spectators, some vague, amorphous semblance of a pleasurable experience, no critical assessment can be made as to whether any of its arbitrary game rules sanctioned by the PGA is more or less essential to producing such an indeterminate outcome. Scalia’s mistake here is drawing the wrong inference from his perfectly plausible premise that the rules of sport are arbitrary in the sense that they easily could have been configured differently had a gamewright or athletic community so intended; which, by the way, does indeed distinguish them, as Scalia remarked, from the instrumental rules of productive activities like, say, coal mining, in which the rules for extracting coal are determined by the hardly malleable constraints of nature itself. The wrong inferential move he makes here is that once the heretofore arbitrary rules are settled upon, formally drawn up, they are no longer arbitrary in the least nor is the purpose for which they were devised unclear or vague. After all, it is not as if the presiding rules of golf give players the option to follow them or not depending upon their subjective whims. Further, it is not as if the presiding rules of golf leave us in doubt as to what is the point of golf (to shoot the fewest number of strokes in playing the requisite rounds of golf). Rightly understood then, there is nothing arbitrary about the rules of sport or vague about what they require to satisfy its “certain object.” To suggest otherwise, as Scalia would have us believe, is to fatally conflate what is at bottom a strictly rule-governed pursuit of athletic perfection for a bacchanalian pleasure fest in which anything goes so long as it titillates those who play and watch golf. Scalia’s contention, therefore, that golf in particular and sport in general have no (specifiable) purpose to speak of, save indeterminate pleasure-seeking, has no persuasive force I can see, and so need not deter us from inquiring how best to account for its purpose.

THE INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTER OF SPORT Before I examine the particular purposes sport answers to, let me flesh out my opening claim that providing a satisfactory account of what is sport is complicated by recognizing that the physical actions that take place there are only intelligible if we grasp the institutional status that lies behind them. In

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order to get a handle on their institutional status, I consider Searle’s important theory of how natural objects, actions, and the facts about them (in our specific case, physical/bodily actions), acquire an institutional standing that gives them a purpose and significance that belies their naturalness and their brute physicality. Searle was inspired by a long-time puzzle, namely that there are objective facts about the world in which we live that are only facts by human agreement, and only exist because we believe they exist. He had in mind such things as a piece of paper that is a $5 bill, that people are citizens of different countries, or that the New York Giants won the 1991 Super Bowl (Searle 1995: 1). Objective facts of this kind are unlike objective facts of a different order such as there is snow and ice at the summit of Mt. Everest or that hydrogen atoms have one electron (2). The difference is that the latter so-called facts do not depend on human agreement, which is why Searle dubbed them “brute” facts. However, the former so-called facts depend on human agreement, which is why he dubbed them “institutional” facts. They are institutional facts because they require “human institutions” for their very existence, because they are the sorts of things that are made, not found. Searle developed his theory to explain how such institutional facts are possible, and how they get to be what they are. The utility of Searle’s theory for sport is that it provides a persuasive account of how brute physical actions such as running, throwing, and the like become institutional actions such as stealing second base and pitching, how they become core features of an athletic institution like baseball and thereby take on a meaning, significance, and purpose that they would otherwise lack. For Searle the answer to such questions can be found in the deceptively simple formula, “X counts as Y in context C” (28), which he calls a constitutive rule and identifies as the basic building block of all institutional phenomena. In the specific case of sport, the X term in Searle’s formula designates the actual physical actions upon which the institutional status is imposed (42). For example, in (American) football the X term picks out the physical action of a person crossing a line etched on the ground or some artificial surface clutching an elongated spheroid. The Y term denotes the institutional status affixed to the physical action. In football again, the Y term confers the institutional status of a touchdown on the physical action of a person breaking the plane of a line carrying an elongated spheroid (43). In acquiring this new social status as a touchdown, the actual bodily movements involved in a person crossing a line gain a significance, meaning, and point that go beyond the movements themselves. The phrase “counts as” for Searle refers to the process by which such brute physical actions acquire such a socially accepted and recognized status. Sticking with our example of football, “counts as” marks the transition from the brute, physical act of running across a line, to the institutional act of scoring a touchdown, from institutionally unencumbered physical actions that

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might serve any number of institutionally unencumbered ends, to particular institutional actions that serve a particular institutional end. Further, this conferral of an institutional status, of counting the physical action of a person crossing a line as a touchdown, is and must be accepted and recognized by the members of the relevant larger community. It is that collective agreement and recognition alone that ensures the physical action of crossing a line counts, in fact, as a touchdown. On Searle’s institutional story, therefore, social practices like sport can have the goals they had in the past, or have now, or will have in the future, or have now and forever more, if and only if the members of the relevant communities collectively agree and recognize they do. For in order to institutionalize sport, to anoint certain physical actions and ends as sporting actions and ends, there must be agreement all around by the relevant members of that institution that running across a designated line is indeed a touchdown. There can be no such social institutions in the absence of such a consensus. So the physical action involved in the scoring of a touchdown only counts as such, and only counts as an objective fact, under a specific description authorized and accepted by members of that community. This also explains why language is indispensable to the identification of the institutional goal of sport, and, of course, any other institutional goal. For physically (empirically) speaking there is no difference between the X and Y terms, between breaking the plane of a line and scoring a touchdown. Rather, the only difference between them is the imposition of a social status on the X term, “and this new status needs markers, because, empirically speaking, there isn’t anything else there” (69; author’s emphasis).

THE INTERNAL PURPOSE OF SPORT Whatever the purpose of sport may be said to be, it should be clear by now that accounting for its institutional status is something we can ignore only at our peril. That said, it is now time to examine the three purposes of sport. The first of these is what I previously called the “internal” purpose of sport, meaning the purpose that is prescribed by and is derivable from the intrinsic, structural properties of sport itself as a game of physical skill. Every sport is structurally designed to bring about a particular outcome, or better, a specific achievable state of affairs, which calls for the exercise of special physical skills. In his brilliant analysis of games and sport, Bernard Suits calls this designated specific state of affairs the pre-lusory goal of sport (Suits 2018: 34). In addition to this goal, Suits argues, sport is further defined by what he calls a lusory goal, which is simply the aim of winning, of bringing about a state of affairs that counts as winning because it was achieved by following the relevant rules (34). The pre-lusory goal of sport picks out the specific achievable state of affairs that it was structurally designed to generate. So understood, the goal of a foot

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race is to cross the finish line first, of hockey to propel a puck into a net, of golf to put a small ball into a small cup, etc. Each of these goals spells out just what those who play these and other sports are seeking to accomplish by the physical actions and strategic decisions they execute. What makes them the particular goals they are is that any physical actions and the like, which are undertaken in their name, are supposed to lead to these specific states of affairs. But isn’t the goal of crossing the finish line first, it may plausibly be asked, the same as winning a foot race? The answer, Suits tells us, is no, because the pre-lusory goal of a foot race, the specific state of affairs of crossing the finish line ahead of other competitors, does not include, and provides no specification of, the rule-governed means by which it is supposed to be achieved. The same goes, of course, for the pre-lusory goal of any sport. In a foot race, therefore, crossing the finish line first is not the same as winning if it was accomplished by, say, cutting across the infield of the track. Similarly, in hockey if the puck ends up in the net by a player’s hand rather than stick, or in golf if a player kicks the ball out of the rough to make par, the achievement of these different states of affair does not become synonymous with winning. So the fact that the prelusory goal of sport is a simple, disjunctive, freestanding goal that encompasses no other feature of sport (rules or means), rather than a compound, conjunctive one that encompasses both rules and means, is what distinguishes a pre-lusory goal from a lusory goal (winning). With this distinction in mind, I now turn my attention to this second, lusory goal of sport. As noted, Suits defined the lusory goal of sport as winning. What this lusory goal adds to the equation is a specification of the rule-governed means by which it is to be attained. This is what makes it a compound goal rather than a simple one like its pre-lusory counterpart. So the lusory goal of a foot race is to cross the finish line first by, among other things, running around rather than across the track, of hockey by putting the puck in the net by, among other things, using a stick rather than one’s hand, of (American) football by breaking the plane of the goal line by, among other things, running with the ball or catching a ball. Each and everyone one of these lusory goals, of course, conforms to Searle’s constitutive rule formula, “X counts as Y in context C.” The X term refers to the physical actions designated by the pre-lusory goals of sport (crossing the finish line first, putting a ball into a cup, breaking the plane of a line drawn on the ground). The Y term concerns the imposition on the physical actions specified in these pre-lusory goals of the institutional ludic status of winning in each sport. And the “counts as” is the process by which the institutional status of winning (lusory goal) is conferred on each pre-lusory goal of sport. But when accounting for the specific institutional statuses and purposes of select social practices like sport, we must be careful not to run together Searle’s general, all-purpose, institutional constitutive rule formula of “X counts as Y in

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context C,” with the particular, practice-specific, constitutive rule(s) of sport. For every object or activity procures its institutional credentials by conforming to Searle’s general constitutive rule formula in its own distinctive way by virtue of constitutive rules that are internal and particular to each. For instance, the physical bits of paper that comprise the X term of money “count as” money (the Y term), as the official currency of a given society, only when they are processed and issued in accordance with the constitutive rule(s) that governs such in that society. Similarly, the various vocalizations, documents, and actions that comprise the X term of marriage, “count as” marriage (the Y term), as an official marriage ceremony in a given society, only when they are performed in accordance with the particular constitutive rule(s) that governs such in that society. Sport, of course, is no different in this regard, since the physical actions that comprise its X term “count as” sport (the Y term), as an institutionally recognizable sport in a given society, only when they are carried out in accordance with the particular constitutive rule(s) that governs such in that society. The point not to be missed, then, is that the constitutive rule(s) by which money, marriage, or sport acquire their institutional status and purpose—that is, satisfy Searle’s general constitutive rule formula of “X counts as Y in context C”—are specific and relative to each institutional object and practice. What particular institutional work the latter rules do, therefore, is confined to the particular object or practice that they govern. So, in the case of money, the money-specific constitutive rules that effect its transformation from physical bits of paper to money, to an official medium of exchange for all sorts of economic transactions in our society, are the mandates issued by the Treasury department that govern, among other things, their issuance and their official approval as currency, to wit, the phrase that the department requires be inscribed on each bill: “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private.” In the case of marriage, the marriage-specific constitutive rules that effect its transformation from vocalizations, documents, and actions to a full-fledged marriage ceremony, are the requirements set by the relevant civil/state agency regarding, among other things, who is eligible to be joined in matrimony and who is authorized to officiate at and conduct such a ceremony. Sport, of course, gets its institutional walking papers in the same twofold way by meeting Searle’s constitutive rule formula according to its very own practice-specific constitutive rules. However, the particular, distinctive way its constitutive rules effect the transformation from its pre-institutional, pre-lusory goal of accomplishing some specific state of affairs to its institutional, lusory goal of winning is by limiting the allowable means to accomplish the former. For example, in foot races crossing the finish line first (pre-lusory goal) counts as winning (lusory goal) only if it is accomplished by following its constitutive rules that forbid, among other things, cutting across the infield. What goes for

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the constitutive rules of foot races, of course, goes for the constitutive rules of all sports, since their distinctive function, Suits tell us, is to put obstacles in the path leading to a pre-lusory goal by prohibiting more efficient in favor of less efficient means (Suits 2018: 35–6). Just, then, as it is expedient to cut across the infield in a foot race, or to propel a puck into the net by tying the goalie’s hands behind his/her back in hockey, or to put a ball into a cup by using one’s hands in golf, each and every one of these efficacious means is outlawed by the respective constitutive rules of each sport. True to form then, the constitutive rules specific to sport that outlaw the most effective means to accomplish its different pre-lusory goals mark the distinctive way it meets Searle’s formula and confers an institutional status on these goals. All of which underscores once again why it is vital in accounting for the institutional status and purpose of a social practice like sport that the internal constitutive rules by which it satisfies Searle’s general constitutive rule formula, “X counts as Y in context C,” not be confused for or conflated with that formula. To be sure, failure to account for or give Searle’s formula its just due is itself a mistake that would leave an important gap in our understanding of an institutional phenomenon like sport. But the failure to keep these two kinds of constitutive rules apart, to run them together, is, to my mind, the greater failure, since it all but renders institutional fare like sport inexplicable. In particular, it obscures the fact that one can’t win (lusory goal) an athletic competition by breaking one or more of its constitutive rules, by what amounts to, according to Suits, cheating. Suits calls this irreconcilable tension between winning and breaking its constitutive rules (cheating) the “logical incompatibility thesis” (35). The basic idea behind it is easy enough to grasp because it rests on the already-discussed point that what distinguishes lusory from pre-lusory goals is that the former, unlike the latter, include a rule-based specification of the precise way in which it is to be achieved. So, for example, in golf what counts as winning is not just getting a ball into the requisite number of cups (typically nine or eighteen cups), but to do so by the fewest number of strokes. Hence, the moment a golfer resorts to trying to get a ball into a cup by using one’s hands and/or feet one can be confident that whatever this player is doing he/she is certainly not playing golf. One way, therefore, to render golf or any other sport as a paradoxical enterprise is to confuse Searle’s open-ended conception of constitutive rules for Suits’s carefully delimited conception of the constitutive rules of sport. Before I conclude my discussion of the internal purposes of sport, however, there is yet another conflation of rules that we should be wary of and that I would be remiss in not mentioning. This conflation concerns the running together of the constitutive rules of other non-athletic practices/institutions with the distinctive constitutive rules that govern athletic practices. What is worrisome about this conflation is not only, as before, that it puts in doubt the

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intelligibility of sport, but further conceals what is so special and extraordinary about athletic endeavor that, no doubt, has a lot to do with the great allure and prominence it has enjoyed, and still enjoys, in so many cultures worldwide. I am referring here to the distinctive non-instrumental relation of means to ends required by sport’s constitutive rules, to the fact that these rules make it harder rather than easier to achieve their goals. This non-instrumental relation of means to ends appears to be peculiar to sport/practices and institutions, because most, if not all, other important social practices/institutions insist upon an instrumental relation between their means and ends. That is, what is characteristic of the constitutive rules of non-athletic institutional practices is that they require that their means make it easier rather than more difficult to carry out their different functions and purposes, and that their means are the most efficient available to accomplish what they were designed to do. When we conflate the difference between the constitutive rules of non-athletic and athletic institutions, we end up mistakenly putting sport into the same instrumental box of other institutions, and, as a consequence, trying to explain, once again, the unexplainable fact that in sport we quite deliberately put obstacles in the path of athletic goals. What is more, when we confuse the constitutive rules of sport for those of other non-athletic institutions, we also conceal the fact that sport was never designed nor intended to be an instrumental pursuit, to answer to the same ordinary and everyday needs as, for instance, the institutions of money or marriage or government do. On the contrary, it was fashioned and intended to be something separate from our ordinary, everyday concerns and routines, something that answers to our quest for extraordinary challenges that capture our fancy precisely because we humans have never been content just to survive but to flourish by exercising all of our human capacities in as many different ways as we can imagine. The failure to recognize sport’s relative autonomy is, therefore, to miss massively the point of sport itself.

THE EXTERNAL PURPOSE(S) OF SPORT I now turn to the second kind of purpose that figures in sport, the so-called external purpose of sport. By the external purpose of sport I mean all those various goals and ends that it has been put to use to facilitate but that have no intrinsic connection to sport itself. That is, the external purposes of sport, and we must insist on the plural “purposes” here given the vast array of ends and goals, which it has been used over the course of its historical development to promote, are not ends or goals that can be derived from or read off of its internal structural properties. So while, for instance, the constitutive rules of sport were created with its lusory goal in mind, they were not created with other non-athletic goals in mind, which is why the actions they license were not intended or expected to bring about these extra-game goals. That sport has,

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nonetheless, proved useful in achieving such external ends suggests that different people for different reasons have intentionally recruited it to play this instrumental role for contingent historical factors that have nothing directly to do with sport itself. Because the external purposes for which sport has been enlisted to serve are so numerous both in kind and number, this part of its teleological portfolio is unwieldy to say the least, and thus difficult to get a handle on. Attempting, then, to give a satisfactory account of each and every one of them, let alone keep track of them all, is beyond the purview of my chapter. But I can at least provide a sampling of several different categories into which these non-athletic purposes fall and a rough, abbreviated sketch of how they have been so used. The external goals sport has been used to further include religious, military, economic, gambling, nationalistic, and social and political causes and programs. Such a list, while not exhaustive, does illustrate the extent to which sport has been appropriated to serve an astonishing number of non-athletic ends and goals. The specific ways sport has been used in these different ways is itself too large and varied than to cite, in brief, a few instances. To begin on the religious front, it is worth noting the use of sport by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to proselytize the non-Christian religious and irreligious among us. Similarly, the military interest in sport has been almost a constant in its historical evolution. Here we can point to the obvious physicality of sport to account for the military role it has prominently played, particularly in the past, as well as its supposed inculcation of virtues such as courage and loyalty that allegedly prompted the Duke of Wellington to quip that the Battle of Waterloo, which led to the decisive defeat of Napoleon’s forces, was won on the playing fields of Eton.1 The economic utility of modern sport as a means for making a living and for turning a profit is a dominant feature of the current athletic scene. The same goes for the recruitment of sport to achieve social goals, whether it be the persistent efforts of the upper class to tame what they perceived to be the uncivil appetites of the working class or those of progressive reformers at the turn of the twentieth century to redress the savage social inequalities of the Gilded Age. Placing wagers on sport has also been a significant part of modern sport, in which the gambling establishment’s self-interest in “fair betting” happily coincided with the amateur interest in fair play (Vamplew 2007: 857). Sport has, in addition, been a friend of nationalistic causes in the modern world, in which being admitted as a member nation of the Olympic family is a powerful symbol that one’s country has, so to speak, arrived. Sport, alas, is no stranger to atavistic, ethnic upsurges of nationalist fervor, a prominent example of which was the breakup of Yugoslavia that was foreshadowed in a football game between the Red Star Belgrade and Dinamo Zagreb clubs, in which before the first whistle

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rioting broke out at the stadium in Zagreb. As one commentator of the time put it, “Yugoslavia stopped existing when the Dinamo-Red Star riot took place. If we can’t play football anymore and be in the same terraces anymore, it was impossible to live together anymore” (quoted in Sanatora et al. 2018: 9). Finally, for my survey purposes, the repeated use of sport to advance political programs is a further and well-documented part of the history of modern sport, as evidenced by Coubertin’s revival of the ancient Olympic Games to promote the cause of international understanding and world peace. This all too cursory sketch of the wide array of non-athletic goals and ends attributed to sport shows that these external purposes, and the agendas to which they were wed, have no intrinsic connection to sport itself, to its constitutive rules or internal lusory features. Nonetheless, there is and must be something about sport that lends itself to such mind-boggling appropriation. There are very few social practices that would come anywhere close to matching the prodigious record of sport on this instrumental scale. So, even though sport was not made or created to play this specific role as a means to accomplish these non-athletic ends, its internal structural properties were apparently well suited to play it. What it is about sport that lends it to such widespread use would require a paper in its own right. But I think it is safe to say that it undoubtedly has something important to do with its relative autonomy from the rest of our lives, from the fact that its extra-ordinary, non-instrumental logic of action mandates that obstacles be placed in the path of its internal, pre-lusory goals to make their achievement as difficult and as challenging as possible. This logic of action makes sport not only the challenging affair that it is but the distinctive undertaking that it just as assuredly is, since in everyday life placing obstacles in the path of our practical ends is a decidedly irrational thing to do. Hence, the reason why so many people the world over are fascinated with and attracted to sport is because it gives them something to look forward to that takes them beyond their daily struggle to eke out a living. This not only explains why they flock en masse to watch sports, but also explains why they are easy marks for ideologues of all stripes that seek to further their own agendas through sport. I might be accused at this point of trying to have my cake and eat it for claiming, on the one hand, that the external purposes of sport have nothing importantly to do with its internal purpose, and so with its internal structural constitution and makeup, while, on the other, I have also maintained that its prodigious instrumental record as a means to realize these external purposes must somehow have something to do with its inner logic and constitution. In short, it seems very much like I’m trying to have it both ways. I will show that I am not trying to have it both ways by taking a second look at how sport has been used to realize certain external ends. I will concentrate specifically on how sport has been appropriated for a distinctively political

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purpose and feature Coubertin’s revival of the ancient Olympic Games as my paradigmatic example. The notion that sport might have a contribution to make to political life hardly originated with Coubertin. Indeed, perhaps its most important and famous modern exponent was Rousseau, who in his essay “Letter to M. D’Alembert on the Theater,” first published in 1758, extolled the public and political virtues of festivals conducted “in the open air” (Rousseau 1960: 125). The sort of public festivals he had in mind prominently included the “games of the ancient Greeks.” The importance of these athletic festivals was because, “It does not suffice that the people have bread and live their lives in their stations. They must live in them pleasantly, in order that they fulfill their duties better . . . [and] that public order be established.” As Rousseau saw it then, “The disposition of the state is only good and solid when, each feeling in his place, the private forces are united and co-operate for the public good” (126). It is with this very political objective in mind that Rousseau exhorted the citizens of Geneva, his home in exile, to institute “prizes for gymnastics, wrestling, running, discus, and the various bodily exercises” (127). Moreover, he added, “Why should we not animate our boatmen by contests on the lake? Could there be an entertainment in the world more brilliant than seeing . . . hundreds of boats eloquently equipped, starting together at the given signal to go and capture a flag planted at the finish, then serving as a cortege for the victor returning in triumph to receive his well-earned prize?” (127). Rousseau concluded his encomium to the political virtues of sport by urging that such public festivals not be banished from republics, for “It is in republics [like Geneva] that they were born, it is in their bosom that they are seen to flourish with a truly festive air” (126). We can clearly see here in Rousseau’s vivid verbiage the political vision that inspired Coubertin roughly a century and four decades later to propose a modern Olympic Games devoted to international peace. He differed from Rousseau, of course, only in the political goals he harbored. Whereas Rousseau worried that people couldn’t be counted on to meet the political obligations necessary for there to be a well-ordered state by bread alone, Coubertin worried people couldn’t be counted on to act in the mutually respectable, pacific ways necessary for there to be peace among nations by bread alone. Like Rousseau before him, he, too, saw the need to draw people out of the narrow social circles in which they trafficked in the course of their everyday lives while engaged in mostly ho-hum, routine instrumental pursuits dedicated to practical ends. In order to enlarge their social circles, therefore, Coubertin surmised that reviving the ancient Greek Olympic Games was just the sort of festive, exciting, public tonic needed to lure people out of their occupational cocoons. By giving them something out of the ordinary to rally around, he thus hoped that they might, in Rousseau’s own words, “form among themselves sweet bonds of pleasure and joy” (125) that would advance the cause of world peace.

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However, it is what Coubertin realized that Rousseau didn’t in enlisting sport to advance his political agenda that brings me back to trying to have it both ways here. For while Coubertin was equally impressed as Rousseau was in the power of sport to bring people from all walks of life and homelands together in ever larger numbers, he was under no illusion that there was anything about sport itself, about its logic of action or other internal features, that is political in the least. As a consequence, he was very clear that sport would have to be carefully harnessed to deliver the political payoff he sought. Left to its own devices, sport is more than capable of—indeed, is designed precisely for— delivering on its own internal lusory goals, and winning the loyalty of those who play and watch it to its own lusory agenda. If these lusory goals and agendas were left unchecked, he recognized, the Games would quickly turn into just another athletic competition, though one, ominously in this regard, played out on a global stage, in which the only thing that mattered would be who won and who lost, rather than how well all the athletes from the many participating nations got on with and were able to learn from one another. It was for this very reason that Coubertin and his epigones tried mightily to prevent the athletic competitions themselves from overshadowing the larger political point of the Games by, among other things, adding opening and closing ceremonies heavy on pacific symbolism, forbidding the publication of point tables, and requiring athletes at the 1924 Paris Olympics to live together in cabins near the Stade Olympique de Colombes so that they would be in constant interaction with one another. In other words, what Coubertin foresaw and tried to preempt was exactly the point of my discussion of the external purposes of sport: that any at-bottom apolitical activity like sport, one created and fashioned to serve a distinctly lusory purpose and agenda, could, nevertheless, be exploited for a distinctly political (pacific) purpose only so long as it was sufficiently larded with political checks, rituals, and tropes to contain the apparent infectious enthusiasm for all things athletic.2

THE HYBRID INTERNAL PURPOSE(S) OF SPORT To this point, I have argued for a distinction between the internal purpose(s) and external purpose(s) of sport on the basis of their different relation to the intrinsic ludic features of sport. I thus claimed the internal purpose(s) of sport qualifies as such because it is derived from its intrinsic structural properties, and that the external purpose(s) of sport qualifies as such because it is dependent on these same intrinsic structural properties to do its instrumental work, but is not grounded in them. This distinction, I think, is sound as far as it goes, but does not go nearly far enough on the internal purpose side of the ledger. That is because what sport is for is always more than what its strict formal ludic properties, its constitutive rules and the like, reveal about it. This something

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more has to do with the social and historical contexts in which sport takes place—that is, with the social conventions and mores of the societies and cultures in which it is played and watched—that define its basic orientation and character at a particular time and place. Thus, while the constitutive rules and formal ludic properties of sport do indeed grant it relative autonomy from the rest of society and the typical instrumental activities pursued and practical goals entertained there, they do so, it pays to reiterate and underscore, only relatively. For, despite its vaunted relative autonomy, sport does not exist in a social and historical vacuum. What is the purpose of sport, therefore, is always in part of a piece with what is going on in larger society, of the various social notions and conceptions circulating at the time of what makes for a worthwhile, valuable way to live one’s life. What differentiates these social conventions and mores that sport partakes of from the other external social ends that it serves as a mere means to procure is that they become integral features of sport itself, of the internal purpose(s) and lusory agenda(s) it sets for itself in different social and historical circumstances. I want to consider now the third, socially appointed internal purpose of sport, what I call its hybrid internal purpose. To illustrate just what kind of internal purpose I have in mind here, I focus on the early period of the modern Olympic Games, spanning roughly from the 1906 Athens Games to the 1924 Paris Games, which Mark Dyreson, among others, has expertly analyzed in his important book, Making the American Team: Sport, Culture, and the Olympic Experience (1998). This particular historical period of the Olympic Games is important for my purposes because it midwifed not just one social conception of athletic enterprise but two, whose respective adherents on both sides of the Atlantic (mainly England and the United States) vied with one another to make its favored conception the dominant notion of Olympic sport. The two rival historical conceptions of the point and purpose of sport at issue during this time were the gentleman-amateur take on sport championed by England and most of the other Western member nations and the professional take on sport championed mainly by the Americans. These opposing notions of sport have, of course, survived to the present, although in a form that would be scarcely recognizable to their original proponents. This latter point should not go unremarked because the conflict between these two parties on how to do sport was not, as it is often portrayed today, simply a dispute over whether athletes should be paid for their athletic exploits. In its earliest iteration, the gentleman-amateur side of this athletic divide was little more than a one-sided power play by the upper class to exclude the working class from its athletic ranks by denying amateur status to any one who worked for wages. Later iterations of this athletic ideal, however, turned it into a broader (though, to be sure, hardly democratic), more inclusive social conception of sport as evidenced by its less restrictive definition of an amateur,

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which denied amateur status only to those who received, directly or indirectly, material benefit from engaging in sport (Guttmann 1994: 12).3 This was made possible by the emergence of a growing and more affluent middle class that welcomed amateur sport with open arms.4 The leading ideal behind the amateur conception of the purpose of sport was that it should be pursued primarily for the love of the game itself rather than for any instrumental benefits that might be obtained by taking it up. This, of course, was the source of its contempt for those who deigned to play sport for monetary purposes. But that contempt extended to anyone who played sport for any ulterior motive other than the sheer joy of the athletic struggle itself. In addition, it was the reason why amateurs of the day considered it undignified to try too hard to win. As they saw it, sport was not the sort of enterprise that called for or warranted wholehearted effort. Rather, how one acquitted oneself on the playing field by, among other things, being generous to one’s opponents and gallant in defeat, was far more important than winning. As one proponent at the time put it, “Play like a gentleman, which means like a sportsman, for the word sportsman . . . does not refer to the quality of play but to the quality of conduct in play.” What is more, this amateur aversion to ungentlemanly, unbridled athletic striving accounted for, among other things, their adherents’ opposition to what would surely today be regarded as acceptable strategies in team sports like boxing out opponents in relay foot races and cycling, giving their side a competitive edge; hiring professional coaches to hone their athletic technique; taking competitive advantage of vulnerable opponents who, for instance, ran their scull aground in a boat race or dropped their racket in a tennis match; and exploiting the rules to their advantage. Indeed, to the gentleman-amateur way of thinking these tactics amounted to little more than business trickery that ought to have no place in athletic affairs (Whitney 1908a: 766). The social conventions and mores of the gentleman-amateur conception of sport ran up against an altogether different ascendant professional conception of sport embraced by their competitive rivals across the pond, whom they faced in repeated Olympiads. For the mainly American adherents of professional sport, the point and purpose of sport was to demonstrate athletic superiority and win, not generosity of spirit or gallantry. This sea change in the notion of sport’s purpose was fueled by the precipitous rise in social importance of the professions and professionalization in the United States, and by American progressive reformers like Theodore Roosevelt, who advocated the virtues of a physically strenuous life (Rader 2004: 128–31). These two convergent forces resulted in a transvaluation of sport, in which both the idea that sport could and should be viewed as a vocation rooted in the ideal of a career open to talent rather than an avocation (though at this early stage there was considerable suspicion over paying athletes) and that sport could and should be taken very seriously gradually became the new norms of athletic practice. As a consequence, the central planks

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of the amateur conception of sport no longer had any store for American Olympic athletes, who made it clear to all their competitors from other nations that winning was their unambiguous aim. Further, strategies such as boxing in one’s opponents in team sports were no longer frowned upon but embraced, and giving vulnerable opponents a sporting chance were spurned. After all, athletic misfortunes like running one’s scull aground were, as the Americans seldom missed an opportunity to point out, self-inflicted ones, athletic lapses, which no one who truly grasps the seriousness of competitive sport would dream of trying to remedy (neutralize) by honorable means.5 The same went for hiring professional coaches and trainers, something which athletes of a professional cast of mind trying their mightiest to be the very best at their chosen sport naturally regarded as the perfectly rational and right thing to do. This dispute between amateur and professional proponents of Olympic sport reared its head in different and interesting ways from this early period into the later decades of the twentieth century. In the 1930s, a formal definition of amateurism was included in the Olympic Charter, but it was narrowly conceived in financial terms forbidding pay for play and compensation for lost salary. But opposition to financial incentives to engage in sport was not the only concern of those of the amateur persuasion. Beginning in the 1950s, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), concerned that the Cold War “was pushing athletes’ training regimes to unthinkable levels of professional-like commitment,” introduced rules prohibiting excessive training that set limits on the number of hours per day and per week athletes were permitted to train (Ritchie 2018: 268). These rules, not surprisingly, were to no avail, since by this time the professionalization of sport had proceeded too far to be deterred by a few illtimed rule changes. But in relatively short order the IOC trained its sights on what they considered to be yet another unfortunate consequence of the professionalization of sport, namely the use of drugs such as amphetamines and anabolic steroids to enhance athletic performance. In fact, as early as 1938, Avery Brundage, an American member of the IOC who was later to become its president from 1952 to 1972, came out strongly against the use of such drugs, arguing that it violated the amateur stricture against trying too hard to win. In 1946, Brundage’s admonition against doping was included in the Olympic Charter (267). It wasn’t until 1967, however, that the IOC issued a formal ban against doping. Ironically, by the time the IOC instituted drug testing in the Olympic Games in the mid-1970s, the amateur ideal that fueled its anti-doping sentiments was on the verge of collapse. Bowing to outside pressures to allow athletes to be financially compensated for their athletic performances, from both public and private coffers, the IOC changed its Charter “Rule 26,” which “effectively ushered in today’s era of fully professionalized Olympic athletes” (270). With the elimination of this anti-monetary provision of the amateur ideal, the Olympic movement put all of its effort to uphold the legitimacy of sport

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behind its anti-doping stance, which it claimed was necessary to protect and preserve what it now called “the spirit of sport.” Despite this alteration in its official lexicon, the IOC’s new push to rid the world of sport from the scourge of doping had as much to do with enforcing that part of the amateur ideal that cautioned athletes not to take sport too seriously as Brundage’s original opposition to drugs did. This concerted effort to keep drugs not only out of the Olympic Games but out of elite sport altogether, I think it is fair to say, is the central issue that preoccupies those like the IOC who worry about the fate of sport today. That it rests on a fragile if not contradictory thread should also not go unnoticed; for, as Ritchie pithily puts it, “The battle is over the necessity to produce the best and most lucrative performances possible while still preserving the image of sport’s purity” (271). What we have in these two dueling conceptions of sport, then, are two paradigmatic examples of how the internal purpose of sport is importantly shaped by larger forces in society, by the prevailing zeitgeist of the era in which it is played and watched. The specific part these socially-rooted purposes played in sport in these two instances is the same normative one they play in any particular historical era, in which conventional standards and norms drawn from the larger society regarding how we should comport ourselves in pursuing our life goals are incorporated into sport. Such norms guide us in how we should comport ourselves in pursuing our athletic goals. As we saw in the case of the gentleman-amateur conception of sport, the norms of the quasiaristocratic way of life that defined much of the contemporary English and Western European society, when incorporated into sport, as is their wont, mandated that athletes should try to win but not too hard or strategically or by seeking professional expertise and the like. But in the case of the professional conception of sport, the norms of the professional ideal and of progressive social forces that defined American society from the late nineteenth century onward, once incorporated into sport, again as is their wont, mandated that athletes should use all means necessary to win, availing themselves of whatever strategies, technical measures, and expertise necessary to ensure their athletic success—the one exception being, of course, drug-assisted performance. What I have been calling these hybrid internal purposes of sport add to the formal structure of sport is a normative layer that importantly tells us which conventional ways of accomplishing our athletic objectives are better than others. That is to say, while the pre-lusory goal of sport specifies what state of affairs we are trying to bring about, and the lusory goal stipulates what specific rules must be followed in trying to win, the internal hybrid goal of sport lays down what social, conventional norms we are obliged to honor to achieve genuine athletic success—for example, how doggedly should we try to win as well as what kinds of skills, strategic or otherwise, we should rely on in this quest.

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That these imported conventional goals of sport rightfully belong in the same internal teleological category as its pre-lusory and lusory goals do is, to reiterate, what distinguishes them from the external, extra-athletic ends sport is periodically called on as a means to help realize. That explains why Olympic athletes who prize winning over international goodwill can and are justly criticized for missing the overarching political significance of the Games, whereas amateur-gentleman or professional athletes who violate the conventional norms of their respective athletic communities can and are justly criticized for missing the (normative) point of sport itself. The contrast in the two kinds of failures (political in the former case, athletic in the latter) underscore the contrast between failing to honor the external (extra-athletic) ends of sport, which, no matter how lofty and praiseworthy, remain, as it were, extrinsic appendages of sport, and failing to honor the internal governing conventional norms of sport, which, despite the different social and ethical shapes they may take, retain, however parochial, their intrinsic ludic standing. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the blistering criticism each side of this divide directed to the other was viewed by both camps as an intramural athletic matter rather than an extramural political one. For what the British Olympic contingent and press found fault with the American athletes for was not their political tone-deafness but that they proved to be “better athletes than sportsmen,” and what the American Olympic contingent and press found fault with the English athletes for was not their political tone-deafness but their athletic nonchalance, their lackluster athletic effort, which they blamed for the poor showing of English athletes in the premier track-and-field events (Dyreson 1998: 163).

CONCLUSION I have argued that the question of the purpose(s) of sport can be answered in three basic ways. In the first, the answer is to achieve a specific state of affairs (pre-lusory goal) in a manner that accords with its fundamental rules (lusory goal). In the second, it is as a means to achieve a whole range of external ends (economic, political, religious, etc.), none of which has any intrinsic connection to sport. In the third, the answer is to accomplish a specific state of affairs not only in accordance with its rules but also in a particular normative way that comports with the mores and conventional expectations of the relevant athletic community. The first and third answers are rightly called internal purposes, but for different reasons. Whereas the first, pre-lusory and lusory goals of sport qualify as such given their grounding in its basic ludic features, specifically its constitutive rules, the third, hybrid internal purpose of sport qualifies as such given its grounding in the conventional norms that govern sport at particular times and places. Even though these conventional goals leave intact the formal

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ludic scaffolding of sport, to include, of course, its strange, inverted game logic, they add an important normative dimension to sport without which we would be at a loss in assessing what counts as a “good game,” in a distinctively ethical sense. That is, the changing conventional goals of sport are responsible for putting up ethical guardrails as to how its pre-lusory and lusory goals should be pursued. If it is objected that this normative contribution to sport is insufficient to warrant the attention and space I have devoted to it, just ask our amateur and professional athletic predecessors why they got so worked up over their conventional–normative differences, or in our contemporary, bitterly-divided athletic community, why those of us who so passionately think natural talent is an indispensable mark of athletic achievement get so riled up by those who think performance-enhancing drugs, along with protein shakes, technological advances in athletic equipment, and the like, are just a further, perfectly acceptable way to achieve athletic perfection.6

NOTES 1. Though this claim has been so often repeated it has become famous, it turns out to be apocryphal. Guttmann, in his fine history of the Olympic Games, corrected the record (1994: 9). 2. That Coubertin and his followers have largely failed to rein in the sporting side of his grand political vision—that winning has mostly trumped Coubertin’s founding political ambitions for the Games—is not because of a lack of foresight or trying on his or their parts, but perhaps a testament to the stunning appeal of sport itself to both participants and spectators. Indeed, in a recent television interview, Lindsey Vonn, the US downhill gold medalist in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, when asked how she dealt with the pressure of vying for Olympic gold, revealed she skipped out of the opening ceremony and opted for private accommodations over the Olympic village during the competition. In other words, she took the athletic part of the Games very seriously indeed, but not its overarching political purpose. I think it is safe to say that today she is the rule rather than the exception. Of course, the pacific internationalism Coubertin sought to imbue the Olympics with was compromised from the outset by petty political disputes among member nations, not to mention of late by the incredible commercialization of the Games, which led one critic of the 1984 Los Angeles Games to criticize its glitzy, showbiz opening ceremony as “the world according to Disney” (Guttmann 1994: 161) 3. Though a much-improved, more democratic rendering of amateurism, it was for all that, as Guttmann noted, “illogical.” Why? Guttmann’s answer: if an athlete were paid to play, say baseball, why should s/he be declared ineligible to play a different sport (12). 4. Holt points out that it was mainly because the middle class took to amateur sport that it spread beyond the elite public (private) schools of England, the institutional seedbed of amateur sport, and eventually to the nation and the international realm in the Olympic Games (2006: 366). 5. In this regard, the British press were entirely right to suppose that Americans confronted with such self-inflicted athletic lapses by their opponents would regard

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giving them an opportunity to redeem themselves as an act of “sheer stupidity” (Whitney 1908b: 248). 6. I want to thank Steve Riess and Wray Vamplew for their very helpful suggestions that improved my chapter contribution. I’m also indebted to Steve Riess for his excellent editing of my essay.

CHAPTER TWO

Sporting Time and Sporting Space BRIAN M. INGRASSIA

Time and space have undergone dramatic changes in the modern era. In an era of industrialization and even postindustrial economic growth, new communications and transportation technologies have connected people in farflung and formerly disconnected geographical regions, thus facilitating the virtual shrinking of space. Meanwhile, technological and industrial innovations have enabled greater numbers of people to congregate, often in climatecontrolled spaces, thus enhancing the ability of athletic clubs or franchises to commodify time. In this way, athletic events once considered amateur pastimes have become profit-making ventures. While individuals may have once dedicated time to work, rest, worship, or otherwise passed time, people in the modern era have greater opportunities to spend their time—and to spend money doing so. Sport has been a key element of these larger social and cultural transformations. Since roughly 1920, sport has come to occupy increasingly prominent and profitable spaces—both physical and temporal—within modern societies. Sport, indeed, has changed modern society, in many cases dominating its spatial realities. In particular, stadiums and arenas have become an integral part of the urban or suburban fabric as sport has grown in importance within modern calendars and economies. Innovative construction technologies have facilitated construction of larger, more complex, and more profitable sporting spaces that often resemble those built in other places around the world. Meanwhile, radio, television, and the Internet allow spectators to watch or listen from far-off 57

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locations, thus fostering sporting economies of scale and the simultaneous experiencing of athletic events. Venue design has even shifted, in some cases, so live events can compete with electronic media transmissions. With the rise in spectatorship and economic impact, athletic competitions occupy recurring places on the calendar, in some cases becoming virtual, or even actual, holidays. Global competitions provide a shared experience for the world’s population, and they also reflect (whether intentionally or not) nationalistic competition. Meanwhile, rules or other sporting parameters have been tailored for modern attention spans and schedules. This chapter explores the various ways sport insinuated itself into modern time and space after 1920. It focuses particularly on sporting venues, which may best be understood in reference to premodern antecedents. Robert Trumpbour (2007) considers stadiums “new cathedrals,” ostensibly secular spaces with semisacred significance that loom over both modern cities and modern psyches. Some scholars have even called stadiums “modern coliseums,” in reference to ancient Rome’s primary site for contests that entertained residents of the urban metropole and reinforced imperial power. Today, stadiums fill a similar role. Modern stadiums help “order human experience and actions,” thus “shaping people’s senses of themselves” (Lisle 2017: 8).

THE GOLDEN AGE OF SPORT STADIUMS In the 1920s the modern world emerged from the ashes of the First World War, a vast technological conflict that affected millions of people around the globe. Modern sporting culture thrived in this postwar era, a time that some call the “Golden Age of Sport.” Although the first steel-reinforced, concrete stadiums were built earlier, such structures proliferated in the 1920s, often providing gathering spaces for tens of thousands of paying spectators. Sport was increasingly commodified. In the United States, major arenas included campus stadiums for intercollegiate football, including war-memorial structures like those at the Universities of California or Illinois. Usually equipped with parking lots, such stadiums drew on increased automobile usage and paved roads to build extensive fan bases. They demonstrated American university campuses’ attempts to take greater spatial control over sport; yet it was also increasingly clear that many universities were effectively allowing “big-time” athletics to become a permanent part of institutional missions and academic calendars (Ingrassia 2012). Meanwhile, some cities began to construct huge municipal stadiums that served as public gathering spaces for team sports, prizefights, or various nonsporting events. Wembley Stadium was hastily built of reinforced concrete in 1922–3 for a London international exposition intended to demonstrate Britain’s global might. It accommodated over 120,000 spectators for association football

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FIGURE 2.1: Largest college football crowd in American history. On October 13, 1928, an estimated 120,000 fans at Soldier Field, Chicago saw the University of Notre Dame defeat the Navy, 7–0. In the fourth period on fourth and three, Johnny Neimiec tossed a pass to Johnny Colrick for the game’s only touchdown. Photo by George Rinhart/Corbis. Getty Images.

(soccer) matches, motorcycle races, and other spectacles (Barclay and Powell 2007). In America, cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia built gigantic stadiums; these cities were motivated by interurban competition or the desire to host national or global events. Chicago, for instance, hoped to outdo other municipalities by constructing the world’s biggest public sporting space, a war-memorial stadium called Soldier Field (Cremin 2013; Ford 2009). Los Angeles’s Coliseum, initially a somewhat smaller structure (seating around 75,000), was later expanded and hosted both the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. Such facilities, though, were sometimes so big that, paradoxically, they seemed to defeat their own purpose. According to one observer, Philadelphia Municipal Stadium’s design was massive and obtuse enough to inhibit spectatorship (Kuklick 1991). Stadiums exposed sport to the multitude, and radio aided this process by simultaneously bringing the sounds of sport into millions of homes and building bigger fan bases over larger geographical areas. Television did something similar by the 1950s (Smith 2001; Oriard 2001). And, like automobiles, electronic media drew more spectators into the stands and helped create world-renowned sports celebrities. For example, New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth traveled around the globe for exhibition games, including some in Japan. Ruth’s presence was so large that his home field, Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923 and

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seated over 60,000, was dubbed the “House that Ruth Built.” This state-of-theart baseball palace was “the first true baseball stadium – a structure intended to accommodate massive crowds and make a progressive and confident statement about baseball’s future” (Sullivan 2008: 1–2). Not until the late 1900s would spectators desire a return to cozier, pre-1920s parks. Many postwar sports venues, including stadiums in Italy, Germany, and England, were designed to promote physical culture and develop national strength through physical fitness (Bolz 2012). This way, sport contributed to the nationalistic movements preceding the Second World War. In the years leading up to the 1924 Olympics, for example, Paris considered building a 100,000-seat stadium that might show how the nation had recovered from the Great War, while also inspiring youth athletics. Although this massive structure was never built, it showed how important such edifices would be throughout the twentieth century (Lewis 2017). Elsewhere, Japan built Meiji Jingu Stadium on sacred ground in Tokyo in 1926, and the stadium soon hosted a baseball tournament featuring teams from cities around the Japanese Empire (Morris 2011). Although such facilities were meant to bolster national power and authority, they increasingly emulated standard models drawn from other nations. Near Kobe, the Japanese constructed Ko ¯shien Stadium, a modern, reinforced-concrete stadium—then Asia’s largest sports venue, seating 60,000— that was based on New York’s 1911 Polo Grounds (Guthrie-Shimizu 2012). Euro-American sports often spread to colonial territories, too. In 1921, for instance, a member of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Association wrote that Manila should have a structure like the massive football stadium recently built at Ohio State University in America (Ingrassia 2012). This desire reflected the spatial redesign of the Philippines, when urban planners created American-style sporting spaces with tennis courts, polo fields, and golf greens (McKenna 2017). By the 1920s these and other Western-style sports, especially basketball—one of a number of late-1800s games that used a time clock to regulate length of play—had gained popularity among Filipinos, whose taste for American-style sport was fostered in gymnasiums of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) or the US military (Gems 2006; Antolihao 2015). Cricket, meanwhile, was popular throughout the British Empire. Postcolonial theorist C. L. R. James wrote about how cricket fields such as the one where he played in the Trinidad of the 1910s and 1920s were sites for instilling colonial authority and Englishstyle discipline. There, a “motley crew” of white, black, Chinese, and Indian children “learned to obey the umpire’s decision without question, however irrational it was” (James 1963 [2013]: 25). Disciplined and standardized sporting cultures often represented dramatic social shifts. With the rise of industry and scientific management in the late1800s came rationalized games, including American “gridiron” football, which originated from rugby and utilized precise measurements of time and space. It

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may not be a coincidence that gridiron football’s primary inventor, Walter Camp, spent much of his career working at a major clock company (Tamte 2018). By the 1920s professional football grew in popularity, via the NFL. In an era of increasing secularization, more Americans embraced this spectacle for Sunday afternoon entertainment. Yet professional football was often relegated to tenancy in established venues, especially MLB stadiums. Following the pattern of college football, played during the autumn academic term, professional teams played in late autumn and early winter, when baseball teams were idle. Yet even then, football teams often struggled to fill large venues, especially in frigid weather (Coenen 2005). Only after the 1960s, with the NFL’s growing popularity (due largely to television), would cities build stadiums—including climate-controlled structures—specifically intended for the gridiron game. Of course, sporting spaces and times were not equally accessible to all. For instance, baseball teams in America’s Negro Leagues frequently rented majoror minor-league stadiums at times when the main tenants were absent. In a few cases, though, black businessmen owned and operated their own parks. In Pittsburgh, Greenlee Field (built 1932) was one of the region’s finest ball grounds, and it even hosted football games between HBCUs. Such facilities became an important part of the black community as well as the underground economy in which some black businessmen operated (Lanctot 2004; Ruck 1987). The sporting calendar was often segregated, too. Before the 1960s, for example, African-American high schools often played games on Wednesday or Thursday evenings (Hurd 2017), rather than the Friday nights more typical for white interscholastic teams.

