Sporting event

“ Sporting has become so thoroughly an English institution that intelligence under this head cannot be neglected. We do not allude solely to horse-racing or steeple-chasing; we have our cricket-matches, and our pedestrian matches, matches at racket, and now must be included matches at swimming, all of which have been enthusiastically adopted by the British public, who will have an account of yesterday’s play, come what may. ”

“ They usually know nothing at all of sport, though professing to know a good deal, as in their vocabulary sport is only another name for exercise: they fondly imagine that the man who trots on horseback every morning round the Tier-Garten, especially if he wears English gaiters and carries a hunting-crop, is a sportsman, and consider any game “sporting” where there is plenty of running—even if no demand be made on the courage, decision, quickness or other mental qualifications of the players. ”

“ It does not afford nearly as much opportunity for physical exercise as tennis or football, and because of the professional games it is not always conducted with as high a regard for sportsmanlike conduct, but it has a firm hold on the American public, and the winning of a championship series in the professional leagues is almost a national event. ”

“ The Olympic beauty of this game is beyond all praise. It calls into active exercise every muscle of the human frame, and brings into bold relief the supple and athletic forms of the best built people in the world. ”

“ The competition is divided into athletic and equestrian. The athletic part is divided into events for men and events for boys. Each division is arranged in the order, real or fictitious, in which the various events were introduced. The only exception is the race in armour, which is placed after the boys’ events, owing to its late introduction, its peculiar character, and the fact that it was the last event on the programme. ”

“ A race in which the contestants are paired off by being strapped together at the ankles and thighs. Remarkable speed can be obtained by practice under this handicap. There are definite rules to govern three-legged races, and official harness may be bought from sporting goods outfitters. As a race, however, it is like sack racing, to be classed among the sports designed to afford amusement rather than as a display of skill. ”

“ All through the livelong day on Saturdays, and in the afternoons during weekdays, boys in strange-looking running costumes of various designs could be seen diligently practicing at all manner of stunts, from sprinting, leaping hurdles, engaging in the high jump, with the aid of poles; throwing the hammer; and, in fact, every conceivable exercise that would be apt to come under the head of a genuine athletic tournament. ”

“ Prizes were offered for tennis, baseball, rowing, swimming, running, and every imaginable type of athletic feat. But usually the interest of the day centered on a free-for-all race of one mile, which everyone enjoyed, and a great many people entered. ”

“ They'll be funked utterly and look as if they were trying to break bubbles, then they'll warm up a bit. You should see the novices at the National Sporting on Thursday afternoon. They make the whole house roar with laughter. ”

“ Generally speaking “sport” includes the out-of-door recreations, the “field-sports,” such as fishing, shooting, fox-hunting, &c., connected with the killing or hunting of animals as opposed to organized “games,” which are contests of skill or strength played according to rules. It also includes the special class of horse-racing, the votaries of which, and also of the prize-ring, have arrogated to themselves sometimes the name of “sportsman,” applying that word even to those who follow racing simply as an occasion for betting. ”

“ Racing will never be what it was again, for the reasons I have mentioned. Speculation is too rife to allow it a healthy tone. Shortly but few gentlemen will be left as racing men, and the turf will be represented by the lower five, and men to whom the meaning of the words honour, honesty, principle, and conscience, are unknown.
Coursing too, a healthy and fine amusement, even this cannot be enjoyed without the presence of the betting fraternity, bawling and shouting. A clean sweep should be made of them.
Pigeon-shooting as well. ”

“ And there can be nothing more invigorating to the tired hostess than a brisk game of lawn tennis on a sunny afternoon.
To the splendid outdoor games of America, our young women owe their lithe, graceful bodies and their glowing good health; and our young men owe their well-knit forms and muscular strength. No appeal can be too strong in encouraging people to indulge more freely in outdoor sports—and especially people who spend a great deal of their time in businesses that confine them to offices. ”

“ The popularity of athletics, the growth of competition, and the rewards lavished on successful athletes completely changed the character of athletics in the sixth century. The actual events remained the same, but a change came over the attitude of performers and spectators. It was a change which will be readily understood by any one familiar with the history of our own sports and games during the last century, the change from spontaneous to organized sport. ”

“ Football, of a wild, guerilla species, was waged intermittently, blended in some inextricable way with Home Rule and a brass band, and on Sundays gatherings of young men rolled a heavy round stone along the roads, a rudimentary form of sport, whose fascination lay primarily in the fact that it was illegal, and, in lesser degree, in betting on the length of each roll. ”

“ It is supreme in matters of amateur status, records and licensing of meetings, and has control over the following branches of sport: basket-ball, billiards, boxing, fencing (in connexion with the Amateur Fencers’ League of America) , gymnastics, hand-ball (fives) , running, jumping, walking, weight-putting (hammer, shot, discus, weights) , hurdle-racing, lacrosse, pole-vaulting, swimming, tugs-of-war and wrestling. ”

“ The position of the League as regards the whole question of “sport”—i.e., the diversions and amusements of the people—is this, that while heartily approving all such fair and manly recreations as cricket, rowing, football, cycling, the drag-hunt, etc., it would place in an altogether different category what may be called “blood-sports”—i.e., those amusements which involve the death or torture of sentient beings. ”

“ Football, with the exception of the final House-match, which had still to come off, was over, and life was in consequence a trifle less exhilarating than it might have been. In some ways the last few weeks before the Easter holidays are quite pleasant. You can put on running shorts and a blazer and potter about the grounds, feeling strong and athletic, and delude yourself into the notion that you are training for the sports. Ten minutes at the broad jump, five with the weight, a few sprints on the track—it is all very amusing and harmless, but it is apt to become monotonous after a time. ”

