Sports+in+the+1920s

=__//**Sports In The 1920's**//__=

=//**Football**//= Fooball in the 1920's was just catching on as a spectator sport. The original pro football league was the American Professional Football Association (APFA) which changed its name to the National Football League (NFL) in 1922. In 1921 Fritz Pollard, player-coach of the Akron Pros, became the first black head coach. The first conspiracy in the NFL happened in the 1924 season; after two consecutive undeafeated seasons Canton, which had suffered severe financial trouble, was bought by the president of the Cleveland Bulldogs; who quickly dis banded the franchise and keept the best players to use on his team. In 1925 the Chicago Bears played the Los Angeles Tigers in front of a record 75,000 fans at the L.A. Coliseum. In 1927 The New York Giants won the NFL championship by posting an unheard of ten shutouts in thirteen games. In 1929 the Providence Steam Roller became the first team to host a night game on November 3rd. For more info on this topic please visit this link [|NFL History]. 1196399638



=//**Baseball**//= One of the main issues in [|1920's, baseball] was the fixing of the 1919 World Series, otherwise known as the Blaksox scandal. Players involved in the scandel were suspended for life by the league officials. The Blacksox scandal also begin a decline in the sport's popularity, it was saved by a player name Babe Ruth who broke the record for home runs setting at 60 in one season. Babe Ruth was a member of the 1927 New York Yankees, the team is still considered one of the greatest teams of all times. Another player on the team was Lou Gehrig, Gehrig set a record for the most consecutive games. He played in 2,130 consecutive games giving him the nickname "The Ironhorse". Also a player on the Cleaveland Indians named Ray Chapman was killed when he was hit by a pitch in the head while at bat. 1196381641 =//**Tennis**//= [|Jean Rene Lacoste] was a famous tennis player of the 1920s. He is most famous for the alligator shirts he made. He was called the alligator by his fans because of his pugnancy on the tennis court. Lacoste also designes the first tubular steel tennis raquet marketed by Wilson Sporting Goods. There are many different theories for why he is called the alligator. The most authoritive one being that he made a bet with his son and the stakes was a suitcase made of alligator that he saw in a Boston store. 1196386577

=//**Golf**//= [|Golf in the 1920s] experienced a major poplularity boom. The number of golfers and courses constructed increased dramatically as the middle class joined in on in the sport due to increased leisure time and relative prosperity. [|Bobby Jones], [|Walter Hagen], and [|Gene Sarazen] took over the professional golfing scene during the 1920s. They became known as the "Three Musketeers." Bobby Jones was the most dominant golfer of the three and is widely regarded as the sports's greatest practicioner. Hagen was the most colorful of the trio due to his bad-shots-while-still-winning style and the fact that he broke the social distinction between pros and amateurs. Sarazen was the most durable of the three and still competed at age fifty-six.1196425738



=//**Relation To The Great Gatsby**//= Sports is not a main theme in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, __The Great Gatsby,__ but it is mentioned thorugh out the book. The way that football is mentioned in the novel is just the mention that Tom played football when he was in college. Baseball realtes to The Great Gatsby through the Blacksox scandel that was mentioned in the book. In the novel, Gatsby says he has a partner in the black market whoes name was Wolfsheim, However the novel does not say how Wolfsheim was involved just that he was. The last sport that was mentioned in the novel was golf. One of the main characters, Jordan Baker, played, and allegedly cheated at, professional golf.1196992663