SPORTING SPACE IN AN ERA OF NATIONALISM AND GLOBAL CONFLICT International competitions became an integral part of sporting calendars in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup gained global appeal. The first modern Olympics in 1896, modeled on those in ancient Greece, took place at a refurbished ancient stadium in Athens. Two decades later, the 1912 Stockholm games were the first held in a stadium built specifically for the Olympics. Later, the first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930, with the host nation defeating Argentina before 100,000 spectators at Montevideo’s huge Estadio Centenario (Keys 2006). Big stadiums sometimes served as venues for multiple global competitions. The 1938 World Cup in France, for example, included matches at the suburban Paris venue that had also hosted the 1924 Olympics—the same games where the idea of the Olympic village debuted (Barney et al. 2004). The 1932 Olympics were a defining moment for the reconceptualization of sporting space. Los Angeles, a booming port city and home of the Hollywood

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film industry, went all out, expanding the Coliseum to seat over 100,000. The Olympic village, a “miniature city,” housed 1,000 male athletes, organized by nationality; female athletes, though, had to stay at a nearby hotel. The village represented growing connections between sport and modern life, as well as the athletic gender divisions perpetuated through most of the twentieth century. Meanwhile, telephones, telegraph, and teletype machines disseminated coverage of the games throughout the world (Keys 2006: 107). Sporting space grew even bigger and more nationalistic at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. When a preliminary design for the 100,000-seat stadium was not grand enough for Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader ordered architects to redesign it (Keys 2006). The stadium, while massive, took up just a fraction of the Reichssportfeld, a “vast complex of arenas, playing and practice fields, schools, offices, parking lots, and subway stations” (Mandell [1971] 1987: 125). It was a virtual city within a city. The games transformed Berlin into a media hub, with facilities to broadcast events via radio, film, photography, and the incipient medium of television to hundreds of millions around the world (Keys 2006). Hitler anticipated that after Nazi conquest of Europe, the Olympics would be held perpetually at a 400,000-seat stadium in Nuremberg (Mandell [1971] 1987). These grandiose plans, obviously, were thwarted by the Second World War. Other nations built lavish spaces for athletic competition during the 1930s economic depression, setting the foundation for the vast expansion and homogenization of sporting space that followed the Second World War. In Chile, for example, sport became a way to project a self-consciously modern national identity, through venues such as the massive Estadio Nacional, built in Santiago in 1938 (Nadel 2014); this structure gained infamy in later years when it served as a detention space for political prisoners during the 1973 Chilean coup. Throughout the 1930s, moreover, stadium construction provided jobs for many workers. In the United States, a federal work-relief agency called the Works Progress Administration built thousands of high-school athletic facilities and gymnasiums throughout the nation (Pruter 2013). In France and Italy, large stadiums hosted political rallies during the interwar years (Lewis 2017). For many who faced joblessness or underemployment during the Great Depression, sport became an affordable distraction. But cities and sports teams often had to innovate to compete for consumers’ limited cash. American cities in warm-weather climates – including Miami, Dallas, and El Paso – emulated southern California’s annual Rose Bowl game by hosting New Year’s Day “bowl” games between top collegiate football teams, thus attracting tourists from colder regions (Watterson 2000). Initially, some of these holiday contests were contested in existing structures, including campus stadiums, but eventually some cities built arenas specifically for the big holiday games, such as Miami’s Orange Bowl, where the line between commercialism and amateurism continued to blur. Other innovative strategies emerged in the 1930s. To attract working-class fans to night

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games, some minor-league or Negro-League baseball clubs added lights to ballparks or invested in portable lighting systems. This innovation also helped teams and spectators avoid summer daytime heat. Experiments with illuminated sports dated back to the 1880s, but such efforts reached MLB in 1935 when the National League’s Cincinnati Reds, a small-market team whose attendance numbers were flagging, installed high-intensity electric lights at modest Crosley Field, significantly boosting attendance and revenues (White 1996). Outdoor sports were no longer limited to daytime hours. The last holdout against night games in US professional sport was MLB’s Chicago Cubs, who finally installed lights at legendary Wrigley Field in 1988, despite protests by nearby residents who did not want evenings disrupted by floodlights or raucous fans (Mount and Davidson 1984).

RISE OF POSTWAR SPORTS VENUES The Second World War interrupted the regular, four-year cycle of global sporting competition—namely the Olympics and World Cup—that had developed after 1896. Neither of these major, four-year competitions took place between 1940 and 1946. And in at least one case a major sporting event, the 1942 Rose Bowl, was relocated to an area less likely to be attacked. Cancellations were selective, though, with some events continuing and others not. Sport boomed again after the war, though, and so did stadium-building. In Mexico, Estadio Jalisco opened in Guadalajara in 1960, accommodating over 60,000; this venue, along with other large stadiums, effectively served as symbols of Mexican modernity (Nadel 2014). Urban sporting space changed dramatically after the war, partly due to cities’ rebuilding around automobile infrastructure. In the United States, federally funded highways and low-interest home loans led to metropolitan sprawl, especially in the quickly growing “Sun Belt” regions. Many sports franchises moved from older city centers to suburbs, to which spectators could more easily drive by car. In other cases, “ballparks or arenas were expected to become focal points for downtown redevelopment or suburban development” (Riess 1989: 250–1). The prototype for suburban sport venues may have been early-1900s automotive racetracks, which provided a potent example of how modern technologies could virtually eliminate strictures of geographical space. Road races were popular on both sides of the Atlantic, but they were not conducive to charging admission or controlling spectators. Enclosed tracks like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway—built in 1909 on farmland beyond the city’s edge, and based on the model of Brooklands in England—enabled commodification of auto sport. Indianapolis hosted its first annual 500-mile race in 1911 (Foster 2000), and other cities built similar tracks. Many spectators drove, often from great distances, to watch drivers risk life and limb at speeds around 80 miles per hour.

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FIGURE 2.2: Diagram of Proposed Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, September 23, 1957. Photo by Los Angeles Examiner. USC Libraries/Corbis. Getty Images.

Such tracks even served as proving grounds for innovative automotive technologies. The so-called “Brickyard” in Indiana fell into disrepair during the Second World War, a time of strict tire and fuel rationing, but afterward the 2.5mile oval changed ownership and continued as a prime venue for racing. Seating over 200,000, Indianapolis’s legendary speedway ranked among the world’s largest sporting venues by the twenty-first century. With society’s rising dependence upon cars, sports franchises saw the advantages of building stadiums on urban fringes, where commodified sport was more easily sold to motorists. While older, pre-1920s ballparks provided intimate spaces for spectators, they were often wedged into neighborhoods barely accessible to automobiles. In some cases, paid spectatorship declined precipitously as city residents, including many war veterans, moved to suburbs. Sometimes teams followed. In 1953, MLB’s Boston Braves set a precedent by moving to a county-financed stadium in Milwaukee surrounded by highways and parking lots, some of which spawned Milwaukee’s legendary tailgating culture. Other teams emulated the Braves by moving to suburban stadiums in new cities. Most famously, the Brooklyn Dodgers relocated to quickly growing

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FIGURE 2.3: Panoramic view of Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata, the oldest cricket ground in India established in 1864. This is a 2008 match in the Indian Premier League. Partha Bhaumik photographer. Source: Flickr Garden of Eden. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Los Angeles after it became clear that a new, state-of-the-art domed stadium could not be built in Brooklyn. Dodger Stadium (opened 1962) was a selfconsciously modern facility with massive expanses of parking spaces. Although privately financed, its public cost was significant: Los Angeles evicted over a thousand Mexican-American families from their homes in Chavez Ravine, an area once slated for public housing development (Lisle 2017). This action represented the ways postwar urban planners often prioritized professional sports over residents. Spaces for global sporting contests also grew during the postwar period, especially in the southern hemisphere. Brazil hosted the 1950 World Cup, the first after the Second World War. National leaders hoped Rio de Janeiro’s massive Maracanã Stadium would highlight Brazil’s modernity. Still unfinished in July 1950, the stadium nevertheless hosted nearly 200,000 spectators for the finals (Nadel 2014). Later that decade, as Australia prepared for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics—the first held outside Europe or North America— factions debated where to construct a stadium. They compromised on expanding the century-old Melbourne Cricket Ground, which now seated 120,000 and clearly emulated Wembley Stadium’s simple, tiered design. The only structure built anew for the Melbourne Games was the ultramodern natatorium, the first fully indoor Olympic swimming facility (Goldblatt 2016). Weather increasingly became a negligible factor as sport moved indoors. In at least one case a city virtually redesigned itself around Olympic venues. Tokyo hosted the games in 1964, at a time when Japan was undergoing dramatic postwar growth. A part of the city that once housed US soldiers became a site for the Olympic Village, stadium, and natatorium. Tokyo’s “cleansed and modernized urban space” seemed to have become a “site to accommodate the bodily performances of a proud nation” (Igarashi 2000: 145–6). New roads connected venues, outlining the massive, modern city (Goldblatt 2016). For

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FIGURE 2.4: Nippon Budokan Hall in 2018, originally constructed for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It was later the site of a famous series of Beatles concerts in 1966. Photo by Kakidai. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

many Japanese, Nippon Budokan, the octagonal, steel-reinforced-concrete martial-arts hall built to resemble an ancient temple, “strengthened the association of past with present, tradition with modernity” (McClain 2002: 564). This modern shift became especially apparent when globally popular musical acts, especially the Beatles, performed at Budokan in the years following the Olympics. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were the first games globally broadcast via satellite, and the Olympics continued to grow in scope and ambition in this era of televised sport. In 1968, Mexico City staged a lengthy Olympics Cultural Festival and invested in grandiose infrastructure, including massive highways to athletic venues (Goldblatt 2016). Such development proceeded despite rampant poverty throughout Mexico (Witherspoon 2008). Misplaced extravagance became a recurring theme for global sports. The 1976 Olympics placed Montreal in serious debt, and the city’s spectacular facilities remained unfinished by the time of the opening ceremony. Stade Olympique’s innovative retractable roof, which never functioned properly, was not even finished until the following decade. Meanwhile, television grew increasingly important for simultaneously disseminating the games for a global audience. By the 1970s, it seemed that “everyone on earth with access to a television set ha[d] a front row seat” (Barney

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et al. 2004: 121). In 1984, Los Angeles combined corporate sponsorship with reuse of established venues to profit from the Olympics, adding better “telecommunication infrastructure” and new “cultural facilities.” This was an anomaly, though, as most future Olympic hosts did not yield so great a windfall from the games (Dyreson and Llewellyn 2008: 2003–4).

IMPACT OF MODERN MEDIA AND CONSUMERISM As early as the 1950s, television was changing the sporting landscape. In the United States, professional football got a huge boost from the 1958 NFL championship game, which 45 million people viewed on television—a number that dwarfed the 65,000 watching from Yankee Stadium’s grandstands. Football, with its stop-and-start action typically played in cold weather, benefited from television’s camera angles and commercial breaks. Viewed on screens in suburban living rooms, football thrived, setting a precedent for the consumption of sport in private, rather than public, spaces. Media sometimes provided spectators with a cheaper, or more comfortable, experience. By 1967, due in large part to the impact of television, the NFL and the upstart AFL began playing an annual championship game, dubbed the Super Bowl, usually

FIGURE 2.5: The Houston Astrodome Scoreboard pictured during a June 7, 1969 game between the Astros and Cardinals with 26,764 spectators. Photo by Bill Wilson. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

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contested at a major stadium in a temperate region. The spectacle only grew larger after the leagues merged in 1970, with hundreds of millions eventually tuning in. “Super Sunday” became a real holiday with parties and celebrations, even in nations that usually ignored gridiron football. The Super Bowl represented sports’ late-1900s brand of commodification, with most sports profits realized from media contracts and viewership (Crepeau 2014). By the 1960s stadium builders designed spaces explicitly to compete with television. In Houston, MLB’s expansion-franchise Houston Colt .45s (later the Astros) initially played at basic Colt Stadium, but in 1965 they moved into the elaborate Harris County Domed Stadium. This space-age marvel, soon renamed the Astrodome, sheltered spectators from hot, humid weather. Sited near highways and surrounded by parking lots, it was supposedly the world’s “most accessible stadium.” In climate-controlled space, patrons sat “in plush-type opera seats, protected overhead by a permanent translucent roof covered with 4,596 plastic skylights, and in a temperature of 72 degrees controlled by a $4,500,000 air-conditioning system.” Weather was no longer a meaningful factor in the outcome—or viewing—of sports (Houston Sports Association 1968: n.p.). In such stadiums, action on the field was made legible via big scoreboards. The Astrodome was almost like a giant living room. Everything was carefully engineered, including the grass, which eventually died and was replaced by an artificial playing surface (called Astroturf, or simply “the carpet”) after transparent roof panels were painted over to minimize solar glare. Watching a game at the Astrodome was like watching from home, yet presumably better, with luxury boxes and restaurants. Although the dome might be seen as a mid-century populuxe facility, providing luxury to the masses, it actually fostered hierarchy. Wealthier visitors could purchase a more lavish experience, which set a precedent: nearly all subsequent stadiums had boxes or suites for well-heeled fans (Lisle 2017; Trumpbour and Womack 2016). The spatial divide between elite and common spectators grew throughout the later twentieth century, even in long-established sports such as horse racing. Although the legendary Kentucky Derby had witnessed “social stratification” since the late-1800s, “the disparity between the infield and the grandstand” become even more apparent in the 1970s. The infield, from which it was difficult even to see the race, had typically been a space for a diverse crowd of “gamblers, minorities, women, drunks, and thieves.” By the countercultural era, even with slightly higher admission prices, the infield was becoming a place for nudity, sex, and drugs—activities standing in stark contrast to the conservative mores of wealthier spectators in the grandstands (Nicholson 2012: 149–52). Eventually, though, the disorderly infield gained its own cachet and became just another place for well-off spectators to enjoy race day. Perhaps as a reaction against formalized mid-century sports, new leisure activities based in less formal spaces emerged after the 1960s, including running

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(“jogging”) and hiking. Runners created distinctive communities and subcultures on urban thoroughfares, while hikers sought “personal authenticity” on rugged, rural trails. Ultimately, though, many such individuals appeared to occupy a privileged position based in consumerism (Haberman 2017; Berg 2015: 3). Well-off runners articulated collective identity as people engaged in sport—not as individuals just moving from place to place—by purchasing and wearing gear made specifically for athletic activity (McKenzie 2013). Meanwhile, innovative clothing or personal items for women, such as the “jogbra” (later the sports bra), allowed female athletes to play more frequently or in more public venues (Schultz 2014), thus expanding the range of sporting spaces available to women. Women’s sports, both professional and amateur, expanded greatly after the 1960s. Once relegated to crumbling gymnasiums or undesirable times, the prominence of women in sports increased due to legislation as well as the agency of feminist activists. In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run, unofficially, the Boston Marathon, resisting attempted removal from the race; women first ran the marathon officially in 1972. In 1973 tennis star Billie Jean King famously defeated former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs in a notorious match dubbed the “Battle of the Sexes.” While tens of thousands watched in the Astrodome, tens of millions more viewed on television as King efficiently dispatched the aging, self-avowedly chauvinistic Riggs. King later said the prime-time match booted tennis “out of the country clubs forever and into the world of real sports, where everybody could see it” (Ware 2011: 2). After 1972, furthermore, a US civil rights law commonly known as Title IX established “the understanding that girls and boys in schools have the same rights to athletic facilities and programs, coaches and instructors, uniforms and transportation” (Gorn and Goldstein [1993] 2004: 205). Although women’s sports still typically garnered fewer spectators and lower pay than men’s, things were changing. By the 1980s, some women’s intercollegiate sports teams played in the same arenas as men’s teams (Suggs 2005). In golf, which remained a largely white, male activity, space was sometimes still sex-segregated well into the twenty-first century. Augusta National Golf Club, for instance, only admitted its first female members in 2012 (Crouse 2012). As cities grew dependent upon automobiles, sport and recreation were increasingly linked to transportation infrastructure and urban renewal. Cities and professional sports franchises sometimes worked together to replace working-class (especially many non-white) neighborhoods with huge, multipurpose sporting venues such as St. Louis’s 1965 Busch Stadium or Philadelphia’s 1971 Veterans Stadium. Efficiency was the watchword for these circular, non-distinct facilities that seated large crowds for televised baseball or football—and which tended to look and feel the same, regardless of the city (Trumpbour 2007). Indoor venues changed, too. New York demolished the magnificent 1910 Penn Station to make room for the new Madison Square

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Garden, which accommodated basketball, hockey, and other indoor events, atop an efficient new rail station, when it opened in 1968. In New Orleans, the Superdome provided climate-controlled seating for over 70,000 when it debuted in 1975—complete with a new type of artificial turf. Such structures have even served as municipal shelters, such as when Hurricane Katrina survivors sought refuge in the Superdome and Astrodome in 2005.

HIDDEN COSTS OF MODERN STADIUMS The cost of major sports arenas exploded over time, especially as team owners grew adept at pitting municipalities against each other, using the threat or promise of moving as leverage (Trumpbour 2007). In March 1984, NFL’s Baltimore Colts suddenly relocated to a new indoor facility in Indianapolis called the Hoosier Dome, completed in 1982 at a cost of $78 million. Other teams followed this example. In 1996, the Cleveland Browns left Municipal Stadium—a cavernous lakefront facility built in 1931 that may have been the first publicly owned and operated stadium utilized primarily by a commercial enterprise—and moved to Baltimore to occupy a new, publicly financed stadium costing over $200 million (DeMause and Cagan [2002] 2008). Increasingly, the financial burden of constructing and maintaining athletic venues has been shouldered by the public, while team owners retain profits. French taxpayers, for instance, contributed almost half the FF 2.67 billion construction cost for the 80,000-seat Stade de France in the 1990s, although most profits went to private operators (Lewis 2017). In 1971, after Dallas refused to build a new stadium for NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, the team moved to the $25 million Texas Stadium, financed and maintained by suburban Irving (Crepeau 2014). Texas Stadium—with a partial roof covering most spectators—had a capacity significantly smaller than the Cowboys’ previous home, the Cotton Bowl, which allowed the team to charge higher season-ticket prices and rent out luxury boxes to wealthy tenants. Such features effectively separated elite spectators from working-class fans (McComb 2008). Cities have invested deeply in stadiums or arenas to bolster economic development, urban growth, and civic prestige. Typically, though, many have not understood the true financial impact of subsidizing world-class sports facilities with public–private partnerships, the public costs of which have increased significantly over time. Cincinnati, for example, overestimated projected sales-tax revenue, and therefore had to reduce municipal services after replacing multipurpose Riverfront Stadium (built 1970) with two new single-sport stadiums for the MLB Reds and NFL Bengals. Both Houston and Orlando saw bond ratings decline circa 2010, when reduced consumer demand (after the Great Recession of 2007–9) inhibited the cities’ ability to adequately service sports-facility debt. As demand for big-time sports has risen, moreover,

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professional leagues have limited or even thwarted expansion into new markets. Teams’ ability essentially to hold cities hostage in return for new facilities has only increased over time (Long 2013). As teams pursue newer, more spectacular athletic facilities, the life span of these venues has shortened dramatically. Even when older stadiums are structurally sound, cities claim obsolescence to spur new construction (DeMause and Cagan [2002] 2008). MLB’s Texas Rangers, for instance, currently occupy a ballpark in the Dallas suburb of Arlington completed in 1994 at a cost of $191 million—yet the team is slated to move in 2020 to a new, retractable-roof facility costing up to $1 billion (Solomon 2016). In metropolitan Atlanta, a city known for its sprawling footprint, MLB’s Braves continued their peripatetic franchise history in 2017 by moving from a stadium, built for the 1996 Olympics, near the central business district, to one in the suburbs, 11 miles from downtown (Sandomir 2013b). This move bucked a recent trend of downtown parks. Since 1960, only five MLB teams had moved further from the city center, while thirteen had moved closer to downtown. In fact, the Braves are the only MLB team since 1973 to move more than a mile further from the city center (Fischer-Baum 2013). Modern construction technologies enable global construction firms like Populous to design state-of-the-art stadiums or arenas intended to attract and impress paying spectators. Some facilities, including Munich’s Allianz Arena (completed in 2005 and utilized as a venue for Germany’s 2006 World Cup) or Johannesburg’s Soccer City (redesigned for the 2010 South Africa World Cup), are visually stunning technological marvels (Wimmer 2016). Yet by the 1990s, at least some sports fans began to view older, eccentric parks like Chicago’s Wrigley Field or Boston’s Fenway Park as ideal venues, while seeing multipurpose structures like the Astrodome, with its fixed roof and artificial turf, as undistinguished relics of mid-century efficiency. Many clubs thus turned to new designs that added old-fashioned touches to otherwise ultramodern structures. So-called “retro” baseball stadiums like Baltimore’s 1992 Camden Yards, though, were paradoxical. Although clearly modern structures in terms of construction, they try to appeal to local taste or history. Wedged into urban neighborhoods, these intimate venues seemingly rejected modernity by evoking older parks with asymmetrical fields and exposed brick or steel elements. Yet this new generation of parks might actually be seen as simulacrums, or stadium signifiers exhibiting a postmodern pastiche of effects fulfilling spectators’ desire for vague nostalgia (Rosensweig 2005). Such ballparks often combined retro features with modern amenities, including expensive luxury boxes and dining options. Even the bleachers, once cheap seats thronged by working-class spectators, became exclusive. Retro ballparks might be considered “urbanoid” spaces: “carefully planned and sheltered” places “that seemingly bristled with urban energy and unpredictability” but actually “provided risk-averse, middle-class suburbanites” with a carefully engineered sporting spectacle (Lisle 2017: 256–7).

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FIGURE 2.6: Chicago Stadium prepared for a Chicago Blackhawks game in 1930. The arena operated from 1929 to 1994, replaced by the United Center in 1995, best remembered for its deafening acoustics. Photo from The Sporting News Archives. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The rise of advanced construction techniques also led to larger indoor spaces for hockey and basketball, both of which expanded and professionalized in the twentieth century. Basketball, originally invented by James Naismith in 1891 to keep physical education students occupied in winter, became a significant intercollegiate and interscholastic sport before expanding into professional leagues, including the NBA, after the Second World War. In the 1940s, NBA teams often played in municipal arenas seating anywhere from 4,000 to 22,000 spectators (Surdam 2012). But professional basketball’s profile, like that of the NFL, grew after the 1970s. By the 1990s, many franchises occupied large, stateof-the-art arenas, often located in downtown business districts, seating 18,000 to 21,000, including Chicago’s United Center (1994) and Boston’s Fleet Center (1995, now TD Garden), both of which also hosted NHL teams. United Center replaced cavernous 1929 Chicago Stadium, remembered as much for its deafening acoustics as for its long record of hosting games (Sell 1994). Large arenas, though, are not unique to the United States. Štark Center (completed 2004) in Belgrade, Serbia, seats over 18,000. The cavernous arena, named for a food company, has hosted basketball, volleyball, and table tennis championships, as well as Eurovision song contests. The Philippine Arena (2014) in Ciudad de Victoria is the world’s largest indoor arena, accommodating over 50,000 for basketball tournaments and other cultural events.

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Engineering was an important part of the stadium-building equation by the early 2000s, facilitating construction of spaces that allowed athletes and spectators to avoid inconveniences of the natural environment. Cities with harsh climates built retractable-roof venues, an advance that blurred the lines between indoor and outdoor sporting space. Such facilities are expensive. To maintain fields under a roof can be even costlier “than creating and operating a [permanently] covered structure” (Wimmer 2016: 16). Meanwhile, technology allowed some professional sports to expand to places where they otherwise could not be played. In North America, the NHL expanded to warm-weather cities—including Los Angeles, Miami, and Nashville—which could not reasonably host franchises without climate-controlled arenas. Meanwhile, artificial snow allowed the Winter Olympics to take place at times determined years in advance, regardless of actual weather conditions or the looming threat of global climate change. During the 1988 Calgary Games, in fact, some observers wondered whether the Winter Olympics could be held anywhere, even in warm-weather regions (Atkin 1988). In some places where the climate is unsuitable for winter sports—including Dubai, United Arab Emirates—architects have designed and built climatecontrolled, indoor ski slopes (Wimmer 2016). In other cases, entire towns in unique climates have been built around sport and tourism. Aspen, Colorado, an old mining town, refocused its identity on skiing after the Second World War. Nearby, postwar developers built the new resort town of Vail at a formerly nameless mountain with no significant resources—just lots of snow for skiing. When it opened in 1962, Vail was an elite resort community with motels, restaurants, and boutiques for wealthy visitors (Philpott 2013). Like the retro ballparks it preceded, Vail was a simulacrum, combining the natural landscape of Colorado’s High Country with features of Bavaria or the Swiss Alps. Vail’s design resulted in “a landscape with such strong, European references that it might have made skiers wonder exactly where they were” (Coleman 2004: 147). Yet again, technology spurred the homogenization of sporting space and the elision of geographical distinctions. Media and transportation innovations have helped create global audiences for sport, sometimes with implications for social change. In 1973, black American tennis star Arthur Ashe controversially participated in the South African Open, held in a nation racked by apartheid. Ashe visited Johannesburg’s segregated neighborhoods, where he saw how apartheid inhibited aspiring black athletes who did not benefit from the same facilities as whites (Hall 2014). The following year, American promoter Don King arranged a championship bout between undefeated heavyweight George Foreman and legendary boxer Muhammad Ali in what may have seemed the unlikeliest of places: the Central African nation of Zaire. The famous match, billed as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” took place at Kinshasa’s Stade du 20 Mai, where 60,000 saw Ali knock Foreman out in eight rounds. The bout’s odd timing, though, smacked of colonialism: to

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reach prime-time television viewers in North America, it was staged at 4 a.m. (Eig 2017). While some of Africa’s major cities have spectacular arenas for football (soccer), many of the continent’s people play or watch the sport on more modest, or even rustic, fields (Hoeffgen 2010). Modern communications and transportations infrastructure have also allowed sports leagues to expand beyond national boundaries, shrinking the space between athletic competitions as well as between fans. In North America, MLB expanded to the Canadian cities of Montreal in 1969 and Toronto in 1977; since the 1990s the league has considered locating franchises in Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, or Vancouver (Zimniuch 2013). In the early 2000s, EPL association football gained popularity worldwide, with network coverage even reaching the United States, where soccer did not have a significant presence until the late 1900s (Sandomir 2013a). In one unique case a sport facility (not the franchise) crossed a national boundary. Houston’s Colt Stadium, no longer needed after the Astrodome opened, languished until 1971, when it was dismantled and moved to Coahuila, Mexico, where it hosted a Mexican League team for over a decade. In 1982 the stands were relocated again, this time to Tampico. Along the way the stadium earned the nickname “El Mecano” (“the erector set”). After it was finally abandoned, old Colt Stadium was sold for scrap, part of a market for used stands or affordable, second-hand Jumbotron scoreboard screens (Millman 2000). As sports facilities became standardized throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, they also became— like sporting events themselves—commodities traded in the global marketplace. Poorly designed or managed facilities have been sites of tragedy. A British football venue witnessed perhaps the biggest sporting tragedy in modern history when ninety-six fans died and hundreds others were injured in a “crush” at Hillsborough Stadium in suburban Sheffield, England, on April 15, 1989. Victims died of asphyxiation or were trampled as fans streaming into the gates pressed up against a fence in one of the pens. Although initially officials blamed the tragedy on drunkenness and “hooliganism”—then a concern for Britain’s conservative Thatcherite government—later investigators attributed the crush to improper crowd control within an aging venue that had been altered without careful attention to crowd safety. The stadium, originally constructed in 1899, was modified for England’s 1966 World Cup. Over time, “piecemeal” alterations at the stadium resulted in a “mixture of old and new barriers, bits removed and bits added.” This polyglot facility, when combined with police expectations of rowdy fan behavior, resulted in terrible tragedy (Scraton [1999] 2016: 51). After Hillsborough, the United Kingdom required seating for all fans at football games (Wimmer 2016). Extreme crowd-control measures for soccer are not uncommon, especially in areas that sometimes see gang activity and spectator deaths. In Argentina, for instance, some fields are surrounded by moats and concrete walls, or even policed by armed officers with dogs (Marx 1991).

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SPORTING TIME IN THE GLOBALIZING TWENTIETH CENTURY Some sporting times, like venues, have become iconic. As the NFL grew more successful in late-twentieth-century America, it expanded from its traditional temporal home on Sunday afternoons, a time originally chosen because it did not compete with college football games on Saturdays. Starting in 1966, well after artificial lighting became common at most professional sporting venues, the NFL scheduled games on Monday evenings to attract more television spectators. By 1970, Monday Night Football was a cultural juggernaut, a prime-time show that “altered domestic relations, leisure habits, and workplace gossip” (Oriard 2007: 25–7). Indeed, college and pro football has expanded to nearly every day of the week, largely to garner greater media audiences and revenues. Meanwhile, American high-school football is still usually played on Friday nights, with games taking on nearly religious significance in some communities, such as isolated Odessa, Texas (Bissinger [1990] 2000). Since 1982, when oil prices spiked, Odessa’s teams have played at a 19,000-seat stadium. Such excesses are not unheard of throughout Texas, where the biggest scholastic football stadiums cost millions of dollars. Sports are seasonal, too. Baseball is primarily a summer game that starts with spring training and ends with the World Series (the so-called “Fall Classic”), a cherished autumn rite. Gridiron football is played in autumn, when collegiate and high-school academic years start back up. Ice hockey, for obvious reasons, is associated with winter, although the rise of climate-controlled arenas has made seasonal limitations less absolute. The global sport of association football (soccer) is less uniform. Although America’s Major League Soccer (MLS) season roughly corresponds to that of MLB, European leagues like the EPL typically play from late summer to spring, sometimes contesting matches during snowstorms. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League, meanwhile, typically plays from February to November. Traditionally, basketball is a winter game, played indoors between football and baseball seasons, yet the NBA finals have expanded into the early summer, providing more opportunities for ticket sales and television revenue. Although late-1800s educators protested college football games played on the late-autumn Thanksgiving holiday, the NFL currently holds games, especially those featuring the Detroit Lions, on Thanksgiving, a tradition that dates back to the Great Depression and Detroit’s use of radio to promote its struggling franchise. The NBA, meanwhile, has increased its number of Christmas Day games. In American college basketball, spring is a time for championships, and it is a time that has been exploited for media revenue throughout the late 1900s and early 2000s. In 1938, the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) brought the best college teams to New York, but by the early 1950s a gambling scandal made

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the metropolis unappealing for a supposedly amateur tournament. A competing National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament, founded 1939, became the premier contest by the 1970s, holding early-round games at campus arenas and final rounds in urban arenas or domed stadiums. After 1974, the NCAA tournament grew into a culturally and commercially important annual event called March Madness (Walker and Roberts 2016). After the NIT sued, claiming the NCAA had created a monopoly over postseason competition, the NCAA simply bought out the NIT—and thus effectively took control of a significant segment of the intercollegiate athletic calendar (Carlson 2017). The rising importance of spectatorship and television in an era of shortened attention spans and media competition has even inspired rules changes. For instance, the NBA added a 24-second shot clock in 1954 as a way to speed up the game and drive up scores, an innovation that some credited with preserving the league, or at least augmenting its popularity (Surdam 2012). Intercollegiate basketball postponed adoption of a shot clock for decades, but finally yielded in the 1980s. Meanwhile, in 2014, MLB, which faced serious competition from NFL and other sports, began experimenting with new rules—initially implemented in off-season or minor leagues—to shorten games, which to some twenty-first-century spectators seemed unbearably long. MLB also schedules fewer doubleheader matches than previously. These innovations, some of which have been implemented in minor-league play, included a 20-second pitch clock and limited time for pitching changes (Rohan 2014; ESPN 2015; Axisa 2017). It remains to be seen, though, if such changes will increase attendance—or if the shortfall in spectatorship has something to do with rising ticket prices. Leagues have also considered finding new ways to end tied games, so as to please impatient spectators and fit into television schedules. Such changes echoed the 1960s origins of limited-overs cricket. These shorter cricket matches could be finished in several hours, rather than several days, which appealed to younger people or those with less spare time for sport. In recent years, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has considered tweaking rules to limit lengthy matches. In many sports, moreover, play is frequently stalled to accommodate commercial advertisements aimed at television viewers. This is not usually the case in soccer, though, where matches are typically broadcast without interruptions.

REIMAGINING SPORTING SPACE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY By the early twenty-first century, as big money infused both professional and (ostensibly) amateur sports, a few cities renovated old facilities to add modern amenities. In 2003, Chicago built an entirely new, ultramodern stadium bowl within Soldier Field’s original 1920s shell. This essentially new facility for NFL’s Chicago Bears cost over $600 million, including $432 million of public subsidies.

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The structure’s transformation was so dramatic that it lost designation as a national historic site (Cremin 2013; Ford 2009). Meanwhile, new owners added less extreme, yet significant, augmentations to other heritage fields, such as Boston’s Fenway Park or Chicago’s Wrigley Field. In some cases, cities even replaced iconic structures with new ones designed to mimic originals. London’s New Wembley Stadium, costing £798 million, opened in 2007. The new structure, unlike the old national stadium built in the 1920s, was architecturally ambitious, with a distinctive tubular steel arch taller than the older stadium’s twin towers. Like a modern airport, the stadium “funnel[ed] huge numbers of people through wide concourses and up escalators to multiple destinations.” New Wembley accommodated 90,000, with over 10,000 seats dedicated to “premium packages, hospitality experiences, corporate entertainment,” and other expensive experiences tailored to wealthy spectators (Goldblatt 2014: 259–60; Barclay and Powell 2007). Two years later, new Yankee Stadium, ostensibly a precise replica of the original 1920s structure, opened; the old stadium was then demolished. Like the “retro” ballparks of the 1990s, these new structures are stadium signifiers designed to maximize profits through the selling of sport and modern amenities within spaces evoking nostalgia or collective memory. As the price of professional sporting spaces increased phenomenally, sports stadiums and arenas continued to be sites for class stratification. This process has only been exacerbated by the rising costs of sporting space in a globalizing athletic marketplace. Teams positioned themselves as global brands and occupied expensive real estate, typically at public cost. In the 1990s, the new ownership group of MLB’s Seattle Mariners, led by Japan-based video-game giant Nintendo, convinced Seattle to build a retractable-roof stadium. In 1999 Safeco Field replaced the crumbling multipurpose 1976 Kingdome—which itself was built despite protests by local Asian-American residents who preferred construction of affordable housing. By the early 2000s, fans could watch international sensation Ichiro Suzuki while consuming a so-called Ichiroll: a pricy, sushi-style item that was neither an authentic Asian-American dish nor traditional ballpark fare, but which signified sport’s globalized commodification (Gilbert 2013). For many cities, the price of sport in a globalized era continued to rise. After 1984, many cities hoped the quadrennial Olympics would bring fame and fortune. But unlike Los Angeles, which utilized existing venues like Pauley Pavilion (built 1965) or the 1930s Coliseum, hosting the Olympics usually involved building a raft of expensive structures. And though some facilities may be subject to adaptive reuse, others become costly ruins. The latter has especially been the case in Athens, which incurred massive debt to fund the 2004 Olympics, yet saw venues crumbling and abandoned within just a few years (Bloor 2014). Facilities built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2014 Brazil World Cup,

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likewise, appear to have little long-term potential for profitable sustained usage (Wimmer 2016). The perceived economic and social damage of global sport has even resulted in various NOlympics movements. In Los Angeles, site of the 2028 Games, opponents predicted that when the city hosts the Olympics again, residents may witness “the forfeiture of [their] city to the interests of contractors, developers, media corporations and the special interests who designed the bid” (Democratic Socialists of America 2018). Despite such legitimate concerns, new global sporting events have arisen and gained popularity. The World Baseball Classic (WBC), first staged in 2006, pitted national teams against each other for global championship. The permeability of national boundaries within nationalistic competitions were once again apparent, as many players had to decide for which country they would play: one where they or a parent were born, or one where they currently lived or worked as professional athletes. So far, all WBC games have been held in East Asia or the Americas, with all championship-round games held in MLB stadiums in California. Global telecommunications technology has allowed spectators around the world to watch the games. In the early twenty-first century, electronic media such as television and the Internet continued to disseminate sports beyond the field of play. Fandom spread far beyond a team’s hometown, with clubs for European soccer teams based in cities throughout Africa or America. Talk-radio shows fostered community for sports fans, while networks like ESPN televised sport around the clock. Even as sporting spaces grew more elaborate and expensive, it was unclear whether the games were really for the people in the stands, or for those watching and listening from afar. Speaking of the gigantic new football stadium in Arlington, Texas, completed in 2009 at a cost of $1.3 billion—and later renamed AT&T Stadium, as part of the early-twenty-first century trend of corporate naming rights—the Dallas Cowboys’ owner conceded the power of sporting media: “Only a small percent of our fans will ever be here.” Instead, they would experience games at the stadium “vicariously,” via media (Crepeau 2014: 177). Yet widespread sports coverage has had the seemingly counterintuitive effect of driving up ticket prices, as many spectators hope to see teams in person, not just on a screen. The Internet, meanwhile, has fueled so-called “fantasy sports,” which allow fans to serve, effectively, as managers of their own, handpicked (or computer-picked) teams (Walker 2006).

CONCLUSION One scholar writes that “the spread of modern sport has disseminated a sense of homogeneous empty time around the globe, and participation in international sports contests has linked people all over the world to a uniform clock and calendar” (Keys 2006: 90). This observation certainly seems to hold true for the

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post-1920 period. The overarching themes of sporting space and sporting time in the modern era include the commodification of sports teams as global brands; the construction of homogenous and often publicly financed stadiums or arenas; the decreasing impact of climate on enclosed sporting facilities; the simultaneous consumption of sporting events by way of new media technologies; and the ritualization of sporting seasons or championship games into virtual or actual holidays. These transformations have left an indelible stamp on modern societies. This stamp may have, in many cases, manifested itself as a public spirit of municipal or national community, but it has also proven to be detrimental to peoples or communities whose sporting times and spaces have been dramatically— and perhaps irrevocably—altered by globalization and commercialization.

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CHAPTER THREE

Products, Training, and Technology JEAN WILLIAMS and WRAY VAMPLEW

INTRODUCTION Sports products can be divided into three major categories. First, spectator products, which are sold either at the sites of events or mediated electronically and made globally available by satellite technology. Secondly, player products which may include games, equipment and costume, instruction and assistance, facilities, clubs, and training. Thirdly, associated products which are goods and services which have been allied with sport in some way, but which are not really necessary to the playing or watching of sport, though they can heighten the enjoyment (Vamplew 2018). These might include a varied range of products which stand alone, but are integral to experiential enjoyment, such as music, food and drink, social media, mainstream media, merchandise, and different spectator experiences (including VIP boxes and special areas with enhanced hospitality) and so forth. As will be shown below, technology had a significant role in developments within all these categories All sports products can be affected also by cultural values through the beliefs, attitudes, and emotions of both producers and consumers. While income, wealth, and prices clearly have a major role in the marketing of sport, as with any other visitor attraction experience, culture also influences the taste demand. Tastes can vary across individuals who maybe like to experience “value for money” or a “grand day out” and are also affected by class, gender, and nationality. Tastes can also be influenced by opinion-makers including entrepreneurs and commercial advertisers, or dictated by law, as the “safe standing” movement in Britain at association football grounds indicates. This chapter, though far from comprehensive, explores some of these cultural issues in an introductory overview. 81

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SPECTATOR PRODUCTS Increased leisure time and greater disposable incomes meant that people increasingly watched those sportspersons who were more proficient than themselves. Spectatorship also grew as the media industries allowed enthusiasts to access sport in an increasing variety of ways. The media and sport have a symbiotic relationship historically, as the regular scheduling of sport enabled it to become a staple news item, widely available to a readership who perhaps could not attend in the stadium itself. As an illustration, London has hosted the Olympics three times: the 1908 Games were the first to be filmed; those of 1948 were part-televised; and in 2012 many people accessed the events at their leisure using social media and the Internet. The Cultural Significance of Mega Events One of the most significant drivers of both sporting products and specialist training was the creation of large, ambulatory, regularly staged international tournaments with attendant visitor attractions, mediated reach, high costs, and the attendant infrastructure projects necessary to stage sport on such a scale

FIGURE 3.1: Football Crowd circa 1925: Crowds pack the stands to watch the football match. Photo by General Photographic Agency. Getty Images.

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FIGURE 3.2: Betty Cuthbert’s Running Spikes. Cuthbert was Australia’s “Golden Girl,” who won three Olympic gold medals in the Melbourne Games of 1956, and a fourth gold in 1964. Pool/Pool. Getty Images.

(Müller 2015: 627). These mega sporting events have cultural meaning in that they have captured the public imagination (Roche 2000: 101). The Olympic Games as a mega sport product have cultural significance in several senses. First, in line with de Coubertin’s aim to create an Olympic environment in which artists and athletes could be mutually inspired, the IOC emphasizes that a host city must organize and promote a cultural program alongside the sporting events. Not until Stockholm in 1912 was an arts competition actually organized but, from then until London in 1948, such contests were organized in parallel to the sporting competitions, and gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded to the successful participants. In 1950 it was decided that from the Melbourne Games in 1956 the presence of arts in the Olympics would take the form of concurrent cultural exhibitions and festivals instead of competitions. Yet the Olympic audiences did not seem particularly interested in the arts program so, instead of staging the festivals at the time of the games, the cultural lead-in to the Barcelona Olympics of 1992 was a four-year Cultural Olympiad, a format that has been followed by subsequent host cities, allowing them to project their international image for a longer period of time than in the past (Garcia 2008). Second, the opening and closing ceremonies have been used to exhibit aspects of the culture and cultural history of the country in which the Games have taken place. The Sydney opening ceremony in 2000, for

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instance, featured a parade of the iconic Victa lawnmowers which had cut grass in the Australian suburbs for over half a century, and also a tribute to the Country Women’s Association, an institution for the rural Australian matriarchy. Third, Olympic memorabilia not only provide memories when bought as souvenirs but have become collectors’ items as aspects of cultural heritage (Budd 2012: 106– 12). The Olympics have enabled the host country to display a sense of selfidentity on a world stage, and also project that self-image to its domestic audience thereby using culture through a sporting lens for both domestic political and international relations purposes. Soccer World Cups share mega-event status with the Olympics but vary in that they are hosted by a nation (or even nations as in 2002 when Japan and South Korea shared the event) rather than individual cities and deal with only one sport. England may have invented soccer and given it to the world, but other countries put their own cultural imprimatur on the game. The World Cup, first played for in Uruguay in 1930 and avoided by England for reasons of sporting politics, enabled those cultures to be displayed beyond national boundaries. It allowed teams to demonstrate their distinctive playing styles and, as international travel became more accessible, fans their devotion to a nation as represented by its football team, and indeed by the related ephemera which includes posters, artifacts, and, since 1966, the mascot for each tournament (Williams 2018: 215). The first World Cup poster, for instance, created by Guillermo Laborde, had inflections of Uruguay’s Planismo movement, with levels of opposing planes in the design. This interpreted global trends in art and design, contextualized by Uruguay’s increasingly confident industrial economy and commercial awareness. Again, unlike the Olympics which emphasized its heritage with ancient Greece, the World Cup’s nationalist cultural appeal is that of Roman gladiatorial combat since the format is not a medal table but (with the exception of Brazil in 1950, which took a different approach) a knockout competition (Hughson 2017: 381). In January 1967 American football team the Green Bay Packers played Kansas City Chiefs in the first World Championship Game, an annual fixture that soon became referred to as the Super Bowl. It is an American institution, the largest shared experience in the nation’s cultural life. More Americans watch this sporting event—one of the highest-rated television shows in the world—than vote in elections or attend religious services: indeed those who express no interest in the contest could be accused of un-American activity. By the mid-1970s it had attained mega-event status and Super Bowl Sunday was increasingly regarded as a national holiday. It is now “the most influential and lucrative entertainment behemoth in the national landscape,” though, unlike the football World Cup which celebrates the world game, the Super Bowl remains a parochial spectacle. But what a spectacle! It leads Americans to gather together to participate in shared rituals including overt displays of nationalism. It is also a celebration (both in the profligate partying and the television

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FIGURE 3.3: Riley, Buick, and Bugatti on the start line at a Surbiton Motor Club race meeting, Brooklands, January 9, 1928. Brooklands was a 2.75-mile (4.43-kilometer) motor-racing circuit built in 1907 near Weybridge, in Surrey, England. It was the first facility built specifically for motor racing. Heritage Archives. Getty Images.

advertising) of conspicuous consumption, “a public demonstration of the American ability to buy things” (Hopsicker and Dyreson 2017: 2–3). Unlike the Super Bowl, which is played in one stadium on one Sunday each year, the Tour de France cycle race takes up three weeks of the French summer as it wends its way around the nation and, on occasions, beyond its borders. It began in 1903 as a specifically commercial venture designed to increase the circulation of L’Auto, a French sports paper, but it served to help the French come to terms with modernity, technology, and the mass media. For the French, it is more than a bicycle race; indeed it is more than the several contests it embraces of the yellow jersey for the overall winner, polka dot for king of the mountains, green for the sprinter with most points, and white for the best young rider. The media presents the Tour as an exploration of France’s cultural heritage but every year the Tour gives the French a familiar and very public site for them “to project their understanding of the past, assessments of the present, and aspirations for the future” (Thompson 2007: 4). Over time the Tour has acquired symbolic significance in France, become a guardian of French cultural memory, helping create a national identity and promoting iconic heroic figures of the men who manage the hard climbs and perilous descents of the Alps and

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Pyrenees to reach Paris, always the finish of the final stage. Every year millions of spectators line the roads to become a part, albeit fleetingly, of a national cultural activity, to cheer their favorites and to admire the endurance of the riders (Dauncey and Hare 2003). No contemporary envisaged that, when they started, these events would reach mega status. The early Olympics were not even stand-alone affairs but were accompaniments of international expositions (from which they borrowed the idea of a dizzying scale of spectacle and a kaleidoscopic range of activities) and the first World Cup had but thirteen entrants and needed no qualifying competitions. Yet for varying reasons, cultural and otherwise, they have increasingly gripped the public imagination and ultimately, aided by the reach of television, they achieved quadrennial international cultural significance. The Tour de France and the Super Bowl have achieved similar recognition, though more on a national and annual basis. Some Cultural Implications of Spectator Team Sports Cultural economic attitudes have influenced the development of sports leagues and conference structures with some fundamental differences between those in the United States and those in Europe. First, there is the matter of club ownership. Using football as an example, British clubs have tended to follow the American model of private ownership, but elsewhere in Europe there are significant differences. The German Bundesliga has a rule that all clubs must be controlled by their members who have to hold 50 percent plus one of the shares. Spain, too, has a tradition of fan-run organizations even for mega clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid. Here clubs are set up as non-profit institutions with ordinary fans as members who vote in a president with finance coming mainly in the form of long-term bank loans which seem to be continually rolled over because of the cultural significance of the clubs (Vamplew 2017). One recent standout feature of British football club ownership has been its transfer to foreigners. Over 60 percent of EPL clubs have a majority foreign ownership, a movement that has tied in with the British government’s acceptance, if not encouragement, of inward investment in the economy generally, and has been aided by British clubs, unlike many continental ones, being companies rather than associations. Yet this does not appear to have weakened the non-profit motivation that traditionally came with British owners who were civic boosters rather than profit-seeking entrepreneurs, though perhaps it is now kudos for the owners themselves than for their city. It is generally argued that those who bought into clubs in America were looking to make money while those in Europe were more concerned with winning cups and championships, what economists refer to as utility maximization in contrast to the profit-maximizing behavior of American

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owners. The literature on North American sports has tended to de-emphasize utility-maximization on the grounds that there is no evidence that owners have received less than a market return on their investment and generally make capital gains when they dispose of a franchise. Even poorly-performing teams can make profits and few US teams make losses in any season. In contrast few professional teams in Europe make consistent profits and rely on benefactors (wealthy individuals or supporters groups) to keep them afloat (Szymanski 2012: 5). This has had implications for league structures. American leagues are closed ones with no promotion or relegation. Franchises tend to be allocated centrally by the league, each with territorial restraints, and are widely dispersed geographically: it is rare to find more than one team in the same metropolitan area. This offers local monopoly status and protects club revenue. However, franchises can migrate, especially when city authorities offer subsidies, and new franchises can be awarded, though this is with financial compensation to the incumbents at a price agreeable to them. Clubs often own or host teams in minor leagues to which players can be sent; in effect promotion and demotion applies to players rather than the clubs. Leagues intervene in the labor market for their sport with player drafts, roster limits, salary caps, and restrictions on player trading. In the product markets closed leagues often opt for gate-revenue sharing, some joint merchandising, and the collective sale of broadcasting rights. The idea underlying this behavior is to equalize playing abilities between clubs, and thus promote equality of competition with an uncertainty of outcome which most sports economists argue will maximize attendances and viewing figures. Although some of these appear in Europe where leagues tend to be open, ability on the field means that it is possible to rise up the pyramid and also to fall down. Hence there is more of a meritocracy than in the United States. Leagues are bigger and some cities have several teams—at one time the EPL had six teams from London—and local derbies are a key feature. Revenue sharing is less common, player drafts and roster limits are relatively unknown, and player transfers for cash is the norm, whereas it is more usual in America for players to be traded in exchange for other players. Elite sports teams have long purported to be representatives of their locality: indeed even in the age of manufactured nicknames they still carry a city’s nomenclature. Emphasizing their links with local communities is one reason why leading sports clubs have corporate responsibility strategies by which they make donations in money and kind to neighborhood charitable ventures and support similar initiatives at a national and local level. These are an accentuation of traditional charitable functions which sports clubs and sportspersons have undertaken throughout the modern age and before (Vamplew 2016). Clearly being part of the community was important to clubs when ticket sales dominated revenue sources, but for British owners a raison d’être anyway was to put their

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city on the map by promoting a successful team. In contrast, this latter role in the United States has increasingly been played by the public authorities who have offered subsidies, especially stadium facilities, to owners to retain or lure a major team to their city. Since 1960 nearly all of the venues for professional sport built in the United States have been publicly funded (Davies: 285). As this implies, American owners have not been averse to selling or transferring their franchise to a city many miles away, indeed even across the whole continent as when Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team shifted to California in 1958. Yet baseball still traffics in the fiction that corporate franchises can really represent communities, and the spectator market has been conditioned to accept that local identity is at the heart of the cultural meaning of the sport within the United States. Nor are players really representative of the communities where they ply their trade. With a major exception of the “Lisbon Lions,” the Glasgow Celtic European Football Champions of 1967, in which all the team hailed from within 10 miles of the ground, players in the modern age did not generally emanate from the neighborhoods where their teams are located. English soccer literature often recalls how in the immediate post-Second World War decades the players of EFL clubs often caught the same buses to home matches as the fans. However, although the players may have lived locally, they were not always local in origin and perhaps never have been. Indeed in the early years of the EFL, which, unlike cricket, had no birth qualification, Scottish players often migrated south to play in English football. Moreover there was a transfer system for the buying and selling of players to other teams before 1914. What has changed in recent years with the creation of the EPL is that the bulk of the players are no longer even British. In the starting line-ups for the first round of EPL fixtures in 1992 just eleven players came from outside the United Kingdom or Ireland. This has changed dramatically and teams now resemble a league of nations with foreigners making up over 60 percent of the aggregate registered EPL players. North American team sports weakened their community representation—if it had ever existed without small franchises—with the coming of the draft in American football (1935), basketball (1947), ice hockey (1963), and baseball (1965), as well as the development of the farm system in baseball by which players were stacked away in minor league teams across the county to prevent their signing by rivals. Cultural Exceptionalism Australian Rules football is specific to that country. Although it resembles an amalgam of all other codes of football, it actually owes nothing to any of them. It began in 1858 as a means of keeping Melbourne cricketers fit during the winter and became organized into a state-based league competition in 1877, predating

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all other football leagues. In 1990 the competition became the Australian Football League, confirming that it was now a nationwide competition, though state leagues continued to function. It has several distinctive features, some of them reflecting Australian cultural heritage, particularly the concept of everyone getting a “fair go” and the larrikin anti-authority attitude. At state level it has been organized around electorate districts within the major cities. Unlike many football codes there are no knockout cup competitions with the top of the league at the end of the season being declared “minor” champion before an elaborate playoff system to determine the “major” champion. On the field it has a unique closed-fist method of passing the ball and features spectacular high marks where a player often clambers on an opponent’s shoulders to catch the ball. Points are awarded for near misses at goal, and not only is there no offside but players cannot be sent off for foul play, though any reported offenders are ineligible for the end-of-season award as “best and fairest” player (Hess et al. 2008). American college sport is a unique phenomenon in which athletics has become the cuckoo in the nest undermining the academic mission of many institutions. It began as a player sport product but became a major cultural spectator sport, popularized through the local press (Oriard 1994). Universities and colleges of further and higher education worldwide are dedicated to teaching, learning, and research, but in the United States, uniquely, they also host a $16 billion-a-year sports enterprise which has become part of the mass entertainment industry. Annual athletic budgets of several institutions top $100 million and most institutions spend more on sport than they receive directly from it. Their reward is glory, publicity, enhanced branding, political support in the state legislature, student and parent interest, and alumni donations. College sports, at least in those sports that have major professional leagues, have in effect become minor leagues used for draft purposes. This stems from some sports, football and basketball in particular, having no minor-league system in which aspiring professionals could learn their trade. Recruitment has been geared to the college draft and colleges are the only place where adequate coaching can be found. Increasingly student athletes in these sports are regarded by the universities, by the sports departments, and by the students themselves as being a distinct body on campus, separate physically and culturally from other undergraduates (Chudacoff 2015). American college sport is a striking case of what Vamplew (2018) has termed “commercial amateurism,” in which unpaid athletes perform in front of paying spectators, bringing revenue to promoters, clubs, and organizations. This concept covers situations like Queens Park, a Scottish amateur football club, which in the immediate post-First World War decade owned the largest football stadium in the world. Another example is Australian track and field in the 1920s. Neilsen (2014) shows how those who administered antipodean amateur sport were drawn into running it as a business and replicated the practices

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adopted by entrepreneurs pushing professional sport. They sought to popularize their sport by creating a network of clubs and promoting competition between them, as well as bringing overseas stars to Australia, neither of which fell within the classic British view of amateur sport under whose policies they were supposed to be operating. The general decline of amateurism at the elite level during the modern age—Rugby Union was the last major international sport to begin to pay its players overtly in the mid-1990s—has left American colleges in a unique position.