“ But if any one can present to us a sport or pastime, a race or a contest, which can in all its essentials of stirring excitement, displays of manly courage, nerve and endurance, and its unwearying scenes of skillful play and alternations of success equal our national game of ball, we should like to see it. ”

“ Many celebrated athletes could obtain a prize thus by the mere terror of their names.
The gymnastic and equestrian competitions continued from the second to the fourth day; probably the boys contended on the second, the men on the third and fourth days. We know little about the order of events; still, it is probable that on the third day the racing took place first, and in this order—long, single, and double course, then wrestling, boxing, and pancration; on the fourth day the equestrian contests, the pentathlon, and, last of all, the race in full panoply. ”

“ It can hardly be conceived how exciting these contests are, not only to the skee-runners themselves, but also to the spectators, male and female, who gather in groups along the track and cheer their friends as they pass, waving their handkerchiefs, and greeting with derisive cries the mishaps which are inseparable from the sport. ”

“ These range all the way from the simplest activities, which are imitative in nature, such as calisthenics under the instruction of the athletic director, to mass games, where a large group of patients are all engaged together in a common purpose, such as push ball, to games of contest requiring not only initiative but a relatively high degree of efficiency, such as the tug-of-war and the various types of races and stunts, boxing and wrestling, and which are from time to time advantageously staged on a field day and receive the added stimulus of an audience. ”

“ Ringing, bowling, shooting, playing with keel-pins, tronks, coits, pitching of bars, hurling, wrestling, leaping, running, fencing, mustering, swimming, playing with wasters, foils, foot-balls, balowns, running at the quintain, and the like, are common recreations of country folks: riding [Pg xxxiv] of great horses, running at rings, tilts and tournaments, horse-races, and wild-goose chases, which are disports of greater men, and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by such means gallop quite out of their fortunes. ”

“ National Sport.—Recreation and sport also present national features. Every new phase of recreation from playgrounds to philately presently has its countrywide association. There is a conscious reaching out for wide fellowship with those who are interested in the same pursuits. The attraction of like-mindedness is a potent force in every department of life. Certain forms of relaxation or spirited rivalry have attained to the dignity of national sports. England has its football, Scotland its golf, Canada its lacrosse, the United States its baseball. ”

“ Many pleasant, and, seemingly, innocent sports and pastimes, are likewise interdicted. In old times, there were several athletic games practised, such as wrestling, foot-racing, throwing the javelin, and archery. In all these they greatly excelled; and, for some, splendid festivals were instituted. Among their everyday amusements were dancing, tossing the football, kite-flying, flute-playing, and singing traditional ballads ”

“ They are passionately fond of athletic sports, such as archery, wrestling, and racing; but the favorite pastime is a kind of foot-ball. The game is played between two parties, with a large elastic ball, on a square piece of ground prepared expressly for the purpose. ”

“ There can be no doubt that in the first Olympiad the programme included at least all the events described by Pindar, the foot-race, the diskos, the spear, boxing, wrestling, and the chariot-race. If the Olympic games did develop from a single event, it was probably not from the foot-race, but from the armed fight or the chariot-race. ”

“ In the fifties, although golf and tennis were not games for the multitude, bowls and cricket were as dear to the bewhiskered public as now to the clean-shaven or moustached; and women had their lawn diversions for the hours they considered enough to give to them, the balance of their active exercise being put into housework and "duties" generally. There was a primitive sort of lacrosse that we were addicted to, and archery, which was a graceful and quite scientific game. ”

“ As soon as the regular Interscholastic League season of baseball, tennis, track athletics, and cricket closes there will be more time to devote to other branches of sport. During the summer months tennis, rowing, swimming, and sailing will receive their share of attention in this Department, and from the looks of things just now there is every promise that yachting and small-boat racing will be more popular this year than ever before. Many of the large clubs have introduced special classes on their racing programmes. ”

“ The athletes are moving rapidly, and using their arms as wings. On the other hand, those who were running a long distance clenched their fists and held their arms close to their sides, as do our modern runners. A peculiar custom prevailed during the games. It is said the contestants kept up a loud shouting in order to retain their courage, while at the same time the admiring spectators cheered wildly as some favorite or friend neared the goal. ”

“ This excellent showing is the natural result of the hard training and constant energy of the hundreds of runners and jumpers in the schools; and the ever-increasing number of contestants all over the country proves that track and field sports have secured a firm foothold, and now deserve to be recognized as equal in importance to both football and baseball. ”

“ Gymnasium work of course will help us to build up our strength and develop our muscles, but skill in various acrobatics and gymnastic tricks does not give the clear eye and ruddy cheek of the person whose life is in the open air. Outdoor sports, like tennis, baseball, and horseback riding are far superior to chest-weights or Indian clubs as a means of obtaining normal permanent development. ”

“ Wrestling, javelin-throwing, running, leaping, pitching the quoit, riding, driving, climbing ropes, shooting the arrow, were all practised by as many amateur clubs, which commonly owned a race-course or a private hall. ”

“ Football is the particular game which will probably first occur to any one in this community when the question of the serviceability of athletic games is raised, as this form of athletic contest is at present uppermost in the mind of those who plead for or against games as a means of physical or moral salvation. This typical athletic sport may, therefore, serve to illustrate the bearing of athletics upon the development of the contestant's character and physique. ”