THE RATIONALISATION OF SPORT

History Example During the 19th Century Oxford and Cambridge Universities acted as “melting pots” in terms of the historical development of sport. Using examples, explain the role these universities played in the development of sport (6 marks)

THE MOVE TOWARDS RATIONALISED SPORTS The development of RATIONALISED SPORTS with formalised rules and codes of behaviour, began in public schools. The controlling middle classes saw to it that the standards of play were their own standards.The new sports governing bodies were set up to ensure that this remained the case. The sanctioning and control of sport had passed from the parson and the squire into the new reforming hands of the middle classes. NOTES

SPORT AND OXBRIDGE The next stage in the development of RATIONALISED sport occurred with the passage of public schoolboys from school to university. They were transmitted by “old boys”, returning to their former communities, and by the schoolmaster and the cleric moving to provincial towns and parishes. Early match fixtures between public schools ran up against problems because of the highly localised rules developed within each school. Some standardisation had occurred although much of this was in the form of individualised arbitration prior to each match. Games were played by agreement. One set of rules would be played in the first half followed by a change of rules in the second half.

For a truly National range of sports to flourish, some standardisation of both rules and playing area was necessary. Many of these early National rules came out of the Oxbridge Melting Pot. It was so called because the major universities of OXFORD and CAMBRIDGE took boys from all the major public schools each bringing their own set of rules.

Each School developed its own version of football

The Football Association (1863) and the Rugby Football Union (1871) and their respective rules emerged largely from discussions and developments at these two universities.

For the rest of the C19th and much of the first part of the C20th OXBRIDGE Athletes figured largely in the formation of rules, national associations and international and domestic Amateur sports teams. Most of today’s governing bodies of sport were formed during the last half of the C19th with former public schoolboys from Oxford and Cambridge being involved in nearly all of them. The University boat race together with corresponding fixtures in Athletics, Cricket, Football and Rugby formed major features of the British sporting calendar.

By the time that participation in sport was again a realistic possibility for ordinary people, those sports were now associated with moral values and good breeding and had been stripped of all their former “MOB” characteristics. Look at this next video clip and see if you can answer the following question.

History Example During the 19th Century Oxford and Cambridge Universities acted as “melting pots” in terms of the historical development of sport. Using examples, explain the role these universities played in the development of sport (6 marks)

History - Answer Students had come from different schools Had interest/enthusiasm for sport but difficult to play each other Need for compromise rules Different school members write up /rationalisation/codification of rules Example - Cambridge rules of football Graduates took games into society - football/rugby/ athletics Varsity games led to increase in interest/standards example - Boat race/rugby/ athletic meets/cricket