PLAYER PRODUCTS Player products focus on sports participants as consumers and how they have been supplied with equipment to play with, costumes to wear, places in which to perform, and training to improve their playing skills. Equipment and Costume The main functions of sports equipment and costume are to enable and improve performance as well as to offer protection to and identification of the wearer. Some basic equipment is necessary for a sport to take place but it is developments in design that have helped make participants faster, higher, and stronger. Just compare some items at the beginning of the modern age with their later equivalents: the stiff bamboo versus the flexible carbon fiber vaulting pole; wooden golf clubs versus the composite graphite and titanium versions; and the contrasting streamlining of cars in the inaugural Italian Mille Miglia of 1927 with their Formula One counterparts. Some equipment was not even comprehended in the 1920s. Athletes with physical disabilities could rarely be sportspersons, but now cyborg technology allows some to challenge able-bodied competitors. Costume is omnipresent in any representation of sport, be it the acknowledgment of ability in cycling’s maillot jaune (“yellow jersey”), the identifying colored silks worn by jockeys, or the protective helmets of American footballers. One fear is that the latter, rather than protecting the wearer, has led to their use as an offensive weapon and even more injuries. As technology has improved the design and materials of sports costume, such as the all-in-one swimsuits, it has to be questioned whether, in the search for marginal gains, costume has actually become equipment. As Williams (2015) has argued, the collaboration between Adi Dassler of Adidas sports shoes and Sepp Herberger in 1954 enabled the German team to screw in longer studs (or cleats) to counter muddy conditions at halftime in the World Cup final to turn a 2–0 deficit to Hungary into a 3–2 win, and created a major moment of postwar national pride. Bates and Warner (2011) have noted the dichotomy in costume between elite and recreational athletes in water sports and skiing, where the former have

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FIGURE 3.4: Crowd scene on the opening day of the 1952 Olympics. Helsinki Stadium, Finland. Photo by Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection. Getty Images.

opted for high-tech, skintight bodysuits, not generally seen in the pool or on the slopes. Perhaps the main achievement of costume—or rather costume change, as skirts became shorter and shorts became acceptable—has been to allow women to participate more fully in sport. Yet a major development has been unseen. Phillips and Phillips (1993) argue that new materials, such as nylon and rayon, led to lighter underwear for women, and the development of tampons increasingly liberated women to enjoy and participate in sport. Team sports demanded uniformity in costume design, but in other sports and in sporting recreation individuality could flourish. There have been fashions within sport: the tartan trews of American golfers visiting St. Andrews in the 1990s; the ultrashort shorts of English footballers in the 1970s and 1980s; and air shoes and the like among basketballers. However, these are subject to the regulatory rules of event organizers and even governing bodies. Cultural conservatism among tennis administrators meant that shorts were not acceptable until the 1930s, and even today skirts are the preferred option for female

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players. Moreover, while other tournament organizers have relented, Wimbledon still enforce the diktat that suitable tennis attire should be almost entirely white. Training, Instruction, and Assistance Instruction and assistance came as goods (manuals, rule books, and performanceenabling and -enhancing substances) and services (coaching, teaching, and scientific advice). In the 1920s professional golfers were advertising themselves as “teachers” and “instructors” to readers of the Golfers Handbook. Today personal trainers abound and instruction can be received electronically. At the elite level coaching was systemized and revolutionized during the modern age with scientific method applied to achieve even marginal advantage. Victorian sports administrators often regarded coaching as akin to cheating in gaining a unfair, unnatural advantage, though they accepted that sometimes it was a necessary evil, as in eights rowing where unison and style were considered vital. Any such coaching, however, was generally only acceptable if it came from their social peers (Day 2012). This gradually changed, and by the 1920s trainers such as Sam Mussabini helped his charges such as Olympic gold medalists Albert Hill and Harold Abrahams with their training regime, diet, and relaxation. By the middle of the twentieth century, advice had become segmented and specialized with dieticians, strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapists and physiologists, and it was increasingly possible to earn a living as an expert in one specific aspect of physical athletic preparation. Sports science was pioneered in Germany before 1920, and during the modern age its provision became formalized in most western and northern European nations. Its widespread adoption in the communist bloc has been attributed to a desire for more medals in international competitions, but this seems no less true of the Western world, though here there may also have been a commercial imperative. Sports science researchers focus on the key areas of physiology, nutrition, biomechanics, coaching, and medical support. However, there is a disconnect between sports science and sport for the masses. Although there have been some spin-offs for the ordinary athlete, particularly in rehabilitation, the focus of sports medicine everywhere, like sports science, has been the elite sportsperson and how to enhance their performance (Vamplew 1989: 68). So much so that one researcher has noted that at the beginning of the modern age most elite athletes were normal, healthy citizens but over time they have become potentially unhealthy physiological freaks (Heggie 2011: 194). In many sports the workplace is simultaneously a site of medical expertise and extraordinary medical neglect (Howe 2004). Promoters and managers frequently demand that participants play through pain, using drugs to enable them to perform despite the long-term damage to their bodies. Avoidable heatrelated deaths have been a constant feature in American football as players and coaches alike de-emphasize the dangers of playing and training in such

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FIGURE 3.5: Marco Pantani of Italy, rider for the Mercatone UnoScanavino team cycling on the Courchevel–Morzine Stage 16 of the Tour de France on July 18, 2000 at Courcheval, France. Photo: Doug Pensinger. Hulton Archive. Getty Images.

conditions. The culture of elite sport is to pressurize performers to minimize or suppress pain and injury (Schultz, Kenney, and Linden 2014). Scientific knowledge and technology have helped athletes break records by improving not just their bodies but also the environment in which they perform. Modern swimming pools for international events have wave-reducing lane ropes to absorb the splash from nearby swimmers, and running track surfaces have slip-resistant lanes that return energy to the legs rather than drain it like the old, uneven cinder ones did. Indeed one estimate is that Jesse Owens, winning Olympian in the 1936 100–meter sprint, who had a best time of 10.2 seconds, would have been only a stride behind Usain Bolt’s 2013 World Championship winning time of 9.77 seconds had he had the benefit of modern track, shoe, and starting block technology (Brennan 2018). Public and Private Provision of Facilities Bolz (2012) has shown that the interwar years in Europe were characterized by massive construction of publicly funded, local participatory sports venues based on an imperative to improve public health. Germany led the way, taking

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advantage of the prohibition on military education imposed in the Versailles peace treaty to adapt army training facilities for public use. Much was achieved in the Weimar Republic and the Nazis continued the policy of facilities for the masses rather than large venues for spectators. Italy, too, had politicized fascist physical education policies, and even in Britain, where there was a reluctance for state intervention in the sporting area, national governments saw a need for improved public health, though the onus for provision was left to local authorities. Yet the legacy of tradition still influenced the interwar decisionmaking. Whereas in 1922 Germany had an estimated 1,360 swimming pools and Britain 700, Italy had never been a national state and even in 1933 possessed but five pools. Similarly, gymnastics in Britain had never attained the level of popularity of the activity in Europe and gymnasiums scarcely featured in sports construction planning. In the United States, as part of its New Deal building program, the government invested in public parks and sports facilities and, at the level of an individual sport, Moss (2013) has shown that in the 1920s the private golf club enjoyed a boom, fueled by the ease of consumer loans which were used to pay for fees and subscriptions, but, following the stock market collapse later in that decade, American golfers, even from the middle classes, moved steadily to the use of public courses. Participatory Sports Clubs Sports clubs began to enable people with a common sporting purpose to come together. They provided a basis for agreeing common rules and regulations, created a framework for competitive interaction, and secured a location for participation. Clubs also encouraged sociability and conviviality, described by Holt (1992: 347) as being “at the heart of sport.” For the elite, tennis, skiing, golf, and motor sport were essentially clubbable opportunities for the sexes to mix, as well as providing chances for social interaction and to display status, wealth, and taste. Motoring down to overseas venues like Deauville, where the horse racing drew in tennis champion John Borota and aristocrats such as Lady Mountbatten and the Aga Khan, merged sport and leisure activities, new fashions, transport, and people-watching (“Dressing for the Autumn” Vogue 1930: 49). As in previous periods, clubs in the modern age tended not to cross the social divide and reinforced cultural barriers with bonding social capital between like-minded individuals rather than establishing bridging social capital across class, racial, and ethnic groupings. Kay’s (2013: 1661) study of private golf, tennis, and bowls clubs in twentieth-century Britain found evidence “of people like us hanging around together and repelling outsiders,” and in interwar America white Protestants created private golf clubs to keep out Catholics and Jews, while immigrant German Jews built their own courses but excluded Jews from eastern Europe (Moss 2013).

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Workplace Sport One special area of sports provision that became significant for some time in the modern age was that of workplace sport. It became a major way in which young adults, both male and female, were introduced to post-school sport in the interwar years, decades which one researcher claims was a “golden age” for work-based sport (Heller 2008: 607). Taking Britain as an example, worksbased teams, leagues, and cup competitions expanded throughout Britain for both men and women in this period. There was a significant development of interbusiness sporting rivalry with the establishment of competitions and events solely for company teams. By 1939 over a quarter of football clubs and nearly a fifth of cricket clubs in some northern towns had a workplace origin (Williams 1996: 124–5). The Industrial Welfare Society suggested that in the 1930s at least 25 percent of workers were members of company sports clubs (Kay 2013: 1662). Employers saw this provision as an addition to company welfare schemes that could create loyalty to their firms and undermine the growth of trade unionism, while workers felt the quality of the provision was better and often cheaper than available elsewhere (Vamplew 2017). The first decade following the Second World War was one of nationalization which saw state ownership of major industrial sectors such as the coal mines, railways, and iron- and steelworks, all of which were committed to welfare policies which included sport. Countervailing forces, however, included the lessening of a need for sport to be part of a broader welfare package with the development of the Welfare State. Phillips (2004: 112) suggests that personnel policies may have replaced (or encompassed) old-style welfarism. Moreover, a decade or so after the war, workers had become more affluent which raised the prospect of alternative leisure activities. Continued postwar affluence in the 1960s meant that workers could choose leisure activities away from the immediate workplace. Coupled with structural change within the economy as steel, coal, and engineering fell on difficult times, both supply of and demand for workplace sport reduced. The Lawn Tennis Association handbook for 1956 indicates that there were at least seventy-five affiliated working men’s clubs and miner’s welfare tennis groups throughout the north of England, but thirty years later, with large-scale colliery closures and alternative leisure options, there were only seven (Kay 2012: 2542). Margaret Thatcher’s unsocial Britain lessened any chances of a revival of workplace sport, which still exists but on a much smaller scale than in its heyday. Across the world, Australia exhibited a similar pattern of boom and decline in workplace sport. Such provision there was dominated by Australian Rules football, which was so popular that it occasionally morphed into a spectator product. After a study of the phenomenon in the state of Victoria, Burke (2008) concludes that, in the interwar period, workplace football was a significant

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cultural leisure activity for the people of Melbourne and its suburbs and regional centers. However, from a peacetime pinnacle at the close of the 1930s after the Second World War a gradual but sustained decline began, and by the end of the century workplace football was virtually extinct, a relic of a bygone era. In Russia in the 1920s the influence of the Prolerkultrists led to labor exercises in factory yards and farm meadows with men and women swinging hammers or scythes, simulating work movements in time to music. The Soviet system also involved the sponsorship of sports clubs (labeled Dinamo) by the security and armed forces and, later, via trade unions such as those for white-collar workers (Spartak), railway workers (Locomotiv), and car workers (Torpedo) (Riordan 2010: 545–7).

ASSOCIATED PRODUCTS People have always been encouraged to consume other goods when consuming sport. Indeed the sport product is a complementary one to others such as the travel product, the alcohol product, the food product, and the gambling product. As Stewart and Jones (2010) indicate, fans also purchase merchandise which has become increasingly significant, especially as global supporters, who may never attend a game in person, seek to identify with a team. Merchandising has been a way that clubs further capture the utility of their fans. Replica shirts have been joined by products with only a tenuous connection to football—own-label wines, fragrances, and children’s toys—as merchandise sales have soared to rival revenue from gate receipts. By 2007/8 the average EPL club made about £20 million from such commercial activity (Szymanski 2010: xiv–xv). There is fashion within sport but also fashion emanating from sport. Whereas sports clothing is for participants, sportswear, though often inspired by sports clothes, is for anyone. Today modern sportswear can be as much about leisurewear style as practical advantage in the arena: football shirts can send signals about a player’s biometrics to the coaching staff, but they also serve as replica products in a cross-generational market that can be worn on non-match days (Stride 2015). This cross-fertilisation began in the 1930s when for some consumers sportswear was becoming leisurewear. In both North America and in Europe, the staple look of sports fashions were mix-and match-separates, often in toning colors, or contrasting bright mixes of wool blend or cotton, such as featured by Brenner Sports Limited (“Motoring on the Continent” Vogue 1935: 14). These designs incorporated sports shirts and jumpers for men and women, to be worn for urban leisure as well as for active pursuits, and gradually a coordinated look of smart casual separates in easy wash materials became promoted as an “assemblage” or “ensemble.” Worldwide, this became an international and cosmopolitan way of dressing, elegant and androgynous, with

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tennis and basketball shoes predating trainers as the leading leisure footwear. Clemente (2007) has shown how, in the span of half a century, sportswear in south Florida evolved from the idiosyncratic daywear of elite northerners on vacation in Palm Beach to a major textile industry producing the very clothing that it was instrumental in popularizing. Catering franchises have remained important contributors to stadium revenue. Wimbledon tennis fortnight is the largest sporting catering operation in Europe; in 2015 it employed 1,800 staff to prepare and serve meals and drinks. The following quantities of food and drink were served: 350,000 cups of tea and coffee, 150,000 bottles of water, 207,000 meals, 235,000 glasses of Pimm’s, 190,000 sandwiches, 150,000 bath buns, scones, pasties, and doughnuts, 130,000 lunches, 100,000 pints of draught beer and lager, 60,000 sausage baguettes, 40,000 chargrilled meals, 32,000 portions of fish and chips, 30,000 liters of milk, 8,000 bottles of champagne, 125,500 ice creams, 6,000 stonebaked pizzas, and, of course, 142,000 portions of English strawberries (Wimbledon.com, 20 February 2016). Sport heritage has become a minor industry as the sector has mobilized nostalgia as a commercial but also an educational proposition. Museums and Sports Halls of Fame are the most important conduits of this, and the second half of the modern age has seen a significant increase in their number worldwide (Phillips 2012: 249). They invoke a sense of the past by emphasizing the material culture of sport. Stadium tours, too, have persuaded sports fans literally to pay homage to their heroes. These tours, like museum visits, always end via the ubiquitous shop where sports-related merchandise can be purchased as part of the commodification of sporting memory. Gambling is another associated sports product. Sport and gambling can work well together; having a bet can add to the excitement of the event, and the unpredictability of sport can create a lively betting market. Yet sport has been much more important to gambling as a vehicle for betting than gambling has been to sport as a source of revenue. Many governing bodies of sport were reluctant to associate themselves with gambling because of justified fears of ensuing corruption, but additionally, as much gambling was illegal, its revenue streams could not be easily tapped anyway. A few sports in countries where totalizators were legalized at race courses and dog tracks were able to raise money to plow back into the sport, but the primary beneficiary was government at state and national level. This disparity in revenue sharing was emphasized when off-course betting became legalized (Riess 2011; Vamplew 2006). During the modern age a revolution in communications technology transformed the way in which sport was presented and experienced. There is no doubt that the mega events previously discussed would not have become so gigantic without the drawing power of television. Boxing was the first sport to be widely televised (in the 1940s), the action in the limited-size ring being easy

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for the static cameras to cover. In the early years of the modern age physical attendance at the venue was essential to elite club revenues, but more recently income from broadcasting rights has become the dominant item in their accounts. The money from television contracts now appears to be the driving force in many sports. This leads to the danger of the sports industry becoming too reliant on one source of revenue. Currently competition between broadcasters is keeping income high for sports organizations, but it can go wrong. When Irish broadcaster Setanta’s contract with the Scottish Football League collapsed in 2009, several clubs were placed in financial jeopardy. Moreover the media tail may now be wagging the sporting dog. Sport has compromised itself by changing its playing and organization rules to suit broadcasting companies, such as the introduction of the tiebreak in tennis (and later other sports) to enable schedules to be met, and also allowing the television stations increasingly to determine the starting times for events. Media companies now own sports clubs and teams, as with Sky Broadcasting’s professional road-cycling team, and they also sponsor events, again as with Sky who began funding the British Masters Golf Championship in 2015.

ENTREPRENEURIAL MOTIVATIONS One expert on sports entrepreneurship noted that “while the profit motive has nudged sport in certain directions, one cannot say that it has dominated or even controlled the industry’s structure” (Hardy 1986: 20). He sensed that “profitseeking and risk-taking—normally central dimensions of entrepreneurship— have not always been so pivotal in an industry whose production process has often been subsidised by state and philanthropic agencies.” More recently Vamplew (2018) has argued for the introduction of the sports social entrepreneur who seeks social returns rather than (or as well as) operating surpluses into any discussion of promoter motivation and suggested, more generally, that sports entrepreneurs should be considered as those persons who act as change agents in the supply of sports products, who attempt to increase the output of the industry, improve the consumer experience, or raise interest in sports products by such means as developing new markets and creating new products. Much sports provision in the command economies of the communist world was for political, non-profit reasons, either to promote fitness and military preparedness, or, as was also a motive in the Western world, to bring prestige to the nation (and its politicians) via the reflected glory of gold medals won by their nation’s athletes. It was suggested above that there was a cultural difference in the motivation of American and European owners of sports clubs with regard to profit orientation. This is not to infer that Europeans were uninterested in making profits but to suggest that such earnings were not taken for personal consumption or distributed as shareholder dividends. Instead they were spent

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to improve the quality of the team to help the club win trophies. Others who definitely sought profits like conventional businesses (which is what they were) included the producers of sports costume and equipment, the purveyors of food and drink at sports venues, and the proprietors of newspapers and broadcasting companies who spread information about the events taking place there. There were some who also sought profits from sport but indirectly. Many local authorities in Britain constructed swimming pools, golf courses, and bowling greens to help attract the tourist pound to their locality, and employers who set up works teams felt such welfare provision promoted loyalty to the firm and reduced labor turnover.

DARK PRODUCTS Not everything marketed in the sports world of the modern age matched the wholesome image promulgated by those adherents of sport as a force for good. Clearly some sports products, be they spectator, player, or associated ones, can be labeled dark products as their sale or use undermines the integrity of sport. Spectator product providers were supplying several markets simultaneously. Some spectators wanted to see a demonstration of skill, others an entertaining spectacle; and yet others demanded the excitement and drama of a close contest. Economists argue that it is this latter unpredictability of sport with an uncertain result that is its key selling point. The problem for promoters is that this very unpredictability means that quality or excitement cannot be guaranteed. For some profit-seeking entrepreneurs the integrity of sport had to be sacrificed on the altar of spectacle to ensure an audience: for them the value of “normal” sport was not enough. The prime example was the development of professional wrestling, which by the 1920s was becoming choreographed with predetermined results. One wrestling impresario of the time, Charles Cochran (1915: 11), claimed in his autobiography that “the public did not want straight wrestling – they wanted a ‘show.’ ” The major supplier of professional wrestling today is World Wrestling Entertainment which began as Capitol Wrestling Corporation in 1952 and now hosts over 300 live events each year as well as telecasting to some 150 countries. Although the bouts are scripted and follow a story line, they have found a ready market among sports fans who prefer the spectacle to true competition. The elephant in the room when discussing sports science is performanceenhancing drugs. There is a fine line—exploited by medical exemptions— between performance-enabling and performance-enhancing drugs, one deemed appropriate for bringing athletes to the starting line but the other banned for giving them an unfair advantage. As Dimeo and Moller (2018: 81) show, over 300 substances which appear in general medications are now prohibited by IOC and WADA rules, although they are legal for personal consumption. In

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the search for international championship medals, some countries, notably in the communist bloc, have sanctioned the systematic use of performanceenhancing drugs, but Western athletes have also had their use of such drugs condoned by their respective sports bodies (Dimeo, Hunt, and Horbury 2011). Another form of dark product has been the sports costume and equipment produced by the exploitation of workers, including children, in the underdeveloped world. In the early 1990s much of the world’s output of footballs stemmed from young boys and girls handsewing together panels of leather or synthetic materials. A football could sell for $65 (£50); the 6-yearold Pakistani child who stitched it together got paid the equivalent of 15 cents (10 pence), a classic example of corporate capitalism exploiting market forces to its advantage. Although child labor is illegal in India and Pakistan, few seem to care that it is infringed to produce sports equipment: not the national or state governments who simply accept the situation; not the multinational corporations who subcontract the production of their wares to middlemen in those nations; not even the Save the Children charity who argued that stitching footballs was not as bad as other trades; and certainly not the consumers who continued to buy footballs by the million (Navid et al. 2011). Sport has never been totally pure: cheating one’s opponents, using performance-enhancing substances, and player and spectator violence all have a long history. Whether the use of dark products intensified in the modern age is a matter of hypothesis rather than calculation but there are several indicators that this has occurred. First, the use of performance-enhancing drugs, state sponsored in the Eastern bloc and tolerated for stars in the West, has become a recognized major threat to the integrity of track and field, road cycling, and power sports such as weightlifting. Indeed a feature of these sports (and others) is a race, between pharmacologists who invent performance-enhancing drugs and those who detect them. Secondly, crowd behavior, particularly in soccer, became a major problem in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. Although not the root cause, the association with alcohol often acted as a trigger mechanism or an aggravating factor (Collins and Vamplew 2002: 80–7). Thirdly, historians have shown that in America the criminal underworld infiltrated boxing in the interwar decades and college basketball in the immediate post-1945 years (Riess 1988; Figone 1989). Additionally economists, using large data sets, have alleged widespread match fixing in several sports including sumo, horse racing, college football and basketball, and tennis (Vamplew 2018). A recent report solicited by the European Commission noted that “scandals have multiplied in recent years and encompass all disciplines, all levels of sport and a wide number of countries” (Boniface 2012: 15). Indeed Hill (2016: 231–2), an investigative journalist (but one with a doctorate in sociology), believes that “the war against match-fixers is being lost,” predominately because of the globalization of the sports gambling market.

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FIGURE 3.6: Kenilworth Cigarette Advertisement, March 20, 1920 in the Illustrated London News issue. The ad features a pair of golfers. A woman offers a wager of twenty cigarettes to the male player that he cannot make his shot. Photo by Mansell/ Time & Life Picture/The LIFE Picture Collection. Getty Images.

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GLOBALIZATION Perhaps betting on sport has become globalized, but what of sport itself? National cultures produced and popularized different sports in different areas of the world. Tomlinson and Young (2011) identify four clusters of sport development within Europe alone: not just the British, but also German, Soviet, and Scandinavian versions. The British one was characterized by an absence of state intervention, a reliance on private organizations, and a domination by an anti-commercial ethos through the ideology of amateurism. The German cluster originated in nineteenthcentury militarized forms of physical culture and was marked by an emphasis on the collective, the individual body in harmony with the body politic, and a noncompetitive ethos. Scandinavia had a variant on the German with an equal focus on improving national spirit and defense in the nineteenth century, but placed greater emphasis on individual movement, bodily harmony, and aesthetics. Additionally, its notion of idrott proposed a recreational outdoor physical development in harmony with nature. In the Soviet/eastern European cluster, which emerged in the twentieth century, sport was an extension of the state apparatus both in spheres of mass display and the cultivation of elite athletes. In America, British sports immigrated with the colonists and prizefighting and horse racing vied for precedence as early spectator sports. Yet the sport that emerged as America’s national one in the nineteenth century was baseball, which had British origins but no popularity in its homeland. The later developments of American football and basketball were clearly innovations from within the United States. It is often argued that these models of sports development have now been undermined by globalization, but really soccer is still the only one truly global sport. The World Cup, inaugurated in Uruguay in 1930, was the first singlesport global team event, but it was unique also for being the first global competition to allow professionals to participate. Moreover Taylor (2006) asserts that it began the expansion of the international market for football talent which cemented soccer as the world game. As befits the “world game,” the supply lines for balls has become multinational. Footballs that once required stitching in local cobblers’ workshops became sourced from South and East Asia where labor was plentiful and cheap. In turn mechanized production in China has undercut the low productivity of the handsewers of Pakistan and Thailand (Navdi et al. 2011: 338–40). Yet this is more an international division of labor based on comparative advantage than true globalization. Globalization is often conflated, especially by those on the political left, as Americanization. Yet sport has not become McDonaldized even with the global reach of American televised sport. Although basketball has featured in the Olympics since 1936, baseball has appeared only intermittently and American football not at all, suggesting that some major American team sports have not transferred sufficiently across the world to justify inclusion in one of the truly global sports festivals. Backed by the NFL as a means of developing young players

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by giving them more game experience, the World League of American Football operated in Europe between 1991 and 2007. It was formed to serve as a spring league, with seven of the ten teams actually based in North America. That format lasted two seasons before, after a one-season hiatus, it was re-established in 1995 with six teams, all in Europe. In 1998 it was rebranded as NFL Europe until 2007 when it became NFL Europa, in deference to the dominant spelling in Dutch and German. There was a lack of stability in the franchises and ultimately five of the six teams were based in Germany. While attendances held up, this lost them television contracts outside Germany, and in June 2007, one week after the World Bowl XV, the league was disbanded. Reportedly it had been losing about $30 million a season. It had become an expensive exercise in amassing exemption for NFL summer training camps (Starcevic: 2007). In sport America has exhibited exceptionalism, if not isolationism, with the one real world sport, soccer, only being accepted as a mainstream sport relatively late in the United States. However, perhaps globalization should be considered more subtly than simply the domination of a type of sport. As members of the major superpower emerging from the First World War, Americans thought they could use sport to spread American culture and ideology throughout the world, similar to what Britain had done in the previous century. However, Dyreson (2003) argues that the spread of modern sport encouraged nationalism rather than globalization. Maybe globalization can be seen in attitudes toward the promotion of sport but the American pursuit of profit has not been fully replicated around the world with investment in sport for national and individual kudos still often occurring.

CONCLUSION During the modern age sport experienced commercial widening, commercial deepening, product modification, and product transformation, often influenced by cultural developments in wider society. Commercial widening occurs when more revenue is obtained from traditional gate-revenue sources, such as the playing of more games (with the expansion of Victorian Football League to encompass Australian Rules teams from all the other states) or the creation of extra stadium capacity when there is excess demand for the event being sold (commonplace everywhere in growing sports). In effect it is a business strategy of “more of the same.” Commercial deepening, however, involves the development of new revenue sources such as sponsorship, merchandising, signage, and media rights, which is the modern age sports business writ large. Product modification involves changing the original sporting competition so as to attract larger audiences, either for one event or over a season. Such changes include the establishment of new competitions within the sport (in British soccer, League cups were added to the more established League championships and Association cup

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competitions), the introduction of playoffs for promotion from one division to another (again introduced into the English and Scottish Football Leagues), or perhaps playing at different times of the week (the establishment of Monday Night Football for the American media) or even different times of the year (elite Rugby League in England has switched from being a winter code to a summer one). Such developments add more events to the sporting calendar but do not change the essence of the traditional game. Product transformation, on the other hand, can drastically change the nature of a sport and the way in which it is played. One feature that has affected several sports is that the referee’s decision is no longer sacrosanct. Technological developments enabling slow-motion replays have forced governing bodies to acknowledge that in-play rulings can be challenged. All these changes can be seen within Australian cricket, which began the modern age with test matches scheduled against the traditional all-white teams of England and South Africa and an internal Sheffield Shield competition between the three most populous states of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Commercial widening saw new international opponents including India, Pakistan, and the West Indies, all non-white in their composition, and the spread of the Shield tournament to the rest of the continent. Commercial deepening began with the Australian Cricket Board signing contracts with national radio and later television broadcasters, at the time non-commercial organisations, but the sport gained even more revenue when media magnate Kerry Packer set up a rival competition, World Series Cricket, in the late 1970s as the resultant rapprochement allowed a commercial broadcaster to gain the rights to televise all Australia’s games. Even more of an income generator was the product modification of limited-overs (usually fifty for each side) cricket in which a result could be obtained in a day unlike the four or five days of traditional matches. Ultimately this led to product transformation and by the end of the modern age the most popular form of the game in Australia was the Big Bash, in which sides representing the capital cities, ostensibly the state teams with imported guest stars, played each other, often under lights, in matches limited to twenty overs batting for each side, thus fitting in with the zeitgeist of recent times, that of instant gratification, fast food, and fast communication. Sports products are not just an economic phenomenon but are influenced by, and have implications for, cultural aspects of life. During the modern age cultural shifts helped influence change in the format and character of many sports. Who in 1920 would have believed that one day the United States would win the Women’s World Soccer Championship, or indeed that such a tournament would ever exist (Williams 2013)? What cricket fan would have envisaged switching on an electronic device to watch one-day games in India and Afghanistan, or that the headquarters of that game would now be in Dubai? Who would have imagined that the Olympic Games would have been hosted in Rio de Janeiro and would have featured golf, synchronized swimming, mountain biking, taekwondo, and the triathlon?

CHAPTER FOUR

Rules and Order SHELDON ANDERSON

Political power in Europe and the United States at the turn of the century rested with wealthy white men, who decided who would be allowed to play organized sports, why the games were played, and how they were played. Sports were seen as a way to maintain class structures, gender and ethnic divisions, and even international order. In addition to adhering to the rules of a game, sports were to teach proper bourgeois values of honesty, politeness, hard work, and masculinity. Sport was a civil religion to inculcate values that assured the elites’ hold on political and economic power. These leaders led the masses into the carnage of the First World War. Before the war the powerful had managed to maintain their lofty position, but at the end of the war the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires had collapsed, and the Bolsheviks were running Russia. After the sacrifices they had made in the war, the lower and middle classes, women, and disenfranchised minorities everywhere were demanding a greater piece of the political and economic pie. The Second World War accelerated these changes. The civilizing mission promoted by the upper classes, as reflected in sport, came under scrutiny as well. The informal rules of sport dictated those eligible to play, norms for behavior on and off the field, and the values sports were supposed to champion. These rules have been contested to this day. A recurrent theme of the past century of sport is that as much as they try, sport authorities, like political figures, have faced continued challenges to their laws and values. In fact, sports have often been the catalyst for changes to political structures and societal norms. In this way, just as there has been a gradual increase in the number of liberal democracies in the last century,

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organized sports have also become more inclusive across national, ethnic, and gender lines; this is an inspirational story.

THE CONSTITUTIVE RULES OF SPORTS In the last half of the nineteenth century, the Anglo-American powers devised many of the games that dominate the global sports scene today. The British Isles birthed such games as soccer football, rugby, cricket, and golf, and had standardized most Olympic events. The Americans gave the world baseball, basketball, volleyball, and American football. The regularization of sports paralleled the rationalization and modernization of Western political and economic systems with their improved transportation and communication that facilitated mobility and urbanization. Western sport’s rules also became standardized, enabling players from different locations to compete together. Sports record-keeping became increasingly exact to determine who ran or swam the fastest, threw the farthest, or jumped the highest. These are what Wray Vamplew terms the “constitutive,” or formal, rules of sports (Vamplew 2007: 843). The basic rules of the world’s most popular games were established by the early twentieth century. Sports rules, of course, are in constant flux. Changes are made for greater fairness, to insure player safety, correct an obvious flaw in the game, or enhance fan interest. Players with extraordinary talents or those who consistently bend the formal and informal rules can also prompt sports authorities to make basic changes. Soccer traditionalists have been loath to tweak the rules of “the beautiful game.” In a sport where scores are rare, the referee is in a position to dramatically change the outcome, especially if he whistles a foul on the defense in the penalty area (often incorrectly) and awards a penalty kick. In a rule that was determined over a century and a half ago, the penalty kick comes from 11 meters from the goal against a stationary goalie. At higher levels, a goal results in over four of five tries. In the early 1860s, the headmaster of Uppingham School helped devise the offside rule by which a player in front of the ball is “out of play.” The Harrow Rules declared that the “[player] is said to be behind,” and Eton College had it that “a player is considered to be ‘sneaking’ ” if behind the defense (Rous and Ford 1974: 16). Could this have derived from the wild and wooly games pitting village against village, where a villager could not infiltrate the other side, as if he were a spy in war? In American football, the object of the receiver is to get behind the defense. Soccer’s offside rule was changed in 1925, when FIFA directed that only two (not three) players had to stand between possessor of ball, but it is still a tough call for a linesman. Often goals are scored by players in advantageous, albeit offside, positions.

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Baseball is the hallowed American game, and like soccer has been slow to make rule changes. Baseball loyalists have romanticized the game for its timelessness, symmetry, and precision. Nonetheless, when baseball had a scoring problem in the late 1960s, MLB lowered the height of the pitching mound, giving the batter a better chance. In 1973, the American League further boosted the offenses by instituting a “designated hitter” to bat for the pitcher. Pitchers still hit in the National League, making baseball one of the only major sports in the world that has different rules for its two constituent leagues. Baseball purists laud the lack of a game clock, but long games (made even longer with instant-replay reviews) have made MLB bosses contemplate a time limit between pitches. This is heresy to traditionalists. The same issue confronted the other “timeless” game—cricket—which in 1971 began to play a “one-day international,” which in turn made the game more accessible to the working masses. A five-day Test is still a time-honored tradition, but an unrealistic length to play on a regular basis. Baseball was one of the last American games to adopt instant replay. It is now a staple of MLB, much to the consternation of old-timers who, like FIFA, did not want to change their “grand old game.” Houston Astros manager A. J. Hinch lamented the use of replay to find minute ways to call a player out on a tag play: “In some ways, it feels like you’re getting a speeding ticket for going 60 in a 55. By the letter of the law, that’s how it’s played, and until they change the rule, we’re obviously going to play that way” (Witz 2015). Instant replay has taken out the humanity and soul out of the game, a victory of science over art. For the most part gone are the entertaining rhubarbs between manager and umpire, the endless debates about a blown call, and the sour fruit that has inspired so many great moments in baseball lore, such as Don Denkinger’s missed call at first base in the sixth game of the 1985 World Series, a key play in the Kansas City Royals’ victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, tying the series. The Royals went on to win the championship in the seventh and deciding game. Now the final call is farmed out to a faceless video center in a far-off city. FIFA was also slow to introduce the use of technology. Before the advent of instant replay, one of the most infamous soccer goals that should not have counted was England’s third goal against West Germany in 1966, helping the “masters of the game” to win their one and only World Cup. Diego Maradona’s illegal “Hand of God” goal against England in 1986 sparked more controversy about introducing replay. FIFA did not act until there were several embarrassing botched calls in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Referees in one game disallowed an English goal against Germany that would have tied the score at 2–2. Germany went on to win 4–1. In another game, an obvious offside led to a 1–0 Argentine lead against Mexico and an eventual 2–1 win. Now FIFA uses goal and sideline cameras to confirm or overturn the referee’s call.

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Protecting player safety has produced the most sensible rule changes. For example, after nearly twenty deaths in American football in 1905, the forward pass was instituted to open up that game. In 1920, after Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman died from a purported spitball that hit him in the head, and for sanitary reasons, MLB banned the pitch. Baseball is a dangerous game, especially when runners bear down on catchers or defenseless middle infielders as they try to catch the ball, or when hurlers throw a pitch (“beanball”) at batters at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. Baseball has legislated against these practices; pitchers who throw at the batter’s head are warned, and in some cases thrown out of the game. Runners are no longer allowed to crash into a middle infielder on a double play, or run into the catcher at home plate. Football today is facing a real dilemma in protecting players’ heads from concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which has led to highly publicized cases of dementia, and even suicide. More and more parents are prohibiting their children from playing the game. There is also evidence

FIGURE 4.1: The dominance of some players such as Minneapolis Lakers’ George Mikan prompted rule changes. The NBA widened the three-second lane because of Mikan’s unstoppable low-post scoring. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

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that heading a soccer ball at an early age can cause brain damage, and that concussions in sport have become a serious problem. On the other hand, many Americans are utterly disdainful of soccer players who writhe around in pain, only to jump up and run around an instant later. Some great centers like George Mikan of the 1950s Minneapolis Lakers influenced games through their physical dominance, while others have prompted rule changes because their tactics were dangerous. The small lane between the basket and the free throw line was widened because Mikan could post up a couple of feet from the basket, making his hook shot virtually unstoppable. The NCAA’s ban on dunking from 1967 to 1976 was in large part a way to neutralize the dominance of UCLA’s center Lew Alcindor (renamed in 1971 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), who stood 7 feet 2 inches. The rule actually helped him in the long run as he had to develop more finesse around the rim. In the 1970s, Oakland Raider defensive back Jack Tatum regularly blindsided receivers to dislodge the ball. Tatum’s tactic was banned after he hit Buffalo Bill receiver Daryll Stingley and left him. Bench-clearing brawls were a frequent occurrence in the NBA before Laker Kermit Washington nearly killed Houston Rocket Rudy Tomjanovich with one punch. The most memorable “closeline” foul in NBA history was Boston Celtic Kevin McHale’s wipeout of the Lakers Kurt Rambis in the 1984 NBA finals. Players are now tossed from the game for fighting, flagrant fouls, or even from leaving the bench to try to break up a fracas.

AMATEURISM “Auxiliary rules,” according to Vamplew, “specify and control eligibility, and regulatory rules place restraints on behavior independent of the sport itself” (Vamplew 2007: 843). Agreement on the basic rules of games has been easier to arrive at than coming to a consensus on player eligibility or how athletes are to play on the field, and behave off it. The authorities who governed cricket, Rugby Union, the NCAA, and the IOC in the early twentieth century were predominantly upper-class white men dedicated to the idea of amateurism. They were convinced that the combination of money and sport in any fashion would undermine the recreative camaraderie and purely competitive purpose of sports. The definition of amateurism, other than prohibiting the direct payment for play, differed from sport to sport, country to country, and region to region. For the past century and a half sporting authorities around the world fought a losing battle to keep their sports clear of professionals. Coubertin himself was aware of the impossibility of imposing one Olympic standard on the British Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), the US Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), or the French Fédération Française d’Athlétisme (FFA) (Llewellyn and Gleaves 2014: 96–7, 109).

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The well-to-do easily preached their version of amateurism. They had the leisure time and space to play games without needing any financial incentive. The English “lawn games” of croquet, tennis, golf, and cricket were genteel affairs played on manicured greens in exclusive clubs, without the shouts and jeers of the riffraff. The upper classes had more difficulty restricting participation in soccer and rugby, games that could be played on any field and with minimal equipment—a ball and a goal. Victorians included these games in public-school curriculums in an attempt to inculcate English upper-class lads with sportsmanship, fairness, and physical rigor. Soccer was not considered manly enough, so the rough and tumble game of rugby became a measure of a young student’s courage—“a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen,” as the old adage had it. The amateur ideal had difficulty surviving in urban, industrial Britain. Since the introduction of universal education in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, working-class boys began playing soccer and rugby in schools and reading about their local teams in the newspapers. Club managers paid players who could not afford to take time off from work to play soccer under the table. In 1883 the professionalized Blackburn Olympics beat the Old Etonians in the FA final, ushering in era of northern club dominance over upper- and middleclass southern clubs. Until the outbreak of the First World War, Tottenham Hotspur, whose players were mostly paid northerners, was the only southern team to win the FA Cup. In the case of rugby, the “Great Schism” of 1895 revolved mostly around southern rugby union teams who rejected the payment of players which was permitted by the new rugby league. Soccer and rugby league have long resolved the issue of professionals and amateurs, but England’s most class-conscious game—cricket—maintained an outmoded notion of amateurism. England’s most famous cricket player, W. G. Grace, was one of the first to question “shamateurism,” taking, in 1873–4, Ł1,500 to tour Australia (Tomlinson 2015). Nearly a century later, in 1963, English cricket authorities finally bowed to reality, ending the distinction between professionals and amateurs—“players” and “gentlemen.” From then on they were all merely cricketers (Hopkins and Gibson 2012). The IOC and the NCAA are the other major sports organizations that have tried to exclude professionals. Throughout the Cold War the IOC kept up the sham that Olympic athletes were unpaid amateurs. Longtime American Olympic Committee (AOC) and then IOC president Avery Brundage doggedly adhered to Coubertin’s original vision of an amateur Olympics, and turned a blind eye to Soviet bloc subsidies of athletes. As long as Soviet bloc athletes had a job, were in college or in the military (and rarely showed up), the IOC deemed them amateurs. College athletes in the United States received scholarships to play sports. Western athletes also took payments under the table to endorse athletic gear or to compete in a sporting event. Finally, in 1992, the IOC

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succumbed to reality and allowed professionals into the Games, nearly a century after the first modern Olympics. Vamplew sees this as a positive development: “Eligibility generally is now more to do with ability than social position” (2007: 852—3). The highly profitable NCAA is currently the last bastion of amateurism. The organization is fighting an ultimately unwinnable battle against cash payments to college athletes who make NCAA officials, athletic directors, and coaches billions of dollars. The NCAA Division-1 compliance book alone runs some 400 pages. For over a century the NCAA has maintained the farce that its athletes receive no cash payments. In 1929, the Carnegie Foundation surveyed 112 colleges and universities, and found that only twenty-eight were running “ethical” sports programs. The study concluded that “apparently the ethical bearing of intercollegiate football contents and their scholastic aspects ‘were of secondary importance to the winning of victories and financial success’” (Rader 2009: 192).

FIGURE 4.2: Harold “Red” Grange of the Chicago Bears, December 8, 1925. The University of Illinois halfback (1923–5) was the greatest college football player of all time. He turned pro late in 1925 and is wearing his Chicago Bears uniform. National Photo Company Collection. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. LC-DIG-npcc-15254.

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The University of Illinois featured the great Red Grange from 1923 to 1925, but amateurists were outraged when he turned professional after his senior season, before finishing the academic year. The University of Chicago, once a major football power, could not compete in this milieu, and in 1939, choosing to focus on its academic mission, gave up football. Given that the University of Chicago is one of the top universities in the world today, it is apparent that football was not essential to its core mission to educate students. The university resumed intercollegiate football in non-scholarship Division 3 in 1969. Universities often subverted the system by giving players bogus jobs, much like Soviet bloc athletes. The University of Minnesota, a powerhouse football team before and after the Second World War, was adept at this deception. Gopher great Bud Grant, future coach of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, “worked” for a firm in Minneapolis, and showed up once a month to pick up his paycheck (Hartman 1997: 55). The NCAA has become a huge moneymaking machine, so much so that its “amateur” sports programs are rife with scandal, corruption, and inequities. In 2014, six SEC baseball coaches (a non-revenue sport) were making more than $1 million (Tracey 2014). As of 2018, fourteen D-1 basketball coaches were making more than $3 million (USA Today 2018). Players receive scholarships to attend school, pay for books, and have food at a training table. But many come from impoverished families with no disposable income and went hungry when the training table was closed, and had no money to fly home for a family emergency or other sundry needs. In 2009, former UCLA basketballer Ed O’Bannon filed a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA for using the images of players—his among them—without compensation. He lost. In the mid-2010s, Northwestern University quarterback Kain Colter tried to unionize Division-1 college football players so they could get a share of the billions of dollars made on Division-1 football. The NCAA fought him and he lost the lawsuit (Bonesteel 2015). In the most recent string of a long line of embarrassing transgressions of NCAA rules, the University of North Carolina was exposed for giving athletes grades without them ever doing any work. The NCAA got the university off without sanction because other non-athlete students had access to these bogus courses. University of Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s basketball program provided prostitutes for prospective players and payments to bring them to the school. Despite his claim of innocence, Louisville fired him in 2017. The NCAA vacated some of Louisville’s previous wins, but gave the school a light penalty of four years’ probation. In the end, even Coubertin knew that the idea of amateurism was untenable: “I can admit it,” he wrote in his memoirs. “The [amateur] question never really bothered me. It had served as a screen to convene the Congress designed to revive the Olympic Games. Realizing the importance attached to it in sporting

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circles, I always showed the necessary enthusiasm, but it was enthusiasm without real conviction” (Llewellyn and Gleaves 2014: 101). The cultural character of a nation, region, or city—often imagined— influences the playing styles that managers, coaches, and players are expected to follow. To play in a contrary manner is often seen as subversive, even if the established approach is not always victorious. In the past it took courageous individuals to contradict the forces that dictated a specific way of playing. Today, with the professionalization and globalization of sport, these cultural differences are being watered down. The British, the founders of modern sport, approached competition based on the tenets of amateurism, which was challenged by the upstart sportsmen across the Atlantic. The British were supposedly disdainful of scientific training methods and the way the Americans brought a “business-like” attitude toward amateur sports. As Matthew Llewellyn and John Gleaves argue, “Striving, training, and specialization—hallmarks of the professional—were strongly abhorred as crude, impure, and tainted” (2014: 99, 103). Before the 1928 Amsterdam Games, the head of the US Olympic Committee, Douglas MacArthur, enunciated the overly contentious American sporting ethic, which ran afoul of the old British sporting traditions of gentlemanly sportsmanship: “We represent the greatest nation in the world. We have not come so far to lose gracefully, but rather to win, and win decisively” (Large 2007: 47). English universities cultivated a tradition that it was enough for sportsmen to give it the “old college try.” One historian observed that “to be perceived as overtly trying for a goal is an English taboo.” Robert Falcon Scott, who died in his failed quest to lead the first expedition to the South Pole, once said that “gentlemen don’t practice” (Alexander 1999: 43). Ernest Shackleton had failed in his attempt to reach the South Pole several years earlier, but his crew had dragged along several cases of whisky to lighten their spirits along the way (McGrath 2011: 32–6). Another British subject set out to conquer the four-minute mile. It seemed right that breaking this record for the mile, a measurement created by England, should happen there. In 1945, Sweden’s Gunder Hägg had set the record in the mile at 4:01.4, a mark that stood for nine years. Medical student Roger Bannister had trained assiduously to beat the four-minute mark, but the British media and scholars situated Bannister firmly in the amateur sporting tradition. It was an image that the runner himself cultivated. One noted track coach, Brutus Hamilton, commented that “the lad is a real amateur. He runs only because he loves to run. And he prepares himself well” (Bale 2006: 49). Breaking the four-minute mile was no amateurish endeavor, however. Bannister’s quest was representative of another enlightened British tradition— the scientific method. Instead of merely running long distances, Bannister decided to do interval training to improve his speed and stamina, figuring that

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to break the four-minute mile he had to run every quarter mile in 60 seconds. He also developed lighter track shoes. Bannister’s quest for the four-minute mile would be a team effort. He enlisted Christopher Brasher and Christopher Chataway as pacers for the first parts of the race. John Bale writes that “the sanitized space of the running track, devoid of serious competitors and manned only by assistants, replicated the laboratory. The four-minute mile was an experiment, a model to be empirically tested” (Bale 2004: 119–24). With the help of the two “rabbits,” in 1954 Bannister ran a 3:59.4. Lord Brabazon gushed that Bannister was “an example to the world of our ideal sportsman.” But years later some observers criticized Bannister for undermining the true spirit of sport in a race that was not really a true amateur competition (Bale 2006: 49, 51–2).

