The Role Of Sports In The 1920s

Sports are something that everyone in the world, regardless of age, sex, or nationality, can enjoy. Whether it's a child playing in his first t-ball game or a professional athlete swimming in the Olympics and everyone in between, sports can connect almost everyone. Fan support and overall devotion for athletic competition has raised professional athletes to superstars and national icons; Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday to some, and sports are one of the largest moneymakers in the economy.

Another part of sports in the 1920s was discrimination and prejudice. Alchin said in paragraph 20 of American sports of the 1920s “Racial prejudice against African Americans were prevalent as was discrimination from

In the early 20th century, the dominant theme in American sport was the spread and influence of “organized team sport” in American culture. Organized team sport gained attention and importance as early as the late 1800’s with the influence of Luther Halsey Guick. Guick viewed sports as a social tool that sped up an individual’s ability to self-govern and thus he pushed for public funded playgrounds in big cities. Guick also focused on integrating team competition into the school system as much as possible; he was incredibly successful in this endeavour and team competition became an integral part of the education system. One obstacle faced in physical education was the need for an indoor sport that could be played during the winter; this posed multiple obstacles in itself. Developing a game that could be played in a small enclosed area and was not rough, proved to be a challenging feat that was eventually overcome by James Naismith. The development of basketball furthered the integration of organized team sports into American culture.

Sports of old were merely competitive activities rooted in heroism and romanticism. Sports activities today, however, have no such innocence or simplicity. Currently in America, the activities that make up our sports culture is not only the competitive events themselves but the processes and issues that underlie and surround them. Entwined in our sports culture is the giant business of mass broadcasting. Indeed, sports and the media go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, like Mickey and Minnie, Darth Vader and Luke. They are intertwined and depend on each other to continue to grow. Sports media includes television, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, films, and, now, most importantly, social media devices provided by the

Women were in sports also, black athletics started to achieve recognition (the 1920s sports overview).The 1920s was a time for many new opportunities for women in America, including participating in sports and becoming athletes. Prior to the Roaring Twenties, only upper-class women had participated in sports. These wealthy women had joined sports clubs, social clubs, and country clubs. Sports which grew and flourished in the nineteen twenties due to unprecedented publicity and promotion included baseball, tennis, golf, swimming, football and boxing. Newspapers, magazines, radio and movies all played a role in boosting the profile of sport and the sporting giants.The 1920's was a transition period for many sports. Sports that had up until that time been largely amateur events caught the eye of promoters who could see an opportunity to capitalize and make money. The professional football league, golf tours, and tennis circuit were organized. Media publicity ensured large crowds and guaranteed the financial success of the ventures, allowing new stadiums to be built and providing steadily increasing salaries for the sports stars.For Americans in general, participating in and watching sporting events became part of the good life. Radio Broadcasts of college football and professional baseball began early in the 1920s and helped transform local athlete-heroes into national icons. Movie houses showed clips of sports contests and helped create stars. Newspapers and magazines gave the sports reporter a new authority as the media brought information about athletes and athletics to large, receptive audiences. Moreover, radio, movies, and the print media contributed to the "ballyhoo," or inflated dramatic interest, surrounding certain sporting events. They reported every rumor of secret "killer punches" or "evil eyes" being developed by Jack Dempsey and his various heavyweight

Sports went through many changes in the time period known as the "Roaring Twenties." Some sports were just starting out; others were broadening their horizons, while others were simply becoming more popular. New heroes were emerging in sports, new teams, and even new leagues.

In the 1920s sports became very popular. People were interested in watching and enjoying all sports such as baseball, wrestling, and boxing. People were also interested in the now popular basketball and football. People enjoyed watching these sports because of the people who played them. Some big sports names were Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Knute Rockne and Red Grange. These people changed the way we play sports today. This was an era that prevented black people to play professional sports. They were forced to make their own league, the Negro National League (NNL). With these and other events people dubbed this era as the golden age of sports.

