Acquisition and Appraisal of Sports Archives
Richard Fagan
University of New South Wales
Australia is a nation that appears to be obsessed with sport. Think
of Australia, and sport would probably figure prominently somewhere in
your image. Think of archives in Australia. Sport does not quickly come
to mind. Relatively few sporting organisations have established archival
programmes; the personal records of individuals involved with sport do
not appear to have a high priority among collecting institutions; records
of Government sport administrative bodies seem to be scarcely
represented in Government Archival Institutions. Nothing substantial
has been written on the position of sports archives in this country and it
does not look like there has been any previous public discussion of this
issue. Currently in a position of ‘archival obscurity’ in Australia, trying
to compile information on sports archives is somewhat akin to hitting the
metaphorical wall of the marathon runner. Why is it, that in a country
where sport is of such significance, it is so minimally represented in
archival collections?
In a speech delivered in 1974, ‘The Archival Edge’, F Gerald Ham
began,
Our most important and intellectually demanding task as
archivists is to make an informed selection of information that will
provide the future with a representative record of human
experience in our time.
He then went on to state his belief that not only was there bias in
the collection of records but that there are ‘incredible gaps in the
documentation’ of many areas of society.1 Sport appears to be one area
that has not been adequately documented. The present level of
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acquisition of sports archives and the number of institutions involved, are
not helping to provide a representative record of the ‘Australian
experience’. What little material that is held in repositories is biased
toward famous and successful sporting personalities and the more
popular sports.
Archival institutions in Australia that are actively acquiring sports
archives generally have kept quite a low profile. In trying to assess the
current situation, it has proved quite difficult to determine which
institutions, if any, hold sports material.2
In the absence of any guide dealing exclusively with sports
archives, a starting point for helping to locate material of this nature was
Our Heritage : a directory to archives and manuscripts repositories in
Australia. Although now in need of updating, this guide was useful
because it did acknowledge the possible existence of sports archives in
repositories throughout Australia. It is limited, however, in that sport
was included only under ‘Records of Associations and Societies’, and
could only be entered as part of ‘Hobby/Craft/Sporting/Other Interest’.
The Australian Jockey Club, Sydney Turf Club and Royal New South
wales Bowling Association were the only sport specific repositories
included in this guide.3
The Australian Historic Records Register was beneficial in that
it not only had entries for privately held records but it also contained
details of the holdings of the Australian Gallery of Sport. In all,
forty-eight different sports were included on the Register. 4 Other
sources relating to sports archives are Materials and Services on Sport
provided by the National Library of Australia,5 and the Australian Institute
of Sport publication Guide to Sports Collections in Australia. 6 Both
reveal that only a small amount of original material has been collected;
collections of published materials dominate both of these guides.
A cursory examination of holdings (relating to sport) at three of
the major archival institutions in Sydney can help to illustrate the gaps
that exist. The only material the Archives Office of New South Wales
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could locate was three boxes of Department of Sport and Recreation
Correspondence Files (1946-1976) and one box of Department of Sport
and Recreation Papers relating to the Sydney Cricket and Sydney Sports
Grounds (1939-1978).
Australian Archives has material from the Department of Sport,
Recreation and tourism, Central Office (1983-1987). Also, a database
search revealed 186 items, most of which were concerned with the
administration of sport in the Australian Capital Territory, and sport and
the military. The Department of the Arts, Sport, the Environment,
Tourism, and the Territories, the Australian Sports Commission, and the
Australian Institute of Sport are registered Commonwealth Agencies,
which is quite promising for future acquisitions by Australian Archives
of material relating to sport.
Does this reveal that the Archives Office of New South Wales, and
Australian Archives have not previously taken a great interest in
collecting sports archives? It may be more of a case that they are not
aware of the full scope of their holdings that relate to sport (possibly
because they have not had a great deal of enquiries about this material).
While governments have long been involved in policy making regarding
sport, separate bodies created to administer sport are fairly recent
innovations. For example, the Department of Sport, Recreation and
Tourism was created in 1983, yet the Commonwealth Government had
administered a National Fitness Act since 1941.