ALLOWING WOMEN ON THE FIELD For much of the twentieth century sport was the bailiwick of men. In the view of the bourgeois paragons of organized sport, the female ideal was the domesticated wife who raised children and kept the house; she was unsuited to physical exercise. Working-class women worked themselves to the bone, of course, but that manual labor was anathema to the upper classes, who had reached their social level to avoid sweating, straining, and struggling. A Rubenesque, pastywhite form was desired. Although racing horses was the purview of the upper crust, even women riding astride (as opposed to sidesaddle), according to some prudes, caused “an unnatural consolidation of the lower part of the body, ensuring a frightful impediment to future functions” (Hargreaves 2013: 135). Bicycling was an “indolent and indecent practice which would even transport girls to prostitution” (Odendaal 2012: 116). Strenuous exercise, they argued, would jeopardize a woman’s ability to bear children and breastfeed. Women of leisure were allowed to play sedentary lawn games of croquet, badminton, and tennis, albeit in full dresses. Cricketers frowned on women playing that game because it entailed hard throwing, batting, running, and catching. Grace derided the “Original English Ladies Cricketers” league. “They might be original and English,” he scoffed, “but they are neither cricketers nor ladies.” The formation of England’s Women’s Cricket Association in 1926 was the first international cricket organization (Odendaal 2012: 116). Coubertin’s Olympic vision was decidedly upper class and male. “The Olympic Games,” he declared, “must be reserved for men.” Coubertin did not care if women exercised in private, but the prospect of women running and jumping around in shorts in full public view was anathema to the conservative Frenchman. As the saying went, “a horse sweats, a man perspires, but a lady only glows.” When a few women’s events were included at the 1900 Paris Games, Coubertin disgustedly complained that it was “the most unaesthetic sight human

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eyes could contemplate” (Schweinbenz 2000: 135). He warned that if there were women runners or soccer players in the Olympics “would such sports practiced by women constitute an edifying sight before crowds assembled for an Olympiad?” (Leigh and Bonin 1977: 73–4; Hargreaves 2007: 4). It has been an ongoing struggle to allow women to compete on the same level as men in the Olympics. No women competed at the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. Women played in golf, tennis, and sailing at the 1900 and 1904 Olympics, archery was added in 1904, and swimming and diving in 1912. Women’s track and field was not on the Olympic program until 1928. As one journalist at the time wrote, women did not belong on the field of play but in the water to swim (Pieroth 1996: 96, 101). In the face of this resistance from the sclerotic aristocrats in the IOC, a Frenchwoman started her own Olympic Games for women. In 1921, Alice Milliat helped form the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) in Paris. The FSFI held four women’s world competitions in the interwar period: the Women’s Olympic Games in Paris in 1922 and Stockholm in 1926, and the Women’s World Games in Prague in 1930 and London in 1934. The first Games in Paris attracted athletes from five countries to compete in eleven different disciplines. The IAAF, which oversaw track and field, finally bent to Milliat’s constant pressure. Women took part in track and field at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. When several women fell in exhaustion after the 800-meter race, however, the IOC wanted a return to the traditional gender order of things (Carpentier and Lefevre 2006: 1121–2). IOC president Henri de Baillet-Latour made a motion to ban women from all Olympic sports, but relented as long as men still ran the Olympics. In the interwar period, attitudes toward women doing sports changed at a snail’s pace. Tennis stars Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills showed that women could move around the court with speed and grace, and track-and-field sensation Babe Didrikson plowed through male prejudices to do sports. Like many sportswomen of the time, she was suspected of being a lesbian. Didrikson’s acerbic competitive nature also broke gender convention. After Didrikson won two gold medals at the 1932 Olympics, the famous sportswriter Paul Gallico reported, “Everybody in Los Angeles was talking about the Babe. Was she all boy? Or had she any feminine traits?” (Cayleff 1995: 92). Years later a physical education teacher recalled that her mother was against her playing softball because she did not want her daughter to “grow up to be like Babe Didrikson” (Davies 2012: 112). Eventually Didrikson turned to golf, which was deemed a more suitable sport for women. Didrikson was the most famous athlete in the interwar period, but Stella Walsh was arguably the greatest sportswoman of her time. Born in Poland but raised from infancy in Cleveland, Ohio, Walsh won the 100-meter gold medal

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at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, and the silver medal in the same event in Berlin in 1936. Walsh’s career spanned four decades; she ran sprints and middle distances, threw the shot put and discus, played softball and basketball, set numerous world records, and won over forty AAU track and field championships. Walsh was murdered in a botched robbery in Cleveland in 1980, and the mandatory autopsy revealed that she had a condition called intersex or gonadal mosaicism (Anderson 2017). During the Second World War women had new opportunities to enter the workforce and to play sports, but they encountered numerous unwritten rules for feminine behavior on the field. When many of MLB’s greatest stars went off to war, such as Ted Williams, Hank Greenberg, and Joe DiMaggio, Chicago Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley started the AAGPBL in 1943. Playing mainly in Midwestern cities, the AAGPBL eventually had ten teams and drew a million fans from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL consciously feminized their players to sell a new brand of baseball, sending them to charm school. The players wore skirts and makeup, and were carefully packaged as

FIGURE 4.3: Joyce Hill Westerman of the AAGPBL sliding into third base. A catcher-first baseman, she played in the league between 1945 and 1952, batting .228. Courtesy A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

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moral white girls supervised by chaperones. No “freaks or Amazons” needed apply. However, as men returned from the war, women were again relegated to traditional gender roles. The big breakthrough in women’s sports was concurrent with the women’s rights movement of the 1960s, the Soviet bloc’s theoretical promotion of equality for women, and the need of the United States to compete with the Soviet women in the Olympics. Western democracies began to accede to women’s demands for equal pay, reproductive rights, and social and legal equality. The Equal Rights Amendment failed, but in 1972 Congress passed Title IX legislation mandating that publically financed educational institutions devote the same resources to men’s and women’s sports, and proved to be a boon for American women’s sports. One of the major promoters of women’s sports was tennis great Billie Jean King, who in 1970 led a revolt against the United States Lawn Tennis Association’s discriminatory pay policies, and formed a tennis tour sponsored by Virginia Slims cigarettes. Three years later King defeated 55-year-old huckster Bobby Riggs in a much-hyped exhibition, a symbolic milestone on the way to women’s equality in sports. Women fought hard to break into soccer, one of the bastions of male-dominated sport. Many European countries banned organized women’s soccer from the First World War to the 1970s on the grounds that it was unladylike and harmful to women’s health. Soccer’s conservative ruling bodies discussed allowing women to play on smaller fields and shorter games, and did not sanction the first women’s World Cup until 1991 (Hofmann and Sinning 2006: 1653–6). No national team promised equal pay for men and women until Norway in 2017, a sign that women are gradually gaining a firm foothold in the soccer world. Progress for African women’s rights has been slow, but running has changed the cultural landscape for East African gender relations, defying an entrenched male hierarchy to run. Ethiopian Derartu Tulu won the 10,000 meters at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, becoming the first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal. Tegla Loroupe, one of Kenya’s first world-class women marathoners, won the New York Marathon in 1995. Her father had four wives and discouraged her from running, but Loroupe brought home prize money and a new Mercedes-Benz, a powerful symbol of women’s power and self-sufficiency. The emergence of women runners led some women to question the patriarchal culture in the Rift Valley, and other Kenyans see women runners as a very visible threat to undermine traditional gender roles. Loroupe later said, “I want to show them that they don’t need to feel like useless people. They can use their brains. Women are capable of helping their communities” (Noden 1998: 42). Some conservative Muslim countries have stubbornly resisted the modern movement toward equal rights for sportswomen. The founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, led the way in opening opportunities, which date to the adoption of the Swiss Civil Code in 1926, replacing Islamic law and awarding

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women civil rights, and women gaining the right to vote in 1934. Women began to play tennis, fence, swim, row, and do track and field, using the same venues as men. Turkey sent two women fencers to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and in 2012 sent more women than men to the London Games (Pfister and Hacisoftaoglu 2016: 1472, 1475, 1479). At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, twenty-six teams had no women, yet twelve years later at Beijing only three teams were all male, and afterwards, under pressure from the IOC, the Brunei, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar teams sent women to the London Olympics. Sports equipment companies saw a lucrative new market in women’s sports and have contributed to the greater acceptance of women in sports. Nike introduced ads such as “just do it,” and its 1995 commercial “if you let me play” featured young girls telling the camera how much self-confidence and strength they would have if they just had the opportunity. The “Gay Games” and Paralympics have not only tweaked traditional Western notions of the prototypical male athlete, but are an additional challenge to the human rights practices of traditional patriarchal cultures and authoritarian regimes (Polley 2004: 10–30). A recurrent problem for the rule-makers governing women’s sports has been questions about gender. During the Cold War some in the West cast doubt on the true sex of Russian women, particularly the muscular Press sisters. In the 1960s, international sports bodies began sex testing, but there has never been a definitive way of determining sex. These tests cannot account for anomalies in genital development, internal organs, chromosomes, or testosterone levels. In 1967, Ewa Kłobukowska, the Polish sprint champion, was stripped of her world championship medals when she failed a chromosome test. The authorities were embarrassed when she later birthed a son, highlighting the spectrum of primary and secondary female characteristics. Transsexual women have created a particularly tricky situation for sports authorities, although the numbers of women who have competed after a sex change are few. Protests greeted Renée Richards (Richard Raskind) when she went on the women’s pro tennis tour in 1976, though Billie Jean King declared that Richards had the right to compete (Pieper 2012: 682–4). Sports also has no category for people who are born intersex. When some unfairly questioned the sex of South African runner Caster Semenya after she won gold in the 800 meters at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Stella Walsh’s name again entered the conversation.

OPENING GAMES TO NON-WHITES Minorities and non-Western athletes also fought to be included in the world of white men’s sports. Europeans were amenable to their colonial peoples playing games as part of a “civilizing” mission, while the United States, South Africa, and Australia, among other offshoots of European rule, originally banned non-

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whites from playing with whites. Today it is unheard of for developed countries to pose legal barriers to the participation of ethnic minorities in sport. The British brought their sports culture to the empire as a benevolent way to inculcate a sense of fair play, adherence to rules, health, and other progressive tenets of “muscular Christianity.” The colonial elites were only too happy to play cricket, soccer, rugby, and track and field, which provided entertainment, a welcome distraction from toil, and an opportunity to beat the British at their own games, which provided a modicum of sweet revenge. Once African and Asian colonies gained independence in the decades after the Second World War, the IOC recognized their right to participate in the Olympics, though FIFA was slower to broaden participation in the quadrennial World Cup. African frustration over lack of representation led to their boycott of the qualifying rounds for the 1966 World Cup. FIFA responded by allotting an automatic African qualifier for 1970. FIFA expanded the finals from sixteen to twenty-four teams in 1982, and in 1998 to the current thirty-two teams. The steady development of top African national teams forced FIFA to raise the number of automatic berths to five, and in 2010 added South Africa since the host nation is an automatic qualifier. There will be forty-eight teams at the World Cup in 2026. Sanctions against white South African athletes helped bring down apartheid. Boycotts of South African sports teams began in earnest in the mid-1960s under the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC). Dennis Brutus and other leaders believed they could influence domestic policies by limiting the nation’s international sporting competitions, thereby harming its prestige in one of its most popular cultural activities. The IOC prohibited apartheid South Africa from participating in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and again in 1968 in Mexico City after thirty-two African teams promised to boycott. Two years later, South Africa was expelled from the Olympics. However, rugby and cricket were more important to the RSA than the Olympics. In 1976, after New Zealand’s rugby team toured South Africa, over twenty African nations staged a boycott of the Montreal Olympics. The boycott helped end apartheid in the early 1990s, and the RSA returned to the Olympic Movement in 1992. The American Scene Until after the Second World War, organized sports in the United States had strict, albeit unwritten rules against the participation of African Americans. Professional baseball clubs had little incentive to integrate. Most teams were located in the North, while most blacks lived in the South. Team owners did not want to offend their players or white customers. In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player in MLB since Fleetwood Walker in 1884. The last baseball team to integrate was the Red Sox in 1959.

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Jim Crow laws prohibited southern college teams playing against integrated northern teams. Mississippi State University (MSU) won its first Southeast Conference (SEC) basketball championship in 1959 and was ranked number three in the country, but did not participate in the NCAA tournament. MSU then declined two more invitations to play in the tournament in 1961 and 1962. However, in 1963, over the heated opposition of state lawmakers, the school played, but lost to Loyola of Chicago, the eventual champion, 61–51 in the second round. The Ramblers regularly played three or four African Americans (Fitzpatrick 1998: 47). The 1966 NCAA championship game was a groundbreaking moment in the history of college basketball history, when the all-white Kentucky Wildcats, coached by the conservative Adolph Rupp, faced an integrated team from Texas El Paso, who started an all-black lineup. This was a big blow to white southerners who resented the federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s that ended Jim Crow in the South (Fitzpatrick 1998: 25, 34, 211, 220). The integration of African-American players into sports did not end discrimination. White managers and coaches still held stereotypes about the limited mental capacity of African Americans, and refused to place them in leadership positions like quarterback or middle linebacker, or even on the offensive line. In 1968, Denver Bronco Marlin Briscoe became the first starting NFL quarterback, but it was not until 1988 that a black quarterback, Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins, won a Super Bowl. In 1976, blacks made up about 50 percent of MLB outfielders and first basemen, but less than 10 percent of the more cerebral pitchers, catchers, and shortstops (Rader 2009: 327). African Americans were not hired as coaches or managers until Bill Russell became the first black coach in the NBA in 1968, and, in 1975, Frank Robinson became MLB’s first black manager.

TEACHING CULTURAL VALUES Sport has always been associated with fun and games, but as modern industrial societies developed in the nineteenth century in Europe, the United States, and Japan, educators and sport organizers began to articulate the didactic purpose of organized sports. Adhering to the formal rules of the game was viewed as a way to inculcate dedication to the rule of civic law, and the informal norms of play reflected the values of the middle and upper classes. Authorities determined not only who could play, but how they played (Llewellyn and Gleaves 2014: 98–9). English educators in the mid nineteenth century included sport in the curriculum in public schools to curb pupils’ unruly and violent antisocial behavior, but also to build “a sound mind in a healthy body.” Harrow headmaster the Reverend J. E. C. Welldon believed that sport distinguished civilized

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England from other countries, and contributed to its global supremacy: “The pluck, the perseverance, the good temper, the self-control, the discipline, the co-operation, the esprit de corps, which merit success in cricket or football, are the very qualities which win the day in peace or war” (Alegi 2010: 9). Imperialists and missionaries used their games to “civilize” colonials. When English cricket teams toured the British Empire, they were charged with playing in a gentlemanly, sportsmanlike way. The IOC Creed echoed these values: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not have conquered but to have fought well” (Toohey and Veal 2007: 64). Baseball was unquestionably America’s pastime for much of the twentieth century, and was inextricably linked to patriotism, and by association, the quintessential hardworking and entrepreneurial American. Baseball’s rituals are a sort of pledge of allegiance to the idea of the United States. Presidents have been throwing out the Opening Day ball since 1910. During the First World War, American League President Ban Johnson initiated the playing of the national anthem before games, which subsequently became mandatory before high-school, college, or professional sporting contests, a largely unique American custom. The American Legion, a voluntary association of wartime veterans founded in 1919, began sponsoring baseball teams in the 1920s to teach leadership and patriotism. MLB’s credo, adopted by all levels of organized baseball, was to build “manliness, character, and an ethic of success [instilling] the proper values in America’s youth as well as educating immigrants to the American way of life” (Elias 2010: 96–7). Owners and league officials imposed rules of clean behavior on and off the field. In 1921, MLB commissioner Kenesaw “Mountain” Landis banned eight Chicago White Sox players for throwing the 1919 World Series, and threw out seven more players for various crimes and indiscretions. One year later he slapped a 39-game suspension on Babe Ruth for breaking a barnstorming rule in the off-season. However, when it became apparent that baseball’s bottom line would suffer without its biggest draws, the off-field shenanigans of such stars as Ty Cobb and Frankie Frisch went unpunished (Krause 1997: 68–9). The press was complicit in maintaining the ballplayers’ public image, enhanced by publicizing their good deeds, like visiting sick kids in the hospital, while overlooking heavy drinking and philandering. Athletes were expected to conform to traditional moral behavior and present a clean-cut appearance, which until the turbulent 1960s meant short locks and no facial hair. Players with long hair and beards then represented a challenge to authority and, in the early 1970s, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner barred facial hair on his players. However, renegade Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley did not care about players’ grooming habits, and fielded a squad of

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bearded, mustachioed, and long-haired All-Stars who won three World Series Championships. Challenges were even greater in college sports and professional basketball, where black athletes sported huge Afros and challenged traditional styles of play with innovative styles of dribbling, passing, and dunking. Players in socially reserved tennis exhibited ungentlemanly behavior that transcended normative conduct. In the 1970s, tennis “brats” included Romanian Ilie Nastase and Americans John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. McEnroe berated umpires and linespeople with belittling comments that earned him stiff penalties, including loss of points and even match forfeits. Unruly fan behavior was historically rare at elite lawn games, which had the most intricate informal rules, such as no shouting before balls were addressed. This was not the case at team spectator sports where fans regularly yelled at men at bat or basketball players shooting foul shots. Soccer has attracted the most rabid and unruly partisans, especially England with its predictably rowdy crowds. Scholars have studied long-standing club “firms,” who since the 1960s consisted of like-minded white men who were facing increasing challenges to their traditional roles in a rapidly changing ethnic, gender, regional, and class culture. When the national team or club teams went abroad, the hooligans came along to belittle and attack their rivals. When Liverpool fans attacked Italian supporters of Juventus at a European Cup game in 1985 at Heysel, Belgium, a retaining wall collapsed, causing thirty-nine deaths. English clubs were banned from playing in Europe for five years. Crowd violence remains a problem around the world, requiring barriers like moats at South American fields, and police and fences in Europe. Cheating Sports authorities have tried in vain to eliminate blatant cheating from their games. As long as big gambling is involved, mobsters and other shady characters will try to fix the outcome of games, especially in individual sports. Boxing is an eminently easy sport to fix, as only one participant has to be crooked. One of the most famous fixes was the Jake LaMotta–Billy Fox fight of 1947. LaMotta was a top middleweight contender who was promised a championship fight if he took a dive against Fox, the ranking light heavyweight boxer. LaMotta got a title bout twenty months later, and became middleweight champion. Perhaps the most infamous case of cheating in running came in 1980, when Rosie Ruiz took the subway part of the way in the New York marathon in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. She “won” the crown, not by running the entire race, but by joining the marathon close to the finish line. Conspiracies to throw team games are harder to orchestrate and harder to keep under wraps. Nonetheless, gamblers have repeatedly tried to bribe players

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and officials. Nearly every major European soccer league has been involved. In the mid-1980s, French businessman Bernard Tapie took over Marseilles, leading the team to a French and European championship. However, he had fixed numerous games, and was drummed out of soccer. In the mid-2000s, German referee Robert Hoyzer went to prison for taking payments to influence the outcomes of lower-level Bundesliga games. Perhaps the biggest scandal in European football history occurred in Italy where many top Italian teams conspired to determine the outcome of games. Teams in European sports in danger of relegation regularly approach teams in the middle of the standings— for which a late-season game has no meaning—to throw the game. Baseball has been relatively scandal-free since the Black Sox of 1919, but in the 1980s Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose was tossed out of MLB for betting on his own games. In the 1940s and early 1950s, college basketball suffered from a series of betting scandals involving several institutions, including the powerhouses of the University of Kentucky and City College of New York. The mob was mixed up in the schemes, in which players were recruited to win the game but less than the point spread. There were later point-shaving scandals in 1961 and 1978–9, and Northwestern University, known for its academic standards, was implicated after the 1994–5 campaign. Las Vegas had until recently the only legal team sports betting parlors in the United States, but proscribed betting on hometown University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Athletes have always tried to gain an advantage by bending and breaking the rules, especially when prestige and big money are at stake. The question of whether to game the system becomes a philosophical issue—that is, whether it is morally right. What crosses the line between smart play and cheating? Some coaches teach breaking the spirit of the rules, while others consider it the wrong way to teach players, especially youngsters who are supposed to learn etiquette and good citizenship through sports. Should a soccer coach teach the goalie to jump early on penalty kicks? Hedge the 10-yard rule on free kicks? Tug the opponent’s jersey on corner kicks? Flick the elbow of a basketball shooter, a tactic virtually undetectable by a referee? Steal baseball signs? One of the most memorable moments in baseball history was Bobby Thomson’s walk-off home run to beat the Dodgers and win the 1951 National League pennant. The Giants had gone on a tear late in the season, prompting the Dodgers and other teams to accuse the Giants of stealing the catcher’s signs to the pitcher, and then relaying them to the Giants hitters. More recently, in 2017, the Boston Red Sox admitted that they had used an Apple Watch to steal the catcher’s signs, and, even more egregiously, a St. Louis Cardinal’s scouting director was sent to prison for hacking into the Houston Astros’ database. One of the most infamous examples of the fine line between cheating and fair play was Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona’s hand goal against England in the 1986 World Cup. The contest was already fraught with bad feelings that

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included a violent 1966 World Cup match described “as not so much a football match as an international incident,” along with the Falklands War in 1982. Relations between the two countries were frozen. Maradona admitted that “before the match with England, we all declared that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas [Falklands] war. Lie! We did nothing but think about it, fucking it was going to be just another game! . . . Sentimentally, I blamed each of the English players for what had happened.” Maradona’s chicanery fit into the English narrative of a devious Third World country that had tried to snatch away the Falklands. Maradona said that the goal went in by the “hand of god,” while England found it a moral outrage—on the contrary—the “hand of the devil” (Britto, de Morais, and Barreto 2014: 672, 677, 680). Sports are constantly innovating to stop players from breaking the spirit of the rules. FIFA faced a serious case of cheating when Uruguay’s Luis Suarez used his hand to stop a sure Ghanaian goal at the 2010 World Cup. Ghana botched the penalty kick, prompting FIFA to contemplate simply awarding a goal for such intentional cheating. At the 2014 World Cup, FIFA introduced the “vanishing spray,” an aerosol line the referee used to keep opposing players from breaching the 10-yard distance from the free kicker. After a 2008 playoff game, when New York Ranger Sean Avery stood in front of New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, waving his stick in front of his eyes, the NHL immediately enacted the “Avery Rule,” making the practice an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Doping has been the most ubiquitous form of cheating, and the most difficult to detect. Athletes and their handlers have tried to stay one step ahead of the testing procedures; no one knows how many cheaters have slipped through the testing cracks. Cycling, the Olympics, and baseball have had numerous embarrassing doping scandals. American Lance Armstrong, once considered the greatest cyclist ever, was found to have doped his way to seven victories in the Tour de France. He was banned from the sport in 2012. Olympic athletes using coca, purified oxygen, amphetamines, and other performance-enhancing substances goes back over a century. Early Olympic marathoners braced themselves with strychnine. Canadian Ben Johnson became the world’s fastest man at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, only to become the fastest man to have his gold medal stripped for doping. The IOC began drug testing at the 1968 Mexico City Games, and in Montreal in 1976 athletes were first tested for steroids. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, systematic doping reached new heights in the GDR, which sprang from an also-ran on the Olympic medal table to one of the best teams in the world. In 1950, the regime established the German School for Physical Education and Sport in Leipzig, which became a center of research on the effective use of performance-enhancing drugs. East German athletes, especially women, were subjected to excessive doping protocols. East German women swimmers won no gold medals at the 1972

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Munich Olympics, but one year later did superbly at the World Swimming Championships in Belgrade because of a new doping regimen, capturing 14 medals. Then they amassed 18 medals (11 golds) at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. The GDR doped their way to second place on the overall medal board, trailing only the Soviet Union. Eventually, about 2,000 elite East German athletes were involved in its doping program (Dennis 2003: 138; Longman: 2002). Unscrupulous Olympic teams have tried to stay one step ahead of the testing methods, but the perpetrators have often been caught. The entire Russian team was officially barred from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang for running a state doping program for its Olympic athletes, although individual Russian athletes were allowed to compete. Corruption at the highest levels of FIFA and the IOC has undermined their efforts to clean up their sports. FIFA head Sepp Blatter and his minions took huge sums to grant the World Cup to Russia in 2018 and to Qatar in 2022. The dragnet is widening; in early 2018, US federal prosecutors subpoenaed numerous FIFA and IOC officials to investigate bribes, payments, and other perks they received from countries and cities bidding for the World Cup and the Summer and Winter Olympics. Violating Unwritten Rules Players are not only pressured to conform to formal league and team rules, but also follow their sport’s own set of unwritten rules. Baseball and cricket, the sports with the biggest rulebooks, also have numerous proscriptions on player behavior. The 1932–3 “Ashes” series with Australia is perhaps the most infamous case of “not playing cricket”—or playing by the informal rules. In what was later called the “Bodyline Series,” the English captain, Douglas Jardine, placed fielders close to the batter on the legside and ordered his bowler, Harold Larwood, to bowl directly at the batsman’s upper body. This was an offence to the ostensibly refined customs of the gentlemen’s game. Perhaps unbeknownst to cricket aficionados, Jardine’s lack of sportsmanship was not extraordinary. For years, players have chided each other on the field, something called “sledging.” Bowlers often derided the batsman. In the 1970s, the Australian team initiated the practice to unsettle the batsman with constant and untoward comments at the start of innings and between balls. In the next two decades, the Australians took the practice to new heights—what team captain Steve Waugh termed “mental disintegration.” The cricket world was somewhat embarrassed when microphones were placed near the stump and picked up these unpleasant exchanges, and there has been pressure to control it. In 2017, the Australians talked about employing “smarter sledging,” with some admitting that their trash talk had gone too far.

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Disagreements can arise in baseball if players break the spirit of its unwritten rules. For example, a player is not to cross the pitcher’s mound after making an out, lest the batter disturb the pitcher’s carefully manicured landing spot. Fielders are not to make phantom tags on runners, there is no stealing or bunting if a team is far ahead in the game, and no bunting to break up a nohitter. And any player who flips his bat or takes too much time rounding the bases is likely to have a pitch thrown at him in his next plate appearance. Athletes were expected to speak well of their opponents, and win graciously. However, Muhammad Ali, taking his cue from the braggadocio of the blonde pompadoured professional wrestler Gorgeous George, broke these rules early in his career. Ali belittled his opponent, called the round in which they would fall, and crowed that he was “The Greatest.” Thereafter Ali’s antics have become the norm, especially among African-American male athletes. Sports officials have tried to legislate against showing off or too much celebration after a great play (Fitzpatrick 1998: 239).

CONCLUSION Since the advent of modern sport a century and a half ago, organized games have been a progressive force in society. Allowances for women, minorities, and developing countries to play sport has often preceded and accelerated legal changes and customary practices. This chapter has outlined some of those precedents, such as the integration of MLB in 1947, nearly two decades before US civil rights legislation, the boycotts of South Africa that helped bring an end to apartheid in 1990, and the integration of women into the Olympics on an equal basis, while women still struggle around the world for civil rights. The Paralympics are a model for societies who still marginalize the disabled. Indeed, where people have run, jumped, and played games, the politicians have followed. Sports have served the cause of justice, freedom, and human rights. The argument can also be made that organized sports since the Second World War have promoted international peace. During the Cold War, the Soviets played by the rules of international sports organizations. The globalization of sport has brought peoples together to watch their kinsmen and -women playing in leagues around the world, whether it is Nigerians watching the EPL, Japanese watching MLB, Russians watching the NHL, Serbs watching the NBA, or the whole world watching the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup. The more countries are invested in sport, the fewer conflicts between them. As this chapter has shown, the rules of sport are in constant flux, but a direct correlation can be made between greater participation of all sectors of society in sport and peaceful relations between peoples.

CHAPTER FIVE

Conflict and Accommodation MATTHEW TAYLOR

In September and October 1948, the British social research organization MassObservation conducted a survey about attitudes to sport in individual and national life. The results, summarized and to a large extent simplified in a file report, were interpreted by the authors as supporting the popular self-image of Britain as a sporting nation. A widespread interest in sport was detected across the country, in all classes, and among both men and women. But beyond its initial conclusions, the report highlighted the fault lines that had long existed in attitudes to sport in Britain and elsewhere, complicating the idea of sport as a site of collective identity and social unity. Specific questions on gambling, Sunday play, professionalism, and the relationship between watching and playing sport revealed the complexities in what people understood by “sport,” and what they considered its purpose and its essence (Mass-Observation 1948). One can conclude from the report that while sport continued to be an element of British self-identity, the battle over how sport should be conducted and what it ought to represent was as important as ever. That much of the academic writing on the history of sport has taken conflict—cultural, political, and economic—as its starting point should not be surprising. Sport is unique as a leisure form in being organized primarily around the competition between teams or individuals representing social or geographic spaces, schools, colleges, workplaces, neighborhoods, towns, regions, and nations. Opponents have in certain cases developed into rivals and enemies, the “us” and “them” of sporting competition being informed by, and in turn feeding 127

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into, wider constructions of identity. Moreover, many of the earliest forays into sports history and historical sports sociology have been influenced by concepts such as hegemony and ideas of cultural conflict, control, and resistance (Hargreaves 1986; Giulianotti 2005; Cronin 2014: 44–5). If scholarship has moved on, with identity and representation emerging as dominant themes in recent years, much of the historiography on sport within and across nations still focuses, often implicitly, on conflict and contestation. Many social histories of sport continue to envisage it “as a ‘contested’ landscape upon which ethnic, racial, class, and community rivalries abound” (Howell 1995: 4). This chapter will explore some of this work, approaching sport as a natural site of conflict, opposition, and protest. Focusing on examples primarily but not exclusively from the West—particularly North America and western Europe—this chapter considers conflict and accommodation at a number of levels, moving from interactions between nations to consider contacts within national, regional, and local spaces. The first section examines sport and political protest nationally and internationally, after which the narrative focuses on opposition to sport in the context of religion, gambling, and violence. The third section considers debates over the “true” or authentic meaning of sport, particularly in relation to the divide between spectatorship and participation. This is followed by an exploration of sport-based rivalries, with specific attention given to the assumption that such clashes have been historically driven by animosity above all else. Finally, the chapter briefly shifts focus to look at the possibilities sport has offered historically for developing cooperative relationships between groups, peoples, and nations.

POLITICS AND PROTEST When in 2016 the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the playing of the American national anthem in a number of preseason matches, it was recognized as the latest of a series of sports-based protests against racial inequality in the United States dating back to the 1960s. Opinion pieces situated the Kaepernick protest in the context of Muhammed Ali’s refusal to enlist for the Vietnam War in 1967, and the black power salute of athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics; the latter was directly referenced by a number of NFL players and other athletes who held their fists high in the air when the US anthem was played. They also connected Kaepernick’s action to more recent protests, such as those in 2014 spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement, involving NBA players such as LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Jarrett Jack, and Kevin Garnett, St. Louis Rams footballers and college basketball player Ariyana Smith (Gajanan 2016). The Kaepernick protest escalated in September 2017 when President Donald Trump called on NFL players who failed to stand for the national anthem to be fined

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or suspended, leading to scores of players kneeling, locking arms, or staying in the locker room for the national anthem in a show of solidarity (Hoffman, Mather, and Fortin 2017). While some regarded such protests as unpatriotic and inconsistent with the privileges and responsibilities of a professional sports star, others praised the courage of the protesters. The fact that Kaepernick’s jersey sold more than any other in the NFL during his protest could be seen as a mark of his popularity. Regardless of the discussions about the appropriateness of the behavior of Kaepernick and other athletes in such instances, his case can be regarded as an example of those without political power using sport as a means of protesting against dominant groups, interests, and practices (Levermore 2008). Symbolic “gestures of protest” by athletes are just one of the many forms this has taken (Thiel et al. 2016: 253). Opposition movements against political regimes have also often focused on sporting events. This was evident, for instance, in response to the Nazi government of the 1930s. Grassroots opposition to Nazi policies on race manifested itself in a number of protests against sports fixtures with German teams. In late 1935, for instance, a range of Jewish-British groups and publications, anti-fascist pressure groups, and trade unions led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) campaigned against a friendly soccer fixture between

FIGURE 5.1: Crowd gives the Nazi salute during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Photo by Universal History Archives. Getty Images.

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England and Germany due to take place at Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane ground in north London. Concerns were exacerbated by the links between the host club and the north London Jewish community and the alleged recent death of a Polish-Jewish footballer at the hands of local Nazis in Upper Silesia. The TUC argued that as the German team had become an effective representative of the Nazi government, failure to act would be interpreted as a “gesture of sympathy” to a regime condemned by most “democratic opinion.” The TUC General Secretary Walter Citrine predicted “a grave disturbance of the peace” if the match went ahead. Deputations to Home Secretary Sir John Simon failed to convince him to intervene to stop the match and planned demonstrations against the fixture never materialized (Spencer 1996: 6–14; Beck 1999: 187). Three years later, shortly after the notorious Nazi salute given by the England team at the prompting of the national association before a match against Germany in Berlin, the players of Aston Villa defied football and embassy officials and refused to salute. They chose a different mode of protest prior to a later game in Stuttgart, allegedly saluting with two fingers rather than a straight hand (Taylor and Ward 1995: 51–3; Beck: 6–7; Fox 2003: 148–9). Opposition to the Nazi regime manifested itself most famously in aborted attempts to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The movement was strongest in the United States, where a coalition of influential opinion-makers formed a “Committee of Fair Play in Sports,” and secured the support of politicians such as the New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia, former New York governor Al Smith, and Massachusetts governor James Curley. The American Federation of Labor, the Jewish Labor Committee, and the Christian and Jewish press also came out in support of a boycott, and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), led by Jeremiah Mahoney, was also sympathetic. The focus of the movement was the discrimination against Jewish and black athletes, which was thought to violate Olympic regulations. American observers in Germany, such as the diplomat George Messersmith, also pointed out the danger that the Nazis would exploit the Games to endorse their own political position domestically and internationally. His report to the AAU in December 1935 was unequivocal about the discrimination inherent in Nazi policy on sport, as in all areas of German life, and determined that a mass boycott would constitute “one of the most serious blows which National Socialist prestige could suffer” (Mayer 2004; Eisen 1984: 68–9). Ultimately, however, the power and influence of the anti-boycotters prevailed, a decision which inevitably impacted upon the success of similar movements in other countries. In France, for instance, a number of influential administrators and journalists, such as Jules Rimet of FIFA, L’Auto’s Jacques Goddet, and Paris-Soir’s Gaston Bénac, demanded either relocation of the Games or a boycott (Murray 1992; Kessler 2011). But here, as in other countries, mainstream political opinion tended to oppose any suggestion of intervention. This was even more evident in nations like Britain where voluntary traditions still dominated the organization of sport.

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The anti-apartheid struggle was perhaps the most significant protest movement that targeted sport and sporting events in the twentieth century. Opposition to South Africa’s apartheid regime took many forms and spread across a number of decades. Underpinning the protest and boycott campaigns of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s was a large and increasingly influential popular movement. Direct action became common alongside symbolic protest. The 1969–70 Springboks rugby union tour to Great Britain, for instance, was plagued by orchestrated demonstrations headed by anti-apartheid activist and future Labour Party minister Peter Hain (Grundlingh 1996: 196). In 1970, opposition to the South African cricket tour crystallized around a Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) committee which received widespread support from student groups and Christian organizations as well as Liberal, Socialist, and Communist factions. Demonstrators raided cricket grounds, painting slogans on buildings and damaging the turf with weed killer. Plans were made to blockade the South African tourists at Heathrow airport. Gradually the demonstrators gained broader public support, including from Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who defended the protestor’s right “to demonstrate against the tour,” though he remained critical of “disruptive protests” (Hain 2013: 236). Eventually the pressure told and the English cricket authorities called off the tour. The wider context was, of course, significant. In the same year, South Africa was expelled from international athletics, cycling, gymnastics, swimming, and wrestling competition, as well as Davis Cup tennis and the Olympic movement. But the STST’s role was also crucial: it had been incredibly successful in achieving its immediate aims and publicizing its cause. Threats of widespread boycotts of that year’s Edinburgh Commonwealth Games by African, Asian, and Caribbean nations if the cricket tour had gone ahead turned the locally-based campaign into a major international diplomatic event. Similar protests emerged as a common feature of South African rugby tours to New Zealand through the 1970s and 1980s. A proposed Springboks tour of New Zealand in 1973 was cancelled after a police report commissioned by the government predicted as many as 10,000 demonstrators if the tour went ahead, with the potential to provoke “the greatest eruption of violence the country has ever known” (Nauright and Black 1996: 212). More significant still was the 1981 South African rugby tour, which was precipitated by, and in turn reinforced, considerable divisions in New Zealand politics and society. The protests predicted nearly a decade before now materialized, with demonstrations accompanying every match and violence between protestors and police. At Hamilton, the rugby stadium was occupied by anti-tour activists and the scheduled match was cancelled. As well as impacting upon international attitudes toward the apartheid regime, the events of 1981 shone a light on longstanding gender and racial tensions in New Zealand society. A number of commentators saw the protests in the context of a wider challenge to traditional

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forms of masculine power, or as the focus for “counter-hegemonic struggle” (Nauright and Black 1996). Given rugby’s popularity and status as a symbol of nationhood in both South Africa and New Zealand, and the cultural significance of the rugby rivalry between the two nations, it was not surprising that the sport became a site for popular discontent and political protest (Nauright 1997; MacLean 2000). Toward the end of the twentieth century, sports mega events increasingly became targets for human rights campaigners. The detention of thousands of political prisoners in 1973 by General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship at the National Stadium in Santiago had led the Soviet Union to refuse to compete in a World Cup playoff there. The following year, Chilean exiles and sympathetic European left-wing groups protested with placards and slogans during Chile’s World Cup finals match with East Germany (the GDR) and invaded the pitch during the game against Australia in Berlin (Koller and Brändle 2015: 231). In Argentina four years later the focus was on the host nation’s military junta under the control of Jorge Rafael Videla. Although some accounts have downplayed the significance of opposition to the tournament—suggesting that critical foreign voices were “limited to left-wing organisations and human rights groups” (Koller and Brändle 2015: 235)—there is considerable evidence of a widespread and organized campaign to convince national teams to boycott the competition, FIFA to move it to another country, and, more generally, to provoke public debate in different nations on links with the Argentine dictatorship. Centered in Paris, where it was most prominent, with 200 local committees, the anti-World Cup campaign was not, according to one scholar, a small-scale extremist initiative but “a large protest movement with a transnational dimension” (Rein 2014: 244). Although all of the fifteen qualifying nations eventually chose to attend, and only two players—Dutch captain Wim van Henegem and teammate Johan Cruyff—refused to take part for political reasons, one could see the campaign as a significant “expression of transnational solidarity” and a precedent for the more successful popular protests and boycott campaigns that developed in relation to the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games (Rein and Davidi 2009; Rein 2014). Nonetheless, the international human rights movement was relatively ineffectual in terms of its influence on major sporting bodies and events until the 1990s. While it had campaigned in 1978, Amnesty International, the world’s largest human rights organization, generally paid little attention to sports events, even those such as the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea, a nation with a poor human rights record. In 1993 the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) came out in opposition to Beijing’s bid to host the 2000 Olympics (Keys 2018). Focusing on generating publicity and column inches as an indirect means of influencing the IOC, the HRW argued that China’s abject human rights record should not be rewarded by granting it an Olympics. At a

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time when the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre was still fresh in the public mind, such a view drew considerable support across the American and European media. Other political and international human rights groups actively opposed Beijing’s candidature but none was as influential and effective as HRW: it was, as one reporter noted, the “prime mover in the push” to block Beijing. The HRW’s campaign proved successful, with Sydney narrowly defeating Beijing to host the Games. The significance of the 1993 campaign was to broaden the discussion concerning “the moral sphere” of sports events such as the Olympics beyond a narrow focus on the treatment of athletes to a wider coverage of all citizens of hosting and competing countries. The circumstances of the early 1990s would not be repeated a decade later when Beijing was granted the 2008 Games in the context of a more cautious approach from human rights groups, some of whom now argued that the media attention attached to the Olympics might lead to reforms. But the 1993 campaign helped to usher in a connection between international sport and human rights that has only tightened since. “Human rights advocacy groups,” as Barbara Keys has argued, “now pressure international sports competitions to promote basic freedoms (of press, speech and religion), judicial reform, and fair employment practices” in hosting countries (2018: 438). Few arenas of public life, it could be argued, have become as open in the early twentieth century to debates around human rights as international sport.

RELIGION, GAMBLING, AND VIOLENCE From the mid nineteenth century, organized sport had been promoted by religious leaders across the Atlantic world and by Christian groups and missionaries in Africa and Asia. The values and meanings initially associated with team games as they developed in the English public schools and then in educational establishments in formal and informal imperial settings were heavily influenced by religious morality. Muscular Christianity was inscribed with notions of manliness, teamwork, fair competition, and, perhaps most important of all, fair play (Holt 1989; Mangan 1998). But both the meanings and the game forms of Western sports were subject to varying degrees of modification and domestication over time. Anthropologists have perhaps come closest to capturing the complexities and contradictions in the process of sport’s dissemination across nations and cultures. In India, for example, it has been argued that while cricket’s formal properties worked in harmony with a number of fundamental aspects of local society and culture, such as the caste system, and particularly appealed to everyday understandings of Hinduism, rugby’s emphasis on physical contact was problematic for the indigenous population (Darbon 2008). In China, similarly, Western notions of “fair play,” promoted through facilitating organizations such as the YMCA, were often resisted and

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gradually replaced by powerful native discourses such as that built around the idea of “face.” The notion of gaining or losing prestige, or face, at individual, local, or national level was so culturally embedded that it became central to the “moral content” of sport in China (Brownell 2000: 49–50). Sport, among Protestants and Catholics in most countries, had by the 1920s generally been acknowledged as an essential part of social life and a “useful medium for the teaching of Christian values” (Willis and Wettan 1977: 205; Baker 2007). The growth of church-based clubs demonstrated the value attached to sport as a means of attracting potential converts and ensuring that the church maintained a central role in local community life. In certain contexts, the new media-constructed sports stars of the middle decades of the twentieth century were represented and imagined as religious as well as national idols. The Italian cyclist Gino Bartali, for example, winner of the Tour de France in 1938 and 1948 and the Giro d’Italia three times, was transformed by Catholic propagandists and the Italian media into “God’s Cyclist,” a representative of Christian ideals and virtues. Bartali was portrayed as a good Catholic man, and his personal and sporting life was seen as perfectly in tune with essential Catholic virtues such as chastity, stoicism, and charity. One incident during the 1938 Tour de France was frequently cited to illustrate his absence of aggression and his fundamental spirituality. Bartali, with his teammates ready to attack a Belgian rival who had attempted to knock him off his bike, apparently stepped in with the words, “Leave him, God will punish him.” While in his early career, Bartali’s Catholicism was offered as a counter to fascist machismo and aggression, after the war he was presented as a symbol of Christian Democratic conformity and morality in contrast to his younger rival Fausto Coppi, mythologized as an icon of Communism, youth, and progress (Pivato 1996). As this example demonstrates, by the twentieth century, Western religious institutions generally attempted to harness rather than to ignore or condemn sport. However, there were dissenters from this view, and certain sports and sporting cultures continued to be the subject of religious ire. One point of dispute that continued to be significant in Britain and North America was the playing of sport on the Sabbath. Pressure groups such as the Lord’s Day Alliance in Canada and the Lord’s Day Observance Society in Britain continued to seek to protect laws that restricted entertainment and sport on Sundays, and to convince sporting bodies to keep Sundays as a day of rest from recreation as well as work. In spite of prominent examples of support for Sunday observance, such as the sprinter and future Presbyterian missionary Eric Liddle’s withdrawal from the Sunday heats of the 1924 Paris Olympics, there was considerable evidence of growth in Sunday sport. “The tendency to use Sunday for sport is decidedly on the increase,” one official of the Lord’s Day Alliance suggested in the mid-1920s. He felt that this constituted “one of the most serious aspects of modern civilized life, for it is a symptom of the decay of spiritual life” (Schrodt

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1977: 27). In Britain, the claims of church groups and Sabbatarian organizations were increasingly shouted down by labor organizations who argued that workers should be permitted to play on their only free day. In 1934, the London County Council, pressed by a coalition of the socialist British Workers Sports Federation, trade unionists, and workers’ sports bodies, rescinded its bans on organized Sunday cricket, football, and hockey, although restrictions on Sunday boxing and all-in wrestling (purportedly on safety rather than religious grounds) remained (Jones 1988: 151–4; Taylor 2009: 155). After 1945, as the influence of the church declined further and new leisure patterns emerged, the moral restrictions on Sunday sport gradually faded away. A 1948 Canadian survey revealed a widespread and increasing acceptance for organized sport on Sundays; Mass-Observation reported the same year that 62 percent of the British population were in favor of Sunday games, with just 28 percent against (Schrodt 1977: 29; Mass-Observation 1948: 33). The Football Association officially recognized Sunday football in 1960, and by the 1980s professional matches on Sundays were not uncommon. When first-class cricket matches were first permitted in 1967, the clergyman and former England cricketer David Sheppard complained that this would “close off” the potential cricketing career of “a man with a conscience” (Brailsford 1996; Brown 2006: 236). But such protests were now less frequent and carried less authority than ever before. Religious opposition also manifested itself as part of a much broader opposition to gambling in sport in a number of countries. At the most extreme level, organized betting and match-fixing threatened the integrity of sport in the eyes of supporters and the wider public. In the United States the potentially corrupting association of betting with sport was widely publicized at the very beginning of the period in the aftermath of the “fixed” 1919 baseball World Series. Despite being acquitted by a Chicago grand jury, the eight White Sox players involved were banned for life in 1921 by baseball’s new commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. As Daniel Nathan argues, the so-called Black Sox scandal has reverberated across the decades, fascinating and shocking in equal measures. When former Cincinnati Reds player and manager Pete Rose was banned for life in 1989 after allegations of betting on baseball, memories of the Black Sox framed much of the public discussion; the fate of Rose and the Black Sox star player “shoeless” Joe Jackson were connected by the media as “interchangeable tropes for the integrity of American sport (and by implication American culture).” More than any other incident in the history of the sport in the United States, the scandal has helped to “map the moral space where baseball is argued” (Nathan 2008: 141–2). Similar cases in the “national” sports of other countries have impacted upon public trust in the short term but with less long-term effect on cultural memory. In English soccer, for instance, allegations by The People newspaper in the 1960s revealed the presence of a gambling ring orchestrated by former professional Jimmy Gauld. Hundreds of players were suspected of being involved in this and

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similar syndicates operating in different parts of the country. In 1965, the three most prominent players involved—England internationals Peter Swan and Tony Kay, and their Sheffield Wednesday teammate David Layne—were imprisoned for four months and banned for life by the football authorities. Six years later the rules changed to allow them to appeal their bans and Swan and Layne resumed their careers, though they were by now veterans with only a few seasons left as professionals (Inglis 1985). Journalist Arthur Hopcraft referred to the gambling and bribery cases of the 1960s as “a jagged hole in the fabric” of football, but they now barely register in popular histories of the game (Hopcraft 1968, 75). In cricket, a series of betting controversies, culminating in match-fixing scandals in the 1990s and 2000s involving leading players from South Africa, India, Pakistan, and Australia and New Zealand seriously tarnished the reputation of world cricket (Davies 2015; Philpott 2018). Yet the damage to the commercial reputation of the game in the Indian subcontinent especially—where the Indian Premier League has accumulated massive sums in advertising and corporate spending since its establishment in 2008 (Mehta 2009; Nair 2011) —appeared to have been negligible. While betting had been crucial to the codification and commercialization of sport in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it became increasingly ubiquitous in the twentieth. In the UK, the rise of the football pools and greyhound racing between the wars ensured that sports betting emerged as an essential part of working-class life. By the 1930s, 10 million people across the nation were indulging in a weekly flutter, and by 1950 the British football pools had become “the biggest private-owned gambling concern in the world” (Clapson 1992: 162). In Australia, where “a propensity to gamble” has been described as part of the national character, gambling on sport became increasingly institutionalized through the creation of government-sponsored betting outlets, such as the racecourse totalizator, and the spread of organized illegal gambling networks. Most scholars of sports gambling agree that most people who gambled did so moderately and that it gradually came to be accepted in most societies as a legitimate recreational activity (O’Hara 1992: 58; Davies and Abram 2001; Laybourn 2007). This is not to deny the significance of anti-gambling groups who attempted to lobby legislators to control betting on sport and publically denounced gambling sports as morally unacceptable, as much as to point out their marginality. Church groups and organizations such as the National AntiGambling League (NAGL) in the UK continued to operate throughout this period but their success was limited, even in relation to sports such as horse and dog racing, for which betting was their raison d’être. Significant opposition from Protestant churches and local politicians was rarely enough to dissuade stadium owners from staging greyhound-racing meetings. In 1927 in south London, the Crystal Palace trustees ignored a public petition of over 40,000 signatures and the NAGL’s legal claims that dog racing was “a serious menace

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to the social and moral well-being of the nation” (Huggins and Williams 2006: 17–18). In Australia, groups such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which aligned itself to the anti-gambling lobby led by the Protestant Church, were “visible and vocal,” but were an essentially upper-middle-class organization that fell some way short of representing the ideals of all the nation’s women. Indeed, the lingering social stigma associated with women’s gambling did not prevent women from participating in sports betting in a variety of ways, a fact that complicates historians’ construction of gambling as a male preserve in many parts of the world (Jennings 1997: 5).

