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Imagine this. You wake up one morning in the year 1929, in your luxurious, pricey mansion. You then make your way downstairs to eat that nice big breakfast. Then you kiss your family good bye and head off to your fancy job. You come home that evening and suddenly you’re flat broke. Meaning all your money and life’s savings vanished. Unreal right? Well it was real for hundreds of families on October 29, 1929. The day the stock market crashed and when America’s confidence was challenged greatly.

 While Americans were initially resistant to sports, it seems today, our culture has not only accepted sports, but encourage and reward participation. Some might even say that we have gone too far as we have moved from the initial concept of sports being for entertainment, camaraderie and exercise to a more competitive, separatist, capitalist

Many consider the Great Depression a tragedy but few actually know the ways in which it actually affected the people who lived through it. One way it affected the people of the time is the hopelessness it brought. During the early 1920's many men returned from the "Great War" jaded and angry. The same effect was seen in most people during the depression. It was this hopelessness that spawned modernist literature and thought. Another way the depression affected the everyday man was the loss of homes. Many homes were foreclosed during the depression and this left many homeless. In fact the "Okies" were people left homeless after farm foreclosures. The last way the depression affected people was the broken homes it caused. The number of father's leaving their families rose dramatically during

The stock market crash of 1929 sent the nation spiraling into a state of economic paralysis that became known as the Great Depression. As industries shrank and businesses collapsed or cut back, up to 25% of Americans were left unemployed. At the same time, the financial crisis destroyed the life savings of countless Americans (Modern American Poetry). Food, housing and other consumable goods were in short supply for most people (Zinn 282). This widespread state of poverty had serious social repercussions for the country.

After the Hoover years, however, a man portrayed as a father figure became some of the nation’s citizens’ only hope, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The middle-class, sometimes seen as hit the hardest by the Depression, pleaded with the Roosevelt administration for any help, but remained very proud in doing so. Many begged to remain anonymous. Also, like many other classes, the members of the middle-class didn’t want charity or handouts; they just wanted employment, or possibly a loan (pp. 53-4). No one took pride in having to write these letters. Many had to swallow their pride just to get pen to paper. “It is very humiliating for me to have to write to you” one Depression victim wrote (pp. 62). Middle-class citizens, like the rural citizens, wanted nothing less than the blacks to take their employment (pp. 94). The rural citizens also turned to the Roosevelt administration as a beacon of hope. The cherished the values of independence and hard work, so they asked only for employment or a loan (pp. 69). Their ideal solution to this economic terror was employment, as a result. They weren’t satisfied with the outcome of the relief though. They believed the relief was just creating ‘loafers’ out of the unemployed who choose not to work (pp. 125). They felt that Roosevelt should “give work to the needy ones, and not to the ones that have everything” (pp. 138). The rural citizens felt slightly forgotten, but not as forgotten as some

“Growing up in a time when all you worry about is if your family will be able to make it through to the next day is definitely a very scary and difficult time to live in” (Vonder Haar). My great-grandpa had this to say to my grandpa about growing up during the great depression. For many people in America from the 1930s to 1940s, life was a constant struggle. The people living in the Midwest, especially St. Louis, knew much too well how difficult it was to live through the great depression. When great-great grandpa first came to St. Louis from Germany he purchased a farm. From that point on, my family struggled to maintain the farm that would still exist today. Many people were affected by the great depression. Throughout the time period before

The Depression changed social structure in America forever. “The real story of the 1930’s is how individual families endured and survived, whether battling the despair of hunger and unemployment in the city of the fear of unending drought and forced migration in the dust bowl of the Great plains.” (Press, Petra pg 6)

Sports, especially football, are a major part of the universities in the United States. Many times they are valued over education. Many college athletes end up getting a poor education, because they tend to look at how the universities sports teams are doing rather than the level of education they will be getting. Steven Salzburg notices this problem and writes about it in his article “Get Football Out of Our Universities.” He acknowledges the fact that we have prioritized a game used to entertain people over the education of Americans and that this trend has to come to an end. According to him, football needs to be removed from the university system in order to avoid becoming “the big, dumb jock on the world stage” (1). Salzburg uses a combination of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos in an unsuccessful effort to persuade universities and avid football fans that the interest in football is jeopardizing our advances in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Over five thousand banks closed and huge numbers of businesses, unable to get money, closed too. Those that continued laid off employees and cut the wages of those who remained, again and again. Industrial production fell by 50 percent, and by 1933 perhaps 15 million...were out of work” (Zinn). This description by Howard Zinn really paints a picture of the turmoil that was occurring in the US during the depression. The depression caused people to be afraid of the future because of all the uncertainty that came with it. This was especially true for Joe Rantz. Joe came from an extremely poor family and had been hit hard by the depression. He knew that if he wanted to rise above the depression and the sad life he lived, he would have to make the cut for the University of Washington crew team. Joe knew all too well that “failing at this rowing business would mean, at best, returning to a small, bleak town on the Olympic Peninsula with nothing ahead of him but the prospect of living alone in a cold, empty, half‐built house” (Brown 13). It was this that motivated Joe and it was this that pushed him to succeed. The Great Depression sparked the fear of an uncertain future into Joe, which is demonstrated by Brown in the quote,”Whether you were a banker or a baker, a homemaker or homeless, it was with you night and day‐‐‐a terrible, unrelenting uncertainty about the future, a feeling that the ground could drop out from under you for good at

