American Sports History 美國運動史Fall 2015
Wednesday 4:10-6 (三78) 季陶340414
Joe Eaton, PhD
Office - 340527
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 developtheir English-language reading, speaking, and writing skills while studying the social/cultural history of sport in the United States.
Please, no food during class. Please, no use of cell phones during class, and confine use of tablets/laptops to class use, i.e. taking notes.
This syllabus is subject to change.
You will need to access articles and short readings on the internet, the NCCU library database (including “JSTOR”), the la84foundation.org website, and other databases or websites.
Method of Evaluation
Attendance and participation, occasional pop quizzes – 10%
Mid-term Exam November 18– 30%
Essay – 30% (4-6 pages, topic: “Significant aspect of an American sports figure”.Due December 16 in class. I will announce more details.Do not email your essay. Late essays (10% grade reduction per week – December 23 10% reduction; December 30 20% reduction)
Final – 6-25 – 30%
Course outline, by week (Subject to change)
September 16: Introduction to the course, Colonial Sports Culture
September 23: Early National Sports Culture, Early Ball Games
September 30: Boxing’s slow start in America
A. “The First American Championship Prizefight” Elliott J. Gorn, OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 7, No. 1
October 7: Baseball, (finally) an American Pastime
A. Reading TBA
October 14: College Football
A. “ATHLETIC SPORTS” The Albion, A Journal of News, Politics and Literature (1822-1876); Apr 5, 1873
B. “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)
C. “FOOTBALL UNFIT GAME SAYS PRESIDENT ELIOT” New York Times (1857-1922); Feb 3, 1906
October 21: Football Reform
- “The Gridiron Crisis of 1905” John Watterson, Journal of Sport History 27 (Summer 2000)
- “THE NEW FOOTBALL” Walter Camp, Outing Magazine (1906-1911); Oct 1910; 57
- “YALE FROWNS UPON NEW FOOTBALL RULES” New York Times (1857-1922); May 22, 1910
October 28: The Black Sox Scandal & Baseball’s Gold Age:
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
B.Babe Ruth
look at section “In Sports”
November 4: Basketball, a Sport with a Purpose
- “Origin of the Game of Basket Ball” Sporting Life (1916)
- Ethnicity and early 20th century urban basketball – the Jews
November 11:Women and Sport
- 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
November 18: Midterm
November 25: Ali
- “The Importance of Muhammad Ali” Thomas Hauser
B. Documentary video: “When We Were Kings” (1996)
December 2:NBA and ABA
A. “Remember the ABA”
December 9:The NFL – humble origins to America’s most popular league
Reading – to be announced
December 16: The United States and the Olympics
Reading – to be announced
*Essay due in class (do not email your essay)
December 23: The Battle of the Sexes
A. “The Battle of the Sexes” Gail Collins
December 30:Americans and Soccer
- “Review of Colin Jose, American Soccer Leap, 1921-31” in Journal of Sport History 27 (Summer 2000)
- “USA doesn’t deserve outcast status” Paul Gardner, Soccer America 2000
- “Why Soccer is not popular in the United States”
January 6: To be announced
January 13: Final