BOXING AND BLOOD SPORTS Some sports were increasingly opposed during the twentieth century because of their perceived violence. There was no consistent and uniform process at play here, of course, as behavioral norms differed across nations and cultures. But similar arguments were often utilized by those who called for restrictions on, or the prohibition of, sports considered to be unnecessarily violent. The history of

FIGURE 5.2: The Boxer. 1942 bronze sculpture by Richmond Barthé (1901–89). Modeled after Cuban world featherweight champion Kid Chocolate, renowned for his ballet-like movement. Simeon B. Williams Fund. Courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago.

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professional boxing, for instance, has been littered with campaigns by social reformers and medical authorities to ban the sport. Boxing was not officially legalized in New York until the Walker Law of 1920 and remained on the cusp of both legal and moral acceptance in many parts of the world (Gems 2014: 36). The rise of social democracy in Europe after the Second World War heralded a new emphasis on welfarism and state involvement in many parts of everyday life, including health. It was in those counties where the social democratic ethos was strongest that the pressure to ban professional boxing was greatest: it was prohibited in Iceland in 1957, in Sweden in 1969, and in Norway in 1982 (though the latter two bans were repealed in the twenty-first century). The antiboxing lobby that emerged in Britain from the 1950s was not untypical. The most significant figure was Edith Summerskill, a Labour MP, feminist, and qualified doctor. Her 1956 book The Ignoble Art chastised those who organized and took pleasure in “the sight of one man beating another into insensibility” (Summerskill 1956: 43). Summerskill’s failure to get bills prohibiting boxing passed in Parliament in 1960 and 1962 was partly the result of limited public and political support. The mixed views of the medical establishment did not help (Carter 2011). Periodic deaths in the boxing ring invariably led to renewed calls for the sport to be banned. Against the views of its defenders that boxing has statistically been the cause of far fewer deaths than other dangerous sporting activities, such as motor racing, flying, or parachuting, critics have argued that only in boxing is the aim to knock an opponent out—an objective that is inevitably likely to lead to brain damage and other life-changing injuries. Below the surface of the medical debate, however, discussions of boxing and other combat sports have been conducted in philosophical and moral terms. The continued popularity of boxing in so-called “civilized” societies has been regarded by some commentators as a reason for serious collective self-reflection (Sugden 1996: 173–4). In 1962, American Catholic theologian Father Richard A. McCormick deemed boxing to be fundamentally “immoral” in an invited article in the pages of Sports Illustrated (Wyman 2016). In the wake of the death of young Australian boxer Braydon Smith in 2015, one academic warned that boxing and cage fighting tended to “desensitise us to the deliberate infliction of harm” and “normalise aggressive behaviour in the minds of us all, especially the young” (Sarre 2015). As well as the young, women were often seen to be in need of protection from the physical and moral dangers of boxing. The historical narrative of women in masculine domains, such as boxing rings and gyms, has tended to focus overwhelmingly on exclusion, and thus to underplay those who challenged and redefined prevailing gender norms. There is considerable evidence, for instance, that women were drawn to boxing as spectators, commentators, and even participants from the 1920s onwards. In Weimar Germany, while some

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commentators noted that boxing was not intended for the “delicate sensitivities” of women, the sport became increasingly popular among women of all types, appealing particularly to artists, writers, actresses, and others among Berlin’s cultural elite. A number of films and novels featured women as symbols of modernity, breaching the “masculine world” of boxing (Jensen 2002: 91, 93; Gammel 2012). In the United States, actresses such as Clara Bow and Mae West became known for their self-confidence, physicality, and independence in both career and private life. Both were from working-class backgrounds in which boxing was deeply embedded as an everyday form of self-defence as well as a competitive sport. In different ways, they adopted boxing as a way of challenging and complicating gender norms. One-off bouts were recorded in Nicaragua and Mexico between the wars but it was not until the 1950s and 1960s that pioneering female boxers, such as England’s Barbara Buttrick and the Americans Phyllis Kugler and Jo Ann Hagen, and managers like Aileen Eaton, began to make even the smallest impression on the sport’s dominant male culture. Far from being repelled by the assumed unsophisticated physical violence of boxing, there was evidence that some women were attracted to its visceral excitement as well as its aesthetics (Boddy 2008: 218–35; Gems 2014: 225–8; Smith 2014: 70–9). Sports involving animals faced particular challenges as the animal welfare movement grew in size and influence during the twentieth century (Kean 2000; Davis 2016). However, attitudes to blood sports differed according to historical circumstance and the cultural meanings attached to such practices in particular settings. In parts of the new US Empire, as Janet M. Davis has shown, clashes over cockfighting were about more than individual morality and the well-being of the animals involved (Davis 2013). They were political struggles, in which competing claims relating to nation building, citizenship, and self-determination were articulated by supporters and opponents. In Puerto Rico, for example, the US civil government imposed a ban on cockfighting in 1904. Officials promoted the ban as a form of paternal protection and moral uplift for humans and animals alike, believing that the cockfights encouraged drunkenness, violence, and death across species. They also adopted the colonial language of civilization and dependency to suggest that those who supported the practice were clearly unfit to govern themselves. By contrast, indigenous enthusiasts deployed what Davis has memorably called a form of “cockfight nationalism,” vigorously defending the right to continue fighting as a means of preserving cultural heritage and advancing claims to self-determination. Such arguments eventually gained ground in all the US-controlled territories where the sport had been banned. In Puerto Rico cockfighting was legalized again in 1933, despite continued protests from American animal protectionists, missionaries, and others who regarded the sport as fit for “a barbarous and cruel age,” not the modern “humane and kindly era” (Davis 2013: 568).

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The opposition to blood sports changed in nature and focus across the twentieth century. In Britain, where traditions of aristocratic and elite support for various types of hunting had developed over centuries, attempts to influence political and public opinion proved to be slow and gradual. Animal welfare groups such as the Humanitarian League and the League Against Cruel Sports used a range of tactics to campaign against hunting up until the 1960s but with limited success (Allen, Watkins, and Matless 2016). Though declining significantly, the power of the landed interest remained resilient, and was buoyed by the support of the new rich, who regarded fox hunting in particular as conferring social prestige, and farmers, who had long advocated it for reasons of pest control as well as sport. A government inquiry on cruelty to wild animals in 1951 concluded that as well as controlling animal numbers, field sports “may also be considered useful in that they provide healthy recreation for a number of people” (Tichelar 2011: 103). By the 1970s, however, wider social and economic changes in the countryside and more critical attitudes to farming and food production helped to bolster the range and impact of anti-hunting arguments. The emergence of active campaigning groups such as the Hunt Saboteurs Association (founded in 1962) and a general move from an animal welfare to an animal rights agenda all contributed to the Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) publicly opposing fox hunting and the shooting of birds for sport in 1976, a significant development for an organization which had been dominated for much of its history by aristocratic and hunting interests (Tichelar 2011). By the time of the election of the reformist Labour government in 1997, fox hunting had become a high-profile and controversial political issue. Increasingly viewed by the majority of the population as an anachronistic and elitist pursuit, supporters defended it in emotional and psychological terms as a flight from modernity and a nostalgic celebration of the English rural tradition and landscape. In spite of opposition from the House of Lords and a newlyformed Countryside Alliance, fox hunting was finally banned in the UK in 2004 (May 2013). Debates focused on the competing claims of traditionalism and modernization similarly circulated around Spanish bullfighting in the twentieth century. While intellectual critics bemoaned the corrida as brutal, uncivilized, and “incompatible with modernity,” the bullfight nonetheless developed from the early twentieth century and through the era of General Franco’s rule as a powerful representation of Spanish identity on an international stage (Andersen 2017: 12). While the portrayal of bullfighting as archaic and anti-modern has been challenged by some scholars, who stress its pivotal role at the forefront of a new era of mass entertainment and spectator sport, it was nonetheless subject to a combination of opposing forces that combined to reduce its cultural significance in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (Shubert 2001; McFarland 2011). Animal rights arguments were one factor in play here but by

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no means the most significant. In Spain, the Asociación Defensa Derechos Animal (ADDA, founded in 1976) has actively campaigned with other national and international activists for the prohibition of bullfighting (Brandes 2009: 790). In spite of Ernest Hemingway’s role in popularizing bullfighting as a cultural spectacle, many American writers and tourists, as well as animal protectionists, viewed the corrida as a symbol of “Spanish cruelty, decadence and national decline” (Davis 2016: 23). Indeed the wider politics of ethnonationalism and Europeanization have been crucial in accelerating the sport’s decline. In Catalonia, for instance, the bullfight is generally regarded as “a Castilian rather than pan-Spanish custom,” an emblem of the oppressive Spanish state. In 2012 the Catalan Parliament banned bullfighting, although the decision was deemed unconstitutional by Spain’s highest court four years later. For many socially progressive European-minded Spaniards, meanwhile, the bullfight represented an anachronistic symbol of the nation’s uncivilized past, ill-suited to its future as a modern European democracy (Marvin 1988; Brandes 2009: 786, 789).

PLAYING AND WATCHING One of the key battlegrounds in twentieth-century sport was over differences between participation and spectatorship. In the Soviet Union, Western sports were initially officially rejected as bourgeois, and organized displays of physical culture were preferred. In common with socialist critics in the West, Soviet leaders and intellectuals stated their hostility toward “big-time, capitalist professional sports,” believing that it “filled workers’ heads with useless thoughts and diluted their interest in politics.” By the mid-1930s, however, popular soccer and ice hockey championships had been established, and sports spectacles, as Robert Edelman has shown, went on to become a “compelling element of Soviet popular culture” (Edelman 1993: x). The relationship between mass and elite sport was similarly complex and often contradictory in other totalitarian states. In fascist Italy, the success of after-work leisure and sport organizations—the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro incorporated 20,000 local associations by 1937—and the emphasis on physical culture and non-competitive gymnastics could be considered an uneasy fit with the emphasis placed by the regime on the international success of heroic sportsmen such as the heavyweight boxer Primo Carnera and the national soccer team, World Cup winners in 1934 and 1938. Even if fascist propaganda for the most part solved this contradiction by presenting its sports stars as embodiments of the fascist “New Man,” “imbued, in body and spirit, with a near-mythical devotion to the state,” the tensions between mass recreational sport and elite competitive sport were never fully resolved (Gordon and London 2006: 45).

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The absence of serious scholarly consideration of criticisms of organized sport has been explored in an important article by academic G. K. Peatling. Contemporary critics of sport have, according to Peatling, tended to be dismissed by sports historians as reactionary, puritanical, and elitist, without adequate reference to the particular social and cultural context of their writing. Thus pre-First World War Liberal-Radical political commentators, such as J. A. Hobson and Leonard Hobhouse, in their critiques of sport focused on the links between the sports crowd and the popular enthusiasm for imperialism, drawing out the anti-progressive tendencies of both. In criticizing sport, their focus was not the world of amateur sport and “fair play” but the decline of the “active interest of the participant” in favour of “the idle excitement of the spectator” (Peatling 2005 362; Reid 2006 132–3). Peatling also draws a link between these criticisms and the later writing of novelist and essayist George Orwell in the 1940s. In this view, Orwell’s portrayal of international sporting events that led to “orgies of hatred” needs to be understood in the context of his wider writing about, and understanding of, nationalism. For Orwell, the inherent competitiveness of nationalism in politics, economics, and warfare, as well as in cultural matters such as sport, was an inevitable force for conflict and division (Peatling 2005: 367; Beck 2012a: 80). As such, as with other critics of sport, Orwell’s target was not sport in general but what he saw as the particularly negative characteristics of the nationalistic sporting crowd. Criticism of what might be called elite or top-level sport—often though not always professional—was indeed, as one historian has noted of an earlier period, “common and varied” (Bale 2014: 45). In interwar Britain, it took many forms. Sports that were considered overly commercial and lacking in sportsmanship were particularly criticized. Soccer was a frequent target, though less so toward the end of the 1930s, and much less often in the postwar years. In 1930, the Welsh rugby international Rowe Harding bemoaned professional soccer as “sordid grasping after easy money,” and soccer crowds were regularly accused in establishment newspapers of being too partisan and departing from the normal standards of “English sportsmanship” (Huggins and Williams 2006: 18–19). Team games were often preferred to individual sports, like golf and tennis, which were looked upon as too selfish and of less value in building character. Underpinning many of these complaints was the feeling that sport at the highest level was simply too serious. While cricket test matches were important, the Daily Telegraph noted, in a 1926 editorial, it was ultimately “only a game, and there are dangers in taking games too seriously.” An overemphasis on competition potentially undermined the “moral authority” of sportsmanship; according to one former England rugby union captain interviewed in 1933, it could “kill spontaneity and cramp the joy of games” and prevent the creation through sport of “active and suitable citizens” (Huggins and Williams 2006: 20).

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SPORTING RIVALS, SPORTING FRIENDS At the heart of much of the conflict in modern sport has been the rivalry between teams and individuals. Some scholars and writers have placed rivalries at the center of their understanding of the cultural identity of sport. Simon Kuper’s Football Against the Enemy, for instance, which explored the longstanding interrelations between soccer and politics across the world, utilized the rivalries between clubs and nations—Barcelona and Real Madrid, Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers, the Netherlands and Germany—as a narrative device (Kuper 1994). For sociologists Richard Giulianotti and Gary Armstrong, rivalry and opposition were the key to understanding the symbolic meanings attached to football (Armstrong and Giulianotti 2001). Cultural identities, it has been argued, were established primarily through such rivalries, which became “reinforced by local chauvinisms that are mapped in spatial terms” (Giulianotti 1999: 10). In his detailed survey of symbolic identities in European football, Christos Kassimeris has suggested that supporters’ dislike of rival clubs naturally reinforces their membership of their own community; the “otherness” of the enemy strengthening the sense of belonging and social cohesion crucial to club allegiance (Kassimeris 2010).

FIGURE 5.3: Heysel Stadium Riot, Brussels, Belgium, May 29, 1985. Juventus vs Liverpool, European Cup Final. Liverpool fans threw rocks from the decrepit stadium before the game at Juventus fans, compelling them to flee. They ran into a wall that collapsed, killing thirty-nine and injuring 600. The game was still played, and Juventus won 1–0. English fans were subsequently banned for five years from attending games in Europe. Photo by Liverpool Echo/Mirrorpix. Getty Images.

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Because much of twentieth-century sport developed in an urban context, towns and cities have been important sites for the incubation of rivalry and conflict. The intracity rivalries that had been so important for the early promotion of commercial sport remained fundamental in many sports and in most countries. European and Latin American soccer, with their manifold “derby” matches, were to some extent built on the dynamics of local antagonism. Rivalries may have been less obviously important in US team sport, where geographical distance and the relative absence of multiple franchises in one city might have been thought to limit the potential for localized sport-based conflict. But controversies over the location of sports teams have fueled rivalry between American cities, with a “cutthroat competition among cities for teams” developing in certain periods, such as the late 1950s and the 1980s (Euchner 1993: 6). The most notable franchise shift occurred in 1958, when baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. The club was one of the best supported and most profitable in the sport. But when its owner Walter O’Malley’s aim to relocate the club from Ebbets Field to a more accessible neighborhood in

FIGURE 5.4: Bleacher crowd at Ebbets Field in early 1950s comprised of a broad cross-section of Brooklyn’s residents by gender, race, and age. Courtesy Brooklyn Central Public Library.

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Brooklyn proved unsuccessful, he looked west instead. The decision had a devastating effect on Brooklyn’s supporters and residents. Steven Riess has suggested that the Dodgers were more “closely identified with its host city” than any other US sports franchise, and that the club was “by a wide margin the most important institution in the borough,” symbolizing “the character, culture, and ethnic diversity of Brooklyn” on a wider national stage (Riess 1991: 236). As the competition to keep and attract professional sports teams increased, so municipal authorities were increasingly prepared to build expensive stadiums. By 1988, only five out of twenty baseball and two out of twenty-eight football stadiums were privately owned. Baseball parks and football fields had become important in strategies to boost the image of cities to aid business development and tourism as well as physical symbols of civic progress (Riess 1991: 239). National sports cultures have also been animated by rivalries between regional representatives. In Australia, for example, sport’s role in creating a sense of nationhood around the period of Federation and beyond was crosscut by regional parochialism, which itself built on long-standing antipathies within individual states. Interstate rivalries have often been more persistent and culturally significant than international contests. This has been particularly true in relation to the less populated states, such as Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania. The marginalization of Western Australia in the administration of cricket, for instance, remained a point of dispute for decades. Accusations of bias in selection policy meant that when Graham McKenzie became the first Western Australian to represent the national team in 1961, he was seen as carrying “the hopes and aspirations of his State” (Cashman 1995: 108). Similarly, the long-standing complaints of Queenslanders at the drain of “their” players to wealthier rugby league clubs in New South Wales was given a competitive focus by the creation of the State of Origin match during the 1980s, a clash that soon came to overshadow test matches in the public imagination. Regional pride was also manifest in perceptions of the dominance of Melbourne over Sydney as a national and international sporting hub, at least until the 2000 Olympics (Cashman and Hickie 1990). Richard Cashman has argued that regional rivalries tended to replace intersuburban enmities toward the end of the twentieth century as television and the increased mobility of supporters worked to reconfigure the nature and scope of community identities and loyalties (Cashman 1995: 110). This was equally true in European soccer, especially in relation to clubs representing regions neglected by more powerful political and economic neighbors, such as Napoli in southern Italy and Bastia in Corsica (Koller and Brändle 2015: 151). Much has been written about national sporting rivalries and the mapping of political tensions onto specific sporting contests. Yet while there is no doubt that major geopolitical events such as the Cold War and the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s impacted significantly upon the sporting realm, increasing tensions

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and enlivening existing nationalist conflicts, there is a danger of overplaying the negative elements of sporting rivalries (Wagg and Andrews 2007; Mills 2018). We should remember that in many contexts sporting rivalries are mutually beneficial, enhancing public recognition of both parties and ensuring increases in box office receipts. Likewise, we should not underestimate the potential of mega events, particularly the most popular such as the Olympic Games and the men’s soccer World Cup, for facilitating new contacts, friendships, and understandings through sporting rivalry. In the latter case, for instance, there is considerable evidence that what scholars have identified as “carnival” forms of football spectating—based on colorful costumes, the wearing of national colors, gregarious behavior, and, significantly, friendliness rather than hostility to rival fans and hosts—spread from some South American and northern European fan groups to become the norm during the 1990s and early twenty-first century (Giulianotti 1999: 59–61). Studies of Korean fans at the 2002 World Cup and various supporter experiences at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have highlighted the potential events such as this offer for celebrating national identity without necessarily disparaging others (Whang 2006; Alegi and Bolsmann 2013). The World Cup, in this sense, might increasingly be seen to offer a space for “negotiating between us and them,” encouraging a “spirit of diplomatic understanding,” and even at certain moments unifying supporters across national divides (Guest 2013: 153, 157).

SPORT, UNITY, AND COOPERATION It is a truism that sport can both unite and divide individuals, groups, societies, and nations. This chapter, in common with most scholarly analyses, has mainly focused on the divisions, conflicts, and controversies of modern sport. This approach derives, in part, from an assumption that other agencies—governing bodies, politicians, and sports journalists—tend to act as advocates of sport; to paint it as an inherent force for good and to underplay or ignore its flaws and contradictions. Yet there is a danger that by concentrating on what has been called the “dark side” of sport (Cronin 2014: 98–9), we will miss instances where it has either genuinely been perceived as a means of bringing together diverse groups or where the evidence is nuanced, mixed, and contradictory; where expressions of unity in certain situations and for some groups were intermingled with discrimination and exclusion toward others. Many transnational sporting contests, tours, and international competitions were characterized by the camaraderie between organizers, competitors, and observers. Complex networks developed from the 1920s onwards connecting athletes, clubs, and journalists together as international competition became increasingly common and increasingly valued. At a reception for athletes competing at a British Empire–US athletics meeting in Chicago in August 1930,

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Knute Rockne, football coach at Notre Dame, commented that “all of us dream of international peace.” He went on: Competitive sports not only satisfy the competitive instinct born in every boy, but international games lead to better understanding between races. When the youth of the world reaches for a spiked shoe instead of a grenade, and for a football instead of a gun, the world is advancing towards peace. —Gorman 2012: 165 Sentiments of this type were commonplace wherever athletes or sports teams met in international competition, and many competitions were created to specifically foster good relations between people across borders. We should not underestimate the extent to which internationalist and universalist discourses were prominent, for instance, in the promotion of international sports tournaments. Competitions such as football’s post-1945 International Youth Tournament were underpinned by a philosophy of international fraternity and goodwill. One of its chief goals was “to bring together young people from different countries, from conceptions, ideas and languages which are often opposed” and to use sport to “create a basis for honest and sincere camaraderie” (Marston 2016: 153, 146). Such statements could be dismissed as mere rhetoric, but they were simply too prevalent and central to the stated aims of events of this kind to ignore. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, initiatives combining sports development and humanitarian relief linked under the label Sport and Development for Peace (SDP) have demonstrated the willingness to use sport as a means of improving lives and opportunities in disadvantaged communities across the world (Kidd 2008). Some of these have focused on sport as a panacea for building bridges between deeply divided communities in places such as Israel, Northern Ireland, and South Africa (Sugden 2008; Sugden and Tomlinson 2017). The idealism underpinning such programs has driven and influenced activists and community leaders for much of the twentieth century. It also demonstrates how conflict and accommodation have been closely related as key elements of the history of sport since 1920.

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CHAPTER SIX

Inclusion, Exclusion, and Segregation KEVIN B. WITHERSPOON

“(Jackie Robinson) was a sit-inner before sit-ins. He was a freedom rider before freedom rides.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. The day that Jackie Robinson first took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, April 15, 1947, ranks among the most important in American sports history. As noted by celebrated filmmaker Ken Burns, producer of the 2016 documentary Jackie Robinson, as well as his epic series Baseball (1994; 2010), Robinson’s barrier-breaking act came long before other landmark moments of the Civil Rights Movement, such as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Rosa Parks refusing to leave her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, DC (Burns 2016). In a real sense, Robinson—as a baseball player—represented an opening wedge leading the nation toward desegregation. At the same time, historian David Wiggins notes that “the most famous racial advances in sport have typically followed rather than preceded major civil rights legislation and social movements” (Wiggins 2016: 315). Even Robinson’s groundbreaking moment falls on a continuum of change, following noteworthy events that chipped away at racial barriers in the country, such as Marian Anderson’s 1939 performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, A. Philip Randolph’s 1941 March on Washington Movement, the desegregation of wartime industries, and the 1944 publication of Gunnar Myrdal’s seminal The 149

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FIGURE 6.1: Jackie Robinson (1919–72) in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. Robinson was the first African American in MLB in the twentieth century. He overcame enormous racism, starred from 1947 to 1956, leading his team to six pennants and one World Series. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration, Maryland.

American Dilemma, The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. While events such as Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in MLB might tempt us to believe that sport is always on the forward edge of social advancement, in fact sport has just as often served as an agent of exclusion and segregation as one of inclusion and equality. Scholar Daryl Adair explains that, “Sport can variously include or exclude, and engage or marginalize, depending on a complex mix of values, attitudes, and power structures. . . . Sport, in that sense, is neither inherently virtuous nor heinous. . . . Depending on context, sport can either reinforce prevailing orthodoxies or be part of reformist or radical agendas” (Adair 2011: 1). Robert Lipsyte put it this way, in his Introduction to Beyond a Boundary, the classic work by C. L. R. James: “Sportswriters and academics have examined sport as trap and safety valve and escape hatch, usually in the context of an extraordinary hyper-event . . . or in the progress of an individual from ghetto to glory, and sometimes back” (Lipsyte 1993: xi). Across the globe over the last century, the elite and empowered classes have dictated who may participate in sporting activities, and where, when, and how they might play. Around the world, sport has primarily been a playground for men rather than women, for the wealthy rather than the poor, and for the

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dominant race over minorities. As Lipsyte continued, “Lurking beyond the boundaries of every game are the controlling interests, the forces of oppression, the economics of the owners, the politics of the government, even the passions of the fans” (xii). While barriers have indeed come down in recent decades, one cannot overlook the fact that those barriers remained in place for many years, to the pain and detriment of the millions who were marginalized in some way. At the same time, for repressed groups, sport has provided pleasure, amusement, and empowerment even in a segregated setting. Around the world, women, blacks and other minorities, groups persecuted for their religion or ethnicity, and colonized peoples have embraced sport to ease their suffering, to move forward in society, and at times to compete against the empowered. Even if their athletic endeavors went unwitnessed by anyone except themselves, such experiences were significant, according to Wiggins, because they “served as . . . symbol[s] of possibility, nurtured a sense of identity and self-worth, and both challenged and reaffirmed long-standing dominant gender ideology and social class standing” (Wiggins 2016: 315). This essay will consider the place of inclusion, exclusion, and segregation in modern sport. The most prominent factors considered in this study are race, gender, and class, although limitations have been enforced for any number of other reasons, including ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, and national origin. To examine every instance of segregation—or every path-breaking athlete—is far beyond the scope of this relatively brief study. Rather, what follows is a summary of major global trends, with a number of case studies introduced as examples.

EXCLUSION: SPORT AS AN AGENT OF SEGREGATION Almost universally, sport has served as a mechanism for the empowered to demonstrate their superiority over the disempowered, and to limit their access and avenues to possible empowerment. According to Wiggins, “Skin color, nationality, citizenship, cultural differences, class, and a host of other factors have, if not resulting in categorical exclusion, segregated individuals and groups, denied them leadership positions, and influenced both their participation patterns and media portrayal realized for their athletic accomplishments” (Wiggins 2014: 95). In the realm of sport, this has meant that professional sport, the highest levels of amateur sport, and to some degree participatory sports have been dominated by upper-class white men. In the decades prior to the Second World War—before the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, before the independence movement of African nations, and before the international women’s movement achieved its most noteworthy gains—blacks and ethnic minorities found access to mainstream sports limited if not completely barred,

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and women competed in games and contests modified to eliminate heavy exertion and physical contact, if they competed at all. Victorian-era social conventions frowned upon robust physical activity for women, as the sweat, contact, physical activity, and dirtiness associated with sport were all considered unfeminine. The scientific community condemned sport for women as well, concerned that heavy activity might damage their reproductive organs, or exhaust the “physical capital” that was more appropriately reserved for bearing children (Guttmann 1991). Combined with the powerful tradition that women’s place in the family structure was at home, raising children and housekeeping, these factors left women with few athletic options prior to the 1920s. With few exceptions, women participated in light exercise such as stretching, gymnastics, or walking, rather than more active sports. In the more organized setting of college sports, women might engage in “play days” or intramural games, rather than competitive contests. When they did compete in sports such as tennis or basketball, they were encumbered by heavy clothing, which limited freedom of movement, and the rules were modified so as to limit physical exertion and contact. In basketball, for instance, the court was divided into two or even three segments, with players required to stay within one segment rather than running the full court. Other rules limited the amount of dribbling, prohibited slapping or grabbing for the ball, and required frequent passes (Schultz 2014: 74–6). Women in the early twentieth century occasionally challenged these limitations, without much lasting success. When a group of women in New Zealand decided to start playing soccer and rugby in 1921, doctors and coaches voiced numerous objections. One female doctor insisted, “Girls . . . should not be allowed to play rugby football. It would mean nothing but harm and danger to them” (Cox 2012: 449). Others argued that vigorous sports would do damage to the women’s reproductive organs, that they were being selfish by depriving their children of a proper upbringing, or that women simply could not handle the rigors of a “man’s” game. Ultimately, officials decided, netball (basketball) was a more suitable game for women (Cox 2012). As we shall see in the following section, sportswomen resisted the limitations put upon them by specialized rules and a watered-down competitive setting in ways both overt and covert, creating for themselves a sporting realm to meet their desires. For women in Islamic cultures, the barriers to participation were even more imposing. According to scholar Gertrud Pfister, “For various reasons taking up sport is scarcely reconcilable with women’s roles in many traditional societies, especially Islamic cultures” (Pfister 2010: 2926). Islamic cultures generally place low importance on sport, even for men, but for women in such societies, sport is often anathema. For many in such regions, class and simply living conditions become an obstacle to participation. According to Pfister, “Women’s chances of participating and competing in elite sport depend to a large extent on their

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cultural and religious backgrounds” (2928). While a small percentage of Muslim women come from supportive and affluent families, most live in poor and/or war-torn conditions. For people who are living in poverty, or in constant states of war, participation in sport is either not feasible or simply a low priority. Finally, according to custom, many women marry at a young age and bear children soon after. Thus, few women from Muslim countries participate in sport, and only a handful have competed at the highest levels of international sport. For those who do reach the highest levels, there are additional challenges. Iranian women and others, for instance, must compete while wearing the hijab, placing obvious limitations on their capacity to move, see, and react in an athletic setting. As Pfister has aptly put it, “gymnastics cannot be done in a hijab” (2931). Still, some women have had success in sports where the hijab is not a crippling hindrance, such as shooting or archery; others have managed to overcome it even in a more challenging setting, such as running track. For women in Russia in the early twentieth century, and later those within the Soviet sphere of influence, certain types of sport and physical activity were encouraged, though they were still governed by prevailing local cultural and gender norms. Unlike sports in western Europe and North America, which were linked primarily with maternity, raising healthy children, and physical health and attractiveness, under Soviet leadership sport was linked primarily with military preparedness, worker productivity, and the avoidance of negative social influences, including religion (Rowley 2006). Throughout the twentieth century, Russian leadership felt perpetually at risk of war and/or invasion. From the conflicts with Japan early in the century, to the horrors of the First World War and the 1917 October Revolution, through the international crisis of the 1930s and the Second World War, Russians looking both to the east and to the west believed an attack could come at any time. Preparing for absolute war meant that all citizens—men and women alike—needed to be physically, mentally, and emotionally ready for combat. Thus, sport in the Soviet sphere was an avenue for gender equality, and Soviet women took to sports with enthusiasm equal to men. The emphasis on military preparedness led women in these areas to participate in different sports than women in the West, such as sharpshooting, parachuting, and aviation. Because participation in athletics was governed and regulated by the state, and men and women were considered equals, Soviet women may not have viewed sport as an avenue for liberation and freedom of expression, as ultimately many Western women did. While sports in the United States and Europe contributed to a revolution in fashion, for instance, as female athletes literally threw off the heavy, restrictive clothing of the Victorian era, Soviet women wore essentially the same athletic (and military) uniforms as men. As noted by historian Alison Rowley, women’s sport in the West became a vehicle for promoting physical attractiveness, beauty, and sexual appeal, while Soviet women “took up sports because they were model workers, patriots, and citizens” (2006: 1335).

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FIGURE 6.2: Young people – go to the stadiums! 1947. A political poster by Leonid Fyodorovich Golovanov, a highly acclaimed Russian graphic artist. The USSR promoted competitive sport after the Second World War for men and women to promote physical fitness and national defense. Russia did not participate in the Olympics from 1912 until 1952 when it was well prepared to compete. Found in the collection of the Russian State Library, Moscow. Hulton Archives. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images. Getty Images.

As Allen Guttmann has shown through a study of Soviet-dominated nations during the Cold War, practical concerns and the challenges of work and home life still left women with fewer opportunities to participate in sport then men, even if the local regimes paid lip service to gender equality. As Guttmann explains, a heavy workload in the factory or on the farm, coupled with the obstacles associated with bearing and raising children, left women with fewer hours, on average, to engage in athletic activities than men in such nations as the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and East Germany. In communist eastern Europe “elite female athletes are prized as highly as elite male athletes,” but at the grassroots level fewer women participate in sports (1991: 175). Racial and ethnic minorities, as well, were denied equal access to sport for much of the twentieth century. In Jim Crow America, blacks struggled against the pervasiveness of not only racial but also class bias. Blacks were rarely admitted to mainstream universities, and if they attended college at all, it was almost surely at underfinanced HBCUs. They were also not allowed entry into

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FIGURE 6.3: 1930–1 Homestead Grays. Experts rate this team as the best AfricanAmerican team ever. Standing: Cumberland Posey*, Bill Evans, Jap Washington, Red Reed, Smokey Joe Williams*, Josh Gibson*, George “Tubby” Scales, Oscar Charleston*, Charlie Walker, Jr. Kneeling: Chippy Britt, Lefty Williams, Jud Wilson*, Vic Harris, Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe. * (designates Baseball Hall of Famer). Photo by Wright & Riley. Harrison Studio/Heritage Auctions. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

country clubs or nearly any other major athletic organizations such as the New York Athletic Club. This meant that even those African Americans demonstrating athletic promise had very limited opportunities to practice, compete, and display that talent. Black athletes under this system often formed their own teams and leagues which rarely could compete against the best all-white teams. Finally, when black athletes did manage to earn spots on previously segregated teams, other coaches and owners typically enforced a “gentleman’s agreement,” whereby they would not allow their still-segregated teams to compete against those that were integrated (Wiggins and Swanson 2016: xiii–xvi). Through the first half of the twentieth century, segregation permeated all sports in the United States, but perhaps none so prominently and severely as professional baseball, which was not only the most-watched sport in the country but had also become thoroughly entwined with American societal values and cultural norms, as the “national pastime” (Pope 1997: 59–84). For many decades prior to April 15, 1947, MLB was an all-white realm. Only three African Americans played in the major leagues in the nineteenth century (William White played one game in 1879 while passing as white, and the Walker brothers in 1884), and thereafter management enforced a color line, spurred on by star first

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baseman and manager Adrian “Cap” Anson. This policy reflected the broader societal limitations placed upon African Americans (Ribowsky 1995: 32). While the color line in professional football was more fluid, no blacks played in the NFL from 1934 to 1945. Many black players believed there was a gentleman’s agreement among white owners not to employ them. White owners and coaches, for their part, argued that they did not bring on black players for their own safety; black players in the league prior to 1934 had been subjected to harsh verbal and physical abuse, at times assaulted by the entire opposing team (Smith 1988). Racial segregation elsewhere was equally severe, or even worse. According to historians Douglas Booth and John Nauright, in South Africa under apartheid, “In the realm of sport and leisure, the state simply banned black people from facilities” (Booth and Nauright 2014: 48). Unlike in the United States, however, the isolation imposed on blacks in South Africa was so extreme that whites and blacks rarely interacted with each other, meaning “that whites tucked blacks out of sight and most whites lost all ‘feeling for human fellowship with blacks’ ” (Booth and Nauright 2014: 50). Blacks had no avenue to professional or highlevel amateur sports, and played in isolation, often unknown to the international sporting community. Only after decades of struggle for equality in South Africa, coupled with an international boycott of South African sports, did apartheid, along with segregation in sports, begin to crumble. Historians Robert Archer and Antoine Bouillon argue that throughout its existence apartheid sport was “the object of civic struggle in the name of social justice, involving not just players, but the whole population” and “the full weight of state institutions” (Booth and Nauright 2014: 42). Such internal resistance to apartheid sport was eventually fortified by an international effort to force change in South Africa. Beginning in the late 1960s, sparked in part by an international boycott against South African participation in the Olympics, and the cancellation of several tours by prominent opposing teams and players, South African officials began the long, slow process of breaking down apartheid barriers in sport. Incremental change led eventually to the full integration of the South African sporting system, a process symbolized most poignantly by political-prisoner-turnedpresident Nelson Mandela’s support for the national Springboks rugby team during the 1995 Rugby World Cup which they ended up winning (Booth and Nauright 2014: 56–60).

“SEPARATE GAMES”: SPORT AS AN AVENUE OF RESISTANCE Through the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century, colonial officials attempted to use sport as a mechanism of control. Indigenous sports were suppressed or eliminated, and replaced with the sports of the oppressors. As

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scholars have demonstrated, however, such sports were frequently then used by the oppressed as a means of resistance, especially in those cases in which the colonized nation ultimately played against and defeated the teams of the colonial power. Eric D. Anderson argues that while colonial sports were forced onto the oppressed, there were several reasons for native cultures to accept and eventually excel in such sports, including the sense of unity and pride that such sports provided, and the opportunity to turn those sports against their oppressors. Examples include cricket in India, Pakistan, and the West Indies; rugby in New Zealand and Australia; baseball in Latin America; and American football among Native American peoples (Anderson 2006: 249–50). Social theorist and former Trinidadian cricket star C. L. R James authored one of the most famous books about sport and culture ever published, Beyond a Boundary, which describes how citizens of the West Indies adopted cricket, the British game, and with it many of the social customs and behavioral expectations of British rule. At the same time, James and his cricket-playing peers developed a style and gamesmanship of their own, and eventually celebrated victories over British teams as if winning their own war for independence (James 1993). According to scholars Michael Arthur and Jennifer Scanlon, “Cricket emerged in the West Indian context as a classic struggle between the oppressor and the disenfranchised . . . [it] became a form of cultural indoctrination to cement colonial power, further loyalty to Britain, and engender white supremacy.” At the same time, they argue, “Alongside the colonial meaning makers stood the disenfranchised colonials who ‘eventually claimed their right to cricket and repromoted it as a symbol of liberating, politicized mass culture’ ” (Arthur and Scanlon 2005: 121). Malcolm MacLean observes a similar exchange between oppressors and oppressed in his study of cricket in the West Indies. Maclean writes, “. . . ‘natives’ and ‘newcomers’ adapt to and adopt each others’ ways in a shared social, cultural, and physical space that is neither native nor newcomer, they are not just meeting each other but changing each other” (MacLean 2014: 19). He concludes, “. . . we see sport as a tool of colonialist efforts to secure both hegemony and dominance, and as a tool in the efforts of the colonized to resist, to subvert, and to deny colonialist hegemony” (MacLean: 39). Thus, cricket in the West Indies, originally intended by the British as a mechanism of control, became not only a source of recreation and enjoyment for the West Indian peoples, but also an avenue through which to assert their cultural and even political independence. Other parts of the world observed similar sporting relationships between the colonial powers and colonized peoples. Historians Susan Baller and Scarlett Cornelissen have studied sport in colonial Africa, and they draw similar conclusions as Arthur, Scanlon, and Maclean. In Africa, they write, colonial “administrators considered sport a means to create healthy and disciplined subjects. . . . For colonial administrations, sport was a means of control. But

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Africans made sport their own, adapting it according to their own needs. . . . Sport can offer niches for people to create their own social worlds, away from official control” (Baller and Cornelissen 2011: 2086). Oppressed groups in other settings also created their own “social worlds” through sport, employing it as a mechanism for resistance, empowerment, or simply for pleasure and hope. There are innumerable examples to be drawn from around the world over the last century—far too many to recount fully here—so I will mention just a few that have drawn the attention of scholars. Historians have noted that Japanese Americans, imprisoned in large numbers in internment camps during the Second World War, exerted as much agency as possible despite harsh conditions, serving a variety of roles in the camps, writing letters, and engaging in artistic activities. In addition, they played sports, particularly the “American game” of baseball. Historian Samuel Regalado, who has written extensively on the experience of Japanese Americans in the camps, explains, “Before Pearl Harbor, their world was entirely an internal one as exemplified through activities such as athletic competition. In short, theirs was a segregated sport” (2009: 369). After Pearl Harbor, the situation became much worse, as the great majority of Japanese Americans was imprisoned in internment camps for the duration of the war. Even in those camps, though, Japanese Americans played baseball, basketball, football, volleyball, and softball, “so as to both satisfy their competitive appetites and temper the trauma of evacuation” (370). As Regalado argues, “Sport helped them endure their trauma and contributed to their sense of dignity” (139). Scholar Ignacio Garcia notes a similar significance in the play of the all-Mexican basketball team from Lanier High in San Antonio, Texas, which confronted racism and anger from opposing coaches, players, fans, and parents as they competed against all-white teams in the 1940s. Nonetheless, the team played, and played well. The sports program at Lanier gave athletes a sense of dignity and purpose, while allowing them to maintain their ethnic identity (Garcia 2013). Sport has served as an outlet for the oppressed under even the harshest imaginable conditions. Historian Kevin E. Simpson’s remarkable Soccer Under the Swastika, Stories of Survival and Resistance during the Holocaust (2016) reveals that even in the concentration camps during the period of most intense Nazi brutality, Jews took some solace through sport, specifically soccer. He writes, “For almost every concentration camp in the Nazi system, these hidden stories of soccer as a pleasure pursuit, a means of survival, and a method of resistance appear in victim testimonies” (Simpson 2016: xxviii). Yet Jewish participation could also be a matter of life and death. Jewish pugilists entertained camp guards just to stay alive, and the loser was often executed. Athletic fame was no protection during the Holocaust when some thirty Jewish Olympians were killed (Lebovic 2016). Despite their exclusion, the elite levels of sport, women, minorities, and other oppressed groups have always—in one degree or another—practiced

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sport as much as societal limitations would allow. At times, these activities have included forming clandestine teams or leagues; adopting disguise or assumed identities to participate in “mainstream” activities; or, most notably, playing “separate games” apart from the segregated sports. Such participation served as an important mechanism of empowerment for the marginalized groups, allowed them to push back against the limitations put upon them, and prepare them for inclusion into mainstream sports as those barriers ultimately came down. For African Americans living in the Jim Crow era, the legal and social maxim of “separate but equal” meant that blacks competing in the higher levels of sport were compelled to play sports primarily on segregated college campuses—the HBCUs—or in segregated leagues such as the Negro Leagues in baseball. While the experiences of black athletes at the youth and high-school level were more varied in the North, as they did sometimes compete on or against integrated teams, such sportspersons also suffered the effects of racism. In early-twentiethcentury Chicago, for instance, those African Americans who had limited access to public facilities, parks, and playgrounds encountered discrimination and abuse from white competitors (Riess 2004: 77). Even though all-minority teams rarely were presented with opportunities to show their abilities against white opponents, playing and performing within their own communities provided them an outlet of expression, such as by playing baseball in the segregated Negro Leagues. The crown jewel of each season was the annual all-star game, known as the East-West Classic, which at its height drew crowds of more than 50,000. According to historian Rob Ruck, “The East-West Classic showcased the verve and creative energies of the African American community writ large that had germinated with little notice on the other side of the color line” (Ruck 2016: 129). Such games became much bigger than simply sporting events, becoming significant social gatherings. The EastWest Classic drew African-American fans from all over the country, who were drawn not only to a game of baseball, but also a meeting of many of the most respected and powerful citizens of their race. As Ruck also notes, AfricanAmerican fans selected the players in the East-West Classic by voting, a powerful expression of voting rights in the era of Jim Crow when southern blacks were denied access to the ballot box during political elections. Rank-and-file players cherished the ability to play the game of baseball for a living, even in a segregated setting. Historian Mark Ribowsky writes about Negro Leaguers: “Forces they couldn’t understand could take away their rights, but no one could take away their will. That was all they needed to play. And man, could they play” (Ribowsky 1995: xix). There were rare occasions that even while relegated to playing “separate games,” minority clubs were allowed to play against all-white teams. Such moments provided a glimpse of equality, and victories over the all-white teams were treasured events. Among the first of these teams was the Renaissance Big

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FIGURE 6.4: The Harlem Globetrotters representing the United States Information Agency in 1958 in Vienna, as the American government sought to promote better diplomatic relations overseas. The team previously drew a record 75,000 spectators to a game on August 22, 1951 at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. Courtesy National Archives and Record Administration.

Five, also known as the Rens, a basketball team based in New York City which toured the United States, taking on all comers during the Jim Crow era. They often played against and defeated all-white teams, most notably in 1925, when they defeated the Original Celtics, considered the finest team of the day. As scholar Susan J. Rayl has noted, “In the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, [Bob] Douglas’s young team represented the possibility of equality for African Americans through their wins against white teams” (Rayl 2016: 21). At times, marginalized athletes, as a way of competing against the top teams, joined barnstorming teams that exploited stereotypical and often demeaning depictions of that group, much in the same way that black actors at times performed in blackface in minstrel shows and on the vaudeville circuit. Blacks playing on the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, or the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Baseball Leagues, resorted to “clowning” to win over audiences, strutting and gesturing in exaggerated fashion (Thomas 2012: 41– 74). Similarly, women playing for the All-American Red Heads basketball team

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in the 1930s and 1940s employed all manner of sexual innuendo to excite their primarily male audiences (Molina 2016). Despite playing to stereotypes, these athletes were extremely talented. The Rens and Globetrotters, for instance, won the world professional basketball championship in 1939 and 1940, respectively. Women had limited sporting opportunities because of cultural norms, but given the chance would turn to sport for fulfillment and empowerment. In turnof-the-century America, cohorts of girls and women played basketball, baseball, and field hockey at all-women’s colleges, where, away from the prying eyes of overprotective men, their sports often became quite vigorous and competitive (Liberti 1999). On farms and in rural communities as well, daughters competed with and against sons in many games and sports. There was a small cohort of female baseball players. As historian Gai Ingham Berlage notes, “By the late 1800s, there were girls who had grown up playing baseball with their brothers, and competitive women’s teams could be formed. By the 1890s, Bloomer Girls teams had sprung up across the country and were regularly playing against men’s teams” (2001: 239). While viewed by many as a vaudevillean-style sideshow, women’s teams (at times peppered with a few men dressed in women’s clothing) were often competitive against the men. Occasionally, women notched eye-raising accomplishments against men, as when the pitcher Jackie Mitchell struck out the mightiest hitters in the game—Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig—on April 2, 1931. Underscoring the exceptional nature of such moments, though, Mitchell was released from her contract immediately after the game. Many skeptics believe the event was a sham, and afterwards women rarely competed against men (242). The high-water mark for women’s baseball came during the Second World War, as many teams in the Major Leagues saw their rosters depleted due to the war. To keep fans coming to the ballpark, major league owners turned to the novel idea of creating a women’s professional baseball league, the AAGPBL, a development brought to national attention by the 1992 film, A League of Their Own. While again many considered the undertaking merely a publicity and moneymaking stunt, the women competing in the league took it very seriously, and commentators of the day lauded the women for their play as well as their femininity (243–5). In other parts of the world as well, women challenged the traditional views of gender that confined them to limited sporting roles. In Australia and New Zealand, netball (basketball) became the most popular women’s sport. As basketball historian Mandy Treagus notes, netball “embodied one of the key attributes of the dominant mode of femininity of the time, restraint.” By tweaking the rules of the game played by men, administrators of the sport imposed limits on movement, scoring, contact, and dribbling. “The discipline and restraint required of the netball player reflects the restraint required of feminine girls and women through much of the twentieth century” (Treagus 2005: 102). And yet,

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women who embraced the game frequently pushed the limits of the rules, and whenever possible played a brand of basketball that involved much more jostling, contact, and athletic play. In gender-segregated schools, and if no boys or men were watching, women were allowed much more freedom to play as vigorously as they wanted. Treagus concludes, “In adapting basketball into a game of their own, the pioneers of women’s basketball were able to create an institution under their own control, which they could modify not only to ensure that it fulfilled their aims of encouraging women to participate in vigorous exercise, but also to make it conform, at least in some degree, to the demands of middle-class femininity” (Treagus: 95). Around the world, women tested and at times bested the restraints imposed by both male and female coaches and administrators early in the twentieth century. Wholesale change and acceptance of women’s sport only came, though, in the aftermath of the Second World War as the globe underwent massive changes on many fronts. The rise and expansion of a worldwide feminist movement, particularly in Europe and North America, provided the backdrop for women’s increased participation in sport. Cold War politics, and particularly the growing political influence of the Olympic Games, encouraged national teams to embrace women’s sport. As medal counts—frequently utilized as measures of national prestige and might—included both men’s and women’s events, those nations embracing women’s sport most thoroughly were rewarded with medals. Gradually, as girls around the world witnessed the accomplishments of women such as Wilma Rudolph, Althea Gibson, Gertrude Ederle, or Olga Fikotová, the number of female athletes grew dramatically (Bandy et al 2012: 667).

