American Sports Vs Progressive Sports

Progressivism of Sport from 1900-1950
It has been highly debated and discussed among scholars and enthusiasts for years regarding whether organized sport in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States should be regarded as primarily conservative or as progressive. During this time many sports figures made their mark on American culture and created moments on and off the field that will forever change the way Americans view sports. The business of sports became a force that is a vital part of American life and changed the daily lives of everyone. While there were people that used this medium in order to make sure the culture of the United States remained unchanged, they were overshadowed by progressive thinkers and doers.
Going right along with Dyreson’s sporting republic, sports made it easy for American culture to embrace politics as a parallel to following the rules or playing by a code of fair conduct in sport. The idea of athletic technology became a popular thought in which sporting republicans believed “all forms of rational recreation and any strenuous games or contests contributed to their schemes of progressive social reform” (Dyreson 19). During this time sport was also heavily supported as a common language to promote social ideology which like Gulick believed was no longer found in the industrialized society. President Theodore Roosevelt popularized these claims stating “government support of sports programs was the only available republican method for making urban children “strong and law-abiding” (Dyreson 28). Roosevelt envisioned sport as a way to create a masculine culture with the world’s strongest people, restore civic virtue, create a sense of fair play for economic and social relations, and provide real experiences (Dyreson 29). In addition, the entire Olympic movement play on this idea. The Olympics are and have always been political, one way to showcase a nation’s dominance over the others, with the two games already discussed in this essay (1904 and 1931) being clear evidence. Economics were drastically affected by sports. Advertising exploded
This momentum carried into the second-half and is still felt today. There is absolutely no way after recalling the events of this period of time that anyone could say that our world would have progressed to the point that it did in that amount of time without sports. Even in today’s society professional athletes continue to be some of the most influential people in the world with millions of twitter followers and fans, unheard of advertising power, and brands worth more than the revenue they have earned while playing the sport. This movement is rooted in the twentieth century and there is not denying its impact for the betterment of