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Essay on History of sports
How Sports Influences The Society
Essay on History of sports
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“The athletic craze began in the late nineteenth century when American’s were looking for some recreational activities to add to their daily lives during the Depression. In the cities, industrial wage earners frequented play grounds. They went dancing at the dance halls and had fun at the amusement parks. People that lived in rural areas simply rode bicycles, played baseball or football. “
“Colleges are becoming huge training-grounds for you gladiators.” Colleges, especially Yale, began soliciting young boys to act as football players with the outward appearance of students in exchange for a” free education and/or paid a salary” to increase their athletic departments.
The author feels that young men are not getting the college education
The $6 billion heist: Robbing college athletes under the guise of amateurism. (2013, March 20).
If there’s one thing we dread in the summer more than the heat, it’s the afflicting sentiment that surrounds oneself when one is inhibited from experiencing the thrills of football for six long and gruesome months. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football is a part of many Americans’ Saturdays, but to fewer does it mean their lives. Recently coming under debate, many sporting fans and college athletes believe that players should be paid more than just tuition, room, board, and books. Two articles on this issue that bring up valid points worth discussing are Paul Marx’ “Athlete’s New Day” and Warren Hartenstine’s “College Athletes Should Not Be Paid.” From these articles I have found on the basis of logical,
Whether it's Mark McGwire breaking the home run record, Terell Davis breaking the rushing record, or superstars retiring, Americans have always had a fascination with sports. Sports have provided entertainment even before radio or television. Sports provided many things for the fans that watched them. Sports allowed communities to grow stronger and provided great athletes to look up to. With the arrival of television sports took on a whole new meaning. Being able to watch a game together gave the community a new way to bond, giving individuals a visual image of their favorite athletes. The television also opened up the industry of commercialization. Sports, televison, and merchandising on television became a combination that continues even today.The community in the 1950's was like one big family. Children played in the streets, everyone knew everyone else on the block, and sports created unbreakable bonds. Children and their fathers, neighbors, and even complete strangers could always talk about sports. As televison began to fill American homes, neighbors flocked to each others house to watch different events. Even neighbors who loved different sides crowded around the television to watch the event. Whether it was baseball, wrestling, golf, roller derby, or another sport, television allowed the community to grow closer. It is estimated that one sporting event drew an audience of 150,000 viewers. This is remarkable considering there was only about 5,000 television sets in American homes. That is about 30 people per set! Sports and television did more than just bring the community closer together. Sports on television became so popular that merchandising became a booming business. Whether at a game or sitting in the living room, authentic merchandise was a must for any fan. Much like the merchandise in Karal Ann Marlings book As Seen On TV, the merchandising industry exploited the people.
Van Rheenen, Derek. "Exploitation in College Sports: Race, Revenue, and Educational Reward." International Review for the Sociology of Sport 48.5 (2013): 550-71. Print.
College recruiting is something that was created for the good of college sports, but is often used for such unethical actions that will make anyone with a soul cringe. In 2004, University of Colorado’s athletic department used alcohol, drugs, and sex to lure recruits during official campus visits (Gerdy). These actions are immoral on a number of levels, and should not be tolerated. If this type of behavior continues to be seen in college sports, then serious changes need to be made. Illegal recruiting that takes place in NCAA athletics is unethical, gives colleges unfair advantages, and jeopardizes player’s eligibility.
The proposal of payment toNCAA student-athletes has begun major conversations and arguments nationwide with people expressing their take on it. “This tension has been going on for years. It has gotten greater now because the magnitude of dollars has gotten really large” (NCAA). I am a student athlete at Nicholls State University and at first thought, I thought it would be a good idea to be able to be paid as a student-athlete.After much research however; I have come to many conclusions why the payment of athletes should not take place at the collegiate level.The payment of athletes is only for athletes at the professional level. They are experts at what they do whether it is Major League Baseball, Pro Basketball, Professional Football, or any other professional sport and they work for that franchise or company as an employee. The payment of NCAA college athletes will deteriorate the value of school to athletes, create contract disputes at both the college and professional level, kill recruiting of athletes, cause chaos over the payment of one sport versus another, and it will alter the principles set by the NCAA’s founder Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Under Roosevelt and NCAA, athletes were put under the term of a “student-athlete” as an amateur. All student athletes who sign the NCAA papers to play college athletics agree to compete as an amateur athlete. The definition of an amateur is a person who “engages in a sport, study, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons” (Dictonary.com).