BARRIER-BREAKING ATHLETES AS SYMBOLS OF CHANGE In the age of segregation, outstanding individual performers who managed to compete against members of the dominant race offered even more powerful examples of the possibilities of what might be achieved by the underprivileged. This was especially true in American boxing, in which two black athletes—Jack Johnson and Joe Louis—attained the title of heavyweight champion long before other sports accepted blacks. Their victories, in a sport that required men to stand toe-to-toe until one pummeled the other into submission, were especially powerful symbols of black empowerment. Jack Johnson, who reigned as heavyweight champion from 1908 to 1915 after years of being ducked by top white boxers, broke new ground, not only as the first black heavyweight champion, but also as a physically dominating force, overpowering white men, who had historically dominated every facet of American society. As such, he was the ultimate symbol of empowerment for black Americans, representing all that white Americans feared most. Yet Johnson was also a controversial figure. His

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FIGURE 6.5: Pvt. Joe Louis says – “We’re going to do our part, and we’ll win because we’re on God’s side.” Louis was not only a symbol of American heroism, but served his country during the Second World War, fighting ninety-six exhibition matches before more than two million troops, and donating over $100,000 to Navy and Army war relief from his two title bouts in 1942. Courtesy National Archives and Record Administration.

penchant for fancy clothes, fast cars, and white women made him utterly repugnant to whites, and left many blacks as well unable to fully embrace him. Nonetheless, for blacks throughout the Americas, “With his epic story of success in the face of discrimination, Johnson became a folk hero to men of color . . ., inspiring them to take up the sport on their own terms” (Runstedtler 2012: 198). Joe Louis, who came a generation later, was far more acceptable for both blacks and whites alike. Early in his career, Louis was subject to much of the same kind of racial sniping that had plagued Johnson throughout his life. However, the rise of fascism abroad, along with a personality that many whites perceived as less threatening than Johnson’s, allowed Louis to become a hero for all Americans by the time his career concluded. Beginning with his victory over Max Baer in 1935, Louis became a hero for his race, in the words of Richard Wright, “the concentrated essence of black triumph over white”

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(Runstedtler 2005: 48). As Theresa E. Runstedtler aptly describes it, “In some respects, Louis could exert physical force and command white attention in a way that escaped his black political and intellectual counterparts. Only in the ring could a black man actually harm a white man without being arrested or lynched” (70). Louis ultimately became a hero not only for black Americans, but for those of African descent around the world, when he toppled the Italian giant Primo Carnera—a personification of fascist supremacy—in 1935. Louis carried his popularity even further in two of the most significant matches of that era, his two bouts against the German champion Max Schmeling in 1936 and 1938, the second of which was a stunning first-round knockout that cemented Louis as an American icon (Baker 1988). As Runstedtler asserts, Louis’s rise as a symbol of American patriotism in the 1930s was an important early step in the desegregation of sport and even American society as a whole. “While political, economic, and social equality remained elusive, the fantastic successes of African American athletes with the racial integration of U.S. professional leagues in the following decades meant that sports emerged as the ultimate, public stage for this collective project in the assertion of black manhood” (Runstedtler 2005, 77; Wiggins 1988). Along with Joe Louis, athletes such as Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the so-called “Nazi Olympics” in Berlin in 1936, and the boxer Henry Armstrong, who won world championships in three weight divisions in boxing, attracted huge followings from black fans along with considerable support from white fans as well (Spivey 1988: 284). Such athletes began to light the way toward equality, not only in sports, but in society as well. Civil rights leader Edwin Bancroft Henderson, writing in 1936, noted that black athletes “are emulated by thousands of growing youth of all races, and above all, they gain for themselves and the negro the respect of millions whose superiority feelings have sprung solely from identity with the white race” (Wiggins 2016: 315). In the decades after the Second World War, barriers in sports around the world fell as pioneering athletes, one by one, became the first minority athletes to compete on previously segregated teams. While Jackie Robinson taking the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers is the most celebrated instance of breaking barriers in sport, at some point every segregated team, in every sport and at every level, accepted its first minority player. In most cases, the process was difficult, in some cases unimaginably so. Fans, opposing players and coaches, and even teammates often responded to the new players with skepticism, doubt, and harsh words or actions. These athletes were usually isolated, as the only minority player (or perhaps one of a handful) on the team, and in some cases teammates actively worked against the new player. Jackie Robinson opened the door for other black athletes to crack into allwhite lineups on other teams and in other sports. Just three months later, Larry Doby became the first black player in the American League, making his debut

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on July 5, 1947, for the Cleveland Indians. Unlike Robinson, Doby struggled in his first season, becoming a star only after months of subpar play. As historian Louis Moore has argued, though, despite Doby’s less than stellar start, he was noteworthy because he demonstrated that a black man—even one whose athletic skill was not leaps and bounds superior to white players—could still earn a roster spot in the major leagues (Moore 2015). Black athletes of this generation often encountered violence, especially when their desegregated teams played against all-white squads. In one especially vicious episode in 1951, Johnny Bright, a black football player for Drake University, was slugged in the face by an Oklahoma A&M player after handing off the ball and watching the play unfold. Journalists covering the game recorded the attack in a remarkable series of photographs, bringing an otherwise commonplace episode into the national spotlight. Bright was assaulted several other times during the game, suffering a broken jaw before being pulled by his coach. While in time he recovered from his injuries, Johnny eventually moved to Canada, played in the Canadian football league, became a Canadian citizen, and lived out his days there. As he described it, “I never get in any problems up here because of my race” (Schultz 2016: 128; Demas 2010: 61–7). In other cases, potentially contentious events instead led to heartwarming moments of acceptance, in which what might be expected to be hostile crowds actually supported the minority players. Perhaps most famously, South African president Nelson Mandela utilized sport, and specifically rugby, to help unify a divided nation. At the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted by South Africa, Mandela entered the stadium wearing the green and yellow jersey emblazoned with a symbol often associated with apartheid, the springbok. The crowd of 63,000 people–nearly all white–chanted the name of the man they had once feared and despised, “Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!” According to the captain and star player of the team, Francois Pienaar, “. . . when the final whistle blew this country changed forever. It’s incomprehensible” (Smith 2013). Similar scenes played out in arenas and parks around the world, not only in world championship competitions, but in local and regional games as well. The process of integration was hastened by the fact that the ability and skills of newly introduced players usually improved the team. Indeed, the success of teams that began utilizing black players became a powerful motivation for those teams that had not yet integrated to join the process. Integrated teams, in short, were better than segregated teams. Again, examples abound, but a few instances of integrated teams defeating still-segregated holdouts have become legendary in American sports history. In the 1966 NCAA basketball championship game, the Texas Western Miners—playing an all-black lineup—defeated the all-white Kentucky Wildcats, 72–65. While some argue that the significance of the racial makeup of the teams has been exaggerated, as integrated teams had won the championship several times before 1966—notably the Bill Russell-led San

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FIGURE 6.6: Wilma Rudolph at the first USA vs USSR track and field meet, July 1961. Rudolph crosses the finish line just ahead of Tatiana Shohalkanova in Lenin Stadium, Moscow, to help the US women’s 400-meter relay team win in a world record time of 44.3 seconds. National Archives and Records Administration.

Francisco Dons in 1955 and 1956—the fact that the loser in this case was a team from the South, coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp, suggested that the days of segregated teams winning titles were numbered.(Fitzpatrick 2000). Similarly, in college football, the University of Southern California Trojans, featuring a black quarterback and tailback along with many other black players, easily defeated the all-white Alabama Crimson Tide in the opening game of the 1970 season, 42–21. Alabama’s legendary coach Bear Bryant had been trying to recruit black players prior to that game but met great resistance from university and state officials. The lopsided defeat, though, demonstrated that segregated teams operated at a disadvantage by limiting their potential talent pool. The next season, Alabama introduced its first black player (Against the Tide 2013). In some instances, the process of integration was aided by shifts in the geopolitical climate. As one example, during the Cold War, marginalized athletes presented the US State Department with an opportunity to augment its image abroad as a nation offering equal opportunities for all. Thus, perhaps ironically, female and African-American athletes featured prominently in the government’s sports diplomacy program. Black female athletes, such as tennis

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star Althea Gibson, who was the headline performer on several State Department tours beginning in 1955, and sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who toured Africa for the State Department following her victories in the 1960 Rome Olympics, provided the double benefit of disputing communist propaganda claiming the inferiority of both blacks and women in the US (Thomas 2012; Brown 2015). As previously noted, the Soviet government supported women’s sports even prior to the advent of the Cold War, but athletic competition versus American teams only fortified their interest in successful sportswomen.

DESEGREGATION AND INCLUSION IN SPORT In the post-Second World War era, barriers to participation on the basis of race, gender, class, and other factors have steadily crumbled around the world. Excluded groups now brought into majority-dominated sports have had much to celebrate, introducing their own style and brand of play, and often leading their teams to victory. And yet, even as the era of segregation passed, and the global trend swung toward inclusion, true equality in sport remains elusive even today. The process of integration itself, for those trailblazing athletes, was in most cases difficult and painful, at times even dangerous and traumatic. Many scholars have studied the disparities that linger, and examples of discriminatory treatment in the era of inclusion remain abundant. Finally, in many cases the desegregation of one team or league has contributed to the decline of once-thriving segregated teams. Players “left behind” in the age of integration often saw their careers wither as the demand for their talents in a segregated setting declined. Black athletes, as they were introduced onto all-white teams and into allwhite leagues, brought with them not only physical abilities, but also a unique cultural aesthetic that transformed each sport. In baseball, Jackie Robinson and other black players brought speed and electricity to the basepaths, while Satchel Paige and other hurlers brought ingenuity, creativity, and fearlessness to the pitcher’s mound. In basketball, black players enhanced the aerial game, along with dribbling and passing mastery. And in the NFL, black running backs and wide receivers carried the ball not only with speed, power, and grace, but also an array of moves that left defenders grasping at the air. Author Ralph Ellison described it this way: “Without the presence of Negro American style, sports would be lacking in the sudden turns, the shocks, the swift changes of pace (all jazz-shaped) that serve to remind us that . . . the real secret of the game is to make life swing” (Dinerstein 2005: 170). Cultural critic Nelson George described such qualities as the “black athletic aesthetic,” a phenomenon that changed all sports as integration progressed, adding speed, style, grace, elegance, explosiveness, and improvisation to integrated sports (Dinerstein: 172). At the same time, black athletes integrating all-white teams confronted a host of issues. Consider this list of grievances, submitted to campus administrators by

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black athletes at the University of California in 1968, recounted by historian David K. Wiggins: “The athletes complained that members of the athletic department made derogatory comments about their personal appearance, athletic trainers and student coaches unfairly regarded the injuries suffered by black athletes as cases of ‘hypochondria or gold-bricking,’ coaches grouped black athletes at positions in which they would encounter maximum competition to make the teams, the university reneged on its promise to find suitable housing for black athletes, black athletes were given inferior academic advice and counseling, and, perhaps most important, the athletic department had failed to hire black coaches” (Wiggins 1988: 308). Black athletes also endured racist taunts and slurs not only from opposing teams and fans, but at times from their own coaches and teammates, and they came to expect a battering on the field from opponents who frequently targeted them with violent attacks. Even as black athletes endured such treatment, they became frustrated at the slow pace of change. Athletes who lived through the Jackie Robinson era were still likely to encounter segregated teams and, well into the 1970s, many teams brought on only one or two “token” black players. Scholar Lane Demas notes: “Although [Jackie Robinson] was the central figure who ‘shattered’ the color barrier, most major league baseball teams continued to shun integration for the next ten years, while segregated housing and dining facilities remained the norm for players into the 1960s” (Demas 2010: 16). Eventually, black athletes grew tired and frustrated with the process of integration and the problems that continued to plague integrated sports teams long after the initial barrier was broken. In the late 1960s, African-American athletes engaged in what Harry Edwards, who spearheaded the movement, called “The Revolt of the Black Athlete.” Edwards, a sociology professor and former elite discus thrower, led a group of athletes from San José State University in a series of protests against racial discrimination in sports, culminating in what organizers hoped to be a boycott of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (Edwards 1969; Bass 2002; Thomas 2012: 133–70). While the boycott eventually fizzled, Tommie Smith and John Carlos made a memorable protest following their medaling in the 200-meter sprint in a “black power” salute as the national anthem played (Witherspoon 2008). Despite the attention drawn to their protest, conditions for black athletes did not change much in the wake of the “revolt of the black athlete,” and inequalities lingered in both college and amateur sports for decades (Hoose 1989). Women’s opportunities to participate in sport increased steadily in the decades after the Second World War. As noted, the increased attention to international sport provided opportunities for women in many nations to compete for the pride of their nations. The broader advance of women in many societies was accompanied by advances in the sporting realm. As women fought for the right to vote, marriage rights, educational freedom, and greater pay, they stood up for similar representation in sports. The number of women’s events in the Olympics,

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and the level of athleticism and endurance required in those events, has risen steadily since 1948. In the United States, the advent of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 marked a watershed moment in women’s participation in sports, as it requires universities to support men’s and women’s sports equally. While the adjustment to the new law was uneven, and some men’s sports suffered as a result, women’s participation in sports, particularly at the collegiate level, has grown exponentially since the implementation of Title IX. Still, change has not always come easily, and women have often had to protest and fight for true equality in sports. In some sports, such as figure skating and tennis, female stars have at times been a bigger draw to fans than males, yet their compensation and media coverage has often lagged behind. In the 1970s, tennis star Billie Jean King spearheaded a movement demanding equal pay for women in her sport, which women eventually achieved at the Grand Slam events, a first in the sports world. Such equality is still a dream for many female athletes, however, as the disparity in pay between male stars in the NBA and female stars in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) demonstrate. In 2017, members of the US women’s World Cup soccer team, which won the 2016 World Cup in one of the most-watched soccer events in American history, went on strike, demanding equal pay to men (whose team failed to make the World Cup tournament in 2018 but nonetheless earn much more per game than the women). This movement spread globally as well, as women’s teams in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway staged similar protests. In October 2017, the Norwegian women’s team became the first in the world to be granted equal pay to the men’s team (Denmark’s Women’s National Team Calls Off Strike 2017). While inclusion for women is primarily framed as a quest for equal opportunity, there have been a number of “battle of the sexes” events, in which women have competed against—and at times defeated—men. Babe Didrikson participated in a number of exhibitions against men in the 1930s and 1940s, even playing in the men’s Tucson Open golf tournament in 1945 (Mell 2013). Perhaps the most famous such example is the infamous 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs that was given the title “Battle of the Sexes.” While in hindsight it is clear that King was simply a superior player—a champion approaching the peak of her career—and that Riggs was little more than a misogynist blowhard whose game had declined dramatically from his years as a champion, at the time the outcome was not so certain. Four months earlier, Riggs had toppled then-number-one-ranked Margaret Court. Thus, King’s victory, if not completely shocking, at least marked an important moment for women’s sport (Ware 2011). Since then, there have been many other instances in which women have competed directly against men. The sport of golf, in which size and physical contact are generally not impediments to success, has provided several such moments, as when Annika Sorenstam—at the time ranked number one in the

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FIGURE 6.7: Jack Klugman, Bobby Riggs, and Billie Jean King in an episode of the television series The Odd Couple, October 30, 1973. ABC Television. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

women’s game—entered a men’s tournament, the PGA Bank of America Colonial in 2003, a feat later duplicated by Michelle Wie, who competed in men’s events thirteen times as a teenager, between 2003 and 2008 (Mell 2013; Kelley 2017). Women have also competed directly against men in the college basketball 3-point championship, an informal event at the end of each season, but one drawing considerable fan interest. In 2015, to much fanfare Cassandra Brown of the University of Portland defeated the top men’s competitor, Kevin Pangos of Gonzaga (Grippi 2015). More recently, women have notched noteworthy successes in the made-for-television sport, American Ninja Warrior, in which competitors attempt to complete incredibly difficult obstacle courses. Despite the reality-TV dramatic tone of this event, one cannot deny the genuine athleticism of the competitors. In this sport, women compete on exactly the same courses as men, with no handicap or special benefits, and in recent years the top women have defeated many male competitors. In 2014, celebrated Ninja Warrior Kacy Catanzaro became the first woman to race up “the warped wall,” a 12-foot-high wall that competitors must run up and clear. She improved on that achievement by completing not only the qualifying course but also the more difficult city finals course. A number of women have since surpassed her

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accomplishments, most notably Jessie Graff, who in 2016 finished second in the Los Angeles city finals (bested by only one male competitor) and completed stage one in the national finals and stage two in the USA versus the World competition, feats matched by only a handful of men in the sport (Reith 2017).

CONCLUSION While athletics is a far more egalitarian realm today than it was a century ago, many instances of unfairness remain. The power structure throughout international sports is overwhelmingly dominated by white men, who comprise the majority of commissioners, owners, athletic directors, coaches, officials, and other administrators. Even considering the progress that has been made, scholars Adrienne Milner and Jomills Henry Braddock II assert, “In sports specifically, women and racial minorities have restricted opportunities for participation and both groups are significantly underrepresented in decision-making positions compared to their male and white counterparts” (Milner and Braddock 2016: 2). More alarming still, in recent years, scandals such as the NFL’s Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin affair—in which Incognito and other players verbally abused Martin and other players and staff across a variety of racial, ethnic, and sexual lines—reveal that racism and other forms of discrimination still thrive behind closed doors. Revelations of a long history of sexual abuse of female athletes by former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University trainer Larry Nasser, among a number of other recent scandals, indicate that women as well continue to confront intense challenges in the male-dominated realm of sports. Finally, researchers in recent years have begun examining discrimination and mistreatment of athletes who identify within the queer or trans spectrum, a group that until recent years has almost universally kept their identities secret while participating in sport. Growing acceptance of such individuals in society has brought some of their stories into the open, creating a new realm for discussion among sports scholars. At the same time, sport continues to provide an arena in which minorities can aspire to achieve great monetary success and fame, and also to use a public platform to draw attention to persistent inequalities, both within and outside of the world of sports. The protest of Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players— who began sitting and/or taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem beginning in 2016—brought new prominence to issues of police violence and systemic inequality in the United States, even if that conversation is far from resolved. Sport, which has at times been at the forefront of social equality and at other times has lagged behind, ultimately is a part of the broader culture of any given society and thus represents both the good and the bad. Until all of society achieves total equality, sport will continue to stand as an example not simply of inclusion or exclusion, but rather some elements of both.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

Minds, Bodies, and Identities MIKE CRONIN

INTRODUCTION: WAR BODIES, SPORTING BODIES A few months after the start of the First World War, Irish socialist James Connolly asked whether warfare could be civilized. He was clear-cut in his view that war could never be civilized, but rather that the act of war and the ensuing loss of life and bodily mutilation would be justified to the public by the jingoistic propaganda of one side or the other. In assessing the force of British jingoism, that was already evident by the start of 1915, he wrote that “it all depends, it appears, upon whose houses are being bombarded, whose people are being massacred, whose limbs are torn from the body, whose bodies are blown to a ghastly mass of mangled flesh and blood and bones” (Connolly 1915: 1). The First World War served as a rupture in European history. Not only were approximately 20 million people killed across Europe, but a similar number had to try and rebuild their lives with mutilated limbs and bodies or else shattered minds (Bourke 1999; Carden-Coyne 2014; Anderson 2016). During the First World War organized elite sport was largely, although not completely, suspended across Europe (Mason and Riedi 2010; Vamplew 2014). But sport and the imagery of the fit and healthy body signing up to fight was a key part of the propaganda of the early years of the war. Among the allied nations, the sportsman as a model fighter was a key driver in voluntary recruitment. Such images were particularly prominent in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada (Phillips 1996). One recruitment poster from the United Kingdom in 1915 stated that “Rugby Union Footballers Are 173

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Doing Their Duty. Over 90 percent Have Enlisted.” Building on the linkage between the sacrifice of the rugby player and national service against the Germans, the poster asked “British Athletes: Will You Follow Their Glorious Example?” (Collins 2009). Sportsmen from across the British Empire did follow that example, and many elite sportsmen of the era and countless others who belonged to their local club paid with their lives or had their bodies shattered on the Western Front, at Gallipoli, and elsewhere (Sandford 2015; McCrery 2015; Cooper 2013; Walker 2015; Elliott 2015). The appeal of sportsmen to the War Office, as it sought to gather the necessary thousands upon thousands of men necessary to fight the war, was that they were fit, and they understood the concept of the collective. Sport, since it had emerged from the public schools of England had been built around the idea of the team—a unit that would work together and offer personal sacrifice for the glory of the group (Mangan 2009). Such selflessness and leadership became a common trope in the propaganda war between 1914 and 1918. Time and again the newspapers were full of stories of sportsmen turned soldiers who transferred their playing field skills to the battlefield. One of the most powerful stories in Britain was that of Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Mobbs who was killed at the Ypres Salient in 1917. He was singlehandedly attacking a German machine-gun position that had laid waste to his men when he was killed, but was successful in his mission. That his selfless act was heroic was not enough. As a keen rugby player Mobbs was seen to have led his “team” by example and sacrificed himself so that the team could survive and win. Second Lieutenant Spencer, who had been at Bedford School with Mobbs and had been one of the last to speak with him, later wrote: In the tornado of shelling he got ahead and seeing a number of his men cut down charged it to bomb it – and he went down. For a man of his standing and rank it was magnificent ... I saw the old three-quarter in his own 25 yards get the ball from a crumpled scrum and get clean through and on. One of England’s finest rugby players, in the greatest game man can play. —livesofthefirstworld.war.org 2018 The correlation between sport and war has been commented on, approved of, and criticized by a plethora of writers over the years (Baxter 2011; Blackburn 2016). What is clear is that sport, especially team sport, reduces the value of individual identity in the name of the collective. Team identities, the group, have, across the twentieth century, become central to our understanding of most professional sport. For all the popularity of individual sports such as tennis or golf, it is the team sports of soccer, football, baseball, and the like that have dominated the cultural imaginations and emotional attachments of spectators and the pages of the press (Brown and Jennings 2009).

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Men like Edgar Mobbs volunteered and died in the First World War for the glory of their nation. Sport had taken a series of evolutionary decisions in the second half of the nineteenth century that made the patriotic decisions of sporting men like Mobbs make perfect sense. Shortly after the evolution of the major team games in Britain and their spread to other parts of the globe, the club became the common unit of sporting organization. After a number of years of infrequent fixtures based around club challenges, the model adapted by most team sports was an annual cup competition (usually played on a national basis), and later the establishment of a league based around a season of regular weekly fixtures (Taylor 2005; Taylor 2007). In sports across the Western world, in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, this led to a great enthusiasm for not just playing sport, but also paying to watch “your” local team compete. As sport is based around competition, it was perhaps natural in an age of nationalism and imperial expansion in the late nineteenth century that those who organized sport turned to the national team as a way of competing and measuring themselves against other nations. The first international fixtures took place within Britain between England and Scotland in soccer (1872) and rugby (1871), and had been preceded by international contests in cricket (USA versus Canada in 1844) and in rowing (Harvard versus Oxford in 1869). The enthusiasm for such international fixtures then spread more widely so that many European countries began competing in soccer internationals and the British Empire family started playing against each other in test matches in rugby and cricket (Warner 1912; Mitchell 2012; Eisenberg 2005).

IDENTITIES The same impulse that would give rise to the initial jingoistic passion for fighting the First World War was also evident in sport. Spectators and, through the media, the general public were entranced by the idea of national competition, essentially measuring whether “our” country was better than “theirs.” Soccer, rugby, and cricket internationals drew in large numbers of spectators (e.g., Scotland versus England, Hampden Park, Glasgow, April 4, 1908, attracted 121,445 spectators), as did boxing matches where national representatives, although individuals, fought for the glory of their nation in the hope that they would emerge as the world champion (e.g., the 1938 Max Schmeling versus Joe Louis bout was estimated to have had a radio audience of 60 million people). The advent of international sport meant that the identity of the individual sportsman or woman was subsumed by the nation. They became part of a collective, larger unit where they represented the hopes, dreams, and prestige of their country. In this way the international team came to represent and bring alive the nation in the way that Eric Hobsbawm imagined when he stated that:

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“The imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people” (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983; Bairner 2015). It is also important to note that sport organized itself around national representative teams in ways that mirrored the parallel emergence of the organized nation state in the later nineteenth century. In an age where such emergent or established nations were often challenged internally through ethnic and religious dissension, or else challenged by competing imperial powers, sport gave the nation one of its few commonly agreed manifestations of collective identity. A landmark decision in terms of sporting identities at the national and global level was the advent of international organizing bodies and competitions. The first of these, inspired by Pierre de Coubertin, was the IOC and, from 1896, the Olympic Games. De Coubertin chose the nation state as the organizing unit for the Olympic Games. Despite his belief that the Olympics would be a force for peaceful interaction (and this has often happened, as with the 2018 Winter Olympic rapprochement between North and South Korea), the high-profile contest between nations and their competing ideologies and political concerns has led to much rancor. From the decision to exclude the defeated nations of the First World War from the 1920 and 1924 Games, through the Nazis politicization of the Berlin Olympics for propaganda purposes and on to the Munich killings of 1972, the 1976 Apartheid Boycotts, and the reciprocal Cold War boycotts of 1980 and 1984, the Olympics have been near constantly used for political purposes (Goldblatt 2016a; Bairner 2014). This politicization speaks volumes about the high profile of sport, which has been ably assisted by the mass media (and the close focus on medal tables and the effects of defeat or victory on the national morale), and also the way in which ideological maneuverings in the sporting arena can be seen as examples of soft power as opposed to harder decisions about formal sanctions or military action (Sarantakes 2010; Chappelett and Kübler-Mabbott 2008). In addition to the political usage of mega events such as the Olympics to score ideological points or to highlight perceived injustices, simply winning has also been a major driver of state policy toward sport (Houlihan and Lindsay 2015; Dennis and Grix 2017). Following the establishment of the IOC as a multisport mega event, other individual sports followed suit. FIFA was established in 1904 and began its World Cup in 1930. Cricket was organized initially as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909, and later as the International Cricket Conference from 1965. It began its World Cup in 1975, and rugby, under the auspices of the International Rugby Board, began its World Cup in 1987. Such tournaments have been a source of immense national pride either by way of hosting or winning. Mega events are seen as morale boosters, events which bring the collective nation together (Horne and Manzenreiter 2006). In winning (or at least performing well in) such events, the nation can be seen to either prove its ideological strength (e.g., the Miracle on Ice and the victory of

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the USA men’s hockey team over the USSR at Lake Placid in 1980), bring about a sense of national cohesion when a country is seemingly in crisis (e.g., the success of the multiracial French soccer team at the 1998 World Cup at a time of racial tension in the country), or else announce the arrival of a new or emergent nation on the world stage (e.g., the inclusion of the former Soviet states in international competition from 1996, the success of demographically small nations such as Ireland at the 1990 World Cup or Iceland at the 2016 European Championships, or the arrival of “new” sporting nations on the world stage such as the Cameroonians at the 1990 World Cup finals or the Jamaicans in bobsled at the 1988 Winter Olympics) (Dine 2002; Free 2005; Whannel 2008). For all the positive and negative legacies of international competition in sport, it has emerged over the last century and a half as the most powerful organizing unit in the context of mega events (although this may be changing in light of corruption scandals within both the IOC and FIFA, the insular power of the US media market and that nation’s specific high-profile elite sports of football and baseball, and the global spread of the European soccer leagues and the UEFA Champions League through digital media) (Conn 2017; Sage 2016). Given the emotive power of the nation competing at international mega events and the global media reach of these occasions, it often appears that representative athletes decked out in national colors and standing for “their” flag and “their” anthem are powerful signifiers of a larger collective identity. But what rights or choices do athletes have within the confines of international sport that has wedded itself so closely to the nation state?

INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS The major global sporting federations have all developed strict rules around the question of what constitutes a national representative. Throughout the twentieth century, as the world became ever more globalized, so did sport. In national leagues the advent of an international transfer system for talent resulted in players of many different nationalities appearing in sports as diverse as US baseball, Australian Rules football, Indian Premier League cricket, and the majority of European soccer leagues (Lanfranchi and Taylor 2001). But how should the question of national identity be policed at the level of international competition? It is evident that many players (especially during the South African apartheid era) sought to switch national allegiance so that they could play their sport on the international stage. This has also been true in recent years when elite African runners have been attracted by financial inducement to switch nationality so that they could compete for other nations such as Turkey. Such examples, no matter what they may say about the identity of an individual athlete, are still based on choice. No matter how contentious Zola Budd’s

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decision to switch to British citizenship so that she could compete at the 1984 Olympic Games, it was her choice. For many athletes, however, their identity was not a matter of choice, but rather rules forced them to question their sense of self or their athletic goals. The black power salute given on the Olympic podium in Mexico City by Tommie Smith and John Carlos in 1968 has become one of the defining photographic images of the Olympic Games and the intersection of sport and politics. Carlos and Smith were using the podium to highlight the plight of African Americans and the second-class status that they endured in the US. They were expressing firmly-held personal views which spoke to their identities as both Americans and, critically, as black men. The IOC and the US Olympic Committee could not countenance such politicization of the Games, and the two men were swiftly ejected from Mexico and widely pilloried in the media (Bass 2002). It seemed that while states could choose to politicize the Olympics through boycott and other means, the individual athlete was not supposed to highlight any aspect of their own identity that might be problematic. In 1976 many African nations chose to boycott the Montreal Olympic Games in opposition to New Zealand’s sporting contacts with apartheid South Africa. The Guyanese 200-meter runner James Gilkes argued that he should not be prevented from competing in the Games due to decisions made by his national Olympic Committee. He appealed to the IOC that he should be allowed to compete as an individual under the Olympic flag, but his request was denied. The IOC effectively decided that the individual was not a identity that it recognized. Only nation states and the relevant national committee could make decisions about whether or not individuals attended the Games. In 1992 Wayne McCullough boxed his way to a silver medal fighting for the Republic of Ireland. McCullough was actually a Protestant from Northern Ireland. Due to decisions made in 1922 at the time of Irish partition, the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA), the body recognized by the IOC as having jurisdiction over Irish boxing, continued to select its boxers from the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. Thus McCullough, no matter that he identified as Northern Irish and British, had to fight for the Republic, a “foreign” country, if he wanted to box at Olympic level. Within his community McCullough was sharply criticized, and his medal, as it came under an Irish tricolor rather than the Union flag, was little celebrated. McCullough rightly stated that the rules of the IABA and the IOC left him with no choice but to fight for the Republic, but in a place like Northern Ireland, at that time in the middle of a threedecade-long sectarian conflict, McCullough was viewed by sections of his community as a traitor (Cronin 1997). Global rules around national identity and those national sporting federations recognized by the IOC were not flexible in their approach to deal with the localized minutiae of a violent internecine communal war.

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In 2000 Sydney hosted the Olympic Games and the organizing committee celebrated and projected to the world a positive view of Australia (Lenskyj 2002). However, like all such mega events, there are always those who feel that organizing committees fail to recognize or even suppress alternative identities that problematize the macro national narrative. For Sydney specifically, and Australia generally, the question that dogged them throughout the Games was how they included and recognized the place of indigenous Aboriginal people within history and contemporary society. The “home” athletic star of the Games was the 400-meter runner Cathy Freeman. She would take gold in that event, but on her victory lap she draped herself in both the Australian national flag and the flag of the Aboriginal nation. While the Aboriginal flag was not recognized by the IOC, Freeman was not, unlike Carlos and Smith three decades earlier, thrown out of the Games or admonished in any way. But Freeman’s dual-flagged lap of honor illustrates a key question in relation to identity (Elder, Pratt, and Ellis 2006). Is national identity simply applied to athletes by virtue of the rules of international sporting federations, or do athletes have any degree of personal choice when it comes to who they represent? Did Emil Zátopek want to represent and bestow glory on the Czechoslovak communist regime he raced for? (Askwith 2017). Did the US and other athletes who were told they could not attend the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow accept that their one chance at Olympic glory may have passed due to the intricacies of geopolitics? Did Prince Ranjitsinhji, although a loyal son of Empire, secretly dream of an Indian national cricket team even when he played test matches for England in the 1890s? (Wilde 2005). Did Rory McIlroy fail to compete at the Rio Olympics because he feared the Zika virus or because the rules of his sport had defined him as Irish rather than British as indicated by his passport? (irishnews.com 2018). What of Ben Johnson who, shortly after his 1988 gold medal was taken away from him because of a failed drug test, was then also rejected by his home press as being a Jamaican immigrant rather than a Canadian? (Jackson 1998). Or Mo Farah who, despite his huge success, is problematized as not being truly representative of Britain but is labeled as a Somali immigrant and a Muslim? (Black 2016). And what of those Russians who were informed by the IOC that they could compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics so long as they were cleared of any suspicions of drug taking by an independent panel and, if cleared, would not represent “their” nation but would compete as Olympic Athletes from Russia? The emergence of modern sport coincided with the establishment of the modern nation state, and this was the organizational model that global sporting federations have been wedded to ever since. But while competing for the nation may be the pinnacle of most athlete’s careers, for many others their own sense of identity is denied. Athletes are therefore the tools in the sporting wars and contests between nations rather than individuals with personal agency.

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NATIONAL AND LOCAL ALLEGIANCES Whatever the complexities of identities as they relate to international events, it is clear that the four-yearly cycle of Olympic Games and World Cups (particularly in soccer) creates huge financial, sporting, and propaganda successes that are enthusiastically embraced by sports followers around the world. However, as these are not events that dominate the annual calendar, it is national sports and competition that are most significant on a regular and ever repeating schedule. The nineteenth century was critical for establishing dominant national sporting choices. Britain as the “home” of sport spread its games through its formal and informal empires so that those nations that took to sports such as cricket and rugby still dominate the elite of the game (Ryan 2008). In addition to those nations that adapted the sports of the imperial center, others rejected them. The US evolved the sports of football, baseball, and basketball, Ireland rejected British sports and revived Gaelic games, while Australia developed its own form of football rules (Mandelbaum 2010; Cronin, Duncan, and Rouse 2009; Collins 2018). There were also areas of the globe that clung to traditional forms of sport, or else were closed through economic and developmental levels to the advent of organized, “modern” sport, such as much of Central and Saharan Africa until the distance-running boom from the 1970s. Through the twentieth century these patterns of sporting choices and allegiance have been completely transformed as the sporting world has become ever more globalized. The number of nations affiliated to either the IOC or FIFA increased steadily throughout the twentieth century, but until the 1970s most national sports cultures were concerned with home tournaments. While the media, in the form of the printed press and the radio, massively transformed the levels of interest in sport (and in particular the advent of live commentary and the communal listening to contests that were taking place elsewhere), it was television that changed everything (Booth 2018). The local club, in whatever sport, was what most people identified with. The hometown heroes (whether they were good or bad) were what was accessible. So while there were interwar stars who, assisted by the media, became nationally known, such as Babe Ruth in the US, most supporters identified with and attended their local stadium. The local club took many forms across the world. It could be the professional club playing elite sport for paying spectators and a wider media audience, or it could be the private members’ golf, tennis, or tenpin bowling club. Both types of clubs reflected their communities. The former would speak to civic pride, to a sense of togetherness, of shared grief at defeat or elation in victory. The latter, often based around various class and professional interests, would not have spoken to civic pride, but would have represented the community interests and shared values of people who identified each other as “similar.” Both these types of clubs, no matter how the interest in the same sport

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might be shared around the globe, were actually rooted in the local. Individual and community loyalties to their team or club did not transfer across city or regional boundaries, let alone national ones. US sports were only of interest to Americans and those nations in their sphere of influence, the followers of the EFL would have little knowledge of the same game in Bolivia and vice versa, and only the Basques cared about pelota. Television, more so than radio which had broadcast sporting events between nations from the 1930s, broke down the concept of the local and made sporting allegiances far more transnational. What traditionally dominated the sporting landscape, with the exception of certain solo sports (tennis and golf) and motor sport, were team sports based on national leagues. In recent times local ownership has been replaced by a global network of ownership models, or else, especially in Spanish soccer, fan-owned cooperatives. Such leagues, with a number of weekly (or in baseball almost daily) fixtures, allow fans to get their fix. Global digital television and gambling also means that there is a match on somewhere 24 hours per day. Boundaries have broken down, and nation-specific ideas of the game transformed by a global talent market that readily moves individual players to increase salaries or elongate careers (such as European soccer players moving to the US Major Soccer League or the Chinese Super League). Given the global nature of sport and the extensive media coverage available, there has been a move away from the local or “home” team. Many commentators have noted how fans now have a multitude of clubs that they support or follow. There may be the local club, but also an EPL team, a favored NFL team, and so on (Farred 2008). “Support,” or at least enthusiasm, can run across time zones and geography so that “fans” now have a network of “their” favored soccer club, NFL club, cricket team, and so on that sits alongside their local team. Global television now beams the top-quality leagues into new marketplaces, assisted by aggressive ownership and overseas selling tactics (e.g., Manchester United’s US ownership and promotional tours to China, Leicester City owned by a Thai family, the visits of various NBA teams to China, and so on). This has been accompanied in recent years by the placing of players from key markets into the teams of televised leagues (e.g., Park J. Sung from South Korea to Manchester United, Yao Ming from China to the NBA’s Houston Rockets, Australian Chris Lynne to the Kolkata Knight Riders in Indian Premier League Cricket, and so on) so that viewers turn to “foreign” leagues to watch their “homeborn” stars. This is not simply about maximizing broadcasts rights for leagues and teams, but also breaking into new markets (China and India, in particular). For major franchises in Europe and the US the need to break into and dominate new markets seems more important than the development of the local. What is favored is selling the Red Sox or Real Madrid to the Chinese market as the “authentic” product over developing a locally-based league in China itself. Sport is increasingly about fans who watch on television or online

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rather than ever expecting to be in the stadium itself. As such, viewing a “foreign” team means that the formerly local becomes global (glocalization) and sporting cultures move readily and ever more rapidly across geographical and political borders.

MARGINALIZED IDENTITIES For all the aggressive selling of sport on a national and global level, there have been radical changes over the decades in terms of who follows sport. There remains a gender imbalance in that the majority of sports followers, paying spectators, and television subscribers are male (James and Ridinger 2002). There are also point-of-price issues that have transformed sporting spectatorship. Most team sports began, at the spectator level, as games for the working class and were rooted in a place of origin (tickets for the first Super Bowl in 1967 were $12, by 2012 this had increased to $1,200, while in English soccer the price of a ticket for Liverpool cost £4 in 1989 and had risen to £45 in 2012—a price increase of 1,025 percent). In most Western nations, buying tickets has become ever more expensive and middle class (Malcolm, Jones, and Waddington 2000). The combined issues of old and unsafe stadiums in Europe (particularly highlighted by the tragedies at Heysel, Hillsborough, and Bradford), plus the enhanced instadium experience and profit maximization in the US, has led to the traditional local support base being priced out. Going to the game is now often less of a source of local pride and commitment but, often for the big games, the result of a corporate invite or a bucket-list adventure where cost is not an issue. In terms of access, questions of class continue to dog sports like golf and tennis, as do questions of race. For all the breakthrough narrative that was applied to the Williams sisters in tennis or to Tiger Woods in golf, the games are both still perceived as the preserve of those who can afford access to the pricey and restricted membership of the private club. The media, despite the enormous growth in sports coverage across all platforms, has not aggressively challenged its self-sustaining belief that the sport fan who is attractive to their sponsors is and will remain a white male who is interested only in the key male sports. Despite the various programmes to encourage women’s participation in sport, equal opportunity policies such as Title IX in the US, and the number of superlative women athletes, the media’s daily coverage of what they define as “women’s sport” still averages at less than 6 percent of total output (Bernstein 2002). The nature of individual, community, national, and international relationships within sport is then multifaceted and ever-changing. There is often the hometown team and a network of clubs catering for the interest in local sports. Depending on the country there is state provision of facilities (particularly notable in the Nordic countries and Australasia), and in many there is a key role for schools and colleges to encourage sport and feed the professional games

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(most significantly in the US) (Heinemann, 2005). What has also become common since the 1980s are those solo or lifestyle sports and practices (the lifestyle gym, jogging, surfing, mindfulness practices, and so on) that may push the definitions of what is meant by sport but take its practitioners away from the club or the crowd setting and into a solo or non-community setting for their “physical” activity (Puttmann 2000). Concomitantly, while the idea of doing activities or sports alone, particularly in the natural setting of the surf or the outdoors, may challenge the traditional idea of community, the advent of social media has actually served to bring disparate people (surfers, hikers, and even “traditional” fans) closer together. Stories, narratives, plans, and tips are shared online so that a virtual community can be built around a solo or geographically disparate sporting activity (Thorpe and Olive 2016).

MINDS AND EMOTIONS At whatever level sport has taken place (elite or mass participation, as participant or spectator, local or global), it is often discussed and framed in emotional terms, that a practice, place, or team/athlete can lead to a personal attachment between the individual and a sporting entity. In this vein, sport and its followers are often spoken of in language which relates to a form of secularized religion (the famous adaption that sport, rather than religion in the Marxist view, is now the opiate of the masses), that stadiums serve as cathedrals, players as the officiating ministers, and the spectators as the grateful supplicant (Alpert 2015). While many people watch sport out of a passing interest, or maybe get drawn into watching the “big” tournaments and events through the media, many “diehard” supporters talk about their “love affair” with their team. This extends to players—especially those who are local or long serving—and these individuals, who are often honored in the naming of stands or the erection of statues, are used as a measure for the loyalty, effort, fidelity, and affection of future players (Schultz 2007; Osmond, Phillips, and O’Neill 2006). Equally the stadium itself is not only seen as a place of weekly secular worship, but as a place which is loved (or in the case of a rival team, hated) (Von Houtum and Van Dam 2002). In recent decades, as clubs and franchises have sought to relocate their grounds to extend their facilities, to take advantage of available undeveloped urban field sites or else move into those stadiums that were constructed for mega events, there have been problems. The new ground is not where the spectator “grew up.” The ghosts of the past and formers glories are left behind and abandoned, or else the atmosphere isn’t the same and the sense of communal passion has been blunted. Sport is thus about rooted geographical place as much as it is a manifestation of the imagined community. This has been especially apparent in the negative reactions to, for example, West Ham United’s move from Upton Park to the London 2012 Olympic Stadium. Some owners seem alert to the

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dangers of the new and, for example, the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has shown itself reluctant to move its two franchises from their traditional setting, favoring heritage over extra profit. As such the Red Sox remain at Fenway (where they have been since 1912) and Liverpool FC at Anfield (since 1892), despite the fact that the limited capacity of those stadiums do not necessarily lead to profit maximization (Cronin 2017). One issue that has dogged sport, no matter what the setting, has been spectator violence, especially in soccer. The boundaries of where such violence takes place have shifted from western to eastern Europe in recent years, but the issue of “ultra” supporters expressing their absolute devotion to their team through passionate organization and violent rivalries with other supporter groups has led to regular incidents of disorder (Guschwan 2007). In addition to the violence that has been common in many national soccer leagues, such “battles” between rival groups have also blighted European club competition and various World Cup finals. At its worse such fan violence, or else the demonization of fans by the state, led to death and the horrors of Heysel, Hillsborough, and others such as the Port Said Stadium disaster in 2012 that left seventy-nine dead. In the context of crowds (a concern of civic authorities since the late nineteenth century), sporting gatherings are not always viewed as sites of order, fair play, and the enforcement of rules, but can also be sites of disorder, criminality, and death (Dunning 1999). Security issues at mega events (attacks on the Olympics in Munich in 1972 and Atlanta in 1996, and the Boston Marathon in 2013) and the threat of attack on major sporting venues (especially a concern in the wake of 9/11) have also created a different mentality of what is meant by the orderly/disorderly crowd. Even if the crowd itself is well policed and well behaved, and stadiums constructed to the most modern design (since 1990 all but one of the top five deadliest incidences of stadium fires, stampedes, or death through violence have all taken place in the “developing” world), there is always the threat and concern that security will be breached by an ill-intentioned exterior party (in 2012 it was estimated that the London Olympic security bill exceeded £1 billion) (guardian.com 2018). Safety, in various forms, is becoming a costly issue for sporting bodies, as well as organizing clubs and federations.

ATHLETES AND MORALITY Clearly stadiums, no matter what the contemporary security issues, as well as those media companies that invest billions in purchasing the rights to broadcast sport, would be empty or viewerless if it wasn’t for the draw of star athletes. These skillful proponents of their games, whether as individuals, as part of a team, or as international representatives, are carriers of the hopes and dreams of supporters. There have always been, since the dawn of modern sport, stars

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who were feted by the media and the public. The way this has been done and the riches that the elite now accrues has changed dramatically over the decades. That said, the wastage of athletic talent, those youngsters that don’t make it to the elite level, is enormous. And many athletes who do make it, then have their careers cut short by injury. The aftercare provided by clubs and federations for failed or injured athletes remains poor. Given that the athlete’s identity is so tied up with what they have excelled at since an early age (often at the cost of educational and personal development), it is perhaps unsurprising that the figures for postcareer divorce, bankruptcy, imprisonment, or addiction are so high (Gernon 2016). For those that do make it in the modern age their reach is potentially enormous. It is no longer simply a question of an athlete’s in-play activity, but the value that they add, by way of profile and endorsements, offpitch. The value of Ronaldo to his club Juventus is not simply as a player but what he brings by way of endorsements and exposure. He has the second biggest following on Instagram (125 million) and the biggest on Facebook (122 million) globally. Ronaldo earns £365,000 per week for playing soccer, but adds an additional £73 million per year by way of endorsements and brand connectivity. The solo star that somehow transcends, or is even bigger than their sport, is also clear with the case of Tiger Woods. He dominated golf until his world was changed by a very public car crash and accusations of marital infidelity in 2013. He spent a number of seasons playing poorly or sidelined by a back injury, but his absence led to a 135-percent decrease in those watching golf on US television each week until his return to the tour in 2018 when the viewing figures rebounded (ibc.org 2018). In cases such as Ronaldo, Woods, and many others it is clear that, while sport may have countless communal signifiers, it is also now dominated by fans following individuals who embody a brand and a lifestyle. One factor in the world of sport, and indeed wider society, that has changed significantly across the twentieth century is the behavior expected from sporting stars. While much of this is the product of ever more extensive, and some would argue intrusive, media coverage into their lives, sports stars are supposed to not only perform to the peak of their abilities on field, but are also supposed to act as role models and heroes in everything they do off-field. It is unquestionable that some of the break-through sport stars of the interwar period who became front-page news as celebrities were not individuals of high moral standing, and problems such as addiction, infidelity, and drug abuse were common. However, it was not seen as the role of the press or of sports governing bodies to take a position on the private lives of athletes so long as it did not affect the sense of on-field fair play (Sharpe 2003; Nathan 2003). This has changed dramatically in recent decades, and now every aspect of a sports star’s identity is poured over to assess whether they are worthy of our adulation (and by proxy “our” money). Whether it was the destruction of Lance Armstrong’s status as supreme athlete,

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cancer survivor, and philanthropist by systematic drug taking, the murder cases against New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez, or the marital infidelity of Tiger Woods, the media, sponsors, and the public react strongly against athletes that appear to have transgressed the moral codes that society applies to them (Walsh 2013). “Our” heroes who hit, kick, or throw a ball so well are also supposed to be ideal human beings with a strong moral compass. Alongside the collapse of careers in ignominy or imprisonment, there are also stories of redemption, such as that of Mike Tyson, who was transformed from World Champion and convicted rapist to film star and motivational speaker. Likewise the perennial problem of various forms of substance abuse in sport has led, in English soccer in particular, to inspirational stories of self-destruction leading to recovery and role-model status (in particular, the former Arsenal FC player Tony Adams and his Sporting Chance charity for athletes with addiction issues) (Adams 2017). For all that society will judge the fallen athlete, it will also applaud and embrace the recovered, the redeemed, and the apologetically humbled. In this, society allows the narrative of the athlete to be culturally constructed as a fallen player, who redeemed themselves and became the star who came back or gave back (Rhoden 2006).

FAITH Part of the redemption story for athletes, indeed many of society’s attitudes toward sport, are shaped by the moral and ethical foundations of games and their meaning that were laid down in the nineteenth century. In that era sport was positioned, especially in educational settings, as standing for Muscular Christianity (Putney 2003). Generally, while sport has often been positioned as a form of secular religion that enraptures people, it has infrequently been connected to or utilized by formal religion. But what of those athletes whose identity is tied to an actual faith? Whether it was Eric Liddell refusing to run on the Sabbath at the 1924 Olympics, the public reaction against Muhammad Ali’s embrace of Islam that was connected with his refusal to serve in Vietnam, Sandy Koufax’s refusal to play MLB on Jewish holidays, the Williams sisters acknowledgment of their adherence to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Tim Tebow’s public bowing for God when he scored, the religious identity of athletes has been a source of popular confusion (Hamilton 2017; Marqusee 1995; Butterworth 2013). Sport has largely been culturally constructed as secular. As such (largely Western) athletes that identify as religious are considered as an anomaly. With the emergence in recent decades of many developing nations on the sporting world stage, issues around religion in sport have been complicated by the appearance of athletes with non-Christian beliefs. This has also, in many of these countries, led to broader questions about the applicability of sporting practice and the relationship between sport, bodies, and gender. With the

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postcolonial emergence of nations with self-selected governmental cultures, so the number of Muslim states has grown. A religion that has a complex relationship with sporting bodily practices, and especially the issue of decency around clothing, Muslim athletes have faced many cultural challenges in breaking into the elite. Despite such challenges a considerable number of Muslim athletes have been successful on the world stage, and in recent years this has included “appropriately” dressed women such as the Bahraini runner Roqaya Al Gassra, the Egyptian swimmer Rainia El Wani, and the Algerian runner Hassiba Boulmerka (who received death threats in the run-up to the 1992 Olympics because of her decision to wear shorts and not cover her arms and legs). With the move of traditionally Muslim nations into sports hosting, sponsorship, and mega events (especially the examples of Dubai and Qatar that have actively sought relationships with leading global sports federations and events), many of the broader questions of how sport interfaces with religion will be addressed anew.

