Bailey Devinney

Sports in America 330

Dr. Cummins
June 17, 2022
Short Paper One

To me two sports that were significant to early America would have to be baseball and

football two of the United States most popular sports to this day. Not only did these sports create

mass audiences since their early days but they also helped shape American society.

Baseball gained its popularity through first being created to help create rules and aid

citizens follow orders in 1845. It was a game that did not cause for revolution in the city (Zirin p.

14). Baseball also helped from what is called “Muscular Christianity” which was used to teach

children morals, work ethic, and godliness. Since children could no longer work, this was used to

help them be active and shape them. But what truly allowed baseball to blossom in the United

States was the business aspect to the game. Businessman shortly saw the potential baseball had

for marketing. It was popular with the public and it soon became a business alone. Baseball

became advertised, tickets were being sold to the public and crowds began to form to watch this

pastime event. This changed to motive of baseball from Muscular Christianity to gambling,

drinking, and haggling. Soon it was declared the national game and African American and

Caucasian teams would play each other. Professional baseball would become a 10-million-dollar

enterprise soon after. Baseball even allowed for social justice issues to be stood up to. Players

that had problems with the organization of the National Brotherhood of Professional Baseball

Players would stand up for how they were treated and create a league of their own, the Players’

League. The fore front for the now National League and American League. Baseball became the

first booming professional sport while standing up to social justice issues and making a sport a

new career and even a business accumulating a mass amount of money.

 Another sport that was significant to early America would have to be football. Football

began the start of collegiate sports. It was the reason the NCAA or the National Collegiate

Athletic Association was created. Football first became popular for its brutalness but its

bruteness is also what led for reform and more rules. Football began the trend to help athletes be

safe while playing the sport everyone enjoyed watching. The NCAA was created after thirty-

three players died playing football in 1910 and Roosevelt knew reform needed to happen (Zirin

p.35). Football, like baseball, also set ground for diversity with a star athlete, Paul Robeson.

Robeson was one of very few African American students at Rutgers. He faced turmoil from

current Caucasian athletes on Ruger’s team until he gained theory respect by helping them beat

West Virginia.

Robeson became a figure for all other African American children wanting to play sports

at a higher level and attend college. He was quoted saying “I wasn’t just out here on my own. I

was the representation of a lot of Negro boys who wanted to play football, who wanted to go to

college; and as their repetitive, I had to show that I could take whatever they handed out….”

(Zirin, p.38).

Football did have its own obstacles to beat. Like changing in a way that was safe to play more

captively. Even though now we still have issues with the sport and safety it has come a long way

from being described as a “drunken brawl” (Zirin, p.35). Football also helped show change was

on the way for African Americans. Allowing Robeson play and showing he can gain the respect

of his Caucasian teammates gave light to young kids watching him play at Rutgers.

That’s what began what sports are all about, inclusivity. Sports were created to bring

people together no matter if you were spectating or out playing on the field. Hence why sports in

the United States blossomed so quickly and became the industry they are today.
 Works Cited

Zirin, Dave. A People's History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest,
People, and Play. New Press, 2009.