Sports historian Brian Stoddart has highlighted the fact that
archival material relating to sport can indeed be found in government
archives, sources that he has stated are “largely untapped”. In the
Bibliography to Saturday Afternoon Fever, he has listed (what he believes
to be) relevant archival sources, such as Cabinet Records and
Department of the Prime Ministers Records (Australian Archives), and
Governors’ Records, Colonial Secretary Records, Premiers Office
Records, and Police Records (South Australian State Archives).7
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A search of the Mitchell Library index revealed that it holds
archival material on a diverse range of broadly defined sports, such as
Billiards, Motor Cycle Racing, and Bush Walking. The material is,
however, heavily biased toward Cricket, Horse Racing, Skiing, and
especially Swimming and Surf Life Saving Clubs. The Davis Sporting
Collection (37 boxes), and the E S Marks Sporting Collection (887 items)
are two significant collections held by the Mitchell Library. Finding Aids
exist for both collections, which consist mainly of ephemera (pamphlets
and programmes), as well as a number of volumes of newscuttings and
some photographs and manuscripts.
One problem with the collection of personal papers, especially in
relation to sport, is that it is often only the papers of the famous, or
successful, that a collecting archives will seen to acquire. The National
Library of Australia stated in 1980 that ‘the Library seeks to acquire the
papers of notable Australian sportsmen and sportswomen’, people such
as Johnny Warren (Soccer), and cyclist/Federal Politician Sir Hubert
Opperman. It should be pointed out that it was noticeable that
sportsmen dominated the list of individuals whose papers were held by
the Library at the time.8
Attitude to sport could quite possibly be a factor in this issue. It
has been suggested that sport is not seek as a serious pursuit, but rather
it is something trivial, of no real importance to the ‘real’ world.9 While
sport may be regarded as ‘recreation and leisure’ by some, and not an
occupation, it has nevertheless become an acceptable profession. Why
then, do archival institutions seek to acquire the papers of literary figures,
entertainers, artists, but not sportsmen and women to any great extent?
Why is it that the records of sports people and organisations are not held
in the same high regard?
It has been suggested that ‘sports history would only begin to be
written as richer lodes ran out’.10 It does seem feasible to extrapolate
this theory to suggest that perhaps interest in sports archives will only
eventuate when other areas of archival interest run out. Mandle argued
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(in 1982) that a paradox exists, ‘the puzzling neglect of study of what is a
universally acknowledged phenomenon - the importance of sport in
Australian life in this past century and a quarter’.11
Sports historians appear to be aware of the neglect of archival
material by archivists and archival institutions. Richard Cashman has
stated that sports history has suffered because there is a lack of written
primary source materials available.12 Wray Vamplew is of the opinion
that material of an archival nature relating to sport does exist,
somewhere:
There is a need for a history of Australian cricket solidly rooted
in primary sources such as club and association records. A similar
plea can be advanced for most, if not all, other Australian sports.
The archival material remains relatively unexplored...13
Can the neglect of sport by archival institutions be attributed to a
lack of interest on the part of archivists? Do archivists see sport as an
irrelevant subject? A survey of the personal attitudes of archivists to
sport could be quite an interesting survey. Above all, is it possible that
acquisition and appraisal of archival material could be biased to this great
an extent?
Sporting organisations have not implemented archival programs
to any great extent; what they have been doing with records they have
created remains a mystery. As an increasing number of sports are
becoming ‘big business’, employing full-time management and
administrative staff, the amount of records they are creating must be
growing. Apart from the standard administrative, legal, and financial
records produced by most organisations, sports organisations produce
their own peculiar records. These include such things as applications for
membership and membership lists, applications for and results of
competitions, documentation relating to selection of representative
teams, insurance, drug testing, accreditation of referees/umpires,
sponsorship and funding, awarding of scholarships and financial
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assistance, and advertising, ephemeral material (eg. programmes),
newsletters, and video and photographic material
Oral history, and the use of video for recording events could prove
very useful for documenting sport. Sport has featured extensively in oral
history conducted by the National Library of Australia. Indeed, one of
the most comforting sights in the Library to an archivist interested in
sports archives is a prominent photo in the oral history section, of former
Australian Rules Football player Alex Jesaulenko being interviewed.
