Shady Saad
Mr.O'toole
English 11
2/23/15
Sports in the early 20th Century
During the 20th century, as society and the economy was changing, sports had a major impacts on American culture. Famous sports of the 20th century include hockey, baseball, basketball, horse racing, and boxing. Prior to the influence of sports, American entertainment consisted primarily of theatre in addition to traveling. Sports impacted American culture and society because new ethnic groups were integrated into society, sports became a large source of entertainment for Americans, and because immigrants used sports as a means to alleviate tensions between different groups of people.
One of the aspects that influenced American culture was the integration of the new ethnic groups. Sports over the last hundreds of years have affected modern popular culture. For example, the way people act, the way their behavior is, was reflected on sports idols and the way people dress was reflected on the sports teams. Sports became the new big thing for our immigrants; for example they would find new hobbies out of sports. New ethnic cultures were found. People started coming to America because it had great opportunity to play professional sports. Sports had become a way of people going to college. Nonwealthy families relied on scholarships to be given to their children so that they can find a way of going to college.
The
growth of sports also made possible the education of many young people who would otherwise not have the opportunity to do so. In “Sports the History and Evolution,” the author explains that
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Though today most of the noticeable college athletes often leave school early to enter the professional ranks of their sport, the vast majority of college athletes graduate and move on to a field other than their sport. For many of those students, sports made going to college possible, particularly through the use of college scholarships, which have increased in size and number as sports created bigger revenues for schools(
The People
History Where People Memories and History Join
).
Many immigrants that came to America brought their children with them for the education.
Most of the immigrants could not afford school so scholarships gave the unfortunate an opportunity for education.
Sports had changed our economy when the television was introduced to the American people because it allowed sports to become source of entertainment. Whereas the wealthy had televisions to watch sporting events, the less fortunate had radios where they could listen in to the sporting events. When there was free time for the wealthy they would buy tickets and go to the sporting event that they wanted to watch (
Pond
). This would make money for the economy because the ticket prices would be set at a high price. The authors of “Sports the History and
Evolution” explain how the ticket prices of sporting events changed in the past years, making it affordable for everyone to go to sporting events:
The growth of big money and high salaries into the games has affected who can now afford to go to the events. Though this impact is most commonly associated with sports in the United States, this is not just an American phenomenon, but reflected in other countries and sports around the world. Soccer in the U.K is a great example. Many of the teams in the English Leagues were once supported by local bluecollar workers, with
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ticket prices costing about the same as one hour’s worth of wages. Now, to get a good seat to watch a top British soccer team can easily cost more than 8 hours wages for a bluecollar worker. As sports have grown bigger and more profitable, they are driving out those who helped make growth possible”(
The People History Where People Memories and History Join
).
As the years passed by more people were able to afford to buy tickets to go to sporting