...t and leisure, to creating equality amongst everyone. The history of sports has been marked by division and discrimination but also has affected modern popular culture and changing social attitudes and standards towards gender equality, social-class and race. During the Gilded Age and after, sports finally broke the barrier between gender, social-class, and equality. It allowed blacks to be able to play sports with whites, women to play sports with men, and it allowed the poor to play sports with the middle-class and wealthy. Not only did sports in the Gilded Age allow barriers to be broken, but it also allowed sports to be shared amongst different races, women, and social-classes. Different sports such as prizefighting, boxing, and swimming were introduced by the minorities in society, and have now become some of the most popular sports today.
The presence of activity and sport is found within cultures and societies all over the world, and throughout history. Activity in the form of sport can often be the purest form of expression for a society or individual. The sporting world is often thought to be a microcosm of the actual world with the problems and issues of society still being ever present in the sporting community. Since sport can be used as an expression of self, it is no wonder that sport is often a reflection of the society that it occupies. One such society that was deeply impacted by the role of sport is that of Native American boarding school students in the 1800’s and 1900’s. These students lived tough lives but just like how it had helped other cultural societies, sport was able to provide these students with basic needs of autonomy and pride.
Throughout the country young men and women are losing their priority for an education. To attend a university should be a highly cherished privilege, and it should be an even greater honor to play athletics for the university. Therefore, the writer supports the decision that the “student” comes before “athlete” in student-athlete. Playing for pay should be considered a job for “professionals”. In the rulebook, the NCAA views college athletes as armatures. This statement sums it up best. When athletes go to college, not all of them go in with the mindset that athletics is going to be their future job....
In the time of the 1840’s there would hardly be any sports. No computers were invented yet. The only phone that would be useable was one that was on the wall. No social media to find things out from and about people, and things about the world. Life we be so much harder for me without sports and technology. Sports is like the only thing I ever do after school and if I don’t have sports i’m using technology. So, times now are easier to live in rather than in the harsh times with factories and farming with no
Forbes, 30 January 2014. Web. 29 April 2014. Gutting, Gary. “The Myth of the ‘Student-Athlete’.”
Hoffman, Frank W., PHD, and Bailey, William G., MA, (1991). Sports & Recreation Fads. New York: The Haworth Press.
In one historical moment from Pamela Grundy's book Learning to Win: Sports, Education, and Social Change in Twentieth-Century North Carolina, she writes about men's college athletics between 1880 and 1901. Grundy states that "metaphors of competition gained new prominence, particularly among the members of the state's expanding middle class, which was coming to dominate public affairs" (Grundy, 12). Male college students living in North Carolina began to excel in organized athletics during this time period. "The contests on the field seemed to mirror the competitive conditions prevailing in the society at large, and the discipline, self-assertion and reasoned strategy that sports were credited with teaching meshed neatly with the qualifies required for business and political success" (Grungy, 13). People who supported athletics wholeheartedly believed it taught good values such as discipline and good character, while there were some who opposed this saying that sports were a distraction for students and thus a hindrance to their educational goals. White college men perceived athletics as a way to show their superiority and justify their presence in business as well as politics. They believed athletic sports were essential in their "vision o...
Over the past ten years I have noticed that my local snowboarding park has become more crowded every season, especially with younger kids. This has not only been the case for snowboarding, but for all extreme sports. I’ve noticed this trend at my local skateboarding park also. More so, there has been a noticeable increase of extreme sports being broadcast on television today than ever before. These changes caused me to ask the question: why have extreme sports become so popular to youngsters? It could be the appeal people have toward the imminent possibility that someone might get seriously hurt, but I doubt it. I think the media, especially television, has definitely increased extreme sports popularity. In this essay I will explain how the media, and other dominant resources have sparked and created the presence and increased popularity of extreme sports.
Sports may have impacted our culture much more then we thought it would, and keeps impacting. Sports have affected some of the most important aspects of life, such as jobs and money. It has also affected things as little as who we look up to and how we dress. Culture means “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” The definition of sports is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” So when we put two and two together we get a a nation or world that has changed due to sports. Back in the mid and late 1900’s sports were used to see whose way of life was better. As time went on and keeps going on, we