SEXUALIZED BODIES, HEALTHY BODIES, BROKEN BODIES Alongside questions of faith and religious identities are wider issues of how sporting cultures have historically attempted to move beyond their foundational appeal to men. Gender has been one of the most vexed issues confronting sport in the period (Hargreaves and Anderson 2014). The issues not only relate to how women can access and be equally represented in the media coverage of sports, and as spectators, but also raises questions relating to the promotion of women’s bodies in particular as sexualized rather than sporting (Sherry, Osbourne, and Nicholson 2016). Despite the high media profile women athletes are afforded on the professional tennis tour and during the Olympic Games, season by season, year by year, women’s sports are constructed as secondary— indeed, why does the media insist on the binary definition of sport versus women’s sport? Associated with the issues surrounding the identities of sporting women (which are further complicated by questions of race and religion), there is a long history of a violent, sexually abusive attitude that male athletes (underpinned by “team spirit” and “locker room culture”) take toward women. While the levels of awareness, investigation, and arrest around male athletes and the male team rape of women has increased, the rapacious culture around sport means that society continues to construct male athletes as strong and sexual and women as (coerced) vehicles for male “pleasure” (Krien 2015; Luther 2016). The complexity throughout the twentieth century and beyond was how sport, a practice that produces and then valorizes the fit, healthy, and “attractive” body, rationalizes elite athletic performance with the sexualization and commodification

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of the body. In the digital age, and with the ever-relentless rise and proliferation of pornography, so the sporting body has been moved to occupy a similar space (Dines 2011). This has not only led to claim and counterclaim about the exploitation of women athletes or their choices to exploit “glamor” images for financial reward, but also a growth in the commodification and eroticization of the male sporting body (what has been termed as “Sporno”) (Daniels 2016; marksimpson.com 2018). For all participants in sport, as well as those millions who watch, the issue of sexuality is tied up with the collective cultural construction of the sporting body. In addition to questions of sex, gender, and sexuality, bodies are also configured around questions of race, nationality, disability, and a host of other factors. These are both geographical and historical constructs, but are also part of an ever-changing landscape of how bodies are read due to public morality, religious attitudes, fashion, the media, and so on (Besnier, Brownell, and Carter 2017). Whatever the myriad of ways in which the sporting body may be positioned, culturally constructed, and read, actual participation in sport is positioned around the world as a positive. Sport is understood as a practice which improves health, assists in resisting the onset of disease, combats obesity and other problems, and leads to higher levels of socialization and community interaction. While the statistics from a variety of government reports supports this contention, the numbers of people playing sport, especially in the postteenage years, remain lower than they should be as people switch from being active participants to spectators (Nicholson, Hoye, and Houlihan 2011). For those who remain playing sport through their lives, sport can also be dangerous. In pursuit of better performance a host of supplements have existed across the decades and many of these have had questionable benefits or been injurious to health. Young bodies are also endangered by overtraining and overexertion, while injury on-field remains a problem for all active sports people. While the growth of sports medicine and associated off-the-shelf products, now a multibillion-dollar industry, has been a positive for most athletes seeking a return to health, there have also been problems with questionable practices and athletes returning to play before fully fit and thereby heightening the chances of further and more severe injury (Heggie 2013; Carter 2014). Also, the playing of sport exposes many people with preexisting conditions to exertions they should not be undertaking, and in many dangerous or extreme sports exposes the participant to risk of life-changing injury or death (McAnallen 2017). Fiftyone Formula One drivers have been killed since 1952, thirty-two competitors or spectators have been killed in the Tour de France since 1903, and in the US it is estimated that a hundred competitors are killed each year while taking part in equestrian sports. Sport also leaves a deadly or disabling legacy postcareer. The recent NFL concussion cases are now accompanied by a wider global awareness of the issue, and many question marks remain over the long-term

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impact on the body of playing rugby, soccer, and many other sports. As well as head injury, there are the long-standing problems associated with joint damage and mobility that are a legacy of playing contact sports (Fainaru-Wada and Fainaru 2014). Sports medicine, indeed sport, has always been concerned with the fitness and wellness of athletes. And yet the pursuit of the top prize or the quick fix to recover from injury has led many athletes (by personal choice or as part of a state-sponsored program) to use performance-enhancing drugs. While against the rules of sport the problem has been endemic at the elite level with testing regimes struggling to keep pace with the cheating efforts. But this is not simply a case of athlete’s choosing to improve performance (as if a neutral personal choice), but the whole doping issue raises difficult questions about how such “medicalised” regimes impact on the long-term health of athletes and the image of sport (Johnson 2016). Sport has undergone radical transformations since 1920. Many of these changes have been internal (the search for better performance, the growth of mega events, and so on), while others see sport reflecting external forces (geopolitical changes, the advent of the digital age, and others). What is fascinating, for all the ways in which sport underpins and creates a myriad of identities and a collective, cultural sense of the meanings of bodily practice, it is the international sports bodies who, despite their myriad of faults, have been most responsive to the role sport should play in society. In 2012, when London hosted the Olympic Games, the event (in line with the growing philosophy of all mega events) was not conceived solely as a fourteen-day sports happening, but rather an event that would leave the city with a lasting legacy. The Olympics were conceived in 2012 as an event that would not only leave London sporting memories, but also a legacy of improvements in transport, housing, sports facilities, well-being, and a host of other positive transformations for the city and those who lived there (Holt and Ruta 2015). That London filled its venues for the Olympics was seen as a great success. But what of those broken bodies of war that this chapter began with? Britain after the Second World War became the home of the idea of using competitive sport as part of physical rehabilitation for the war wounded. The Stoke Mandeville Games, that began in 1948 as a European team event for the war wounded, would grow into the global Paralympic Games (first held in Rome in 1960). From 1988, in Seoul, the Paralympic Games were held directly after the closing of the Olympic Games. At London in 2012, for the first time, the Paralympic venues were full to capacity, and a city, the media, and the nation embraced the disabled competition in the same way, not only with enthusiasm but with athletic appreciation, as they had the Olympic Games. Media coverage was extensive, and the Paralympics went mainstream (Jackson, Hidges, and Scullion 2015). Given the concomitant rise of the Special Olympics, the Invictus

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Games, Deaflympics, and others, it is clear that athletes, event organizers, the media, and the public have largely moved beyond a definition of competitive sport as something that is only for the able-bodied. Into the future, societies will undoubtedly choose to fight wars, men and women will be maimed in accidents, and children will be born with disabilities. In the twenty-first century it does appear that a central shift has happened in terms of what then is meant by sport. It is there to be taken part in, enjoyed, and celebrated irrespective of bodily ability, a huge transformation from the end of the First World War when broken and mutilated bodies were considered not only unfit for fighting but inadequate and incapable for sporting contest. This is not to suggest that contemporary sport is somehow perfect. Individual and collective identities, cultural understandings and representations of sport, national and religious histories and ideologies, and the desires that circulate around the use, representation, and manipulation of bodies will all continue to influence what sport will be and how society will respond to it. However sport continues to change and evolve, it is certain that it will reflect and shape our cultural understanding of minds, bodies, and identities in the decades to come.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Representation STEVEN A. RIESS

Cultural historians study the change of human civilization over time. They focus on people’s beliefs, rituals, ideas, identity, social norms, institutions, and materials, with particular attention to the meanings of that culture’s elements (Hutton 1981). Cultural historians before the Second World War focused on high culture, but thereafter, because of the influence of cultural anthropology, they began to study popular culture, that includes everyday experiences and artifacts that express mass values and attitudes. Since the late 1960s, scholars have studied sport’s interaction with high and low culture, and also sport as an independent element of culture with symbolic acts, representation, and struggle over meaning of sport’s myths and realities. American cultural historians have relied heavily on anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s concept of “thick description,” a process of studying and contextualizing human behavior. This was modeled by his analysis of the cultural significance of Balinese cockfighting which he called “deep play,” that illuminated the network of social relationships in that traditional society (Geertz 1973). This process encouraged historians to study the sporting world and individual sports as cultural texts. A new trend that soon followed was an emphasis on memory as a cultural historical category, followed by the “linguistic turn” in the 1980s that emphasized the importance of language, a perspective in far greater vogue in Europe than the US. Cultural scholars outside North America are far more reliant on theory, particularly the polyschematic analyses of Michel Foucault, along with advocates of the visual and audio turns. Culturally-minded sport historians employ cultural analysis as a window through which to understand the broader society. They are concerned about such matters as race, ethnicity and gender, employment of science and 191

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technology to enhance performance, the formation of identity for fans and team supporters, cultural diplomacy, and sports myths that influence and shape behavior (Arcangeli 2012; Burke 2004; Cook et al. 2008). This essay will examine some major trends in the cultural analysis of sport. We will begin with the literary turn, specifically the influence of adult fiction on our understanding of sport as a cultural institution, followed by an analysis of the role of music, and then the visual turn, with particular attention to cinema.

SPORTING FICTION The United States Serious American fiction in the period 1920–1945 rarely employed sport in their narratives, and almost never focused the entire story on a sporting topic, which reflected the negative attitudes of sophisticated authors and critics to sport. The main exceptions were ardent sportsmen and Nobel laureates Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. This view changed after the war when sport became an increasingly prominent subject among the sport-minded literati. They realized that sport was a suitable subject for literature because it offered many opportunities to explore fundamental and contradictory American values (Oriard 1982: 53). I suspect they were also impressed by the growing success of sports movies, including National Velvet (1944), based on Enid Bagnold’s juvenile novel (1935). Literary critic Christian Messenger divides the twentieth-century sports novel into three categories, beginning with the ritual sports hero who sought “mastery over nature, himself, an animal, or another person in a natural arena,” the individual sports hero, and the team sports hero. I amend his model by dividing the latter category into school heroes and professional heroes. The ritual sports hero goes back to James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumppo. Such heroes represented anti-modernism, and were pretty much gone by 1960 (Messenger 1990: 29–30). He is a solitary, Adamic figure seeking self-knowledge in the wilderness, striving only for himself, while renouncing public pressures and public rewards (Segal 1983: 33). Faulkner admired huntsmen like his character Ike McCaslin, who turns down his rights to the family plantation to live in the woods in “The Bear” (1935). There he learned such important traits as humility, courage, responsibility, compassion, and independence. Hemingway was probably more into sports than any major American writer, and forty-three of his forty-nine short stories were about sports. His oeuvre began with fisherman Nick Adams in “Big Two-Hearted River” (1925) and largely ended with Santiago of The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Santiago went eighty-seven days with no catch, but like his hero Joe DiMaggio, a fisherman’s

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son, will never give up. Santiago perseveres, hooking a huge Marlin that took three days to land, but sharks ravage his prize, leaving him with nothing but his dignity and pride. Hemingway was very interested in bullfighting, discussed in The Sun Also Rises (1926) and his non-fiction Death in the Afternoon (1932). Hemingway knew that “the bullfight is not a sport in the Anglo-Saxon sense of the word, that is, it is not an equal contest. . . . . Rather it is a tragedy; the death of the bull . . ., in which there is danger for the man but certain death for the animal” (Hemingway 1932: 22). Hemingway was also fascinated by boxers, whom Messenger considers the last natural heroes because of their atavistic behavior, but they clearly are also individual heroes, dependent upon themselves in the moral equivalent of combat. Hemingway admires the amateur athlete Robert Cohn, in The Sun Also Rises, despite his religion, because he boxed and became a champion at Princeton to prove his manliness and counter anti-Semitism. Messenger identifies two major themes in boxing novels: the boxer as predator and prey; and the conflict between youth and age (Messenger 105). The later is exemplified by Bruno “Lefty” Bicek, a young Polish American in Nelson Algren’s Never Come Morning (1942), who wants to escape the slums, and in novels and films like Rocky (1975), when much of the tale revolves around the boxer and his trainer. One of the most important novels that dealt with the theme of predator and prey was James Jones’s From Here to Eternity (1951), a National Book Award winner, that examined the dilemmas facing Private Robert Prewitt, a career soldier and former boxer serving in 1941 Hawaii. The natural hero was supplanted in the 1950s by school and professional team sport heroes. The former was a post-Civil War development when, according to Eric Segal, “battlefield carnage is sublimated into noble (but not fatal) strife on the playing field.” It began with Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage (1895), and the juvenile heroes of Gilbert Patten’s Frank Merriwell and Frank Johnson’s Dink Stovey, culminating with the twenty-four-volume “Chip Hilton” series (1948–66, 2002) by Claire Bee, the Hall of Fame Long Island University basketball coach. John R. Tunis was an outstanding author of twenty-three boys’ books that stressed confidence in them to learn fairness, courtesy, respect, compassion, and kindness gained through discipline, perseverance, and learning from defeat (Epstein 1987: 50–6). Messenger argues that F. Scott Fitzgerald had a very strong ambivalence to the school sports hero. He originally worshipped the athletic aristocrat in his early short stories and his first novel, This Other Side of Paradise, but subsequently loathed young men like former Yale football stars Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (1925) and Dick Diver in Tender is the Night (1934), who are ultimately failures as adults (Segal 1983: 33).

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Novelists often wrote about great high-school or college athletes who failed to accomplish much in the long run, like Irwin Shaw’s protagonist in The Eighty Yard Run (1941). Erich Segal also points to Robert Lowell’s “Waking in the Blue,” where the poet looks at one of his fellow inmates in the sanitarium: “I grin at Stanley / now sunk in his sixties, once a Harvard all-American fullback, (if such were possible!) . . . more cut off from words than a seal” (33). Literary scholar Michael Oriard considers the athlete-hero a representative man, “a symbol of youth and joy and the love of play . . . an expression of the excessive privileges and responsibilities we give to a few despite our insistence on the equality of all,” embodying much that is both the best and worst in America, celebrating excellence and soaring aspirations (Oriard 1982: 68). Oriard rates John Updike’s Rabbit Run (1960) as the best novel dealing with an ex-athlete. Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom is a 26-year-old former athlete trapped by an unsatisfactory marriage and a job selling kitchen gadgets, seeking to define “an essential paradox in the American character” (Oriard: 161). He tries to recapture his stardom by playing golf, but only occasionally achieves excellence. Updike wrote three more Angstrom novels, including Rabbit Redux (1971), by which time he was a pathetic, dependent, childlike figure. One successful novel about high-school sports in an unusual setting is Chaim Potok’s The Chosen (1967), a study of the clash between tradition to modernity and assimilation. The plot begins in 1944 with a ball game between two Orthodox yeshivas, starring Danny Saunders, son of a Hasidic rabbi. Playing baseball for him is a big step outside of his highly traditional, allencompassing religious culture. He will eventually move away from his community (Fox 2002). The third, and most popular, paradigm encompasses professional team sports heroes. They typically have to learn how to fit into the squad without losing their individual identity in a conflict with authority. These icons often become anti-heroes through a forced or voluntary personal rebellion when cut or benched or belittled as a “loser.” The outcome could be physical suffering or economic manipulation, or the player might gain self-knowledge, leading to rebellion or a renewed drive for heroism (Messenger 1990: 16–18). MLB received negligible literary attention during the interwar era, when most baseball fiction was written by hacks, humorists, sportswriters, or authors of juvenile books. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) was not a baseball novel, and only briefly discusses the recent Black Sox Scandal. Jay Gatsby’s mentor, Jewish gangster Meyer Wolfsheim, was widely believed to have fixed the 1919 World Series. Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s buddy, believes such an attack on America’s national pastime is unthinkable, but Gatsby assures him that it certainly could happen. Why isn’t he in jail? Gatsby responds vaguely: “They can’t get him, old sport. He’s a smart man” (78). As Fitzgerald scholar Robert Johnson, Jr. points out, “The Great Gatsby and the Black Sox scandal both

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stand today as enduring symbols of the American Dream gone awry” (Johnson 2002: 43). The novel that made baseball a topic for the literati was Bernard Malamud’s The Natural (1952) (Messenger 1990: 335–6), which had all the appurtenances of a serious novel with symbolism, mythology, allusions to Sir James Frazier’s The Golden Bough, and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, plus an in-depth analysis of American mores. According to scholar Allen Guttmann, “Malamud realized that baseball was the perfect vehicle for an American version of a universal myth” (Guttmann 1998: 247). Malamud’s protagonist, Roy Hobbs, is a phenomenal teenage pitcher on his way for a tryout in 1924 with the Cubs, but was shot by the mysterious Harriet Bird, and disappears. He reappears fifteen years later, seemingly from nowhere, an obscure but sensational batter to play for New York Knights manager Pop Fisher, a name reminiscent of the fisher king, whose impotence has made the ball field an infertile wasteland (Guttmann 246). Roy brings with him his special bat “Wonderboy,” reminiscent of Excalibur, suggestive of Roy’s batting potency. He strikes a home run off the right field facade that burst the lights, creating fireworks, leading to three days of rain, representing Roy’s power to bring life to his dismal team (Shmoop Editorial Team 2008). Hobbs seeks success, redemption, a sense of belonging, and transcendence of human vices, but he is materialistic, prey to temptation, and ultimately chooses the wrong goals and the wrong woman, conniving with gamblers to lose the final game of the season. Messenger argues that Hobbs striking out in his last at-bet means he must begin a new cycle of suffering. He has cut himself off from the past and cannot return home, the goal of every batsman (Messenger 1990: 337). One year later, academician Mark Harris wrote the first of his four Henry Wiggins novels, The Southpaw (1953). The initial volume recounts the teenager’s successful rookie season with the New York Mammoths when he discovers that his heroes are merely human beings, the owners are ruthless capitalists, and sportswriters were liars (Harris 1990). Harris’s second novel, Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), continues with Wiggins, now a star pitcher and insurance salesman. He becomes obsessed with the welfare of substitute catcher Bruce Pearson, a naive, uneducated southerner, constantly belittled by his teammates. Bruce’s health is declining, and Henry sends him to the Mayo Clinic, which reports back that Bruce is fatally ill. Henry devotes the season to enabling Bruce to be the best player he can be and to end his life with dignity. Wiggins is the only player at the funeral, stunned at the lack of respect shown a fallen player by his “teammates” (Cochran 1987: 153). The next major baseball novel was Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association, Inc: J. Henry Waugh Prop. (1968), a highly regarded “black comic” novel that bounces back and forth between the real world and the fantasy world

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of fifty-six seasons Henry made up by playing with dice. Coover turns American life into a game, writing an allegory in “which the myth of baseball, religion, and the American dream are all called into question” (Collins 2013: 31). The most ambitious book on baseball is Philip Roth’s immodestly titled The Great American Novel (1973). “Through baseball,” Roth wrote, “I came to understand and experience patriotism in its tender and humane aspects . . . without the reek of saintly zeal. . . . The game “was a kind of secular church that reached into every class and region of the nation and bound us together in common concerns, loyalties, rituals, enthusiasms, and antagonisms” (Roth 1973). The Great American Novel is a satirical narration of the demise of the Patriot League, once the third major league, whose records were erased by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. Roth found in baseball a way to dramatize the “struggle between the benign national myth that a great power prefers to perpetuate and its relentlessly, very nearly insidious reality” (Roth 1985: 89– 90). Roth uses baseball as a model for other forms of mythmaking, ridiculing patriotism as the national religion, attacking conscious efforts to create myths, and disparaging anti-radicalism in American politics. Eric Rolfe Greenberg’s The Celebrant (1983) was rated by literary scholar Eric Solomon as the finest baseball novel ever (Solomon 1998: 256). It is a historical sports novel, taking place in the early 1900s. The protagonist is Jackie Kapinski, a Jewish immigrant, ring designer, and assimilating baseball fan, infatuated with the New York Giants star pitcher and Christian gentleman, Christy Mathewson. This tale of acculturation focuses on the American loss of Eden, the fall of innocence, the burden of being a hero, and the enticements that taint success (Messenger 1990: 258). August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences (1987) is one of the few serious plays about baseball. He challenges the ideology of baseball and the American dream through his protagonist, Troy Maxon, a former Negro League star. He is a 53-year-old garbage collector who believes blacks were born with two strikes against them. Critic Susan Koprince explains that Wilson created a “subversive narrative” that shows that the myths of baseball “must ultimately make room for a new and revolutionary mythos: that of the defiant African American” (Koprince 2000: 357). British Sports Fiction Despite the great tradition of the English novel, British authors have shied away from sporting topics, perhaps out of a misplaced sense of snobbery. There were only two outstanding works on sport. Alan Sillitoe’s short story, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” (1959), is the best-known work of British sport fiction, largely because of the 1962 film of the same name. Smith is a poor Nottingham teenager arrested for petty theft and sent to a prison school for rehabilitation. He is a promising athlete, and the governor pushes him into

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crosscountry racing, hoping success in the big meet against a prestigious public school would normalize Smith, give him status, and elevate the borstal’s prestige. Smith easily takes the lead in the five-mile event, but when he nears the finish line, he stops running to defy his school’s repressive administrators. John Bale (2008) argues that Sillitoe sees sport as a form of oppression that should be contested. David Story, a former professional rugby league player, author of The Changing Room (1971), won the MacMillan Fiction Award for This Sporting Life (1960), a short novel about a coal-mining rugby player in Wakefield, recruited by a local club after he displayed his aggressiveness in an evening brawl. He makes the team, but is portrayed as never more than a great ape, vulnerable to the ravages of time (Hutchings 1987: 35). The Hockey Literature of Canada Canadian novelists who write about sport nearly all write about hockey, the national sport, although William Patrick Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe (1982) , adapted as the movie Field of Dreams (1989), is the most prominent sports book by a Canadian. There have been over a hundred Anglo-Canadian hockey novels published since the 1990s, virtually all by anglophone men, raising questions about francophones and females identifying with the sport. Jason Blake (2010) and Michael Buma (2012) both see hockey as an excellent point thorough which to study Canadian culture. Blake’s Canadian Hockey Literature argues that the sport so saturates local life that it is second only to sex when it comes to marketing. Blake focuses on five central themes: nationhood, the hockey dream, violence, national identity, and family. He sees hockey as a symbol of Canadian nationhood, useful for unifying a diverse nation and as a social force in shaping family life. Buma’s thesis is that hockey novels typically reinforce traditional versions of Canadian masculinity (tough, northern, and white) and the place of the sport in Canadian identity as an expression of national character.

FILM AND SPORT There were nearly 600 sports films produced in the United States (Pearson et al. 2008) from 1930 to 1995 involving twenty-one sports, primarily boxing, football, auto racing and baseball. Over 90 percent that dealt with sport history were male biographies that fit Hollywood’s requirement that it operate within “the traditional American mythology.” They emphasized achievement through individual hard work over teamwork and fair play (Baker 1998: 221). Bruce Babington (1987) reported that there were at least 446 boxing films produced by the mid-1980s, including over 200 by 1915. Filming fights was much easier to produce than other major sport because the contests took place inside a confined ring. Boxing had a dramatic story to tell about impoverished men who became pugilists to escape the inner city and the physicality and

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brutality of the sport, along with the underworld involvement in the sport, and the post-boxing struggles of men who had their brains mashed in. Aaron Baker found there were about eighty films about baseball and football in the interwar era, virtually none of which were memorable. Then between 1941 and 1970 there were merely thirty-four Hollywood productions about baseball, football, and basketball. Fourteen were dramas, and the rest were comedies, musicals, and fantasies (Nolan 2009: 254). Since the 1990s, American motion pictures about sport, primarily baseball or football, have ranged from feature films to documentaries, and dealt with such issues as class, politics, race relations, hooliganism, sexism, disability, and the impact of religion. Film industries elsewhere also focus on their primary sports. European sports films focus on soccer, Bollywood on cricket and field hockey, and Hong Kong on the martial arts. Sports films dealing with historic events are by definition historical, but historian Robert Rosenstone points out that sport films are also historical documents that stressed the viewpoints of the screenwriter, director, and producer. Sports films typically focus on the star’s athletic performances, and his/her goals and points of view. As Rosenstone explains, they portray the past while looking back in time through present concerns, providing “the audience with a ‘moral message and (usually) a feeling of uplift’ ” (1995: 3, 55). Baker’s Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film (2006) explores the cinematic representations of sports and athletes over time, in relation to socially constructed identities of class, gender, and race. He finds that cinema since the 1970s exhibited certain simplistic and recurrent traits, such as pairing constraining attributes like competition and sportsmanship; winning and sportsmanship; and individual excellence and team effort. These films gave attention to male minorities exercising agency, but rarely to strong women (xxiii–xxiv). Their directors typically portrayed sport as a site of cultural divergence that reproduces dominant cultural values while simultaneously eradicating conflicts arising when several of these values opposed each other. Baker found that filmmakers encouraged audiences to identify with protagonists whose individual situations caused visible positive results through hard work and natural talent. The typical hero was a clean-cut young man who endorsed traditional values and lived life with a bit of childlike behavior (181– 2), though increasingly the hero will question and critique the existing dominant representation of athletic heroes. These actors often will achieve transcendence through their physical activity. Basketball Films Basketball films were a minor genre until the 1980s. The first significant Hollywood productions were The Harlem Globetrotters (1951) and Go, Man, Go (1954), both featuring African-American actors. In 1971 in the era of

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student rebellion, Jack Nicholson produced, directed, and cowrote Drive, He Said. Collegiate All-American Hector Bloom, a surefire NBA first draft choice, is a rebel living on the fringes of the drug culture and student radicalism, who constantly fights with his coach. The most important historic basketball film is Hoosiers (1986), based on Milan High School (enrollment 161) that won the Indiana state championship in 1954. The film is a nostalgic allegory about a rough, tough big-city basketball coach who learns the importance of teamwork and community in a small Indiana town. Winning the state title, a popular convention in sports films, reestablishes a moral order rewarding the hard work and determination of the underdog team and its coaches (Baker 1998: 220). Baker argues that, since the mid-1980s, feature films like White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Above the Rim (1994), Space Jam (1996), and He Got Game (1998), offered a representation of a black style of basketball drawn from the NBA that reinforced the racial status quo, while reaffirming the values of whiteness as dominant. Author bell hooks felt that the overemphasis on black athletes’ individual exceptionalism contributes to a “spirit of defeat and hopelessness” among lower-class blacks, convincing them they could only get rich by success in sports. Baker agrees with writer John Edgar Wideman that the NBA sold to white audiences what journalist Nelson George calls a “Black [athletic] aesthetic” that fits traditional positions about identity in African American society. One perspective is that Michael Jordan’s creative improvisation comes from jazz and other elements of black culture. This has considerable crossover appeal, and proves to many observers that blacks have access to the American dream. But there is also the less optimistic view of the hyper masculine menace depicted by powerful men like Charles Barkley and various “gangsta” players (2003: 31–2). Boxing in the Movies Boxing films began to earn serious recognition with The Champ (1931), the story of a warmhearted father who dies in the ring trying to earn money to raise his son. Then came Kid Galahad (1937) in which a mobster fixes a fight, and Golden Boy (1939) about an Italian boxer whose hands are broken by gangsters, destroying his ambition to become a violinist. Postwar boxing was extremely popular, with fights almost nightly on TV. The sport became a staple of film noir, characterized by pessimism and fatalism, involving mobsters with scenes depicting dark city streets, taverns, and night clubs. One of the best boxing films was Body and Soul (1947), a fictionalized account of the life of three-time world champion Barney Ross, one of the greatest Jewish fighters of all time. The film starred Jack Garfield, a former amateur boxer. The film’s title reflected the mob’s complete control over star pugilist Charley Davis, who agrees to fix a match, but changes his mind. He is

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depicted as a victim of the slums and the capitalist system (Schwartz 2004). Two years later Kirk Douglas starred in Champion, the story of Midge Kelly who used boxing to get ahead, even if he had to step over loved ones standing in his way. He becomes champion, but in defending his crown Kelly receives a terrible battering. He dies in the locker room, a product of a misspent life. One of the biggest movies of the early 1950s was From Here to Eternity (1953), based on the James Jones novel, that won eight Oscars. Private Prewitt, played by Montgomery Clift, is an experienced boxer, recruited to box for the company team, but refuses, having come to hate the violence of the ring. He gets harassed, imprisoned, and goes AWOL. When Prewitt returns to the base at dawn on December 7th, he is shot to death by a patrol. One year later Marlon Brando plays a washed-up boxer in On the Waterfront, who tells his brother “I coulda been a contender instead of a bum, which is what I am.” Then in 1956, The Harder They Fall, loosely based on the career of former heavyweight champion Primo Carnera, served as a strong condemnation of boxing. The next big boxing movie was The Great White Hope (1970), based on an Arthur Sackler Pulitzer Prize-winning play about the racism Jack Johnson encountered as a perceived threat to prevailing American norms. In 1976 Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky was a personal tour de force, which he wrote and starred in. The rags-to-riches story won Oscars for best picture, best director, and best editing. Rocky was an obscure Philadelphia boxer, who by happenstance gets a championship fight and, following vigorous hard work and preparation, goes the distance against an historically great champion. Three years later, in the first of seven sequels, the myth of the self-made man is realized and Rocky becomes champion. Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980), based on Jake LaMotta’s autobiography, is the most realistic and artistic boxing movie. Shot in black and white, it is considered one of the greatest films ever made. The fight scenes, featuring Academy Award winner Robert De Niro, were outstanding. Scorsese stressed the character of the New York Italian-American community, its strict codes of masculinity, the gritty language of the street, and the brutality of boxing. Football Movies Film historian Ronald Bergan (1982: 45) identifies three stages of football movies, beginning with the b-grade “rah rah” college movie in the 1920s and 1930s. The best was the Marx brothers’ Horse Feathers (1932), a satire mocking the corrupting influence of sport on the American college campus. The next stage was the inspirational drama in which football symbolizes character building and American civilization like Knute Rockne: All-American (1941), which fails to recognize Notre Dame’s corrupt athletic program in the 1920s and 1930s. The third stage was comprised of post-Vietnam professional football

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FIGURE 8.1: Time magazine cover “Horse Feathers.” – 1932 Paramount film with the Marx Brothers (from left Harpo, Groucho, Chico and Zeppo). The title was a 1920s colloquialism for “nonsense.” The satire focuses on a game between two colleges that employed imaginative schemes to recruit professional talent and evade the prevailing amateur code. This photograph reflects how they scored the game-winning touchdown. Pictorial Press. Alamy Stock Photo.

movies. The pro game was by then recognized as the national pastime, but these films, including the comedies North Dallas Forty (1976) and Semi-Tough (1977) presented highly critical views of professional football, focusing on the game’s violence, management’s abuse of players, and the widespread use of drugs. There was also the very serious Black Sunday (1977), which reminded viewers of the potential danger of sitting in a crowded stadium in the era of international terrorism.

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Baseball at the Cinema Baseball films prior to the Second World War were largely forgettable comedies. Then in 1942 The Pride of the Yankees appeared, and earned eleven Oscar nominations. Gary Cooper stars as Lou Gehrig, an immigrant’s son who lived the American dream until he contracted ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and had to retire. He tells his fans at Yankee Stadium, “Today, I feel I’m the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” A few modest biographies appeared after the war, including The Babe Ruth Story (1948), The Stratton Story (1949), The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), starring Robinson in the first baseball film about an African American, and the innovative Fear Strikes Out (1957), the story of Boston Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall, who suffered a mental breakdown due to parental abuse. There was also a highly successful musical comedy, Damn Yankees (1958), about a middle-aged real-estate agent who sells his soul to the Devil so the hapless Washington Senators can beat the hated Yankees. In the 1970s and early 1980s, baseball movies became works of art, starting with Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), followed in 1976 by The Bad News Bears, and The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings. The Bears was a team of unathletic preteen misfits whose parents hire alcoholic ex-minor-league pitcher Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) to coach them. He stresses the American way of play: win at any cost. The club makes it to the championship game, but after their star female pitcher is injured, Buttermilk realizes that winning isn’t everything, and put his subs in the game, and they nearly win. The movie teaches that winning is not everything and that one can play the game of life without changing or evading the rules, and even by non-conforming. The Bingo Long All-Stars depicts a barnstorming African-American team in the 1930s, who were underpaid and mistreated by the Negro Leagues, but unable to join MLB because of their race. At the end of the movie, their young phenomenon “Esquire” Joe Calloway is recruited and signed by a white scout, indicating there will be a future for outstanding black ballplayers. From 1984 to 1989, movie fans were treated to four of the greatest sports films of all time, overcoming Hollywood’s lack of confidence in sports movies’ commercial viability (Ansen 1988). Malamud’s Natural was finally made into a movie in 1984 with an all-star cast, including Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs. The narrative stays very close to Malamud’s novella until the end when Hobbs rejects a bribe to lose the big game. Though suffering from food poisoning, he hits a massive home run to win the pennant, and returns home with his longlost girl friend. Several critics were aghast, notably John Simon, who contrasted Malamud’s story about the “failure of American innocence” with director Barry Levinson’s “fable of success” (Simon 1984), but noted film critic Gene Siskel describes the outcome as “an uplifting celebration of the individual” (Chicago Tribune 1984).

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The one major historical baseball movie of this era was John Sayles’s Eight Men Out (1988), based heavily on Eliot Asinof’s 1963 book of the same title that examines the fixed World Series of 1919. Sayles was extremely sympathetic to the eight accused players, widely thought to be underpaid compared to their peers, and poorly treated by owner Charles Comiskey. Three players confessed their participation in the fix to the Grand Jury, yet the seven indicted players were all acquitted because the confessions were “misplaced.” The ruling confirmed the conventional belief that American athletes always tried their best. Nonetheless new MLB commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis immediately threw all eight suspected fixers out of baseball. Sayles imposed his own perspectives on the narrative (Ryan 2010: 115–28). The auteur considers history a complex drama of multiple actors and interests whose representation involves interpretation and revision, influenced by the dynamics of social power, including the media’s to revise public memory. Sayles centered the audience’s attention on Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver, whose excellent Series play seemingly indicated their non-participation in the fix, and evidence of how honest working people’s contributions are often unrewarded and unrecognized (Baker 1998: 220). Bull Durham (1988), rated by Sports Illustrated ( 2003) as the greatest sports movie of all time, was a baseball fable, a comedy, and a love story (Ansen 1988). Ron Shelton’s brilliant screenplay focuses on lifelong minor leaguer, the highly professional “Crash” Davis (Kevin Costner), sent to the lowly Class A Durham Bulls to teach the gifted rookie pitcher “Nuke” LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) how to make it in “The Show.” The third person in the story is Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), a baseball groupie devoted to the “Church of Baseball,” who annually selects one Bull to be her lover and student. Nuke gets his call up to the majors, while Crash breaks the minor-league record for career home runs and gets released, epitomizing the cruelty of pro sports. Literary scholar Frank Ardolino sees the plot as a story of maturation, celebrating “the joys of uniting innocence and experience” (1990: 43). Finally, Field of Dreams (1989) is a fantasy-drama adapted from W. P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Joe (1982). Dreamer Ray Kinsella (Costner) is a 35-year-old Iowa corn farmer who plows under part of his acreage to build a ball field, having heard a voice tell him, “If you build it, he will come.” Joe Jackson appears in the field with his teammate Sox. Ardolino (44) sees the movie as “a nostalgic and populist retreat into a pristine past brought about by the willingness of the hero to pursue his personal vision of baseball as a religion and as the means of reconciliation with his dead father.” The mystical ball field erased memories of a sinful past, replacing it with a pastoral paradise where miracles occur as fans return to their youth and innocence (Tudor 1997: 169). Joakim Nilsson, and several other critics, take a less benign view of the movie, which they argue was popular for fulfilling needs of “Reaganite

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entertainment” that stressed the need to dream, recreate the innocence of childhood, and return to a simpler, more conservative time. It is seen as “full of right-wing utopianism, escapism, a wish to rewrite history, a focus on fathers and patriarchy, and magical solutions to historical and political dilemmas.” Nilsson argues it represents the transformation of the idealistic young men and women of the late 1960s into the conservative materialists of the 1980s (Nilsson 2000). The Lives of Fast Eddie Felson One of the most intriguing Hollywood sports movies was The Hustler (1961). Felson (Paul Newman) is a gifted pool shark, struggling for identity and meaning inside and outside the seedy world of billiard parlors in pursuit of wealth, fame, and fortune. He sought to leap from hustling to defeat champion Minnesota Fats and capture the American dream. His defeat resulted, not from a lack of skill, but the absence of character. In The Color of Money (1986), Felson is back on the circuit, and becomes the target for a new hotshot. This time Felson uses his experience to reach the edge of victory, but then just walks away, having satisfied any need to prove himself (Ebert 2002). Sport and the British Cinema The British have not made a lot of sports films, and even fewer cricket films than Bollywood. The most important British sports picture is Chariots of Fire (1981), winner of four Oscars, a dramatization of the 1924 Olympic Games, when the British were ardently trying to maintain their stature as a track power, and won 34 medals, including nine gold. The film focuses on outsider Harold Abrahams, a son of wealthy Jewish immigrants who encounters considerable anti-Semitism, and Eric Liddell, a devout son of Scottish missionaries, who sits out his main event, the 100-meter sprint because a heat was scheduled for the Sabbath. Abrahams wins the 100 meters and Liddell the 400 meters. The movie’s main point was that British competitors were gentlemen of great honor, who stood up for their principles. Ellis Cashmore argues “the film is most profitably understood as an invigorating sermon for the 1980s” (2008: 56). Unfortunately, the picture is a weak historical source, with at least thirty factual errors (“Chariots of Fire Goofs” 1981). The most recent significant British sports film was the independent hit Bend It Like Beckham (2002), that made around $70 million. The heroine is an 18-year-old Punjabi Sikh living in London, whose parents forbid her from playing soccer because she is a girl and because her father, a star bowler in Kenya, is still bitter that he could not play cricket after moving to England. Jess joins a local women’s team, wins a scholarship to an American college, and turns her conservative world upside down. As The Times of India explained, the

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film “is really about the bending of rules, social paradigms and lives – all to finally curl that ball, bending it like Beckham, through the goalpost of ambition” (“Bend it Like Beckham is Like Curry” 2002). Women Sports Heroines Since sport was long perceived as a male preserve, few films were made with sportswomen as protagonists. Women in early sports films were historically cheerleaders or either girlfriends or wives of athletes present primarily as companions and sexual partners whom coaches worry might drain their lover’s strength. The first major film with a female athlete was National Velvet (1944), the story of the stereotypical 14-year-old, horse-crazy Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor), resident of a small English town. She won a gelding in a raffle, trains him for the Grand National steeplechase, and decides to ride him. Females are barred from participating, but she disguises herself and wins. However, she is discovered to be a girl and gets disqualified. For years there were few acting roles for women as athletes. However, there were two beautiful female athletes who starred in Hollywood productions. Norwegian Sonja Henie, winner of three Olympic titles and ten world championships, starred in eleven motion pictures between 1936 and 1945, often musical comedies in which she often skated. Esther Williams, a worldclass swimmer in the late 1930s, acted in some thirty films between 1942 and 1963, which included a number of aqua-musicals. She was a major star in the late 1940s when she played the owner of a baseball team in the musical Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. She also starred in Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), the biography of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman. That year Katherine Hepburn starred in Pat and Mike, playing an independent golfer who knew she could not count on a man to help her career (Daniels 2005: 37). Thirty years later, Robert Towne broke new ground in Personal Best (1982), a highly sympathetic portrayal of elite female athletes from both competitive and emotional perspectives. Torey Skinner (Patrice Donnelly) and Chris Cahill (Muriel Hemingway) are lovers, who live and train together until Chris ends up with a male lover. The film depicts a sporting culture willing to grant women the status of an athlete, but deny them any alternative voice within the system. Christian Messenger applauds the movie “for showing possibilities of women’s athletic competition, while softening the explosive clash of sexualities in sport” (1990: 174). In 1992 Penny Marshall directed the landmark A League of Their Own, a fictionalized version of the AAGPBL (1943–54), which made around $90 million in profits, and did a great job educating the public. Women in the war

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era were considered second-class citizens, though many were skilled ballplayers, whose diamond achievements in the AAGPBL gained them respect and selfconfidence. However, once the war ended, their athletic accomplishments were largely forgotten, and patriarchy resumed. Hollywood has recently moved far from its traditions by following the rise of women boxers, most notably in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (2004). In 2017 two non-fiction films appeared, the brilliant I, Tonya, and the not so brilliant Battle of the Sexes, based on the 1973 Billy Jean King–Bobby Riggs tennis exhibition. I, Tonya received rave critical acclaim for its take on figure skater Tonya Harding, a two-time Olympian, who was convicted of conspiracy to hinder prosecution following her associates’ physical attack on her prime rival Nancy Kerrigan. The Documentary Documentary films report real events to entertain and inform their audiences. The first sports documentary was a film of the James Corbett–Frank Fitzsimmons heavyweight championship fight in 1897, but the sport genre did not become very popular until the 1990s. The industry did not have a lot of respect for sports documentaries as art or as marketable, especially if the interpretations countered studio executives’ viewpoints. The first sports film to win an Oscar for best documentary was The Horse with the Flying Tail (1960), followed by The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975). There have been four winners since 1996, including When We Were Kings (1996) and O.J.: Made in America (2016). The Olympics have been a major focus for documentarians. The big step forward came with Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938), based on some fifty hours of footage. The nine-hour production was an unabashed pro-Nazi production that began by trying to tie the ancient Greek games to Germany. The movie started with athletic statuary that seemed to come to life, followed by the lighting of the Olympic torch at Mt. Olympus, and then its transport north to Berlin, all to make Germany the heir to ancient Greece. Leni stresses the physical beauty of athletes with considerable employment of slow motion to emphasis the artistry of performances. By then Nazi photography and other artwork was rife with depictions of beautiful young Nordic men and women engaged in training and athletics (Kühnst 1996: 324–9). Riefenstahl promoted the film as a fair portrayal that highlighted Jesse Owens’s accomplishments, but the narrative was heavily weighted toward fascist victories, and the propaganda value promoting Nazi ideology and values is obvious. Other outstanding Olympic documentaries were the Tokyo Olympiad (1965) by Kon Ichikawa, who focused on the human and emotional side of the competitors, and Bud Greenspan’s nine films covering 1984–2010. The growing influence of documentaries was abetted by their popularity on TV, especially PBS and cable networks HBO and ESPN seeking content to

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attract viewers and improve their reputation for quality viewing. ESPN took a big step forward with SportsCentury (1999), a major venture into original documentary productions, leading to the creation of ESPN Films in 2008, and “30 for 30,” a celebration of ESPN’s thirtieth anniversary, a relatively serious and artistic discursive form that highlighted each auteur’s personal perspectives. As of 2016, the series has produced over 150 films.

MUSIC AND SPORTS Sport historians have not paid much attention to the sensory turn. However, sport has been a subject in virtually every modern genre, from jazz to Broadway, and rock ‘n’ roll to hip-hop. The first American sporting song may have been Stephen Foster’s “Camptown Races” (1850), played at every Kentucky Derby since the 1920s. Their themes range from men on death row seeking help from a boxing champion to tunes bringing back memories of youthful times like the baseball songs “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen (1984), and John Fogarty’s “Put Me in, Coach”(1985). There have been over 1,000 tunes about baseball, including “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908), sung daily at Wrigley Field since 1982. One of the most culturally significant sport lyrics come from a stanza that concludes Simon and Garfunkel’s memorable “Mrs. Robinson,” from The Graduate (1967), expanded one year later into a Grammy-winning hit. The key verse asks “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? / Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” Paul Simon later explained, “In the 50s and 60s, it was fashionable to refer to baseball as a metaphor for America, and DiMaggio represented the values of that America: excellence and fulfillment of duty . . . combined with a grace that implied a purity of spirit, an off-the-field dignity and a jealously guarded private life” (Simon 1999). The playing and singing of songs during sporting events is commonplace today to promote a sense of community. American college students often sing the school’s fight song during football games, like “The Victors” composed in 1898 for the University of Michigan’s football team. They also sing the alma mater, often at half-time. The first singing of a song at a major league game occurred during the 1903 World Series when Boston fans tried to unnerve the visiting Pittsburgh team. This did not catch on in North America, but has been extremely popular at European soccer games for several decades. FanChants.com catalogued over 26,000 soccer chants. The singing increases fan support of the home team, while often denigrating the opponent These simple chants are sung to well-known melodies of popular songs. Manchester United supporters sing “United Take Me Home” to the melody of John Denver’s “Country Roads.” A few nations are also known to employ loud instrumental music for local and international games like the South African vuvuzela or the Brazilian drums (Brill 2014).

