American Football Becomes the Dominant Intercollegiate National Pastime

American colleges in the nineteenth century rejected British cricket for baseball and British soccer and British rugby for American football. While Americans copied British culture in many ways, they were often not direct copies. The historical concept of American Exceptionalism has been questioned...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of the history of sport Vol. 31; no. 1-2; pp. 109 - 119
Main Author Smith, Ronald A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 22.01.2014
Subjects
19th century
American football
Choices
College Sports
Education
Football
Higher Education
Historians
Individuals
Institutions
intercollegiate
Nineteenth Century
soccer
sport development
Sports
U.S.A
United Kingdom
United States of America
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Summary:American colleges in the nineteenth century rejected British cricket for baseball and British soccer and British rugby for American football. While Americans copied British culture in many ways, they were often not direct copies. The historical concept of American Exceptionalism has been questioned by historians, but if there ever was an American Exceptionalism, the cases for the American games of organised baseball and football surely can be made. The actions of several individuals and influence of a variety of forces insured the creation of and dominance of American football as the intercollegiate sport of choice by the turn of the nineteenth century. In American institutions of higher education 'gridiron football', in the vernacular of that era, represented the nascent 'national pastime' that triumphed on US campuses.
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ISSN:0952-3367
1743-9035
DOI:10.1080/09523367.2013.861420