The 1920s saw famous athletes emerge from a plethora of sports - baseball, football, golf, polo, tennis, and the Olympic sports. Baseball was the most popular, and was commonly known as America's national pastime. Highlighted by the legendary Babe Ruth, who broke the record for home runs, baseball was particularly popular in North Carolina, both in the majors and the minors. In fact, many communities, including in cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham had professional minor league teams. Many adults participated in these community teams well into their thirties, and the popularity of the sport caused businesses to sponsor teams. Additionally, college football took off in the '20s, which triggered the construction of many stadiums, as shown in the following: "the University of Washington (built in 1920, capacity of 46,000); Stanford (1921, 86,011); Ohio State (1922, 85,339); Nebraska (1923, 73,650); Illinois (1923, 70,538); Purdue (1924, 67,861); Texas A&M (1925, 72,387); Missouri (1926, 62,000); Michigan (1927, 101,701); and Alabama (1929, 70,123) The New York Yankees' Bronx baseball stadium held 62,000 fans; called "The House that Ruth Built" in recognition of the home-run king's drawing power, it opened in 1923. A new $6-million, 18,000-seat Madison Square Garden opened on 28 November 1925. In 1923 the West Side Tennis Club built the country's first permanent tennis facility at Forest Hills, New York; the concrete stadium had a seating capacity of 14,000." (Baughman).
However, racial segregation in the 1920s kept it from being the true "golden age" of sports. The Jim Crow laws prevented black athletes from formally participating in pro leagues, although some found ways around them in the creations of leagues such as the "Negro National Baseball League" and the "Eastern Colored League", which were owned and operated exclusively by African Americans.
Sources:
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&zid=dff7b5375c7a4d60bb887113f5089ed5&p=UHIC%3AWHIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX3468301022&source=Bookmark&u=rosw82806&jsid=fbce7e60f2adff54682edb81cec2c0f6
http://www.ncpedia.org/sports/golden-age-sports
Great Post! It is interesting that sports are not something commonly associated with the image of the Roaring Twenties, despite their prominence during this era. I hadn't considered how the segregation during the early part of the 20th century restricted African American athletes from participating in sports. If African Americans were allowed play Major League Baseball, do you think this would have reduced the scope of Americans that watched baseball because of their racial prejudice?
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting demonstration of how segregation and Jim Crow stretched beyond the South. It also is interesting to note how the rise of popularity of sports was coupled with a massive increase in the amount of money within the industry. One thing I wonder about is how the depression affected turnout and interested in sporting events, and if that led to losses or debt on the part of those that built the massive new stadiums.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post! It's interesting how the first African American baseball player to be integrated into the MLB was Jackie Robinson in 1947, but the brown v board of education case did not occur until 1954 and the civil rights act ending all state and local segregation did not occur until 1964. I wonder what effects this had on the pro-segregation south.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kawvalley.k12.ks.us/brown_v_board/segregation.htm