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Highly politicized nationalistic anthems are rarely played at sporting events, except for the US, where the Star Spangled Banner (1814) is regularly sung at contests starting at the high-school level. It only officially became the national anthem in 1931, but during the First World War it was performed at the 1918 Boston Red Sox–Chicago Cubs World Series during the seventh inning stretch. Thereafter the song became a regular feature of special baseball occasions like Opening Day, national holidays, and the World Series. The anthem was played so often after the Second World War that many commentators thought the experience was devalued and insufficiently respected. The Cubs halted the practice after the war, and only resumed in 1967. During the Vietnam era, the NFL required players to stand at attention through the performance. The national anthem became a big political issue in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick began to sit during its playing as a protest against racial injustice and oppression. One year later a broader protest movement developed after President Donald Trump encouraged NFL owners to fire protesting players. No NFL team signed free agent Kaepernick, who filed a grievance blaming them for collusion against him. In 2019 he withdrew the complaint after reaching a confidential settlement with the league. In the rest of the world, except for Canada, Belgium, and a few other nations, their national anthem is seldom played during sporting events other than national competitions. Observers denigrate the practice as “too American.” In addition, team sports like soccer are heavily comprised of non-nationals, except for international matches when teams sing the songs then with unusual fervor, reflecting the special moment (Bologna 2018), which one study found leads to better teamwork (Slater et al. 2018). Professional basketball has a long historic connection to music, starting in the 1920s when games were often staged at ballrooms, like Chicago’s Hotel Savoy, the original home of the Harlem Globetrotters, where dances followed the ball game. Another connection, unique to early black traveling teams, was the employment of improvisation and creativity to the predominant conservative style of play, which scholars attribute to their fascination with jazz. The mode of play was further updated in the 1980s by the rise of hip-hop (Caponi-Tabery 2008; George 1992). Just a couple of professional football teams had bands. The Washington Redskins Marching Band first played in 1938, and the all-volunteer band is still in existence. Baltimore’s “Marching Ravens” also had a band, a custom dating to the Colts of the All-American Football League in 1947. MLB had just one band, the rag-tag, fan-based Dodgers Sym-phony Band at Ebbets Field in the 1940s, best known for playing tunes that belittled umpires. Chicago’s Wrigley Field briefly introduced organ music in 1941, but did not resume it until 1967. Elsewhere organists became very popular in the 1950s, playing popular tunes between innings as well as team themes and ditties when

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relief pitchers walked to the mound. The organ was largely displaced in the mid-1970s by loudly played prerecorded pop and rock music (Riess 2011). The strongest connection between bands and American sport was at interscholastic and intercollegiate football and basketball games. They played to support their teams and promote a shared identity among fans. The University of Notre Dame organized the first college band in 1887, marching in military block formation. Then in 1907 the University of Illinois band introduced intricate half-time patterns of marching that included the formation of words and letters, evolving in the 1920s into a complex “Three-In-One” march, comprised of three distinctive marches up and down the field. Since the 1940s, HBCU bands have employed a radically different style for their performances, employing highly syncopated, foot-stomping, and rapid body-moving rhythms, originating with rhythm and blues and later moving on to hip-hop. By the 1960s, these bands became a bigger show than the game and, through television, became nationally renowned. Visual Culture Visual culturists examine photographs, paintings, sculpture, postage stamps, and clothing for insights into sport. Art critic Mike O’Mahony, the leading scholar on sport and visual culture argues in Olympic Visions (2012) that such an approach “can provide vital evidence not only of how the [Olympic] games actually looked at various historical moments, but also how the different modes used for the visual representation of the Games impacted upon how they were interpreted and understood, not least by audiences whose only access to the Games was through this form of visual mediation” (9). Sport Apparel Clothing worn by athletes and spectators had a broader significance than protection against the elements. Uniforms identify members of a side in team sports, and reflect the demands of a particular sport within the confines of prevailing social standards, such as the length of tennis dresses. French tennis star Suzanne Lenglen played at Wimbledon in 1920 in a short pleated dress, sleeveless silk blouse, knee-length silk stockings, a silk bandeau in place of a hat, and makeup. Prevailing sports styles were a model for sportswear, which emerged as a fashion category in the US in the 1920s. This casual fashion that stressed comfort was commonly worn to sporting events. High-end sporting wear was dominated by Parisian designer Jean Patou, working with Lenglen (Vere 2018: 69; Bates and Warner 2011). Sporting attire today is more revealing than ever, often to promote performance in aesthetic-oriented sports like gymnastics, figure skating, and diving; speed and endurance sports like track; or weight-class sports like rowing; but not football or hockey, where participants are heavily padded. Yet

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in certain sports, particularly volleyball and track and field, women’s uniforms are distinctly smaller and tighter than their male peers, presumably for reasons other than performance. Photographs of the clothing of sports crowds in the interwar period, especially hats, help historians identify their social class. However, this needs to be contextualized because Americans used to wear their best clothing whenever they left the house. Men of all classes, for instance, often wore ties and jackets when they went to the beach, the movies, or a baseball game (Riess 1999). Alison Goodrum (2015) reminds us about the importance of fashion among elite sports fans. She points out that the racetrack in the interwar years was a glamorous place for people of wealth to wear the latest comfortable, exciting, “and even provocative” fashionable fun styles. Such conspicuous display was for years a part of the social life of the “horsey set.” In 1977 female runners invented the “jogbra” for athletic support, and it soon accounted for 6.1 percent of the bra market. The garment achieved international fame in 1999 when Brandi Chastain scored the winning goal for the US in a shoot-out to win the soccer world championship. She pulled off her shirt to reveal her bra. By then it had become increasingly acceptable for women to wear it as “a stand-alone piece of outerwear.” Women who wore sports bras and bare midriffs presented themselves according to Canadian scholar M. Ann Hall as “slim, strong, sinuous, athletic and healthy” (Schultz 2014: 158). Kasia Boddy has written an outstanding study of American tennis star Helen Wills who was the subject of many narrative and visual representations. She analyzed Wills in the context of Henry James’s Daisy Miller and Charles D. Gibson’s “Gibson Girl,” drawn as the epitome of physical attractiveness. Boddy argues that Wills’s style of playing, her clothing, and her facial expressions represented a certain type of modern American femininity, the classic nextdoor Californian girl, adored not just by white Americans, but also Mexican artist Diego Rivera, who positioned her in the middle of his 1931 Allegory of California (Boddy 2018). Physical appearance, including body art and hairstyles, can be important visual representations. A prime example was the dramatic change in the present corporeal and hair look among members of the Brazilian women’s national soccer team from 1996 to today. In 1996, the squad was overwhelmingly darkskinned, short-haired, working-class Afro-Brazilian. Today, the squad is predominantly lighter-skinned, straight-haired, and middle class, conforming to white heterosexual norms (Snyder 2018). Athletes’ hairstyles were not originally significant symbols when coaches pressured them to conform to prevailing styles to demonstrate their obedience. This changed among American men in the 1970s when Afros, long hair, and moustaches were worn to display personal independence. Teenage women athletes have for years worn hair ribbons with school colors to demonstrate

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FIGURE 8.2: American tennis player Helen Wills Moody (1905–98). She was the best women’s player in the world in 1927–33, 1935, and 1938, winning thirty-one Grand Slam tournament titles. She was a worldwide celebrity, admired for her beauty and graceful play. Photo by Agence de press Meurisse. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

their femininity. Schultz argues that women commonly wear a ponytail as a practical way to deal with longer hair, but also to “en-gender a normative, athletic femininity in the context of U.S. women’s sports” (Schultz 2014: 8). The Postage Stamp In 1984 Donald Reid called for historians to study postage stamps for their symbolic value. There have been over 300 monographs on philately and history, but only a handful on sport including one dissertation (Reid 1984; Herndon 1991). In 1920, Belgium, host of the Olympics, issued two stamps in honor of the Games, and France four years later issued a set of four stamps focusing on ancient Greek sport. The US produced two stamps in 1932 promoting that year’s Winter and Summer Games, followed seven years later by a stamp that commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of baseball. We now know that this tale was a myth, since baseball was not invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York, indicating the need for caution in employing philately in history. The USSR was a huge producer of postage stamps that included Bolshevik

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FIGURE 8.3: Centennial of Baseball, 1839–1939, by U.S. Post Office. The U.S. government published a stamp to honor the anniversary of Abner Doubleday’s supposed inventing of baseball in Cooperstown, NY in 1839. Hi-res scanning of postage stamp by Gwillhickers. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

heroes, major Revolutionary events, economic projects, and sports, heavily aimed at propaganda. In 1936, Russia printed what was possibly the first non-Olympic postage stamps in the world, which included a female competitor, indicating the government belief in the importance of women’s sport (Rowley 2006). Gary Osmond and Murray G. Phillips recently examined how sport stamps represent the past, a project facilitated by philatelic exhibitions, the new museology, and the employment of semiotic theory that helps one understand the culture, customs, and ideology of a particular stamp. This theory emphasizes guided, preferred, or dominant meanings that may result in overlooking individual identities and intentionalities, and contextualizes the people involved in production. They also suggest such approaches as content analysis, deconstruction, and gaze theory (Osmond and Phillips 2012). They examined cricket stamps depicted on the postage of thirty nations between 1962 and 2006. They focused on a 1979 30-cent Tokelau stamp depicting batsman and wicketkeeper, wearing just a loincloth, employing a highly animated stance on a sandy field. The authors read the stamp as a sign of national pride, lacking any imperial symbol or evidence of a foreign imposed sport (1055–6). Fine Art O’Mahony’s examination of Soviet sport focused on a time when athletics played a vital role within its social and cultural life through

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FIGURE 8.4: Woman relay runner at the Moscow Spartakiada, 1928. Postcard commemorating the Russian All-Union Spartakiade. Color lithograph on off-white wove postcard. Artist Gustav G. Klutsis (1895–1938). Private collection. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images. Getty Images.

state-sponsored programs seeking to create the hard-working and patriotic New Soviet Person. Fizkultura (“physical culture”) was well depicted in literature, film, popular songs, stamps, plates, medals, and parades. Public exhibitions and popular journals were full of paintings, prints, and photographs representing athletes, and sports monuments were erected in public parks and sports facilities (2006). O’Mahony notes that Soviet art under Stalin was hardly outstanding, but notable statutes were produced by Iosif Chaikov, paintings by social realist Aleksandr Deineka (whose pictures connected sports to militaristic and heroic traits), and photomontages by Alexander Rodchenko, a futurist avant-gardist, who used extreme perspectives in his photographs of motorcyclists, divers, and speed skaters, until sent to a labor camp in 1931. Constructivist Bolshevik

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FIGURE 8.5: Cover of Spartakiada RSI magazine, 1928. Female discus thrower. Artist Gustav Klutsis. State Art Museum of Republic Latvia, Riga. Hulton Archive. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images. Getty Images.

Gustav Klutsis was renowned for his collage posters promoting the Spartakiade in 1928, particularly one with the image of a female discus thrower photomontaged against an image of an attentive Lenin and two columns of marching athletes (O’Mahony 2006; Kühnst: 321–3). Russian women athletes were first depicted on sport magazine covers in 1928. Four years later, the government printed posters and postcards promoting women’s use of parks for fitness and, in 1935, a poster promoting GTO standards in fitness depicted a woman throwing a hand grenade, and another swimming. Such activities were not mainly promoted for women’s health, but to better prepare them for work, national defense, and an alternative activity to such bad habits as going to church (Rowley 2006).

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O’Mahony is well known for his recent study of Olympic Visions (2012), an analysis of Olympic art that encompassed paintings, statues, posters, films, and sporting paraphernalia like medals, mascots, and cigarette cards used to promote certain Olympiads, document results, and produce a lasting impression. The Olympics itself awarded medals from 1912 to 1948 for art inspired by sport in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. Bernard Vere explains that O’Mahony wrote a history of the Games in which “our reception of athletic achievement has been mediated by imagery and the political, social, race and gender messages that those images have carried” (Vere 2013: 451). The coming of photography made painters less essential in depicting sporting moments prior to the late nineteenth century, but they still brought their own sensibilities to their projects. No one was more important than the American George Bellows, a leader of the Ashcan school, whose “Dempsey v. Firpo” (1924) depicted the shocked expressions of the wealthy ringside crowd in

FIGURE 8.6: Dempsey vs Firpo, 1924. Oil on canvass by George Bellows (1882– 1925). Purchased with funds from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Champion Jack Dempsey fought Argentinean Angel Firpo on September 23, 1923 at the Polo Grounds. Firpo was knocked down seven times in the first round, Dempsey twice, and the second time was knocked out of the ring. It took him 14 seconds to return to the ring. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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round one when the champion was knocked out of the ring. Bellows also painted less passionate sporting moments among the elite, like Tennis at Newport (1919) and Tennis Tournament (1920), depicting a world where women wore stylish hats and dresses and employed colorful parasols to protect themselves from the sun, accompanied by men dressed in white flannel trousers with dark blazers. Norman Rockwell, the great American illustrator, was acclaimed for his numerous paintings of sporting subjects for the Saturday Evening Post that captured the mundane, uplifting, and disheartening moments of sport. Allen Guttmann identifies Four Sporting Boys: Baseball (1951) as his most culturally significant work, depicting boys wearing baggy versions of major league uniforms as they choose up sides (Guttmann 2011: 162). Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, and many other German artists in the 1920s detested bourgeois sport as unhealthy, egotistical, unhealthy, chauvinistic, and overly concerned with winning. However, they supported sport as a positive force for working-class interests, including class consciousness and human dignity. This was reflected in Dadaist Hannah Hoech’s photocollage Toughening (1925), that attacked the reactionary German Gymnastics Association’s rigidity and examined the contradictions in sport by showing a young woman flow into the hard lines of a soccer player and an airplane (Kühnst 1996: 300, 303). European artists since the Second World War were often sports fans and participants, including Pablo Picasso, who drew Soccer Players (1961), and Joan Miró, whose abstract The Skiing Course (1966) depicts skiers near a steep slope (Kühnst 1996: 337–8). Sporting art was heavily influenced by pop art, which employed images from all elements of popular culture. In 1962 the renowned Andy Warhol, possibly driven by hero worship, produced an ink and oil silk screen titled “Baseball” comprised of forty-two shades of Roger Maris at bat. Sixteen years later, his Athletes was a synthetic polymer and silk screen of ten portraits of athletes in static poses. The most prolific producer of sport artwork since the 1960s was Leroy Neiman, whose work is belittled by most critics as unimaginative and minimally abstract (Guttmann 2011: 222; Vogan 2016). On the other hand, Kühnst points out that Neiman’s Stretch Stampede (1979) produced a tension comparable to Edouard Manet’s Horse Race at Longchamp (1867) (Kühnst 1996: 368). Photography Sport historians have long used journalistic photographs for illustrative purposes, and for at least forty years as evidence in their scholarship for such matters as crowd composition, riotous behavior, and changes in sportswear and equipment. But they have only recently become aware that photographs may be misleading because of how they were shot or cropped. For example, Life magazine’s Mark Kaufmann produced an image of Tamara Press

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winning the 80-meter hurdles at the 1960 Olympics that seemed to show her barely ahead of a teammate in second, but she was actually fifth. O’Malony shows how in the 1950s and 1960s, misleading American photographs of Soviet athletes were employed for political purposes during the Cold War (2006: 30– 1, 34). Certain photographers of sporting images were truly artists, like Ben Shahn, whose Handball (1939) was a representation of a popular working-class urban sport (Guttmann 2011: 164), and Robert Mapplethorpe, who photographed body-builders Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lisa Lyon. European artists have produced portraits of Formula One idols like Belgian Jacky Ickx that are reminiscent of the armor of medieval knights, while Jean Tinguely’s collage, Panorama Formula 1-Circus, showed how racing was entangled in the economics and technology of the automobile business (Kühnst 1996: 353–4, 365–6). Statuary There are relatively few sport statues in the interwar era, mainly bronzes produced by Canadian Dr. R. Tait McKenzie (1867–1938), or in the

FIGURE 8.7: Fanny Blankers-Koen (1954). Dutch heroine who won four gold medals in track at the 1948 London Olympics. Blijdorp District, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Sculpture by Han Rehm. Photograph by Door Wikifrits. Courtesy of wikimedia commons.

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FIGURE 8.8: The Olympic Black Power Statue at San José State University honoring Tommie Smith and John Carlos was completed in 2005 by “Rigo 23.” The sculpture purposefully omitted second-place medalist, Australian Peter Norman, a supporter of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, as per his request to ensure attention was focused on Smith and Carlos. Photo by Lawrence Fan. Courtesy of Lawrence Fan.

postwar period, but they have become very popular since the turn of the century. The most notable are 92-percent male, including the top-rated “The Spirit,” a statue of Michael Jordan in front of Chicago’s United Center by Omri Amrany and Julie Rotblatt-Amrany (Bocicault and Danner 2014). Fanny Blankers-Koen has been the subject of several sculptures, perhaps the most of anyone. The first was Han Rehm’s “Monument to Fanny Blankers-Koen” (1954) in Rotterdam, depicting her winning an Olympic relay. O’Mahony interprets the statue as honoring her endurance and perseverance, but also honoring the European struggle to survive the Second World War (2012: 59– 60). Perhaps the most analyzed statue to date has been “Victory Salute,” which commemorates Tommie Smith and John Carlos demonstrating for civil rights on the victory platform in Mexico City. It is located on the campus of their alma mater, San José State University. Historian Maureen Smith asserts that the statue was initiated to redress their mistreatment and honors their Olympic triumph and demonstration for civil rights. The statue omits silver medalist

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Australian Peter Norman, who supported the protest and later recommended the artist leave him out of the podium, providing space for visitors to stand in solidarity with the civil rights heroes (Smith 2009: 394, 406).

CONCLUSION The cultural analysis of sport has opened up for historians new ways of understanding the historic development of sport around the world by opening up new kinds of sources for studying sport, and how to understand them. The postmodern historian is going beyond such primary sources as newspapers, diaries, financial reports, government documents, and is more astutely studying photographs than in the past. They are now studying fiction, music, and art so they may historicize individual works of art as a text reflecting their artist’s own viewpoints. Many of the most outstanding studies are not by sport historians, but humanists from literature and art, who bring their own expertise to the study of sport, without overly relying on cultural theory, a trend that I welcome.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Sheldon Anderson is Professor of History at Miami University, USA, specializing in the history of sports and Cold War diplomacy. He is author of The Forgotten Legacy of Stella Walsh: The Greatest Female Athlete of Her Time (2017); The Politics and Culture of Modern Sports (2015); Condemned to Repeat It: “Lessons of History” and the Making of U.S. Cold War Containment Policy (2008); A Cold War in the Soviet Bloc: East German–Polish Relations, 1945– 1962 (2000); and A Dollar to Poland is a Dollar to Russia: U.S. Economic Policy Toward Poland, 1945–1952 (1993). He also coauthored International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues (2018). Mike Cronin is Academic Director of Boston College in Ireland. He has published widely in the areas of sport and social history, and particularly the linkage between sport and identity. His publications include Sport and Nationalism in Ireland: Gaelic Games, Soccer, and Irish identity Since 1884 (1999), and he coedited Sporting Nationalisms: Identity, Ethnicity, Immigration, and Assimilation (1998); With God on Their Side: Sport in the Service of Religion (2002); and Sport and Postcolonialism (2003). He was Director from 2008 of the Gaelic Athletic Association’s Oral History Project, which can be viewed at: https://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/oral-history/. Brian M. Ingrassia is Assistant Professor of History at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, USA. He is author of The Rise of Gridiron University: Higher Education’s Uneasy Alliance with Big-Time Football (2012), and series editor of Sport and Popular Culture. He has contributed articles and reviews to scholarly journals including The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and The Journal of Sport History. 251

252

CONTRIBUTORS

William J. Morgan is Professor Emeritus in the Division of Occupational Science, University of Southern California, USA, and studies ethics, critical theory, and political theory. He edited the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport; Ethics in Sport (3rd ed., 2018); and co-edited with Mike McNamee The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Sport (2015). He is author of Why Sports Morally Matter (2006); Leftist Theories of Sport: A Critique and Reconstruction (1994); and Sport and Moral Conflict: A Conventionalist Theory (2020). He is a former president of the International Association of the Philosophy of Sport and received its Distinguished Scholar Award in 1994. Steven A. Riess is the Bernard Brommel Distinguished Research Professor, Emeritus, at Northeastern Illinois University, USA. He is the former editor of the Journal of Sport History, series editor of Sports and Entertainment, and author of several books including Sports in Industrial America, 1850–1920 (rev. 2nd ed., 2013); The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime. Horse Racing, Politics, and Crime in New York, 1865–1913; Touching Base: Professional Baseball and American Culture in the Progressive Era (rev. 2nd ed., 1999); and City Games: The Evolution of American Society and the Rise of Sports (1989). Matthew Taylor is Professor of History and Director of the Institute of History at De Montfort University, Leicester, England. He is the author of The Association Game: A History of British Football (2008) and Football: A Short History (2011), and has edited special issues on the history of sport in the London Journal, Labor History, and the Journal of Global History. He is currently cowriting a number of articles on the history of boxing in Britain. His most recent book is Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939–45 (2020). Jean Williams is Professor of Sport at the University of Wolverhampton, England, and a heritage consultant to museums and the cultural sector including as Nonexecutive Director of The Silverstone Experience; consultant to The FIFA World Football Museum and The FA; and Academic Lead for the Hidden Histories of Women’s Football at The National Football Museum. Recent publications include ‘A History of World Cup Posters 1930–2014’ in Daniel Haxall’s The Visual Identity of Football (2018); with Rob Hess, Women, Football and History: International Perspectives. A Special Edition of The International Journal of the History of Sport, 32:18 (2016); and A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport: Part One 1850–1960 (2014). Kevin B. Witherspoon is Chair of the Department of History & Philosophy at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina, USA. He has received numerous awards at Lander, including the Distinguished Professor Award in 2014. His first book, Before the Eyes of the World: Mexico and the 1968 Olympics

CONTRIBUTORS

253

won the 2009 North American Society for Sport History Book Award. His most recent book, Defending the American Way of Life: Sport, Culture, and the Cold War, coedited with Toby Rider of Cal State-Fullerton, USA, was published in 2018. His current research focuses on the U.S.–Soviet sports rivalry during the Cold War. Wray Vamplew is Emeritus Professor in Sports Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland, where he was appointed as Scotland’s first Chair in Sports History. He has authored and edited more than twenty books and over a hundred academic papers and reports. His 1988 monograph Pay Up and Play the Game won the initial North American Society for Sport History Book Award. His books include The Turf: A Social and Economic History of Horse Racing (1976) and, with Tony Collins, Mud, Sweat and Beers: A Cultural History of Sport and Alcohol (2002). He coedited with Joyce Kay An Encyclopedia of British Horse Racing (2005).

254

INDEX

Italic numbers are used for illustrations. Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem (Lew Alcindor) 109 abuse of athletes 34–5 Adair, Daryl 150 African Americans and athletics 17 and baseball 10, 25, 61 and basketball 11, 26–7, 30 and boxing 11, 24 discrimination 168, 171 and football 12, 27–8 integration of 119–20, 167–8 racism against 168, 171 segregation of 154–6, 155, 159–61, 160 symbols of change 162–4, 163 women 166–7 Alcindor, Lew (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) 109 Algren, Nelson, Never Come Morning 193 Ali, Muhammad 24, 73–4, 126 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) 18, 116–17, 116, 161, 205–6 amateurism 20, 50–1, 52, 89–90, 109–14, 111 American Football League (AFL) 27 American Ninja Warrior 170 Anderson, Eric D. 157

animal welfare 139–41 apartheid 19, 73, 119, 131–2, 156, 165, 178 appearance of players 121–2 Archer, Robert 156 Ardolino, Frank 203 Argentina 13, 74, 123–4, 132 Armstrong, Gary 143 Armstrong, Henry 164 Armstrong, Lance 124 Arthur, Michael 157 Ashe, Arthur 73 associated products 96–8 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) 29 athletics. See track and field athletics attitudes to sport 127 Australia cricket 15, 104, 125 gambling 136, 137 indigenous people 179 rivalries in 145 stadiums 65 track and field 89–90 women in sport 161 workplace sport 95–6 Australian Rules football 88–9, 95–6 Austria 5, 9, 13 auto racing 28, 63–4, 85, 217 255

256

Babington, Bruce 197 Bad News Bears, The (film, 1976) 202 Baker, Aaron 198, 199 Bale, John 114, 197 Baller, Susan 157 Bang the Drum Slowly (Harris) 195 Bannister, Roger 113–14 Bartali, Gino 134 baseball East-West Classic 159 in fiction 194–6 films about 198, 202–4, 205–6 fine art 216 “fixing” of 135, 203 global championship 78 integration 167 and Japanese Americans 158 lighting of 62–3 Negro Leagues 61, 159 and patriotism 121 player safety 108 postage stamps 211, 212 rivalries in 144–5 rules 107 seasonality of 75 semipro industrial teams 3 song about 207 stadiums 59–60, 61 unwritten rules 126 and women 161 during World War II 18 See also Major League Baseball (MLB) basketball 152 and African Americans 120 betting on 29–30 betting scandals 123 films about 198–9 integration 165–6, 167 and Mexicans 158 music and 208 rules 109 seasonality of 75–6 segregation of 159–60 shot clock 76 and women 152, 169, 170 before World War II 11, 12 See also National Basketball Association (NBA); netball Bates, Christopher 90–1 Bauhaus art 216

INDEX

behavior of crowds 23, 100, 122, 146, 184, 207 of players 121, 122, 124, 185–6 Bellows, George 215–16, 215 Bend It Like Beckham (film, 2002) 204–5 Bergan, Ronald 200 Berlage, Gai Ingham 161 Berlin Olympics (1936) 16–17, 17, 62, 129, 130 betting on basketball 29–30 and goals of sport 46 and golf 101 match fixing 100, 122–3, 135–6, 203 moral views of 135, 136–7 relationship with sport 97 on thoroughbred racing 11, 12–13 in USA and Britain 33 Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, The (film, 1976) 202 Black Lives Matter 128 black power salute 128, 168, 178, 218–19, 218 Black Sox scandal 135 Black Sunday (film, 1977) 201 Blake, Jason 197 Blankers-Koen, Fanny 18, 217, 218 Blatter, Sepp 23 blood sports 139–41, 193 Boddy, Kasia 210 bodies, attitudes towards 187–90 Body and Soul (film, 1947) 199–200 “Bodyline Series” 125 Bolt, Usain 93 Bolz, Daphné 93 Bond, Barry 34–5 Booth, Douglas 156 Bouillon, Antoine 156 bowling 3, 8–9, 8 boxing and African Americans 162–4 cheating 122 in fiction 193 films about 197–8, 199–200, 206 fine art 215–16, 215 Holocaust, during 158 Irish boxing, status of 178 “Rumble in the Jungle” 24, 73–4 and slum youths 3 television coverage 97–8

INDEX

unwritten rules 126 and violence 137–9, 137 before World War II 11 after World War II 24 Braddock, Jomills Henry II 171 brawls 109 Brazil 22, 65, 210 Bright, Johnny 165 Britain amateurism 50–1, 110, 113 attitudes to sport 127 club ownership 86 criticism of sport 142 development of sport 102 fiction about sport 196–7 films about sport 204–5 gambling 136–7 hunting 140 imperialism and sport 14–15, 14, 60, 119, 120–1, 180 public facilities 94 spectator sport 12–13, 18, 24 sporting culture 1–2 stadiums 58–9, 74 Sundays, sport on 134–5 workplace sport 95 World War I 174 See also England Brown, Cassandra 170 Brundage, Avery 52 Budd, Zola 177–8 Bull Durham (film, 1988) 203 bullfighting 140–1, 193 Buma, Michael 197 Burns, Ken 149 Camden Yards, Baltimore 71 Canada baseball 74 hockey 11, 26 hockey literature 197 Olympic Games 66 preferred sports 15 Sundays, sport on 134, 135 Caribbean, cricket in 14 Carlos, John 19–20, 128, 168, 178 Carnera, Primo 200 Carter, Jimmy 20 Cashman, Richard 145 Cashmore, Ellis 204

257

Catanzaro, Kacy 170 catering 97 Celebrant, The (Greenberg) 196 celebrity endorsements 20 Champion (film, 1949) 200 Chariots of Fire (film, 1981) 204 cheating 44, 122–5 See also match fixing Chicago, USA baseball 3–4, 18, 63 bowling 3, 8–9, 8 stadiums 59, 59, 72, 72, 76–7 child labor 100 Chile 62, 132 China 19, 20, 35, 132–3, 133–4 Chosen, The (Potok) 194 Christianity and sport 133–5, 136–7, 138, 186 citizenship of athletes 177–8 civil rights laws. See Title IX Educational Amendments Act (1972) class and sport 2–3, 182 Clemente, Deirdre 97 clothing 69, 90–1, 96–7, 100, 209–10 club ownership 86–7, 98–9 clubs 94, 175, 180–1 coaching 92 Cochran, Charles 99 cockfighting 139 Cold War 18, 31, 52, 126, 166–7, 217 collegiate sport and African Americans 120 amateurism 89 betting scandals 123 integration 165–6 before World War II 12, 62–3 after World War II 29–30 See also National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colonialism. See imperialism and sport Color of Money, The (film, 1986) 204 Colter, Kain 112 commercial amateurism 89 commercialization 103, 104 communities, disadvantaged 147 communities, representation of 88 community sport 182–3 conflict 127–47 gambling 135–7 playing and watching 141–2

258

politics and protest 128–33 religion 133–5 rivals and friends 142–6 unity and cooperation 146–7 violence 137–41 Connolly, James 173 constitutive rules 106–9, 108 consumerism, influence of 67–9 Cooper, James Fenimore 192 cooperation and unity 146–7 Coover, Robert, The The Universal Baseball Association, Inc: J. Henry Waugh Prop. 195–6 Cornelissen, Scarlett 157 corporate sponsorship 3–4, 8, 95, 98, 101 corruption 21, 23, 97, 125 See also match fixing costs of sport 182 Coubertain, Pierre de 48–9, 109, 112–13, 114–15, 176 Crane, Stephen, The Red Badge of Courage 193 cricket amateurism 110 and anti-apartheid protest 131 in Australia 104, 145 and British colonies 14–15, 14, 60, 121, 133, 157 length of games 76, 107 match fixing 136 postage stamps 212 stadiums 65, 65 Sundays, sport on 135 unwritten rules 125 women and the home 114 before World War II 12 criminal activities 11, 24, 100 criticism of sport 142 crowd behavior 23, 100, 122, 146, 184, 207 crowd-control measures 74 cultural aesthetics 167 cultural differences 113 cultural exceptionalism 88–9 cultural exchanges 19 Cultural Olympiad 83 cultural values 120–6 cycling 85–6, 93, 114, 124 Czechoslovakia 4

INDEX

Damn Yankees (film, 1958) 202 dangers of sport 92–3, 108–9, 138–9, 188–9 dark products 99–100, 101 Davis, Janet M. 139 Death in the Afternoon (Hemingway) 193 Demas, Lane 168 Didrikson, Babe 16, 32, 115, 169 Dimeo, Paul 99 disabled athletes 118, 126 disadvantaged communities 147 disasters 74, 122, 143, 184 discrimination. See racism; segregation Doby, Larry 164–5 documentary films 206–7 dog racing 13, 136–7 Drive, He Said (film, 1971) 198–9 drugs 34–5, 52–3, 99–100, 124–5, 189 See also substance abusers Dyreson, Mark 50, 103 East Africa 117 East Germany. See German Democratic Republic economic factors, influence on sport 2 Edelman, Robert 141 Edwards, Harry 168 Eight Men Out (film, 1988) 203 Ellison, Ralph 167 emotions and sport 183–4 England anti-apartheid protests 131 hooliganism 23, 74, 122, 143 match fixing of soccer 135–6 Nazism, protests against 129–30 soccer 21, 22, 88, 123–4 women and boxing 139 See also Britain English Premier League (EPL) 22, 74, 86, 87, 88, 96 entrepreneurship 98–9 equipment 90 ethnic minorities 118–19 See also African Americans; Native Americans Europe development of sport 102 and soccer 13, 21–2 socialist sports 3–4, 4–5 women’s sport 9

INDEX

exploitation of workers 100 external purposes of sport 45–9, 54 facts and the theory of sport 40 fair play 133 faith. See religion and sport Falkland Islands 123–4 fantasy sports 78 Farah, Mo 179 fascism and sport 141 fashion 96, 209–10 Faulkner, William 192 Fear Strikes Out (film, 1957) 202 Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) 115 Federer, Roger 29 Fences (Wilson) 196 fiction 192–7 field hockey 14 Field of Dreams (film, 1989) 203–4 FIFA World Cup African participation 119 cheating 123–4 corruption and mismanagement 23 crowd behavior 146 cultural significance 84 human rights campaigns 132 stadiums 61 women’s sport 23 films 197–207, 201 fine art 212–16, 213–15 First World War 173–4 fishing 192–3 fitness movement 31 Fitzgerald, F. Scott 193 The Great Gatsby 194–5 football African Americans and 120 films about 198–9, 200–1 globalization of 102–3 integration 166 intercollegiate sport 30 music and 208 performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) 34 player safety 108 racial violence 165 rules 106 seasonality of 75

259

stadiums 60–1 timing of 75 before World War II 12 See also Australian Rules football; National Football League (NFL); soccer; Super Bowl football pools 136 footballs 100, 102 Formula One 217 Foster, Andrew “Rube” 10 four-minute mile 113–14 fox hunting 140 France Nazism, opposition to 130 and soccer 23 stadiums 60, 61, 62, 70 stamps 211 See also Tour de France Freeman, Cathy 179 From Here to Eternity (film, 1953) 200 From Here to Eternity (novel, Jones) 193 Gallico, Paul 115 gambling. See betting Garcia, Ignacio 158 gay athletes 31–2, 118 “Gay Games” 118 Geertz, Clifford 191 gender and sport 30–2, 118 See also women gentleman-amateur concept of sport 50–1 geographical attachment 183–4 George, Nelson 167 German Democratic Republic 20, 21, 34, 124–5 Germany club ownership 86 development of sport 102 Jewish women 9 and the Olympic Games 20 Olympic Games (1936) 16–17, 62 public facilities 93–4 and soccer 22 socialist sports 4–5, 5 women and boxing 138–9 working-class sports 3 Gilkes, James 178 Giulianotti, Richard 143 Gleaves, John 113

260

globalization of sport 78, 102–3, 126, 180, 181–2 goals of sport 41–2 golf 28–9, 69, 94, 101, 169–70 Goodrum, Alison 210 Grace, W. G. 110, 114 Graff, Jessie 170–1 Grange, Harold “Red” 111, 112 Grant, Bud 112 Great American Novel, The (Roth) 196 Great Depression 6, 10, 11, 12, 62 Great Gatsby, The (Fitzgerald) 194–5 Great White Hope, The (film, 1970) 200 Greenberg, Eric Rolfe, The Celebrant 196 Gropius, Walter 216 Guttmann, Allen 154, 195, 216 gymnastics 94 hairstyles 210–11 Hall, M. Ann 210 halls of fame 97 Harder They Fall, The (film, 1956) 200 Harding, Tonya 206 Harlem Globetrotters 11, 160, 160, 161 Harris, Mark Bang the Drum Slowly 195 The Southpaw 195 Hemingway, Ernest Death in the Afternoon 193 The Old Man and the Sea 192–3 The Sun Also Rises 193 Henderson, Edwin Bancroft 164 Henie, Sonja 205 Henoch, Lilli 9 heritage 97 heritage stadiums 76–7 heroes in fiction 193–6 Heysel Stadium Riot 122, 143 high-school sports 12, 75, 194, 199 hiking 68–9 Hill, Declan 100 Hillsborough Stadium 74 Hinch, A. J. 107 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) 8, 154, 159, 209 Hobbs, Jack 12 Hobsbawm, Eric 175–6 hockey. See field hockey; ice hockey Hoech, Hannah 216 Holocaust 17, 158

INDEX

Holt, Richard 94 homosexual athletes 31–2, 118 hooliganism 23, 122, 184 Hoosiers (film, 1986) 199 Hopcraft, Arthur 136 Horse Feathers (film, 1932) 200, 201 horse racing 11, 13, 18, 23–4, 68, 205 Houston Astrodome 67, 68, 71 Hoyzer, Robert 123 Huggins, Mike 13 human rights campaigns 132–3 humanitarian relief 147 hunting 140 Hustler, The (film, 1961) 204 hybrid internal purpose of sport 49–54 I, Tonya (film, 2017) 206 ice hockey 11, 26, 75, 124, 197 icons 9–10 identities 127–8, 143, 175–6, 179 idols 9–10 illuminated sports 62–3 imperialism and sport 14–15, 14, 119, 121, 156–7, 180 inclusion. See integration India cricket in 14, 14, 65, 133, 136 exploitation of workers 100 field hockey in 14 rugby in 133 Indianapolis 500 28, 63 indigenous cultures 2, 179 indoor ski slopes 73 industrialists, contribution of 3, 8, 95 instant replay 104, 107 institutional character of sport 39–41 instruction 92 integration African Americans and 119–20 process of 165–6, 167–71 in USA 25, 26–7, 27–8, 30 See also segregation internal purposes of sport 41–5, 54 international fixtures 175–6 intersex athletes 116, 118 Ireland 98, 178 Islamic cultures 117–18, 152–3 Italy participatory sport 141 public facilities 94

INDEX

religion 134 and soccer 13, 22, 123 stadiums 62 Jackie Robinson Story, The (film, 1950) 202 James, C. L. R. 60, 157 Japan and the Olympic Games 18, 19 stadiums 60, 65–6, 66 thoroughbred racing 24 Japanese Americans 158 Jewish sport 9, 158 jogging 31, 68–9 Johnson, Ben 124, 179 Johnson, Jack 162–3, 200 Johnson, Robert Jr. 194–5 Jones, James, From Here to Eternity 193 Jones, James H. 96 Jordan, Michael 27, 199, 218 Kaepernick, Colin 128, 208 Kassimeris, Christos 143 Kaufmann, Mark 216–17 Kay, Joyce 94 Kellerman, Annette 6 Kennedy, John F. 31 Kentucky Derby 68 Kenya 117 Keys, Barbara 133 King, Billie Jean “Battle of the Sexes” match 31, 69, 169, 170 equal pay fight 29, 117 outing of 32 on transsexuals 118 Kłobukowska, Ewa 118 Klutsis, Gustav 214, 214 Knute Rockne: All-American (film, 1941) 200 Koprince, Susan 196 Kühnst, Peter 216 Kuper, Simon 143 LaMotta, Jake 122, 200 LBGQT athletes 31–2 League of Their Own, A (film, 1992) 205–6 league structures 87 leftist use of sport 4–5, 4–5 legacy of sport 189 leisurewear 96–7

261

Lenglen, Suzanne 209 length of games 76 lifestyle sport 183 lighting of sport 62–3 Lipsyte, Robert 150, 151 Llewellyn, Matthew 113 localization of sport 180–1 Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The (Sillitoe) 196–7 “Long Count” heavyweight championship 11 Loroupe, Tegla 117 Louis, Joe 11, 163–4, 163 Lowell, Robert 194 lusory goals of sport 41, 42, 43, 44, 54 MacLean, Malcolm 157 Major League Baseball (MLB) African Americans and 10, 25, 119, 120 appearance of players 121–2 behavior of players 121 betting scandals 123 cheating 123 credo of 121 expansion of 74 integration 168 length of games 76 lighting of 63 performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) 34–5 player safety 108 rules 107 segregation 25, 119, 149, 150, 155–6, 164–5 stadiums 64–5, 68, 70, 71, 77 before World War II 9–10, 10 after World War II 25–6 Malamud, Bernard, The Natural 195 male participatory sport 2–6, 4–5 Mandela, Nelson 165 Mapplethorpe, Robert 217 Maradona, Diego 123–4 marathon running 117, 122 marching bands 208, 209 mascots 84 match fixing 100, 122–3, 135–6, 203 McCormick, Father Richard A. 138–9 McCullough, Wayne 178 McEnroe, John 122 McGwire, Mark 34

262

McHale, Kevin 109 McIlroy, Rory 179 medical neglect 92–3 mega events 82–6, 97, 176–7, 184 See also FIFA World Cup; Olympic Games; Super Bowl; Tour de France Melbourne Cricket Ground 65 memorabilia 84 menstruation 91 merchandise 96, 97 Messenger, Christian 192, 193, 205 Mexican Americans 158 Mexico Olympic Games (1968) 19, 66, 128, 168, 178 stadiums 63, 74 Mikan, George 108, 109 mile record 113–14 Milliat, Alice 9, 115 Milner, Adrienne 171 mismanagement in soccer 23 Mitchell, Jackie 161 Mobbs, Lt. Col. Edgar 174 Møller, Verner 99 Moore, Louis 165 morality and athletes 184–6 Moscow Olympic Games (1980) 20 Moss, Richard J. 94 motor racing 28, 63–4, 85, 217 “Mrs. Robinson” (song) 207 museums 97 music and sport 207–9 Muslim athletes 153, 186–7 Mussolini, Benito 13 Nathan, Daniel 135 national anthems 208 National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) 28 National Basketball Association (NBA) black aesthetic 199 Black Lives Matter 128 rules 108, 109 shot clock 76 stadiums 72 timing of games 75 after World War II 26–7 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) African Americans and 120

INDEX

amateurism 111–12, 111 basketball 75–6 growth of 29–30 integration 165–6 National Football League (NFL) African Americans and 120 integration 167 protests against racial inequality 128–9 seasonality of games 75 segregation 156 stadiums 67–8, 70 television coverage 67–8 timing of 75 before World War II 11–12 after World War II 27–8 National Hockey League (NHL) 11, 26, 75, 124 national teams 175–6 National Velvet (film, 1944) 205 nationalism and sport 103, 142 nationalistic goals of sport 46–7, 60 nationalities of players 88, 177–8 Native Americans 10, 12 Natural, The (film, 1984) 202 Natural, The (Malamud) 195 Nauright, John 156 Nazi sport 16, 17, 206 Nazism, protests against 129–30 Negro Leagues 61, 159 Neiman, Leroy 216 netball 161–2 Never Come Morning (Algren) 193 New Deal 6 New Zealand 15, 131–2, 152, 161 NFL Europa 103 Nicholson, Jack 198–9 Nielsen, Erik 89–90 night games 63 Nike 118 Nilsson, Joakim 203–4 non-white games 118–20 North Dallas Forty (film, 1976) 201 O’Bannon, Ed 112 Old Man and the Sea, The (Hemingway) 192–3 Olympia (film, 1938) 206 Olympic Games amateurism 109, 110–11 Berlin (1936) 16–17, 17, 62, 129, 130

INDEX

cultural events 83 films about 204, 206 fine art 215, 215 human rights campaigns 132–3 indigenous people and 179 individual, competing as 178 Islamic countries 117–18 legacy of 189 memorabilia 84 notions of sport and 50–4 opening and closing ceremonies 83–4 Paralympic Games 118, 126, 189 performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) 34, 124–5 political goals of 48–9 politicization of 176, 178 postage stamps 211 and South Africa 119 stadiums 61–2, 65–6, 77–8 villages 62 women’s events 114–15 before World War II 15–17 during World War II 17 after World War II 18–21 O’Mahony, Mike 212–13, 215, 217, 218 On the Waterfront (film, 1954) 200 organizing bodies 176 Oriard, Michael 194 Orwell, George 142 Osmond, Gary 212 Owens, Jesse 17, 17, 93, 164 ownership of clubs 86–7, 98–9 pain 92–3 Palmer, Arnold 28–9 Paralympic Games 118, 126, 189 participatory sport development of 141–2 female 6–9, 6–8, 69, 114–18, 116, 168–71 male 2–6, 4–5 patriotism 121 Peatling, G. K. 142 Pelé 22 performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) 34–5, 52–3, 99–100, 124–5, 189 personal attachment 183–4 Personal Best (film, 1982) 205 Pfister, Gertrud 152–3 Philippines 60, 72

263

Phillips, Janet 91 Phillips, Murray G. 212 Phillips, Peter 91 Phillips. Simon 95 photography 216–17 physical abuse 35 Pienaar, Francois 165 Piersall, Jimmy 202 Pitino, Rick 112 player nationalities 88 player products 90–6, 91, 93 playing and watching 141–2 political goals of sport 47, 48–9, 55 n.2 politics and protest 128–33 pool 204 postage stamps 211–12, 212 Potok, Chaim, The Chosen 194 pre-lusory goals of sport 41–2, 43–4, 54 prestigious sports 2–3 prices of tickets 182 Pride of the Yankees, The (film, 1942) 202 prize fighting. See boxing products 81–104 associated products 96–8 dark products 99–100, 101 entrepreneurial motivations 98–9 globalization 102–3 modification 103–4 player products 90–6, 91, 93 spectator products 82–90, 85 transformation 104 professional conception of sport 51–2, 52–3 public facilities 93–4 public finance 70–1 Puerto Rico 139 purpose of sport 37–56 external purpose(s) 45–9 hybrid internal purpose(s) 49–54 institutional character of sport 39–41 internal purpose(s) 41–5 purpose, nature of 38–9 Rabbit Run (Updike) 194 racial inequality, protests against 128–9 racing. See auto racing; dog racing; thoroughbred racing racism 10, 11, 19–20, 168, 171 See also integration; segregation Raging Bull (film, 1980) 200

264

Ranjitsinhji, Prince 179 Ratjen, Dora 32 Rayl, Susan J. 160 Red Badge of Courage, The (Crane) 193 Red Sport International (RSI) 5 Regalado, Samuel 158 Reid, Donald 211 religion and sport 46, 133–5, 136–7, 138, 186 religion, secularized 183 replays 104, 107 replica shirts 96 representation of sport 191–219 fiction 192–7 film 197–207, 201 music 207–9 visual culture 209–19, 211–15, 217–18 resorts 73 Ribowsky, Mark 159 Richards, Renée 118 riding 114 Riess, Steven 145 riots 122, 143 Ritchie, Ian 53 rivalries 142–6 Robinson, Jackie 25, 119, 149, 150, 164, 202 Rockne, Knute 147 Rockwell, Norman 216 Rocky (film, 1976) 200 role models 185–6 Ronaldo 185 Roosevelt, Theodore 51 Rosenstone, Robert 198 Ross, Barney 199 Roth, Philip, The Great American Novel 196 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 48 Rowley, Alison 153 Ruck, Rob 159 Rudolph, Wilma 19 rugby amateurism in 109, 110 and anti-apartheid protest 119, 131 in Australia 145 in fiction 197 in India 133 integration 165 professionalization of 90, 110

INDEX

timing of 104 and World War I 173–4 Ruiz, Rosie 122 rules 105–26 amateurism 109–14, 111 constitutive rules 106–9, 108 cultural values 120–6 non-white games 118–20 and the purpose of sport 38–9, 42–3, 44–5 women’s sport 114–18, 116 “Rumble in the Jungle” 24, 73–4 running 31, 68–9, 117, 196–7, 204 running tracks 93 Runstedtler, Theresa E. 164 Russia amateurism 110 cultural exchanges 19 development of sport 102, 141 fine art 212–14, 213–14 and the Olympic Games 18, 19, 20, 21, 179 performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) 34 postage stamps 211–12 socialist sports 5 women in sport 153–4, 154 workplace sport 96 Ruth, Babe 9, 59–60, 121 safety of players 92–3, 108–9, 138–9, 188–9 salaries 3, 9, 10, 25, 26, 27 Scalia, Antonin 38–9 Scandinavia, development of sport 102 Scanlon, Jennifer 157 Schultz, Jaime 211 Scott, Robert Falcon 113 Seabiscuit 11 Searle, John 40, 42–3 seasonality of sport 75 Second World War 17–18, 63, 158, 161 secularized religion 183 security of venues 184 Segal, Erich 193, 194 segregation 149–71 desegregation and inclusion 167–71, 170 exclusion 150, 151–6, 154–5 high-school sports 61

INDEX

resistance 156–62, 160 symbols of change 162–7, 163, 166 See also integration Semenya, Caster 118 Semi-Tough (film, 1977) 201 Serbia 72 sexual abuse 171, 187 sexualization of athletes 187–8 Shackleton, Ernest 113 Shahn, Ben 217 Sheppard, David 135 shoes 90 shooting 140 Sillitoe, Alan, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner 196–7 Simon, John 202 Simon, Paul 207 Simpson, Kevin E. 158 singing, by fans 207 skiing 73 “sledging” in cricket 125 Smith, Maureen 218–19 Smith, Tommie 19–20, 128, 168, 178 soccer amateurism 110 club ownership 86 communities, representation of 88 criticism of 142 crowd behavior 23, 100, 122, 184 film about 204–5 globalization of 102, 103 Holocaust, during 158 instant replay 107 league structures 87 match fixing 123, 135–6 Nazism, protests against 129–30 player safety 108–9 rivalries in 143–4, 145 rules 106 in Russia 5 seasonality of 75 singing by fans 207 stadiums 61, 74 substance abusers 186 Sundays, sport on 135 value of clubs 22 women’s 23, 117, 169 before World War II 13 during World War II 18 after World War II 21–3, 21

265

See also English Premier League (EPL); FIFA World Cup; Heysel Stadium Riot social entrepreneurs 98 social media 183 social stratification 68 socialist sports 4–5, 4–5 softball 9 solo sport 183 Solomon, Eric 196 songs 207 Sörenstam, Annika 29, 169–70 South Africa apartheid 131–2, 156 integration 165 and the Olympic Games 19, 119 preferred sports 15 South America and soccer 13, 21, 22 Southpaw, The (Harris) 195 Soviet Union. See Russia Spain 22, 86, 140–1 spectacle, sport as 99 spectator products 82–90, 85 spectator sport 9–13, 23–9 Spitz, Mark 20 sponsorship 3–4, 20 Sport and Development for Peace (SDP) 147 sports bras 210 Sports Halls of Fame 97 sports science 92 sportswear 69, 96, 209–10 stadium tours 97 stadiums Golden Age 58–61, 59 before World War II 62–3 after World War II 63–7 modern 68–74, 145 twenty-first century 76–8 stars of sport 185–6 statues 217–19, 217–18 stereotypes 160–1 Stewart, Kenneth G 96 Story, David, This Sporting Life 197 substance abusers 186 Suits, Bernard 41, 44 Summerskill, Edith 138 Sun Also Rises, The (Hemingway) 193 Sundays, sport on 134–5 Super Bowl 67–8, 84–5

266

swimming 6–7, 20, 124–5 swimming pools 93, 94 Switzer, Kathrine 69 taking a knee 128–9 Tapie, Bernard 123 Tatum, Jack 109 Taylor, Matthew 102 technology 93, 107 television coverage 59, 66, 67–8, 97–8 tennis 29, 76, 91–2, 95, 97, 122 See also King, Billie Jean terrorism 20, 184 Thanksgiving games 75 This Sporting Life (Story) 197 Thomson, Bobby 123 thoroughbred racing 11, 13, 18, 23–4, 68, 205 ticket prices 182 Tilden, Bill 32 timing of sport 75–6, 98, 107 Title IX Educational Amendments Act (1972) 31, 69, 117, 169 Tomlinson, Alan 102 Tour de France 85–6, 93, 124, 134 track and field athletics 16, 32, 124–5 tragedies 74, 122, 143, 184 training methods 52, 92–3, 113–14 transgender athletes 32 transsexual athletes 118 Treagus, Mandy 161, 162 Trump, Donald J. 128–9 Trumpbour, Robert 58 Tulu, Derartu 117 Turkey 117–18 Tyson, Mike 186 Ueberroth, Peter 20 unions and sport 4 United Arab Emirates 24, 73 United States of America amateurism, commercial 89 betting, moral views of 135 club ownership 86–7 cockfighting 139 communities, representation of 88 companies, sponsorship by 3–4, 8 cultural exchanges 19 development of sport 102 fiction about sport 192–6

INDEX

films about sport 197–204 Great Depression, response to 6, 62, 94 integration 165–7, 167–8 Nazism, protests against 130 and the Olympic Games 15, 16, 19–20, 21 Olympic Games in 67 postage stamps 211, 212 professional conception of sport 51–2 rivalries in 144–5 segregation 154–6, 155 separate sports 158 and soccer 21, 23 spectator sport 9–12, 10, 18, 23–9 sporting culture 2 stadiums 58, 59, 59, 63, 64–5, 67, 68, 69–73, 72, 76–7 women’s sport 139, 166–7, 168–71 working-class sports 3 unity and cooperation 146–7 Universal Baseball Association, Inc: J. Henry Waugh Prop., The (Coover) 195–6 unwritten rules 125–6 Updike, John, Rabbit Run 194 Uruguay 84 Vail, Colorado 73 value of athletes 185 of clubs 22, 26, 28 Vamplew, Wray 89, 98, 106, 109, 111 Vere, Bernard 215 video replay 104, 107 violence 109, 137–41, 137, 165, 184 visual culture and sport 209–19, 211–15, 217–18 Vonn, Lindsey 55 n.2 Walsh, Stella 115–16 Warhol, Andy 216 Warner, Patricia 90–1 Washington, Kermit 109 welfare capitalism 3, 8, 95 Welldon, Rev. J. E. C. 120–1 Wembley Stadium 58–9, 77 West Indies 60, 157 Western Electric (WE) 8 Wie, Michelle 170

INDEX

Wiggins, David 149, 151, 168 Williams, Esther 205 Williams, Serena 29 Wills, Helen 210, 211 Wilson, August, Fences 196 Wilson, Harold 131 Wimbledon, catering at 97 winning 42, 44 Winter Olympics 15, 18, 19, 20, 73 women African Americans 166–7 and baseball 161 and basketball 152 and boxing 138–9 clothing 91, 209–10 coverage of sport 182 exclusion of 152–4 films about 204–6 fine art 214, 214 gender and sport 30–2 and golf 29 menstruation 91 and netball 161–2 Olympic Games 16, 18–19

267

participatory sport 6–9, 6–8, 69, 114–18, 116, 168–71 sexualization of 187–8 and soccer 23 stereotypes 160–1 and tennis 29 Woods, Tiger 29, 185 Workers’ Olympiads 4–5, 4–5 working-class sports 3, 8–9 workplace sport 95–6 Works Progress Administration (WPA) 6 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) 34 World Baseball Classic (WBC) 78 World League of American Football 102–3 World War I 173–4 World War II 17–18, 63, 158, 161 wrestling 99 Wright, Richard 163–4 Young, Christopher 102 Yugoslavia 46–7 Zátopek, Emil 179 Zionist sports clubs 9, 13

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