Transcript Document 7187762

Sport Physical Education in
Postwar America
1945-1970
http://www.hess.ttu.edu/miller/19451970.ppt
Professional Sport
• Following World War II became the
dominant component of the American sport
scene.
Professional Sport
• Reasons for Growth
– An increasingly affluent and hi-tech society.
– Television
– Super jets transported teams across the country
and to other continents
– Manufactures supplied athletes with the latest
equipment
– Computers assisted in recruiting athletes and
scheduling games.
Race Integration Into Sport
“The Noble Experiment”
• Baseball was also the first of the major
professional sports to sign an African
American player.
• Steps that lead to this accomplishment
– In 1945 Branch Rickey organized the United
States Baseball League, to be comprised of
African American teams, including a team
named the Brown Dodgers.
Jackie Robinson
– Rickey sent scouts to find players for the
Brown Dodgers, but especially to seek one
man-an excellent baseball player to integrate
professional baseball.
– The person chosen would have to be able to:
• Play with white players
• Get along with them
• Be able to withstand the taunts, discrimination, and
unpleasant situations.
Jackie Robinson
• Robinson made his debut without the predicted
race riots and withstood the suspicions, taunts, and
threats of players and fans alike.
• Selected as “Rookie of the Year” in 1947
• “Most Valuable Player” in 1949
• This insured the success of the “noble
experiment.”
• The American League had its first AfricanAmerican player in 1948 when Bill Veeck of the
Cleveland Indians signed outfielder Larry Doby.
Team Movement
• In 1953 the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee
and had instant success with 1,826,397 in
attendance.
• In 1954 the St. Louis Browns became the
Baltimore Orioles
• 1955 the Philadelphia Athletics were the Kansas
City Athletics.
• The West Coast acquired major league teams in
1958 when the New York Giants moved to San
Francisco and the Brooklyn Dodgers switched to
Los Angeles.
Reflection on Philosophical
Changes
• During this era was the genesis of placing
more emphasis on attendance and making
money.
• Since Los Angeles was growing
tremendously fast more team were attracted
to areas in which there was less competition
for marketing and attracting fans
Reflection on Societal Changes
• Professional teams moving also reflected
the changes of American families.
• Previously, employees generally stayed with
one company for an entire career.
• Beginning in the early 1960’s employees
were moving from company to company
more often
Pro Expansion
• League expansion in 1961, 1962, and in
1969 resulted in four divisions, each league
consisting of two divisions, the champions
of which competed in a playoff to determine
the league pennant winner.
Pro Expansion
• The opening of the Houston Astrodome in
1965, with its artificial turf on which the
ball moved faster (and players fell harder)
than on natural grass, sparked a period of
new stadium construction in cities with
established teams as well as those with new
franchises.
Pro Expansion
• A number of new multi-purpose stadiums
installed artificial turf which was
economical, easily maintained, and readily
adaptable to a variety of sports and other
events.
Anti-Trust
• In 1953, a congressional committee
repeated an investigation into baseball
exemption from antitrust laws.
• In 1970 the Supreme Court confirmed
earlier decisions that baseball was not
subject to antitrust laws.
Labor Negotiations
• Inside the baseball world, players expressed
their growing concern about the conditions
of their employment.
• In 1946, the owners averted formation of a
players’ union by allowing player
representative to attend meetings and help
formulate more equitable contracts.
Labor Negotiations
• In a prelude to future labor negotiations and
tactics, some players boycotted the opening
of 1969 spring training because of a dispute
over owner contributions to the pension
fund.
Differences Between Men’s and
Women’s Physical Education
• At mid-century, on most campuses in the United
States, physical education for women and for men
existed in separate departments.
• The curriculum and activities offered, and their
administration, expressed the major philosophical
differences between physical education for women
and physical education for men.
Differences Between Men’s and
Women’s Physical Education
• Departments of physical education for
women, regardless of the size or type of
institution, tended to have common goals,
similar programs, and similar problems.
• These departments shared a philosophy of
appointing broadly prepared rather than
highly specialized faculty.
Differences Between Men’s and
Women’s Physical Education
• Departments for men, on the other hand,
demonstrated no such uniformity of purpose
among institutions.
Physical Education in the
Schools
• The boys’ program through the 1950s generally
emphasized the major team sports.
• Girls’ programs tended to focus on the team
sports.
• This pattern was affected in the mid-1950s when
test results indicated that American children were
less fit than European children.
Physical Education in the
Schools
• Public and official concern resulted in a
temporary emphasis on physical fitnessproducing activities in school programs.
• In the mid- 1960s there was increased
interest in activities that sought to equip
boys and girls with recreational sport skills,
such as tennis and golf, that could be
pursued throughout life.
Teaching/Coaching
• In many of the large universities with major
intercollegiate athletic programs there was some
philosophical conflict between the faculty who
primarily taught in the men’s physical education
teacher preparation program and those whose
primary assignment was coaching.
• In smaller institutions or those with less ambitious
athletic programs, the physical education teaching
faculty and coaching staff were usually the same
people.
Fitness Progress
• Physical fitness research efforts of the
1930s and 1940s to the attitudinal and
behavioral studies of the fifties, the serious
investigations of the many dimensions of
sport and physical activity had progressed
steadily.
Physical Education “Pioneers”
• Delbert Oberteuffer, Eleanor Metheny
exposed two generations of students to the
theoretical foundation of sport and physical
activity.
