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    Cincinnati on Field and Court: The Sports Legacy of the Queen City
    Cincinnati on Field and Court: The Sports Legacy of the Queen City
    Cincinnati on Field and Court: The Sports Legacy of the Queen City
    Ebook229 pages1 hour

    Cincinnati on Field and Court: The Sports Legacy of the Queen City

    By Kevin Grace

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    About this ebook

    Sports are a key expression of civic identity along the Ohio River and are a large part of any discussion of Cincinnati's heritage. Their significance helps us interpret the broader issues of economic and social classes, gender differences, race and ethnicity matters, politics, and community values-in short, sports help us understand ourselves.

    Covering the time period from the 19th century when German immigrants formed the first American Tuner societies for athletic training, and professional baseball developed to the current age of new ballparks and sports celebrities, Cincinnati on Field and Court takes a look at the place of sports in the cultural life of the Queen City. Included are professional teams like the Reds, Bengals, and Royals; legendary figures like Pete Rose, Oscar Robertson, and Ezzard Charles; dramatic moments like the 1919 World Series, the courageous story of Maurice Stokes, and the Olympic achievements of DeHart Hubbard; and social issues like the impact of women's sports and racial segregation and integration. The good, the bad, the foolish, the innovative, the tragic, and the inspiring are all covered.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateOct 16, 2002
    ISBN9781439613627
    Cincinnati on Field and Court: The Sports Legacy of the Queen City
    Author

    Kevin Grace

    Author Kevin Grace is archivist adjunct assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati where he teaches courses on sports and society. He is a member of the North American Society for Sport History, the Society for American Baseball Research, and other professional organizations. He has also been a consultant to both ESPN and the History Channel.

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      Book preview

      Cincinnati on Field and Court - Kevin Grace

      Lily.

      INTRODUCTION

      A baseball fable was published in Cincinnati in 1885 that captured the place of sports in the city. Titled O’Toole’s Ghost, the tale appeared anonymously in a local weekly tabloid that featured satirical cartoons and articles about life in Cincinnati and America. In the story, a young Irish delinquent by the name of Mickey McGonigle is anxious to become a star player for the Cincinnati ball team, and, in a dream, he is advised by the ghost of a dead pitcher, the outstanding Barney O’Toole, that success will come for him if he just remembers never to argue with the umpire. He will be the greatest ballplayer ever. Cincinnati is called Sweinburg in the story; the owner of the local Dirty Stockings club is German-Jewish; the umpire is hated; the crowd is made up of women, men, and children representing all social and economic classes; gambling is rife; and every Cincinnati ethnic stereotype imaginable is spun into the telling. Unfortunately, during a crucial moment of a game, McGonigle argues the umpire’s call on a foul ball and thus loses his athletic talent as quickly as he acquired it. He is reduced to a life of pushing an ash-cart through the Cincinnati streets and muttering to himself. People look at him, point to their heads, and say, a victim of the base ball craze.

      In short, this one little story neatly encompasses every aspect of the 19th century city and professional sports. And, surprisingly, those aspects are little different from cities and sports more than a century later—race and ethnicity, economics, social issues like gambling, and celebrity worship.

      It was the city in America that gave rise to organized sports. Without a resident population large enough in size, some disposable income (for attendance or gambling), and free time (such as it was; a result of the Industrial Revolution, with established work hours and wages), team sports and organized leisure activities would not have developed. There would be no spacious ballparks, no swimming pools, no basketball courts and boxing rings, no arenas and field houses and playgrounds. It is from the cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries that sports, as we know them today, spread to every corner of the country, making us a sports nation in the 21st century.

      The reason why O’Toole’s Ghost still resonates in the chamber of our collective sports memory is that the people, the setting, and the situations are still very familiar. We know ballplayers and owners like this today. We recognize the crowd at the ballpark, and can identify with the seemingly arbitrary decisions of an umpire. We feel the competition between one community and another. And, we feel the exhilaration that sports give to our everyday lives.

      Cincinnati, like other 19th century Midwestern cities, was settled by people from the Middle Atlantic and eastern seaboard states, and by mid-century had a tremendous influx of European immigrants. Forming the new urban working class, these citizens gathered in groups with which they naturally had something in common: ethnicity, national origin, faith, or occupation. Males often bonded together in these similarities in what has come to be called the saloon, or bachelor, subculture.

      In working class saloons, away from the gentlemanly expression of sport by the middle and upper classes, men drank, caroused, fought, and gambled over sporting propositions. Bloodsports and betting on them were the norm. These bloodsports—boxing, rat-baiting, cockfighting, or dog fighting—have always existed just beyond the pale of society, constantly debated in terms of morals and ethics. They existed then, and exist now, because of the element of the wager. In reaction, as early as 1843 a group called the United States Anti-Gambling and Moral Trust Society met in Cincinnati to draw up a constitution and organize their outrage against such activities.

      At the same time, sports and athletic activity grew among the other segments of the population. Gymnastic clubs and shooting clubs were created. The YMCA movement combined physical fitness with moral and spiritual fitness, in part to battle the influence of the saloons. And, baseball continued to grow. With the professionalization of the game following the Civil War, the amateur, middle-class, gentleman players were replaced by those with working class origins who viewed sport as a path to economic respectability. College sports such as football developed, and urban leisure time was taken up with tennis, bowling, bicycling, skating, and walking. Competitive events were embraced even more by fans and athletes, and bloodsport would not disappear (as it never will in human affairs). This divergence of interests made the city a veritable world of athletics in every form, for every type of sports fan.

      As America rushed into the 20th century, sport became king in Queen City. Entire sections of newspapers came to be devoted solely to the description, dissection and discussion of games and personalities. The Reds would win five World Series. Professional football—Celts, Redlegs, Blades, Bengals—would sputter and start, die out, and roar to life again. Bearcat and Musketeer college basketball would become the talk of the nation. The National Basketball Association would come and go, and so would championship boxers. The Flying Pig Marathon would attract runners from around the globe. And, there would be ballpark built upon ballpark, stadiums gracing the Ohio River, racetracks slotted here and there, and the filling of arenas and halls and centers and gardens.

      In the last decades of the 20th century and into this new millennium, sport also has flexed its considerable economic muscle, both nationally and locally. But just as important have been the other community sports of the city, complementing the professional teams from baseball and football to basketball and soccer: Special Olympics and Senior Olympics, tennis courts and golf courses, recreational baseball and softball, and neighborhood bowling teams. New examples of sport and community are the Oakley Cycle Club’s race series in Cincinnati’s Mt. Lookout Park and the Ohio River Run of kayaks and canoes to promote the ecological importance of the river. Both events hearken back to a century ago when competitive bicycle races were common and a score of canoe clubs existed in Cincinnati.

      Sports provide us with a sense of place, and there are only two reasons for writing this book: understanding and

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