Video is useful for recording actual sporting competition, because of the
uniqueness of every event. The rise of ‘trial by video’ may see the need
for archives to cater for this format, as video footage is increasingly
becoming a major piece of evidence used by disciplinary tribunals.
It could be argued that a major survey of sporting organisations
should be carried out, to learn of their records management procedures,
if they have any archives policy, what has happened to their records over
the years, and whether they are concerned about archives. Archival
institutions could also be surveyed, collection analysis could be used to
evaluate each repository’s holdings, to see to what extent sports archives
are actually represented.14 A by-product of these surveys could be the
creation of a comprehensive finding aid/directory/guide to collections.
In 1983, a guide was published titled Sport-A Guide to Historical Sources
in the UK. The author, Richard Cox, compiled this survey on sports
archives by ‘circulating questionnaires to every major library, museum,
record office and sporting organisation in the United Kingdom’. 15
To adequately address this issue, current, and comprehensive
information is needed on the state of records that deal with sport. It must
be revealed if any archival institutions are actively seeking to acquire
sports archives, and the position of the sports organisations themselves
and their opinions on archives should be examined.
If ‘in-house’ sports archives are going to emerge, it would probably
only be the large, commercial, professional ‘big business’ sports (such as
Rugby League, Cricket, Australian Rules Football, Tennis, Horse
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Racing, Basketball, Golf) that would have the resources to effectively
carry out an archival programme. The amateur sports organisations,
(often highly organised and efficiently managed), rely to a great extent
on government funding to survive and thus archives would probably be a
low priority for them. A collecting archive, which aimed to document
sport in Australia, could be of great importance in preserving the
valuable records of these organisations. Like most of the community,
sports organisations need to be educated as to what an archival
programme is all about.
There are two instances in the literature about successful
‘in-house’ archives, that are related to sport. The Marylebone Cricket
Club Archives (in England) appears to be a well supported institution,
kept busy by the fact that “there is plenty of archival material in
connection with our national game”.16 The Sporting News Archives (in
the USA), is an archives for a sports publication that specialises in
providing research services for users.17
The Australian Gallery of Sport could take a lead role in the
collection of sports archives of organisations (and thus augment its
collections of personal records of individuals involved in sport) or
perhaps a larger collecting institution could begin to actively seek to
acquire this material. It seems illogical that sport can play such a
significant role in Australian society and culture, and yet be so neglected
as an archival subject area.
For the future of this issue, nothing positive will happen unless
there is a general raising of awareness among both the archival
community and the sporting community. Archivists should try and
determine what, if anything, needs to be done about the neglect of sports
archives in their collections. Sports administrators and organisations will
need to be alerted to the plight of their archival material, so that hopefully
they will take some of the responsibility for their non-current records.
Unless there is some action from archivists, the administrators of sport,
and individuals who have material relating to sport of an archival nature,
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then this issue will remain as it is. Archivists should take an active interest
in educating sports organisations about archival programmes, if this issue
is to be resolved. Sports organisations should be encouraged to adopt
archival methods (appraisal and disposal) to care for the records they
seek to retain permanently and for efficient and effective records
management and ongoing administration. A further incentive for
archivists to become involved in alerting sports organisations to archival
methods, is the fact that it is a potential area of employment, that has
previously not been utilised to any extent.
The growing trend toward litigation and disputes arising from
sporting competition ending up in law courts may have some implications
for sports organisations to retain records. With an inherent risk of injury
in many sports, sports administrators must naturally be concerned with
retaining all necessary insurance documents and material relating to
liability for injury. Once again, ‘trial by video’ (this time in a court of law)
would rely on the sporting organisation having adequate control of the
storage and retrieval of this format, so that a videotaped record of an
incident in a sporting event (which could have occurred many years prior
to the trial date) could be used as evidence. 18
A problem with sports archives (that has probably led to a lot of
material being obscure, and hard to find) is that some of the material will
form part of other collections, that are unrelated to sport. It has been
argued by Richard Cox that ‘considerable material relating to the history
of sport will be hidden or disguised within other collections’.19 Archival
material relating to sport could most likely be found in archive collections
of ethnic groups and immigrants, local government, school archives,
university archives, government records and holdings in film and sound
archives.