Many people lost their homes due to foreclosure. Farmers lost their land and their equipment. In 1932, the unemployment rate was far past 20 percent. Many businesses closed down. Most people were homeless, moving constantly to look for jobs. People dug through trash bins looking for

The 1920s seemed to promise a future of a new and wonderful way of life for America and its citizens . Modern science, evolving cultural norms, industrialization, and even jazz music heralded exciting opportunities and a future that only pointed up toward a better life. However, cracks in the facade started to show, and beginning with the stock market crash of 1929 the wealth of the country, and with it the hopes and expectations of its people, began to slip away. The Great Depression left a quarter of the population unemployed and much of the rest destitute and uncertain of what the future held. Wealth vanished, people took their money out of banks, and plans were put on hold. The most significant way in which the Great Depression affected Americans’ everyday lives was through poverty because it tore relationships apart and damaged the spirit of society while unexpectedly bringing families together in unity.

There has been amplified debate on the treatment, education, training of the college athlete. To avoid exploitation of athletes, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), formed in 1905, set bylaws requiring college student-athletes to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics competition” (Schneider n.p.). Intercollegiate athletics have dramatically changed over the last several decades. Currently, intercollegiate athletics generate tremendous amounts of revenue, remarkably in football and basketball. College sports in America is a

The chorus of a song from the depression said, ”In that bright land there’ll be No hunger, No orphan children crying for bread, No weeping widows toil or struggle, No shrouds, No coffins, & No dead”(Carter 6). The song was called no depression in heaven, and it held true to its name. People wanted to escape their reality and go somewhere with none of the above, showing just how horrific the reality they were living in was. This song was their escape, one of their last shreds of hope. “Out here the hearts of men are failing”(Carter 6). People were giving up, but they hung on to hope as long as they could. Sadly though, hope can’t solve the economy’s problem. Then even 10 years after the collapse with the help of the New Deal the unemployment rate was still 2.8% higher than it was before the collapse(Smiley 5). It took a decade for FDR’s programs to help. And sure some did help the economy’s recovery, but it took a decade. If FDR spent more time developing programs that actually work instead of implementing ones that didn’t work it wouldn’t have taken the decade it

Created for enjoyment, recreation, and leisure we have made these areas of life into a battle ground for doing whatever it takes to be the best and hold all of the glory. Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, and Arnold Schwarzenegger are just a few culturally influential people who represent what we have done to our understanding of competition in sports, entertainment, and life. These individuals had taken their God given talents and felt that they were not enough. They desired to be better than the best, and were willing to break the rules if it meant securing victory and glory. These people, like most Americans, were willing to risk it all in order to have it all. This attitude toward winning made them into poster boys for the understanding that; if you want to win you have to do whatever it takes to avoid losing. This has become a common value of most people in American culture, especially those in important and influential positions. Unfortunately, this attitude toward winning does not just stop at sports and entertainment, it has bled into the economy, education systems, medical and political fields, and anywhere power can be gained. As a country, Americans have turned their attention away from developing excellence and unity among their people, and now fixate on immediate gratification, success, and winning; no matter the

Colleges and high schools across the United States were shutting down their athletic programs in fear of student safety. In the year 1905 alone, 18 sport-related deaths were recorded in America with 159 serious injuries. Within the next two years those numbers would slowly decline, with the year 1909 being an outlier in the death category with 26. Not only was the overall wellbeing a factor to this American ideology of the early 1900s but education as well. Participation in athletics as by the athletes and the many spectators who devoted their time to events were widely believed to cause many people to ignore the importance of education. This was especially of high concern among college-aged youth. As Brian Ingrasia, a professor of History at West Texas A&M University wrote “extracurricular activities – fraternities, choral societies, yearbooks, newspapers, and athletics – came to dominate university life.” Athletics were more influential on college campuses than simply lining the newspapers and being a free-time leisure activity. It was negatively affecting the educational realm as well. For the Augustana campus, something had to be done.