The Popularity Of Sports In The 1920s

The Golden Age of Sports Sports were in rising popularity before and throughout the 1920’s. The economy was working astonishingly well, and the common American had substantially more disposable income that they did not have before. This gave numerous people the money to pay for the cost of entertainment services. Baseball was by far largest in popularity, with stars such as Babe Ruth. The 1919 World Series caused much commotion during this time, and slingshotted the popularity of Baseball and subsequently the popularity of other college and professional sports. New innovations such as the Radio and Television, made it easier to listen and keep track of sports and news across the country. This created a common culture with Americans and gave

Teams like Notre Dame, coached by Knute Rockne, and Harold “Red” Grange were particularly popular. The author of “Sports In The 1920s”, the author states, “the best college teams could compete in bowl games, such as the famous Rose Bowl, held in California”(Sumner). The first bowl games that, held in the 1920s, are still extraordinarily popular today. College Basketball also drastically increased in popularity during the 1920s. Unlike today, state-of-the-art college gymnasiums were about the size of high school gymnasiums today, and could only hold around 2000 people at maximum capacity. Teams associated with universities such as the University of North Carolina, Duke, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, and Davidson brought together the largest aggregation of fans. Fans from all over the country traveled to watch the tremendous rivalries between these teams, even though they were not as popular as other sports at the time. During this time, most sports were still not very popular. The popularity of sports like tennis, professional basketball, professional football, horse racing, and boxing frowned in comparison to the other sports during this time. Boxing became increasingly popular, but was not allowed in many places. Jack Dempsey was a very popular boxer during this time, but did not box in in places because of the sports association with gambling. Illegal gambling was becoming a problem within sports, and was the reason

The World Series of 1919 was found out to be thrown by the Chicago White Sox, creating many problems within the American League. This World Series was different than many others. The 1919 World Series was played in a best-of-nine series, rather than being played in best-of-seven like all other World Series games before it. The other team involved, the Cincinnati Reds, had no idea of the scandal. The Baseball Hall of Fame states in their article “Guide to the Black Sox Scandal (American League),” Gambling was not new to baseball. There is evidence that White Sox players, in 1917, paid pitchers from the Detroit club, who beat Boston during the pennant stretch run $200 each.” This shows that the White Sox not only cheated in the 1919 World Series, but also in the 1917 season. There were 8 players involved in gambling with the 1919 World Series, including many of the league’s best players. The eight players involved included Eddie Cicotte, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Arnold “Chick” Gandil, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Charles “Swede” Risberg, George “Buck” Weaver, and Claude “Lefty” Williams. These 8 players, threw the game for a cash reward from 5 separate gamblers who were involved in the scandal. Abe Attell, Bill Burns, Arnold Rothstein, Billy Maharg, and Joseph “Sport” Sullivan, were all indicted along with the players for gambling with the 1919 World Series, and was considered as a “crime against baseball