How Did Politics Influence Sports In The 1960s

1960s Sports The 1960s were filled with events like the Vietnam war and the assassination of Kennedy so sports were very important to the United States because they provided something for the American people to get away from the stress of their lives. And sports were in rapid change in the 1960s with the NFL and AFL merger in 1966 and the first super bowl in 1967. The NBA stayed the same through much of the 60s with the Celtics dominating the NBA for 9 titles in 10 years. And college football had its usual powerhouses playing each other in classic games like the game of the century between Texas and Arkansas in 1969. The 1960s was a decade of rapid growth, change, and controversy in the United States for many reasons, primarily the Vietnam
Politics had a huge influence on sports in the 1960s, mainly in college football 1969. In 1969 undefeated Texas played undefeated and southwest conference rival Arkansas, and President Richard Nixon declared that he would attend the game and that the winner of the game would be national champions. That decision was highly controversial because many people thought that it wasn’t the president’s place to make that kind of decision. Many felt that another undefeated team should be considered for a national champion and those people were mainly fans of Penn State and USC, but the decision stayed the same and Texas became the 1969 national champions.(Hirshburg, Kennedy, and Deitsch) In the 1960s, there was still segregation laws in the United States and sports helped to end these laws by having African Americans in key positions, for instance, in 1966 Bill Russell became the first African American coach in the NBA. this helped with integration in the 60s and because fans of sports teams treated the black players on their favorite teams just like a white player they started to treat all blacks like they would treat all whites.(1960s