1. Canadian Sport History*
07/16/96
Canadian Sport History
Dr. Kevin B. Wamsley
11/16/2018 *

2. Outline - Methodology
Sport
History
Problems and issues

3. Why study sport?

4. How do we study sport?

5. History in the Making… 2 1
11/16/2018

6. What is History? - elements
1. Past
2. Evidence
3. Interpretation
11/16/2018

7. What is history?
“A reconstruction of the past from evidence available in the present.”

8. History: The Key Processes
Research
Analysis
Writing

9. What do historians study?
What do you think of when you hear the word “history”?
What did you study in high school?

10. Chronology
Politics
Economy
National
Government
Military
Social – daily life situated in broader contexts

11. From Caroline Ware, The Cultural Approach to History
“ I know history isn’t true Hinnessy, cause it ain’t like what I see every day in Halstead Street. If a man comes along with a history for Greece or Rome that’ll show me the people fightin’, getting’ drunk, makin’ love, getting’ married, owin’ the grocery man, and bein’ without hard coal, I’ll believe there was a Greece or Rome but not before…. History is a post mortem examination. It tells you what a country died for. But I’d like to know what a country lived for!”

12. Problems
Evidence
Sources
Interpretation

13. Example: from the Ancient World to the Present
Ancient Egypt
Greek philosophers
Christians
Middle Ages
Greek to Latin
19th century
Latin to German, French, English
To 2004

14. Understanding History
“…only a part of what was observed in the past was remembered by those who observed it; only a part of what was remembered was recorded; only a part of what was recorded has survived; only a part of what has survived has come to the historian’s attention; only a part of what has come to their attention is credible; only a part of what is credible has been grasped or can be expounded or narrated by the historian” ~ Louis Gottschalk

15. Getting Lost in the Trenches
World War I - Original Message Sent:
“ENEMY ADVANCING ON THE WEST FLANK, PLEASE SEND REIFORCEMENTS”
World War I - Original Message Delivered:
“ENEMY IS DANCING ON A WET PLANK FOR 3 AND 4 PENCE”

16. The Classroom Trenches
U of A: “The Indians are against me and please send me to the forcement”
U of A: “I want to play minnie, minney, minney moe”
U of C: “88 is on the way, please bring reinforcements”
U of C: “Charlie Nash is the best tennis player in the world”

17. Continued 1993 - U of C: “My name is Franz, what happened to Hertz?”
U of C: “The hosts of the past, below the masts, makes something different”
U of C: “It’s not history, it’s nothing like go, go, go
U of C: “Now there is only time for sport and entertainment”

18. Continued 1998 - UWO: “The sun, the moon, the boot! The shoe”
UWO: “Dancing under broken men”
UWO: “The sun, the moon, the boot! The shoe”
1999 – UWO “Of the event that happened last night.”
2004 – UWO “something about sports management & exercise”
11/16/2018

19. The Historical Process - Some Problems
History has gender biases
History is about winners, not losers
History has race biases
History has subject biases

20. How do we avoid some of these problems
A consciously applied framework of analysis
Class – gender – race
Critical

21. “we need to ask what interests and coalitions of interests gave specific shape to the development of modern sport. We need to ask how the development of sport has affected the lives of men and women in different parts of Canada. We need finally to ask how contemporary sport in Canada is both influenced by and an influence on developments in other Canadian Institutions.”

22. Where do we go from here? Sport in the Ancient World
Sport in the Middle Ages
Europe and the Renaissance
Aboriginal games
New France
The English
Organized Sport