Appraisal of records is essential to the practice of acquiring
material by archival institutions. It has been argued by Maygene F.
Danniels, that ‘All appraisals and acquisitions of documentary materials
must take place within the guidelines and policies that an institutional
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acquisitions policy establishes.’ 20 It may be the case that sports
organisations, administrators, and individuals involved in sport are not
aware of the value of their records and they have therefore not considered
the benefits to be gained from an archive programme. Alternatively,
there may not be any enduring value in sports archives and they could
therefore be disposed of appropriately. If sports archives are to be
removed from their position of archival obscurity, appraisal of the
material for evidential values must have a high priority.
A positive sign regarding a possible increase in awareness of
sports archives among archivists has emerged from New Zealand. The
1991 ARANZ conference used the theme ‘The Archives of Recreation
and Leisure’. Presentations at this conference relating to sport were
‘Otago University Rugby Club’, ‘Leisure Activities of Otago University
Women Pre-1900’, and ‘Women Outdoors : A Discussion of outdoor
sporting pursuits of women 1900-1950’.
In Saturday Afternoon Fever, Brian Stoddart stated that ‘... it
should be pointed out here that Australia is in danger of losing the
artifacts of its sports history because so little attention is given to
preserving them’.21 Was Stoddart referring to archival material? It
seems odd that he would be referring to museum artifacts, because this
is one area of sport that has definitely not been neglected in Australia.
There have been numerous ‘Sporting Halls of Fame’ established. The
Australian Gallery of Sport is a combination of museum and archive. it
may eventuate that sports archives, in the future, will be acquired by
all-encompassing sport information centres, a combination of museum,
archive, and library.
One way in which archivists could actively seek to ensure the
documentation of sport in Australia could be through the use of
‘documentation strategy’; by taking on this active role, record creators,
users, and custodians play a significant role in shaping the form of the
historical record. Documentation strategy is promising for sport because
it encourages co-operation among separate archival institutions to
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document the subject. Where records do not exist, oral history and video
could be very effective means of documenting the experiences of
individuals and their involvement in sport.22 If sport is to be adequately
represented in future archival holdings, it is imperative that active
acquisition and appraisal decisions be made.
While the amount of material that could be acquired as archives
continues to grow and the resources for archival institutions remain
limited, archivists will be faced with difficult and challenging acquisition
and appraisal decisions. It appears that, to date, potential archival
material relating to sport has not been subject to these decisions.
Removing sport from ‘archival obscurity does not necessarily mean that
archival institutions should begin acquiring all of the sports archives they
possibly can. Removing sport from ‘archival obscurity’ should mean
being aware of the existence of material relating to sport, making rational
judgments on the archival value of that material, and educating the
sporting community on the potential benefits of a suitably implemented
archival programme.
NOTES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Ham, F., Gerald, “The Archival Edge”, The American Archivist, Vol 38, No 1,1975,
5-6.
Because of time constraints, and lack of resources, no pretence should be made that
this is a comprehensive survey of every archival institution in Australia.
White, O., Schwirtlich, A., and Nash, J., Our Heritage: a director to archives and
manuscript repositories in Australia, Canberra, Australian Society of Archivists Inc.,
1983.
Australian Historic Records Register, Canberra, National Library of Australia, 1989,
The Australian Gallery of Sport: Collections is registered at No. 03167.
Australian National Social Sciences Library, Materials and Services on Sport provided
by the National Library of Australia, 1980, Canberra, National Library of Australia,
1980.
Guide to Sports Collections in Australia, Canberra, Australian Institute of Sport Information Centre, 1989.
Stoddart, Brian, Saturday Afternoon Fever: Sport in the Australian Culture, Australia,
A and R Publishers, 1986, p.195. Stoddart does not, however, go into great detail
about the records he claims to have used; he merely lists their title and Repository
where held.
