Rationalization Of Sports In The 1920's

Some of the main highlights seen from sports today – home runs, slam dunks, three pointers, 80-yard touchdown receptions – never occurred in the early days of sports. Sports evolved drastically from 1865 to 1920, going through numerous peaks and valleys. Sometimes sports issues developed into political or social issues. Throughout the valleys, major sports were able to persevere and obtain the prominence they now have in society. Rationalization was the main reason sports survived numerous criticisms, as major changes to sports such as boxing and football allowed it to thrive. Prizefighting was initially banned throughout the United States, and only occurred in secluded areas where the police were not able to interfere. These fights were condemned

However, keeping track of boxing records and publicizing these records could not fix the main issue with boxing when it was illegal: the upper and middle classes condemned the sport for being barbaric. No amount of record exposure could have changed this fact, and neither could equality. By the 1920s there were African American boxers such as Harry Wills, but as long as some boxing matches lasted for than two hours and resulted in deaths, the ethnicity of the competitors was irrelevant. Once boxing rules were changed to include gloves, timed rounds, and a reasonable limit of rounds, the upper class began to attend the spectacles as a popular mean of entertainment. Similar to boxing, football originally had an enormous violence issue. The impact football had when it initially popped up on college campuses is undeniable. Although the sport obtained enormous popularity, football has continuously received safety criticisms. “The violent nature of the game contributed to several highly publicized deaths and a long list of serious injuries each autumn”. Some called for rule changes, others called for the abolition of the sport. If the rules had not been changed to support safer play, the fate of college football programs may have been the same as the University of Chicago football program, which was cut in

An argument could be made that specialization caused football to break away from rugby styles of play, such as the scrum, but all the changes were made as a result of social pressure. The scrum was abolished to reduce injury, and the forward pass was implemented to spread out the game and put the main focus on strategy, not brawn, also reducing injury and satisfying the public criticisms. In addition, quantification was used in the press to hype teams up, such as dominant college football programs such as Michigan and the Ivy League schools. Football became enormously popular, but the violence ultimately led to the football program getting cut at the University of Chicago, and there was a strong push for other schools to do the same. If football-related deaths had been ignored and rule changes had not been implemented, the resulting criticism and social pressure would have been