WJEC Sport LEisure and Tourism: SPORT notes

Amateur played for love of the game. Professional played for money and success. 

Cricket

• division maintained between amateur and professional cricketers until 1963
• "gentleman vs players" games between amateurs and professionals.
• Gentlemen were usually weaker and tended to be batsmen; fewer players could handle the ball.

Rugby

• 1895; people demanded payment for time taken in the league
• Split between rugby league (paid) and rugby union (unpaid)
• Split heals in late 20th century; rugby union allows professionalism

Boxing

• Popular with rich and poor; rich got lots of money on fight outcomes and poor gambled what they could
• Most boxers went to USA as it was more popular there
• Amateurs and professionals were two different boxers; amateurs had many more rules in place for protection

Football

• FA prohibited professionalism until 1885; afterwards, it was "legalisation" due to the amendements made in the "Laws Of The Game"
• 1901; £4 a week for professional players. 
• Early 1960s; £20 a week

• Any olympic events with women always involved individual efforts such as figure skating
• Women were considered weak, which is why they were kept away from sporting activities. Most teams were formed by men, so women couldn't join.

Upper class

• Women played genteel sports like lawn tennis/croquet.
• This was only permitted as pastime; professionalism was outrageous.

Lower Class

• Did not play at all; were supposed to occupy themselves with housework and family

Sporting Heroes

• Mary Rand - Was a track-and-filed athlete. She won the gold medal in the 1964 Olympics whilst breaking a world record. She was the first ever female British athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.
• Gertrude Ederle - First to swim the Channel. Beat the record for males.

Football

• Stadiums were built close to stations making them easier to access for all
• People had more leisure time and a higher income
• Rivalries between towns meant people wanted to support their teams
• Proper competitions were introduced (The Football League)
• Violence - Riots broke out between football groups and fans. Hooligans were at their worst in the 1980's when trouble was caused both in, and outside the stadium.
• Expense - Ticket prices have risen leading football away from the traditional working class supporters to a more business class supporter.

Boxing

• Boxing was available almost every night giving opportunities all the time to watch.
• Favourite competitors were made, attracting thousands to watch their fights such as Jimmy Wilde in his world title fight in 1916.

Development in railways town rivalries,tournaments,increased leisure time&disposable income increased interest in spectator sports. 1923 FA Cup Final - 250,000 spectators

1900-1970s - most media coverage for sport was through newspapers, TV and radio. They encouraged people to follow sports and created sporting idols.

Newspapers

• Seperate pages allocated for sporting news. Some were written by sports stars to read the words of their "heroes". The London Evening News had former England cricket captain Sir Leonard Hutton in the 1950s to write their sports columns.
• Some newspapers dedicated to sport; "Sporting Life" sponsored annual marathons over the 1908 Olympic route. 
• "L'Auto", a French newspaper, announced the Tour de France in 1903.

Radio

• Live broadcasted events; people who oculd not go to matches waited for scores on weekends from the radio. 
• 1948;BBC broadcasted"Sports Report".Football results and leading games reports read
• Good for those who could not afford to get to matches due to the Great Depression

Television

• BBC and ITV introduced Saturday afternoon sports shows; popular in 1960s/70s
• BBC; Grandstand in 1958 covered almost every major sporting event in Britain.
• Many households rented TVs for the first time for the tournament.
• 1966 final was the most watched event on British television; 32.6 million viewers.
• BBC; Match of The Day in 1964

• 1990s; football no longer just on Saturdays. 
• Increased profile on American sports such as volleyball

• Snooker World Championchips covered live from Sheffield's Crucible Theatre
• Darts changed from pub entertainment to world championship sport
• BBC made London Marathon part of sporting calendar

Cinema

• 1930s; cinema was the only place people could see their sporting heroes. 
• Every cinema showed newsreels; main source of sport until 1960s when television came about.

New facilities such as indoor pools and sports centers were being designed:

• To encourage people to play more sport
• As people had more leisure time that should be channeled into something productive
• To encourage juniors (see "organised junior sports")
• Modern facilities could cater for disabled people
• To help fight obesity epidemics

Organised junior sports

• Youth clubs/ scouting associations offered coaching and training. 
• National Youth Movements (Young Farmers Clubs) introduced sports competitions into their festivals.
• Schools taught PE and ran teams; however, the number of matches between schools declined because sports clubs offered hockey, football, cricket and rubgy.
• Sports clubs coached and organised junior/mini sides at a variety of ages for boys and girls. 
• The emphasis was on building skill and enjoyment.

• 1957; Whitbread offered £6000 for Ascot World Cup
• Linked to sport to save/sell products
• London MArathon sponsored by Mars/Flora
• Associated with winners and popular sporting stars such as David Beckham
• Importance was significant in 1997; Labour party banned all tobacco sponsorship for health reasons but couldn't ban it from Formula One otherwise the tobacco companies would go bankrupt. 

1936 Berlin Olympics

• Gave Hitler a chance to promote Nazis and the superiority of the Aryan race
• To his surprise, black American athlete Jesse Owens starred, winning gold in 100m, 300m, long jump and sprint relay; setting new records in each
• Hitler refused to attend the award ceremony

1968 Mexico Olympics

• American sprintors Tommie Smith and John Carlos used medal ceremony to promote black power movement.
• Gloved salute; recieved medals in black socks to represent poverty.
• Smith wore a scard in black pride and Carlos wore a bead necklace for those who had been lynched or killed.

1995 SA Rubgy World Cup

• South African government showed the world that the country was united and making progress.

1972 Munich Olympics

• September 5th; eight members of Palestiniean organisation "Black September" raided Israeli athletics team.
• Two athletes killes and 9 taken hostage.

May 2006, Baghdad

• Iraqi taekwondo team stopped 70 miles west of Baghdad
• 13 bodies found in desert a year later

2009, Pakistan

• Gunmen attacked Sri Lankan cricket team.
• Seven killed and six players wounded.

• First official ban on stimulating substances was introduced by International Amateur Athletic Federation (1928).
• Despite ban and health risks, drug abuse continued.
• Anti-drug work complicated in the 1970s/80s by suspicions of drug use being encouraged by some countries.
• 1968/1972/1976 Olympics
• East Germany won 9 gold medals; then 20; then 40.
• Drug cheats regularly identified and banned.

1904 Olympics

• Thomas Hicks won marathon after recieving strychnine in the middle of the race.