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Sports History
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Golf
Golf dates back way into history, almost reaching the 1200’s where it was developed in Scotland by striking leather balls with sticks. But for this purpose, we’re going to focus on when it was brought to America. The earliest record of golf in America was when a shipment of golf equipment was brought to William Wallace in Charleston, South Carolina in 1739. Photo: PGS AM TOUR -
Bowling
Bowling dates back with different variations in BCE times from the Egyptians using sticks and mud compiled into balls and rolling them in fields. The ten-pin “Bowling” as Americans know it is closely related to the German nine-pin game Kegeln. The first indoor bowling alley was Knickerbockers of New York City, built in 1840, where Brunswick added equipment to launch the sport’s popularity. Photo: NorthofBoston.org -
Skiing
The origin of skiing can date back way before the BC times for uses of transportation by the Chinese and others but we’re going to focus on the sports aspect. The first recorded organized skiing exercises and races are from military uses in Norwegian and Swedish infantries. However, the first public skiing competition was held in Norway, on March 19, 1843. Photo: Telegraph -
Baseball
There is no official date of when the first game of baseball was played, however, variations of what we call baseball today were being played in schoolyards and college campuses. In September 1845 a group of New York City Men founded the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club and played the first game of baseball against a team of cricket players. Photo: Total Sports Complex -
Lacrosse
The origins of lacrosse stem from a tribal game played by eastern Woodlands Native American in what is now Canada. Lacrosse is deemed one of the oldest team sports in North America despite the fact that it’s not very popular as most of the typical sports we see today. There is no set date of when lacrosse was invented but William George Beers founded the Montreal Lacrosse club in 1867 where he solidified the rules. Photo: JMM Complex -
Football
The American version of football that we know today is related to two English Sports, Rugby and Soccer. American Football was originally called gridiron football for the marked lines on the field. The first game was played by Princeton and Rutgers in an intercollegiate battle. Photo: Arizona Pop Warner -
Hockey
Ice Hockey is believed to have evolved from a simple stick and ball games played in the 18th and 19th century United Kingdom and elsewhere. They were brought to the U.S. and Canada where it was developed into hockey what we know today. The length of the rink and use of a puck have been retained to this day. Photo: Whoufm -
Basketball
James Naismith created the sport of basketball because he was looking to invent a new indoor activity that would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play indoors in the Winter. He was in charge of the YMCA International Training School in Massachusetts, where he said, “the only real satisfaction I would derive from life was to help my fellow beings”. Photo: Thencla -
Volleyball
William Morgan invented volleyball in 1895 at the Holyoke, Massachusetts, YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) where he served as Director of Physical Education. Morgan originally called his new game of Volleyball, Mintonette. The name Volleyball came about after a demonstration game of the sport, when a spectator commented that the game involved much "volleying" and game was renamed Volleyball. Photo: PSAC.ORG -
Diving
The sport of diving made its debut at the 1904 Olympic Games held in St. Louis. Although referred to as platform diving, the event contested in 1904 known as “high diving” was actually a combination of springboard and platform dives. There began a controversy over the scoring of dives so the rules were further developed as time went on. Photo: BBC