HISTORYOF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

CHAPTER 5

Richard A. Swanson

Chapter Objectives

• Explain what a physical activity historian does.• Describe the goals of history of physical activity.• Describe the development of the subdiscipline of history of

physical activity.• Explain how research is conducted in history of physical

activity.• Explain what research tells us about physical activity in

U.S. society from the Industrial Revolution to the present.

Goals of History of Physical Activity

• To identify and describe patterns of change and stability in physical activity in particular societies or cultures during specific periods• To analyze such patterns

Why Use History of Physical Activity?

The history of physical activity teaches us about changes as well as stability in the past, which helps us understand the past as well as the present and make reasonable decisions for the future.

What Do Historians of Physical Activity Do?

• College or university faculty members• Teach• Research• Service

• Others• Librarians• Journalists• Consultants to publishing companies• Library archivists in charge of special collections of documents• Museum curators

History of Kinesiology and Physical Activity

• Early beginnings: late 19th century to 1960s• Edward Hartwell’s report On Physical Training (1899) was one of

the few efforts until 1960s. • Paxson: Close of frontier meant sport provided “safety valve”

function (1917).• Staley: Courses in history of PE should include sport (1937).• Dulles: America Learns to Play: History of Popular Recreation

(1940) showed sport’s importance for pleasure and democracy.• After World War II, Betts vs. Boyle. Did sport bind people together

in an active way (Betts) or did it merely reflect society (Boyle)? (continued)

History of Kinesiology and Physical Activity (continued)

• Identifying the subdiscipline: 1960s to 1970s• Eyler, Staley, and Zeigler in 1962 developed sport history section

in the College Physical Education Association (renamed National College Physical Education Association for Men) (NCPEAM).• The only formal organization for sport historians, NCPEAM Proceedings became important published record.• 1971 AHA meeting included an entire section on sport history.

• Expanding the subdiscipline: 1970s to present• North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) in 1972• Greater focus on gender, regional histories outside North

America, and sport historians outside physical education

Research Methods in Historyof Physical Activity

• New analytical frameworks developed in 1970s-80s• Modernization Theory• Rise of modern sport during Industrial Revolution as U.S. society

shifted away from agricultural economies to city-based industries rooted in science and technology • Guttmann: From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports

(1978)• Human agency• People actively involved in developing or constructing their sports• Expanded to include gender issue

(continued)

Research Methods in Historyof Physical Activity (continued)

• Other: exercise health history; links with other disciplines• Finding sources of evidence• Primary sources• Secondary sources

• Critiquing the sources• Authenticity• Credibility

• Rule of context• Rule of perspective • Rule of omission or free editing

• Examining, analyzing, and synthesizing the evidence

Overview of Knowledge in Historyof Physical Activity

• We know much of European and rich sport histories in other parts of the world; this chapter is on North America.• Critical time periods• 1840-1900: industrialization and westward expansion • 1900-1950: consumerism, immigration, and democratization • 1950-present: electronic communication and globalization

• Focus for each period• Participation in physical activity• Physical activity professions• Scholarly knowledge about physical activity

1840-1900: Industrializationand Westward Expansion

• Integration of body, mind, and soul• Recommendations for vigorous exercise for boys and men• Recommendations for moderate exercise for girls and

women• European gymnastics systems—German and Swedish• YMCA and YWCA• Immigrants and sports—clubs focused on their traditions

(continued)

1840-1900: Industrializationand Westward Expansion (continued)

• School and college physical activity—Hitchcock, Sargent, Hannah• Intercollegiate sport—student control to university control• Women’s sports (physical educators included women’s

activities)• Professional and amateur sports (modern Olympics,

baseball)

Physical Activity Professions

• Early practitioners before the 1880s• Physicians, successful athletes, journalists, educators,

ministers, health reform advocates, business entrepreneurs, and a handful of European gymnastics specialists who immigrated to United States• Beginning of physical education, late 19th century• American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education

formed in 1885. After several name changes, today it is known as SHAPE America, the Society of Health and Physical Educators • Teacher training programs

Scholarly Knowledge About Physical Activity

• Science-based investigations and curriculums• 19th-century scientific discoveries in anatomy and

physiology, oxygen transport, energy transformation, and the nervous system• Professional programs very common• Focused on teaching physical activities and instilling

positive social values in students through participation in play and sport

(continued)

1900–1950: Consumerism, Immigration, Democratization

• Competitive sport for males• Competitive sport for females• Sport at center of school and college physical education

curriculums• Military and World War I• 1920s: Golden Age of Sport

(continued)

1900–1950: Consumerism, Immigration, Democratization (continued)

• The Great Depression• Military and World War II (All-American Girls Professional

Baseball League)• Racial and ethnic relations (Jackie Robinson)

Physical Activity Professions

• Degree programs in physical education expand• 1920s saw the first doctoral degree programs• Coaches• Athletic trainers

• National Athletic Trainers’ Association in 1950• Cramer Company

(continued)

Physical Activity Professions (continued)

• Physical therapists• WWI reconstruction aides• American Women’s Physical Therapeutic Association

(presently American Physical Therapy Association) in 1921

Scholarly Knowledge About Physical Activity

• Growth of research in the late 1920s and 1930s• Harvard Fatigue Laboratory• Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport• Sport was Americans’ favorite activity in the first half of the

20th century. They paid less attention to exercise though interest picked up during WWI and WWII in order to improve physical fitness.

1950-Present: Electronic Communication and Globalization

• Enthusiasm of Americans—both as direct participants and as spectators—mushroomed in second half of the 20th century for a widening array of sport and exercise.• Electronic media expanded rapidly: television, computers,

satellites, and Internet.

Participation in Physical Activity

• Increase in health-related exercise through 2000, followed by a decline in Americans meeting recommended activity levels• Increase in outdoor recreation• Decline in youth sport participation since 2010

Physical Activity Professions

• Discipline of kinesiology led to an expansion in the number and variety of professions. • The variety of professionally oriented college and

university curriculums grew.• Number of professional associations and certifications

grew.• In the middle of the 20th century, most physical education

majors entered the same profession – physical education teaching. By end of the century, they could choose from a wide array of physical activity careers.

Title IX: Educational Amendment of 1972

Section 1681. Sex(a) Prohibition against discrimination: exceptions. No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, except that . .

Scholarly Knowledge About Physical Activity

• Influences on the growth of scholarly subdisciplines beginning in the 1960s—specialization• Research journals• �Physical Education: An Academic Discipline�—Franklin

Henry, JOPERD, 1964, 35(7), 32-33, 69• Broader scope of study moves beyond sport to exercise

other aspects of physical activity

Wrap-Up• History extends your memory, as it were, with fascinating,

evidenced based stories about how and why physical activities and the field of kinesiology came to be shaped the way they are.• Knowledge of the past gives you an important, broad

understanding about the present that you can use to make better-informed personal and professional decisions.