The early 1900 was when sports started being involved with the education system. Educators found that sports could teach lessons to children that they would not necessarily get in the classroom. Sports has been shown to benefit the student athlete in more than one aspect of their lives, but that does not come automatically with just playing sports. While I do believe that participating in sports has a positive effect on players, it is not just the sport that do the trick. No matter the style of coaching, the most important thing a coach can do is be a positive influence on every aspect of the athlete’s life by forming a relationship with their athlete.

Many changes in the 1920s in day to day life happened. In the 1920s most of it was under President Woodrow Wilson. During this time many Americans challenged past traditions and created their own. Many people became interested in new popular culture. New traditions such as listening to the radio, and watching film brought new thrills about news, sports, and made party’s better.

Contests in skill, strength and speed have occupied an important place in every culture throughout the ages. The meaning of the term sport and the effect that sport has on society is always changing. Sports have especially changed in the last two decades and can certainly be evidence by the growing number of labor disputes and court cases involving all sports.

Sports in the 1910’s continued to grow and become an increasingly popular pastime. This growth was very much a reaction to rural communities becoming urbanized in addition to people having more free time. This, in turn, allowed more opportunity for children and adults to get involved in sports, especially baseball, which was the most popular sport at the time. The increased urbanization and the development of communities also aided in the rising of popularity of sports by letting people who enjoyed sports not only spread influence but allowed them to create local organized sporting events. In addition to baseball, sports like boxing, American football, golf all increased in the span of their influence as their popularity grew which then led to those sports also becoming popular all across

During the Gilded age many social class, racial walls and gender bias developed lines walls and boundaries for people. The funny thing about that is as new boundaries, walls and limitations were being built sports and the development of it broke them down or found new ways for the different genders and races to find ways to use sports as an outlet. Women were constantly fighting for their right to be involved in sports and pushing the limits as to what social norm deemed acceptable for them to be allowed to play. Working class women started to compete professionally in rowing competitions; they played crocket and played lawn tennis. The American pastime of baseball was well on its way and all though baseball had a huge racial division as to who could play mainly African Americans not being accepted, but they developed their own league and contrary to the belief that Jackie Robinson was the first pro ball player there was another before him by the name of Moses Fleetwood Walker. Moses was the product of a inter racial relations with a black dad and white mom he also attended college at University of Michigan and was the first African American Pro Baseball player. After that he would venture into entrepreneurism, be a newspaper editor, author as well as an inventor. He was quite the Renaissance man living the "American Dream" despite social and racial ideologies. Collegiate level sporting really started to take off during this time and the development of another

Competition In Chapter 5 , “ Bling, Bombs, and the Bible”, in the book called Game On: How Pressure to Win at All Costs Endangers Youth Sports, author Tom Farrey claims that children can benefit from participation in sports even though the sports are not highly competitive. To support his argument Farrey uses the examples of Jack Welch, former CEO of GE as well as a description of how the historical background of youth sports evolved in the United States. I believe Farrey’s claim is invalid because competition is a significant part of adult life and therefore, children must learn to cope with highly competitive situations from an early age. Additionally, Farrey seems to focus on non-competitive sports that were prevalent in the past, however,

The 1920’s was an era of role models and great heroes. This period was known as “The Golden Age” of sports. This was a time where Americans wanted to put the memory of the World War I in the past and appreciate life. It began with the Black Sox scandal of 1919 continuing with historic record breaking athletes. The introduction of radio made is easier for fans to follow their favorite teams. The economy of the United States was strong for most of the time. New and bigger stadiums were built and for the first time Americans began to pay money to watch such high level of competition. This is a decade to be remembered.

Americans have given a lot of importance to sports since the beginning of the twentieth century. President Theodore Roosevelt used sport terms to describe success and believed that participating in sport activities was important to develop the body, the mind, and a moral character. His view strongly influenced the American society and helped position sports in the U.S. agenda. With the growth of the Olympic Games, revived by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in