Few observers of American life today would doubt that sports occupy a prominent place in our society, but equally few have examined the origins of the country's greatest passion. Probing our history, culture, and consciousness, Donald J. Mrozek shows how sports gained national acceptance and became as standard as fried chicken and church on Sunday.
Today's boom has its roots in the period from 1880–1910. As Mrozek shows, famous and forgotten public figures and athletes helped shaped the modern craze. They included nutritionist Horace Fletcher, strongman Eugene Sandow, journalist Elizabeth Paine, and such familiar personalities as Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and John Muir.
A national interest in sports could develop only after the governing classes had ceased to oppose organized games. Thereafter many forces worked on the public mind. National unification after the Civil War, changes in the role of women, and increases in leisure time all played a part. Other contributing trends were interest in an energetic lifestyle, the beginnings of a youth culture, and a generalized need for acceptable ways of expressing sexuality and sensuality. This wide-ranging study paints a lively and compelling portrait of the American people in quest of sport.