Development of the Intercollegiate Sporting Cultur...
The children of the upper classes established the early norms for intercollegiate sport.In 1869，Harvard's crew journeyed to England for amatch with Oxford on the Thames River2.Although Harvard lost，the adventure stimulated interest in rowing，and other colleges formed rowing associations in 1870.Sixteen schools competed in the regattas，and smaller collegesmanaged to triumph over prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Yale.In 1873，as the nature of fair competition became a greater issue，the association banned the employment of professional coaches.The regattas of 1874 and 1875 drew large crowds and nationalmedia attention at Saratoga Lake3，New York.Crew members followed a strict training regimen in the quest for victory，as American competitive spirit and greater emphasis on winning began to be felt on college campuses.Such traits emerged in other competitions and soonmarked the national character.The events of themid-1870s represented the heyday of collegiate rowing，as other sports began to gain importance.
7-11 The Heyday of Collegiate Sport
In fact，intercollegiate track-andfield competition served as a sidelight to the 1873 regatta，when the New York Herald offered a trophy for a two-mile（3.2-kilometer）race.Five track-andfield events appeared on the program the following year，and in 1876 the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America（IC4A）assumed authority for the track-and-field races.The open competitions offered by the New York Athletic Club，however，soon attracted college athletes and surpassed the allure of the regatta games.Track-and-field competition eventually gained ascendance and popularity and no longer needed an attachment to the crew races.
Four schools formed the College Union Regatta Association in 1858，and the regatta of1859 also featured an intercollegiate baseball contest.Winning assumed its greatest importance in the sport of football，where victory carried great symbolic weight in the context of Social DarWinist4 notions of masculinity and physical prowess.With nowar being fought during the Gilded Age other than frontier skirmisheswith Native Americans，young whitemen had few venues in which to develop and display such courage，and football provided the physical contact and martial strategies not found in other team sports.The roots of the game lay in English peasant soccer games.By 1827，Harvard students engaged in a generalmelee at the start of the school year to brutalize freshmen as a rite of passage.Yale took up the harsh welcoming ritual in 1840 and continued ituntil school authorities banned it in 1860.Boston schoolboys continued the roughness，but by 1868，Princeton student William S.Gunmere had adapted the London Football Association's rules for games at the New Jersey college.The regulations allowed for25 players per team in a soccer-style contest，and on November6，1869，Princeton traveled to Rutgers for the first intercollegiate match，won by the home team 6-4.Columbia joined in a triangular fray（a series ofmatches between three schools playing each other）in 1870，as rules became negotiable.In 1872，Harvard adopted rugby rules that allowed running with the ball.Harvard，notwanting to defer leadership to Yale or Princeton and favoring its own rules，declined to attend a rules convention the next year in which American schools began to depart from the British version of the game.By 1876，other schools adopted the rugby rules，changing the emphasis from kicking to running.
By the latter 1870s，Harvard，Yale，and Princeton had adopted durable canvas jackets and pants，which replaced the tights previously worn by players.Evolution of clothing and equipment provided notonly greater protection butalso competitive advantage.The game further deviated from soccer in 1880，when W alter Cam p5 introduced the scrimmage line6；and in 1882，when the overemphasis on ball control produced boring（often scoreless）contests，Camp introduced concept of downs7 and yardage8 to be gained.The 1893 Princeton-Yale game，billed as the national championship，attracted forty thousand spectators.By this time，football had assumed particular characteristics thatmany Americans perceived as defining the national character.Walter Camp claimed that“our players have strayed away from the original Rugby rules，but in so doing they have built up a game and rules of their own more suited to American needs.”Throughout the 1880s，new rules sparked specialization on the football field that resembled its counterpart in industrial factories.Players assumed particular roles for greater efficiency，as linemen and backswere assigned distinctive positionswith specific duties.Before the end of the decade，football had surpassed baseball in popularity on college campuses.
7-12 W alter Camp
Notes：
1 Young Men’s Christian Association（YMCA）
An organization for promoting the spiritual，intellectual，social，and physical welfare of young men，founded，June 6，1844，by George Williams（knighted therefor by Queen Victoria）in London.In 1851 itextended to the United States and Canada，and in 1855 representatives of similar organizations throughout Europe and America formed an international body.
2 Thames River
Known alternatively in parts as the Isis，is a river that flows through southern England including London.At215miles，it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom，after the River Severn.
3 Saratoga Lake
It is a lake in the eastern part of Saratoga County，New York.The lake is approximately 4.5miles long，about1.5 mileswide at itswidest point，and about95 feet deep.
4 Social DarWinist（Social DarWinism）
It is any of various theories of society which emerged in the United Kingdom，North America，and Western Europe in the 1870s，claiming to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology and politics.Social Darwinists argue that the strong should see their wealth and power increase while the weak should see their wealth and power decrease.
5 Walter Camp
Walter Camp，in fullWalter Chauncey Camp，（born April7，1859，New Britain，Conn.，U.S.—died March 14，1925，New York，N.Y.），was an American football player，coach，and sports writer known as the“Father of American Football”.Best known for having selected the earliest All-America teams in American college gridiron football，played a leading role in developing the American game as distinct from rugby football.
6 scrimmage line
An imaginary line in football that is parallel to the goal lines and tangent to the nose of the ball laid on the ground andmarks the position of the ball at the start of each down American football；an imaginary line that goes across the field at the place where the football is put before each play begins.
7 down
The system of downs，in terms of a set number of plays to advance the ball a certain number of yards，were originally devised byWalter Camp and introduced to the game at the college football level in 1880，when Camp was still a player of the game.The offense has four downs（essentially four plays）to go 10 yards.If the offensive team advances the ball at least10 yards in four tries or fewer，the team receives another set of four downs.
8 yardage
The number of yards that a team or playermoves forward in a game of American football.
Practice for the unit
A.Blank filling
1.Baseball was modified from the sport of_________________which was originally played by_________________and considered the_________________________________________________in the USA.
2.Philadelphia became a leading cricket center，with wealthy Victorianmen playing the sport to______________________________________.
3.__________________，a bank clerk and secretary of the New York Knickerbockers baseball club，titled“Father of American Baseball.”
4.The increased interest in American identity at this time spurred baseball towider appeal，and baseball would surpass cricket as an______________________.
5.Muscular Christianity referred to the belief that_______________________________________and that cultivating one's body for the glory of God developed morals and built character.
6.Thanks to the Muscular Christianitymovement，__________became both a training ground for men and______________________________.
7._____________________________________marked the first intercollegiate sporting contest in the United States.
8.As the nature of fair competition became a greater issue，the association banned the__________________________.
9.Football firstly played in the USA was under the____________________________rules._________________firstly adopted rugby rules that allowed_________________________________.
10.Walter Camp was named______________________________________.
B.Short-answer questions
1.Compared with cricket，what advantages does baseball have to popularize？
2.What is themain concept of“Muscular Christianity”？
3.Conclude the brief history of the American football rules from the text.
C.Critical thinking
1.Why baseball surpassed cricket to become the“national pastimes”？
2.What characteristicsmake American football the“American sport”？