Sport History Essay

Submitted By kmellette
Words: 749
Pages: 3

History of Sport

If you were to take a look back into the history of sports it would become very clear they all come from the same basic principle. This slightly shocking foundation is based upon violence. It is seen that audiences crave explosive entertainment. This craving is satisfied through with the attendance to sporting events. For example during a football game, the spectators yell and cheer when the quarterback receives a heavy, powerful tackle. This blood lust of humans dates back to the original Greek and Roman games. All of these games were centered on violence. Not only were they were for entertainment, they were also used to prepare the competitors for war. Boxing is displayed in Greek art as far back as 1500 B.C. This was a completely game a boxing as the kind we know and watch today. There were no rules or refs, and finger breaking and other gruesome things were allowed due to their audience appeal. When the Romans took over Greece they altered the face of this combat sport. They decided to make the competition more bloody and violent. The Romans had the idea of giving the boxers gloves which had spikes across the knuckles. That was just the beginning, however. The Romans introduced gladiators to the world. This was more so like war. The competing gladiators would fight until the death. Even this type of sadistic contest was completely captivating to the people of Rome. Philosophers took hold of this opportunity to demonstrate to people how to be brave in times of suffering. These events continued until the 4th century; at that time, the Roman Catholic Church banned all sports based on the belief they were pagan. The famous Colosseum, the location the combats took place, gradually deteriorated. It was not until the 13th century that sports began making a comeback. Jousting was one of the first of these to gain popularity. That was until the king was accidentally killed during a jousting match. In the 1700s, boxing was revived in England. It still had almost non-existent rules. That was until 1741 when a boxer came up with set of rules after accidentally killing a man. Being banned in the United States, boxing became an underground sport. It was a very common place for high stakes gambling. In the 20th century, the United States finally lifted the ban on boxing. When Muhammad Ali came into the boxing world everyone loved him. It did not matter that he was black; the people were simply in shock of his abilities as a champion boxer. It was because of Ali that boxing became mainstream in the 1960s. Wrestling is another competition that has a longer history than most other sports. It was in 704 B.C. that wrestling was installed as an Olympic sport. History records that this sport took place without clothing or weapons. It was a bare knuckles type of match. A different type of wrestling was taking place in Japan. This was known as sumo