What Is The Golden Age Of Sports In The 1920s

In the 1920s sports started to change. The twenties was the decade for sports that produced sports icons and hall of famers. Players such as Babe Ruth and Red Grange, boxer Jack Dempsey and horse racer Man o’ War were icons of the sport and the decade.

This section will outline how, throughout history, the role of Women in Society that has been reflected in the role of Women in Sport.

hits emerged. This is when it became the golden age of sports. Some of these people where

nowadays, and you will notice that the sport is dominated by African-American athletes. Just five short

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.

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.

When the kids are taught that they actually believe in what the teacher says and instead of focusing on school work and more realistic goals they just focus on becoming athletes. That’s when then they no longer go to school to get proper education, they come to join a sport and try to get scouted.

Elliott J. Gorn’s The Manly Art is a unique book that tells readers the origins of boxing in American culture. The book was published in 1986 by Cornell University Press, the book discussed the development of boxing and American society. Gorn takes sport history, a commonly misunderstood and misinterpreted topic and wrote a book that not only was easy to read but allowed readers to gain knowledge on the sport. Gorn says “To understand prize fighting, I have discovered, is necessarily to understand something about nineteenth-century America. Ideology, ethnicity, social class formation, violence, urbanization, gender roles, religious world views, productive relationships, all are a part of sports history in general and boxing in particular.” (Gorn, pg. 12)

Sports are a major part of modern society. Nearly everybody in the United States has participated in or has been exposed to sports within his or her life. However, prior to the 1920s this was not the case. This was the decade that sports started to evolve into what they are today. The 1920s are considered the golden age of sports, because it was a prosperous time after World War I, which led to a revolution of the sporting world.

During the 1920s America was in a state of economic success, so many Americans had more free time and more money to do activities during this free time. Sports became very popular due to mass media. Athletes became American sports heroes that many fantisized about, and admired. Babe Ruth was a baseball player known to hit hundreds of home runs. Jack Dempsey was a boxer known for being a world class heavyweight champion from 1919-1926. Red Grange was college football player nicknamed the Galloping Ghost, because he was very agile and could outmaneuver opposing players. Bobby Jones was the best golfer of the 1920s. Bill Tilden and Helen Wills were the best tennis players of the 1920s. Lastly, Gertrude Ederle was a swimmer that broke the world

One of the biggest things that she pushed for in her career was equal pay for men and women in sports. This was a struggle for her as she had trouble paying for her tennis. In the early days of her playing she was not allowed in the picture of her first tennis club because she was not wearing the proper tennis skirt, but instead had on shorts. Her family did not have a lot of extra money to put into her expensive tennis career and it was hard for them to afford the elitists sport. She along with other women had to stand up and risk being band from the tennis league when they signed one dollar contracts with the Virginia Slims to bring attention to the struggle for equal play. It became apparent to Billy even from the young age that she was when she was not allowed in the picture because of her attire that women where not

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.

An example of a female athlete being ridiculed for portraying society’s idea of non-femininity is Martina Navratilova. Martina was the first female tennis player who began to play tennis more as a power sport than a sport of technique. Subdued by an oppressive communist system that controlled the Czech Tennis Federation, she was seen to be playing in the style of men instead of playing women's tennis. As she did not fit into society's image of how a woman should look, behave and play tennis, she was ridiculed and branded as the proverbial ‘bad egg’ when compared to her contemporaries. Additionally, she was branded as a lesbian, which caused more hardship for her as she was forced to face a world which was much more homophobic at that time than it is now. Her sexual orientation is not a prime issue; it was something that was used against her and something that was assumed simply because she did not portray the feminine image that is expected of women.

There still was a belief that women were too frail physically and mentally to participate in intense competition like Olympics. However, in 1932, Mildred “ Babe” Didrikson disproved this belief by winning two Olympic gold medals and one silver medal in track and field. She had also won every golf tournament she competed in. Her great victories influenced the acceptance of

The establishment of a colored heavyweight champion in boxing is much like the formation of the Negro league in baseball. The country would tolerate a stage on which African Americans could compete, as long as it did not challenge the superiority of the white athlete. Baseball and boxing are also similar in that both of their bans on African American participants were unwritten, thus explaining why the theoretical color barrier in boxing was broken first. It only required one person, the current champion, to allow a black man to fight for the title, whereas in baseball owners would be subject to the criticism of all the other owners in the league. Therefore, no owner wanted to be the first to integrate and break the unwritten agreement.