167: The Golden Age of Sports: Horse Racing, Boxing, Basketball, Football, & Jim Thorpe
History That Doesn't Suck
Prof. Greg Jackson
4.7 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2024
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“We have a basket and a ball, and it seems to me that would be a good name for it.”
This is the story of America’s varied athletic endeavors (besides baseball). Though each sport could provide enough material for an entire episode, it would probably run us into overtime, and the 1920s are drawing to a close. As Black Thursday approaches, it’s time for some last-minute fun and games.
The 1920s is the Golden Age of Sports—fans can’t get enough of the races, the ring, the court, or the gridiron. Of course, in the case of horse racing and boxing, the love of the competition is combined with the heady rush of gambling. But even when there’s no money changing hands, sports still draw people in. There’s simple bloodlust; boxing legends like John L. Sullivan and Jack Johnson are ruthless, and football actually gets so savage that it’s almost banned entirely until Teddy Roosevelt and a few others intervene, (much to the relief of fans today). There’s also novelty. James Naismith’s game “basketball” is a true original. But the most compelling factor is probably witnessing human excellence, best exemplified by the American Olympian dubbed “the greatest athlete in the world.”
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Transcript
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| 0:39.0 | voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. |
| 0:42.4 | These are the thrilling and captivating story. of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. |
| 0:43.0 | These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, |
| 0:48.0 | and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. |
| 0:52.0 | Go to Explores Podcast.comcom or just look us up on |
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| 0:59.4 | Welcome to History that Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor Greg Jackson and as in the classroom my goal |
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| 1:27.0 | or click the linkth, 1891. We're at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, |
| 1:47.5 | where James Nay Smith is wrapping up another gym class, another disappointing gym class, that is. James feels a deep sense of failure as the |
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