• Franklin Henry challenged the profession to
begin defining physical education’s “body
of knowledge”.
Physical Education “Pioneers”
• Two sport sociologists at the University of
Wisconsin, Gerald Kenyon and John Loy,
called for American scholars to join them as
they moved “toward a sociology of sport.”
• Shortly thereafter Bruce Ogilvie and
Thomas Tusko popularized the newly
developing field of sport psychology..
Physical Education “Pioneers”
• The concept of “movement education” became
one focus of attention for elementary physical
education in the 1960’s based on the early work of
H’Doubler and Glassow.
• Emphasized analyzing and understanding the
“science of movement.”
• Both stressed learning and understanding the
fundamentals of body movement through
problem-solving activities related to space, time,
and flow of movement.
Problems in Intercollegiate
Athletics
• The spectacular growth in the popularity of
college athletics was not without problems.
The pressure to win in order to sell tickets
to meet expenses necessary to recruit
athletes produced a climate conductive to
cheating, scandal, and hypocrisy.
Problems in Intercollegiate Athletics
• In the late 1940s the NCAA found it
necessary to assume an enforcement role
because of repeated reports of recruiting
violations among its members..
Principles of Conduct
• In July of 1946 a “Conference on
Conferences” was held for the purpose of
determining “Principles for the Conduct of
Intercollegiate Athletics.”
Principles of Conduct
• As a result of this conference the NCAA
adopted a “sanity code,” in 1948. The main
points were (1) principle of amateurism, (2)
principle of institutional control and
responsibility, (3) principle of sound
academic standards, (4) principle governing
financial aid to athletes, and (5) principles
governing recruiting.
Principles of Conduct
• In 1952, new legislation was adopted
dealing with academic standards, financial
aid, ethical conduct, and out-of-season
practice in football and basketball.
Problems in Intercollegiate Athletics
• The first reported instance of tampering occurred
in 1945 when rumors of a fixed game instance of
such tampering occurred in 1945 when rumors of
a fixed game between Brooklyn College and the
University of Akron caused a significant
fluctuation in the point spread and cancellation of
the game. All five Brooklyn players admitted
taking bribes to throw the contest.
• The National Basketball Association issued a
lifetime ban on all of the implicated players
whether or not they had been found guilty in the
courts.
Women’s Athletics
• Intercollegiate athletics for women did not exist in
its present form. Today’s program evolved from
“extramural” meaning inter-institutional
competition.
•
The first “experiment” in extramural
tournaments was a highly successful
intercollegiate golf championship. By this time
the increasing extramural competitions and the
desire of college women for competitive
opportunities began to concern women physical
education.
Women’s Athletics
• The Division for Girls and Women’s Sport
(DGWS), made clear that “Girls and women
may not participate as members of boys and
men’s teams.”
– They again affirmed the philosophy that student
athletes should not receive financial aid for
superior skill alone.
– Athletic scholarships were not approved, but
financial aid for needy students was acceptable.
Women’s Olympic Movement
• In 1963 the DGWS, in cooperation with the
United States Olympic Development
Committee, sponsored the first of five
institutes to promote Olympic sports.
• For the first time in almost fifty years the
Olympic Movement was directly promoted
by women physical educators.
Women’s Olympic Movement
Problems
• Philosophically committed to promoting a sport
for every girl rather than high-level sport for a
few, many women were not prepared to coach
students or teams at expert levels.
•
To complicate the situation, the women’s
movement of the mid-sixties, to the delight of
some and consternation of others, chose sport as
one of the suitable areas for equal right struggles.
Olympic Politics
• In the 1960’s it was difficult to differentiate
between political activities and Olympic activities
• Olympic Games were used as a tool between East
vs. West, communism vs. democracy
• Within the US militant groups employed the
Games in 1968 as a political platform to crusade
against racial injustice
Olympic Politics
• This most prevalent when Olympic sprinters
Tommie Smith and John Carlos, finishing
1st and 3rd respectively in the 200 meter
dash arrived for the awards ceremony.
• Both were shoeless, wearing knee length
black stockings, and a black glove on one
hand (Smith’s right, Carlos’s left)
Olympic Politics
• The USOC was embarrassed by this display
and issued a strong reprimand for Smith and
Carlos along with apologies to the IOC, the
Mexican Organizing Committee and the
Mexican people
• Avery Brundage, Chair of the IOC, went
further and issued the removal and
suspension of the black athletes
Olympic Politics
• In 1967 the Black Power Conference called for a
boycott of the 1968 Games as “…a protest against
all forms of American racism and retaliation for
lifting of Muhammad Ali’s heavyweight boxing
crown.”
• A vote of 75% was need to implement the boycott
but this fell short by 10%
• However, several black athletes did boycott the
Games most notable being Lew Alcindor
Muhammad Ali
• Known as Cassius Clay when he won the Olympic
heavyweight crown in 1960 won the world
heavyweight boxing title from Sonny Liston in
1964
• He successfully defended his title in 1965 and
1966
• In 1967 he refused to be drafted into the armed
services claiming he was a Muslim minister
Muhammad Ali
• In the midst of his legal battles the World
Boxing Association stripped him of his title
• He was allowed to continue his fighting
career in 1973 and regained his crown by
defeating George Foreman in 1974.