The Origins of Modern Sport Pt. 2

The following post is the second part of a three part series examining the origins of modern sport in the United States. If you haven’t read Pt. 1 you can do so here. Enjoy!

The Protestant Church was not the only realm of society that began to buck Victorian modes of life during the latter half of the 19th century. The wealth developed by the Industrial Revolution and the rise to dominance of large corporations had the effect of creating a larger and revitalized upper class. As a result, sport became an arena where the nouveau riche could exercise their wealth in a manner contradictory to the ideals of Victorian America. No longer did the rules of self-restraint and humble solitude apply. The upper class bucked values of frugality once revered by Victorians and indulged in attending sporting events available only to the superrich. As historian Benjamin Rader notes, “Expensive sports promoted their consciousness as an elite social group and varnished them with a vehicle of self-advertisement.”[1] Such indulgences and behavior would have been considered deplorable no more than twenty years earlier. But armed with wealth and political and social connections, the newly ascended upper class refused to abide by what they considered to be an outmoded form of living.[2]

The nouveau riche looked to distinguish themselves from the masses by associating with and following sports only accessible to those with the necessary means. Sports that merely required a simple field and ball were too ruffian for the “parvenu” who started off looking upon sports like baseball and soccer with a particular classist disdain. Instead, the upper class patronized sports like thoroughbred horse racing, golf, tennis, yachting, track and field, and polo. Each of these sports dictated the use of large and lavish grounds, lots of free time, expensive equipment and, oftentimes, travel to far away venues.[3]

One of the more indispensable tools employed by the new upper class was the proliferation of private country clubs. Though the country’s first club, the New York Athletic Club founded in 1866, began with modest ambitions, it slowly morphed into an arena of exclusivity whose doors only opened for the highest in the social strata.[4] Though exercise and athletics were offered at the clubs, they had their greatest value in being leisure spots where the rich and famous could socialize and use the networks to gain access to other, more exclusive clubs. This type of idle leisure and excessive indulgence clashed heavily with Victorian ideals of active work and moderation. But America was becoming increasingly less reliant on production and evermore so on materialism and consumption.[5]

Similar in purpose to the urban athletic clubs were country clubs. Here, especially around Philadelphia, the sport of cricket became quite popular. Not only were the clubs expensive to join, but the time required to play the game restricted membership from the ordinary working class.[6] Though the socializing at clubs stood antithetical to Victorian values, cricket was not a valueless game. While winning or losing hardly mattered, playing with proper etiquette, grace and style were the games fundamental values. As Rader notes, “The country clubs of the rich eased the process by which the wealthy shed lingering Victorian suspicions of play-for-play’s-sake.”[7] In the privacy of country retreats, members could lounge and relax without as great a fear of public exposure. Moreover, the rich began to feel less and less inclined to justify play, and simply started to enjoy it inutility. Men-only clubs also afforded men to socialize amongst themselves in an effort to regain the masculinity lost during the Victorian period. Personal freedom was enjoyed in a guilt-free environment where pleasure-for-pleasure’s-sake reigned.

[1][1] Benjamin Rader, American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports, (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2004) 73.
[2] Mrozek, 127.
[3] Rader, 68.
[4] Ibid, 76.
[5] Torstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, (New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1919), 167.
[6] Rader, 80.
[7] Ibid, 81.