The roaring 1920’s, popularly known as the “Age of Spectators” (NBL 1), had real reasons to be called so. It was known as the Golden Age of American Sports. The age had a favorable environment for the development of sports. The 1920’s was a decade with sound economic growth; everybody had some time to invest in sports. New improved conditions for sports were built up like new stadiums and gymnasiums. One new addition with the newspaper for sports coverage made the fans more enthusiastic towards sports, the radio. One could know about the favorite sport or team without traveling. Good road conditions also contributed to the flourishing of sports as that allowed the spectators to travel to the venue smoothly.
The names and numbers of sports flourishing in the 1920’s were many, but the “national pastime” was baseball. It was a tremendously popular sport that time. Huge numbers of people were attracted towards baseball and a large number of people played baseball too. Common people used to play baseball after a hard day’s toil. The name of George Herman Ruth, popularly known as Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees was to be heard everywhere. Not only baseball, other sports also flourished like never before. College football was popular, Notre Dame being the most famous college team. Famous bowl game held in California was called the Rose Bowl where the best college teams participated. Boxing, golf, tennis, each could draw their audiences (Sumner 1-2).
Though baseball had a huge popularity, there was one unfortunate aspect also. That was racism. It was a popular game both among whites and African Americans. But it was extremely hard for any African American to play any major baseball league. That couldn’t leave the black people behind. They had tried hard to carve a niche in the baseball field. Some names were famous in the early decades, like Moses Walker, Fowler, Frank Grant and George Stovey, who were able to make it to two baseball teams of whites. Then in the early 20th century black baseball clubs announced their presence. Chicago Giants, Indianapolis ABCs, St. Louis Giants, Kansas City Monarchs were a few of them. They made a solid footing by the end of World War I and black Baseball was very popular by then. Then in 1920 Andrew Foster led the way to the formation of Negro National League in Kansas City. In 1923 Eastern Colored League was formed. The second Negro National League was formed after the first one was dissolved at the time of great depression. Negro Southern league operated till 1949 with success. The Negro baseball leagues operated despite huge adversities to prove them and gained popularity beyond expectation (NLB 1).
George Herman Ruth, commonly known as Babe Ruth, was the most favorite baseball player in the 1920’s and the hero of that decade. He had a personality which could easily impress his fans and he was the maker of more runs than any other players made before. He first belonged to the Red Sox and then joined the New York Yankees. It was because of him the New York Yankees won 39 American League Pennants and 26 World Series Titles. Because of his popularity and outstanding run, the Yankees could gather enough fans to build their own stadium which opened on 1923. That became famous as “The House That Ruth Built”. He was popularly known as The Great ‘Bambino’ and ‘The Sultan of Swat’ (FBR BRL 1).
Jim Thorpe was a legendary figure who lost his Olympic Athletics Gold Medals won in decathlon and pentathlon because of playing minor baseball. He played football and baseball at the same time. He was very popular and was voted the “The Greatest Athlete of the First Half of the Century” (Flatter 1). He had shifted towards a pro football career and helped in the setting up of the American Professional Football Association which was the ancestor of the National Football League.
Works Cited
FBBRL. “Biography”. baberuth.com. 2009. Web.
Flatter, Ron. “Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo“. ESPN.com. 2007. Web.
NLB. “Negro League History 101”. Mills, Publisher. 2003. Web.
Sumner, Jim. The Golden Age of Sports. North Carolina: Museum of History, 2004.