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Colonists Arrive, and Find Native Americans Living Active Lives
Native Americans hunted, canoed, ran from place to place, and engaged in a multitude of physical activities as they sought food, built shelters, and communicated with other tribes. Young men had to successfully complete a series of challenging physical tests in order to become warriors. -
Colonists Find Interest in Sports
Colonists liked to engage in skating, coasting, fishing and bowling. In Virginia running,boxing,wrestling, horse racing, cockfights, foxhunts, and then later cricket and football were popular. -
Free Public Education
Free public education began to slowly became available for boys and girls in this time period. The growth of female private schools increased educational opportunities for women. -
Physical Education Incorporated into School Curriculum
Throughout the 1820s-30's PE became implemented into school curriculum.
German gymnastics was introduced to the US at this time. -
Catherine Beecher Developed a Program of P.E. Within the School Curriculum
Catherine Beecher was a director of the Hartford Female Seminary in Connecticut.
The program included calisthenics performed to music. -
First National Turnfest Held in Philadelphia
Turnvereins began to be established as more Germans immigrated to the United States. Germans established Turnverein societies in their communities. -
YMCA Opened in US in 1851
Stands for Young Men's Christian Association. Was originally founded in London in 1844. Luther Gulick played instrumental role in YMCA Training. -
First Intercollegiate Competition
The first intercollegiate competition was a crew race between Harvard and Yale.
Intercollegiate athletics would become increasingly popular over the years. -
Delphine Hanna Accepts Major Teaching Position
She became the first woman in US to become a full professor of physical education at Oberlin College.
Her program evolved into one of the first professional preparation programs for physical education. -
First Modern Olympics Held in Athens in 1896
Only males participated in the 1896 Olympics. There were 28 events, and four sports: track and field, gymnastics, target shooting, and fencing. -
Selective Service Act of 1917 Called All Men Between the Ages 18-25 To Service
Women physical educators became active in conditioning programs in communities and industries at home while men were away at war.
Women also began to show a growing interest in sport and physical education during the time of the war. -
First Doctoral Degrees in P.E. Offered
First doctoral degrees were offered by the Teachers College of Columbia University and New York University. Other programs began to develop because of this. -
P.E. Programs for Disabled Individuals Develop
These programs were developed by Robert Tait McKenzie.
He worked to include all people in Physical Education. -
Great Depression Causes Decline in P.E. Programs
1929 Stock Market Crash, ushered the Great Depression
Budgets were cut and programs in many cases were dropped. Between 1932 and 1934 an estimated 40% of physical education programs were dropped completely. -
NATA Founded (National Athletic Trainer’s Association)
Qualified individuals were needed to treat athlete's injuries.
Coaches and other not as qualified people worked as Athletic Trainers until NATA was established. -
Kraus-Weber Minimal Muscular Fitness Test States American Children Are Less Fit Than European Children
December 1953 Journal of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation published an article entitled, “Muscular Fitness and Health”.
This reported the results of the Kraus-Weber Minimal Musccular Fitness test given to European and American children
Nearly 60% of the American children had failed, compared to only 9% of European children that failed The test tested flexibility and abdominal strength
This caused President Eisenhower to establish the President’s Council on Youth Fitness. -
11 physicians Found the Federation of Sports Medicine
Group of 11 physicians founded the federation of sports medicine. This later became the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) -
Advancements Made in Encouraging Women in Sports
1964 the first National Institute on Girl’s Sports was held
This discussed ways to encourage more girls and women to participate in sports.
The Division for Girl’s and Women’s Sports (DGWS) of AAHPERD played an important role in developing the guidelines for girls’ and women’s participation. -
Special Olympics Founded
Special Olympics provides competitive sport opportunities for individuals with mental retardation.
Physical educators became more convinced that students with special needs would benefit from the participation in P.E. -
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
Title IX Law stated that “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 educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
The main reasoning behind this law was to ensure women and girls the same rights as men and boys. -
NCAA Report Massive Increase in Participation in Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reported that during the 1989-1990 academic year 266,268 collegians participated in intercollegiate athletics.
In 2011-2012 over 560,000 collegiate athletes participated. -
Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General and Most Recently, the 2010 Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation
The landmark 1996 report Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General and most recently, the 2010 Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation affirmed contribution of physical activity to the attainment and maintenance of health.
States that Americans can substantially improve their health by including moderate to vigorous physical activity in their daily lives. -
Centennial Olympic Games held in Atlanta Georgia
In the 100 years since their rebirth in 1896, the Olympics had evolved into an event of global magnitude. In 1896 they only had 300 athletes from 11 different nations. In the Atlanta Olympics of 1996 there were 10,570 athletes from 197 nations. This increase in participation proves that the interest in sports and competitive sports has increased dramatically worldwide throughout the last 100 years. -
Sources
Wuest, D. A. (2015). Foundations of physical education, exercise science, and sport. New York: McGraw Hill Higher Education.
