Episode 187: Kenneth Cohen, Sport in Early America

by Holly WhiteMay 22, 2018

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Our present-day American culture is obsessed with sports. To cite just two pieces of evidence of this, on average, more than 67,000 fans attend each National Football League game and more than 30,000 fans attend each Major League Baseball game. This is to say nothing of the millions of fans who watch these sports on television or listen to them on the radio.

When did America become a place filled with sports nuts? When did the business of professional sports become a thing in the United States?

Early American history has answers for us as does Kenneth Cohen, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the author of They Will Have Their Game: Sporting Culture and the Making of the American Republic.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Kenneth Cohen, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the author of They Will Have Their Game: Sporting Culture and the Making of the American Republic, leads us through an exploration of early American sport and sporting culture.

As we explore sport in early America, Ken reveals what early American sporting culture was and the types of sport early Americans engaged in; Taverns, race tracks, and other venues for sport in early America; And, details about how the American Revolution impacted the development of sport and sporting culture between the colonial and early republic periods.

What You’ll Discover

Early American sport and sporting culture
Gambling in early America
Sporting culture as social control and a way to establish social hierarchy
Taverns as venues for early American sport
Regulation on gambling and sport in early America
The role and place of women in early American sporting culture
African and African-American participation in early American sports
Impact of slavery on early American sport and sporting culture
Thoroughbred horse racing
The impact of the American Revolution on early American sporting culture
The comeback of genteel sporting culture after the Revolution
Sport in the early American republic

Links to People, Places, and Publications

Ken Cohen
They Will Have Their Game: Sporting Culture and the Making of the American Republic
National Museum of American History
American Democracy, A Great Leap of Faith
Many Voices, One Nation
What would you like to know about early American History? Send me your questions!

Sponsor Links

Omohundro Institute
Audible.com (30-Day Free Trial and 1 Free Audiobook)

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, what might have happened if revolutionary leaders had not taken such a negative stance toward sports during the American Revolution? If they had had a more positive view of sporting culture, how would sports and sporting culture have developed differently in the United States? 