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American Sports History
Spring 2011
Thursdays 4:10-6:00, 340302
Joe Eaton, PhD
wjeaton@nccu.edu.tw
Office hours 340527 Thursdays 2-4 pm
Course description:
We examine the historical development of sports in the United States from a societal and cultural
viewpoint. The course provides opportunity to examine the relationship between sports and
nationalism, sports and politics, sports and the economy, sports and society change, sports and
gender, and sports and American expansion.
Course contents include lecture, secondary readings, primary source readings, and film. We will
examine the gradual development of an American sports culture and the changing attitudes towards
sports. Emphasize will be given to early sports culture, including blood sports, and particularly to
the creation and development of baseball, pugilism, college football, and basketball within the
American context.
Knowledge of sports is not a prerequisite for the course.
The course will be especially valuable to students who wish to practice English-language reading,
speaking, and writing.
Please, no food during class.
This syllabus is subject to change.
Articles and short readings will be found on internet, NCCU library database (including “JSTOR”),
the la84foundation.org website, and other databases or website.
Method of Evaluation
Attendance and participation – 10%
Mid-term Exam – 30% (November 17)
Essay – 30% (Details to be announced, due December 22)
Final – 30% (January 12)
Course outline, by week (Subject to change)
9-15: Introduction to the course, Colonial Sports Culture
9-22: Puritans and Sport
A. “Puritans and Sport: The Irretrievable Tide of Change” Nancy Struna, Journal of Sport 4 1977
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1977/JSH0401/jsh0401b.pdf
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9-29: Early National Sports Culture
A. “Mind and Body in Early American Thought” John R. Betts, Journal of American History, Vol.
54, No. 4 (Mar., 1968), pp. 787-805
10-6: Boxing’s slow start in America
A. “The First American Championship Prizefight” Elliott J. Gorn, OAH Magazine of History,
Vol. 7, No. 1
10-13: Excerpt from Ken Burn’s “Baseball” documentary
10-20: College Football
“ATHLETIC SPORTS” The Albion, A Journal of News, Politics and Literature (1822-1876); Apr 5, 1873
A. “The Rise and Fall of the Flying Wedge: Football’s Most Controversial Play” Scott A.
McQuikin and Ronald A. Smith, Journal of Sports History 20 (Spring 1993)
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1993/JSH2001/jsh2001f.pdf
B. “FOOTBALL UNFIT GAME SAYS PRESIDENT ELIOT” New York Times (1857-1922);
Feb 3, 1906
10-27: Football Reform
A. “The Gridiron Crisis of 1905” John Watterson, Journal of Sport History 27 (Summer 2000)
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH2000/JSH2702/JSH2702f.pdf
B. “THE NEW FOOTBALL” Walter Camp, Outing Magazine (1906-1911); Oct 1910; 57
C. “YALE FROWNS UPON NEW FOOTBALL RULES” New York Times (1857-1922); May
22, 1910
11-3: The Black Sox Scandal:
A. “At the Nexus of Labor and Leisure: Baseball, Nativism, and the 1919 Black Sox Scandal”
Robin F. Bachin, Journal of Social History, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Summer, 2003), pp. 941-962
11-10: Golden Age of Baseball
A. Babe Ruth
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/yeung/baberuth/home.html look at section “In Sports”
11-17: Mid-term
11-24: Basketball, A Sport with a Purpose
A. “Origin of the Game of Basket Ball” Sporting Life (1916)
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1916/VOL_66_NO_20/SL6620019.p
df
B. Jews and Basketball
http://www.jewishmag.com/45mag/basketball/basketball.htm
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12-1: Women and the Rules of Sport
A. Women and Basketball (and Bicycles) “American Women and Sport” Jane Curry and
Marjorie Bingham, OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 7, No. 1, History of Sport, Recreation, and
Leisure (Summer, 1992), pp. 39-49
12-8: Ali
A. “The Importance of Muhammad Ali” Thomas Hauser
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/03_2010/historian5.php
12-15: Baseball and Race
A. “The Negro Leagues” Jules Tygiel, OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 7 (Summer, 1992), pp. 2427
12-22: Women and Sports in Late-20th Century (Essay due in class)
A. “The Battle of the Sexes” Gail Collins
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/03_2010/historian2.php
B. “The History of Women’s Baseball” Kerry Candaele
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/03_2010/historian7.php
12-29: NBA
1-5: Americans and Football Soccer
A. “Review of Colin Jose, American Soccer Leap, 1921-31” in Journal of Sport History 27
(Summer 2000)
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH2000/JSH2702/JSH2702p.pdf
B. “USA doesn’t deserve outcast status” Paul Gardner, Soccer America 2000
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SoccerAmerica/2000/sa1450g.pdf
C. “Why Soccer is not popular in the United States”
http://www.helium.com/items/843027-why-soccer-is-not-so-popular-in-the-us-as-elsewhere
1-12: Final