How Did The Vietnam War Affect Sports In The 1960s

Some people would say the way professional sports were played in the 60s seemed exactly the same as it is now. Such as expansion and development and of course, the rule change to make the games much more exciting and entertaining to watch and play, sports were growing in popularity across the board, but the sports weren’t the only thing that was happening in the 60s the Vietnam war and the Civil war was going on also racism was going on at the time to. Sports were a popular thing during the 60s there was baseball, football, and track was going on but there was other things going on with 1960 through 1969. The Vietnam War and Civil Rights were going on in the 1960s. The Vietnam War was the longest war in United States history. Promises and
Boxing was one of the most popular sport’s in 1960,The famous boxer Muhammad Ali had a brilliant amateur career. Women track was another one the woman was winning championships and were moving fast towards the men athletics, In 1969, one of the first African Americans allowed on the tour, Charlie Sifford, won a major tournament, the Los Angeles Open, signaling a tentatively broken color line. A lot of things affected sports in the 60s like the Vietnam war and the Civil war and racism. By 1967, the Vietnam War had been raging for almost eight years. Muhammad Ali got a letter that changed his life and in many ways the relationship between sports and politics. At the time the U.S. government held an annual draft to fill the ranks of the armed forces . Ali was aware of this, and for months had been trying to have himself classified as a “conscientious objector.” Ali felt his beliefs in Islam,specifically his membership in the American Black Muslim movement ( which he had joined in 1964), prohibited him from fighting in a war. However, the government did not want Ali to become a symbol of Black Muslim power. The fateful letter told him he had