45
8. Australian National Social Sciences Library, Materials and Services on Sport provided
by the National Library of Australia, 1980, Canberra, National Library of Australia,
1980, p.1.
9. Mandle, W.F., “Sports History”, in Osborne, G., and Mandle, W.F., (eds), New
History: Studying Australia Today, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp.82-93.
10. Ian Turner, cited in Osborne, G., and Mandle, W.F., (eds), New History: Studying
Australia Today, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1982, p. 93.
11. Osborne, G., and Mandle, W.F., (eds), New History: Studying Australia Today, Sydney,
Allen and Unwin, 1982, p. 93.
12. Cashman, Richard, “Illustrating Sports History”, Sporting Traditions, Vol 4, No 2, May
1988, 239.
13. Vamplew, Wray, “Australian Sports History: A Research Agenda”, The International
Journal of the History of Sport, Vol 6, No 2, September 1989, 252.
14. See Endelman, Judith E., “Looking Backward to Plan for the Future: Collection
Analysis for Manuscript Repositories”, The American Archivist, Vol 50, No 3, 1987,
340-355, for a discussion of Collection Analysis. Endelman reaches the conclusion
that archivists do tend to acquire the same kinds of material and also to reject and
neglect materials of the same kind.
15. Baker, William J., “Book Reviews”, The British Journal of Sports History, Vol 1, No 3,
December 1984, 351.
16. Green, Stephen, “Some Cricket Records”, Archives: The Journal of the British Records
Association, Vol 18, No 80, October 1988, 198.
17. Gietschier, Steven P., “Leading Off: The First Years of The Sporting News Archives”,
Provenance, Vol 7, No 1, 1989, 41-52.
18. For an informative article on the growing role of law in sport in Australia, see Opie,
Hayden. “See You in Court! Recent Developments in Marketing, Selection and
Disciplinary Disputes”, Sporting Traditions, Vol 7, No 1, November 1990, 77-94.
19. Baker, William J., “Book Review”, The British Journal of Sports History, Vol 1, No 3,
December 1984, 351.
20. Danniels, Maygene F., “Records Appraisal and Disposition”, in Bradsher, J.G., (ed),
Managing Archives and Archival Institutions, Chicago, University Press, 1988, p. 57
21. Stoddart, Brian, Saturday Afternoon Fever: Sport in the Australian Culture, Australia,
A and R Publishers, 1986, p.9.
22. Hedstrom, Margaret, “New Appraisal Techniques: The Effect of Theory on
Practice”, Provenance, Vol 7, No 2, 1989,1-21; Samuels, Helen W., “Who Controls the
Past”, The American Archivist, Vol 49, No 2, 1986,110-124.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bassett, T.D. Seymour, “Documenting Recreation and Tourism in New England”, The
American Archivist, Vol 50, No 4, 1987, 550-569.
Endelman, Judith E., “Looking Backward to Plan for the Future: Collection Analysis
for Manuscript Repositories”, The American Archivist, Vol 50, No 3, 1987, 340-355.
Gietschier, Steven P., “Leading Off: The First Years of The Sporting News Archives”,
Provenance, Vol 7, No 1, 1989, 41-52.
Green, Stephen, “Some Cricket Records”, Archives: The Journal of the British Records
Association, Vol 18, No 80, October 1988, 187-198.
Ham, F. Gerald, ‘The Archival Edge”, The American Archivist, Vol 38, No 1, 1975,
5-13.
46
Hedstrom, Margaret, “New Appraisal Techniques: The Effect of Theory on
Practice”, Provenance, Vol 7, No 2,1989,1-21.
Mandle, W.F., “Sports History” in Osborne, G., and Mandle, W.F., (eds), New History:
Studying Australia Today, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp.82-93.
Peace, Nancy E., (ed), Archival Choices: Managing the Historical Record in an Age of
Abundance, Lexington, Lexington Books, 1984.
Samuels, Helen W., “Who Controls the Past”, The American Archivist, Vol 49, No 2,
1986, 110- 124.
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