He goes on to help create the first public high school sports league in the country (located in New York City), along with other youth-focused recreational programs. Might explain his lackluster coaching record at Kansas. In terms of muscular Christianitys broad influence on American sports, one of the most important legacies is the idea that sports can be a site for moral formation. before). James Naismith was undoubtedly a proponent of amateur sports; even at the end of his life he thought the college game superior to the professional. Its literally created at a muscular Christian institution and by a person who fits the muscular Christian mold. At the same time, each approach provides a different framework and set of priorities for Christian sportspeople to consider as they compete. As muscular Christians get more and more involved in athletics, they do two main things: First, they help to legitimize sports for church-goers, making it a more respectable activity instead of something seen as frivolous or even sinful. "If men will not be gentlemanly in their play, it is our place to encourage games that may be played by gentlemen in a manly way and show them that science is superior to brute force with a disregard for the feelings of others, Naismith wrote when he introduced the game to the world in 1892. Of course, those connections have changed considerably over the years. But urbanization, industrialization, and corporate capitalism are taking white Protestants out of physically demanding jobs and into white-collar city work. Pauls a professor at Baylor University and an aficionado of the Kansas City - Omaha Kings. While Wooden, a lifelong member of the mainline Disciples of Christ denomination, generally held to liberal Protestant views, there was room for conservative theological perspectives within muscular Christianity as well. There were ironies and contradictions in this understanding of success. Imagine a bunch of tweed and elbow patches. Growing up in Indiana in the 1920s, Wooden admired Amos Alonzo Stagg as the ideal coach, and he also drank deeply from the success literature that was popular at the time. Bruce Bartons The Man Nobody Knows (1925) is the classic example of this approach. Edwin Henderson, the father of Black basketball, is a good example of this. But he was also able to recognize the hypocrisy of the amateur system as it came to exist in college sports. By developing those character traits, Wooden suggested, athletes and coaches could achieve true success, which he defined as the peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.. Henderson, holding the basketball, is often referred to as the father of black basketball. Six years later Im still digging into those questions. A standout athlete at Yale in the 1880s, Stagg was originally going to be a minister. For most muscular Christians, they were a constellation of traits connected to notions of strenuous masculinity and traditional middle-class American values: Cooperation, belief in God, initiative, self-discipline, loyalty, respect for authority, courage, honesty. What does it mean to compete for Christto be a Christian athlete or coach? This happened soon after its invention when Senda Berenson, the director of physical education at Smith College, modified the game and brought it to her students. And yet, there is no doubt that it could also provide a deeply meaningful framework for coaches and athletes to maintain a healthy sense of perspective in their athletic pursuits.
The physical education department of the school is led by Luther Gulick. [ed. I get to think and write about those two themes quite a bit in my current role as the Assistant Director of the Sports Ministry Program at Baylor's Truett Seminary. As for the origins of my interest, I'm one of those academics who got into a subject for autobiographical reasons. Because it usually did not emphasize specific and particular Christian doctrines, it was malleable and broad, able to adapt to and accommodate a variety of religious perspectives. note: The Triangle magazine from January 1892 mentioned in last weeks article. Muscular Christians said that sports were not inherently sinful, nor were they simplyentertainment and recreation; instead, sports could be a way to develop and grow Christian character. That, I think, is where James Naismith would have landed. [ed. The Buffalo Germans, pictured above, were perhaps the most famous of these early amateur-turned-pro hoopsters.]. One of the most important organizations in that space, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes [FCA], played a formative role in my life. In the United States, it takes off in large part because there's both a growing fear of overcivilization in the late 19th century and a growing excitement about the possibility of national expansion. But playing in order to make money, win acclaim, or for other supposedly selfish reasons corrupted the idealism that made sport an engine of positive moral formation. Muscular Christians try to counter this feminine reputation by either bending over backwards to attract men to church or by trying to find ways to bring Protestant values to men outside the church. There are other defining features of muscular Christianity, too.
Second, Naismith believed basketball could help participants build character and develop skill and courage without the brutality of sports like rugby and football. The Christian faith was not so much about sinners in need of salvation, but seeds in need of nurturing and growth through the church as well as through family, school, and sports. And it also became popular in rural and small-town communities in states like Kansas and Indiana. note: girls playing basketball in Washington, DC, in 1899. It is interesting, too, to consider how the founder of basketballs views on amateurism evolve over time. If you look closely, you can see James Naismiths article debuting Basket-Ball. Editor of the magazine was Luther Gulick another monumental figure in early basketball.]. By maintaining a firewall between amateurism and professionalism, muscular Christians believed they were protecting the potential for moral formation through sports. On the other hand, many muscular Christians of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries would have fit more into the liberal side of Christianity than the conservative side. Naismith believed basketball was at its best when coaches were not involved in the game, only the players on the court.
Baseballs association with professionalism made it less appealing to muscular Christians as a character-building sport. It could be linked with womens sports as well, but with womens opportunities for competition severely limited, it was usually closely connected with men. [Ed. Weve already talked about how basketball was picked up by women. And its in the 1890s when the YMCA adopts its famous inverted triangle logo, with the three sides representing the unity of spirit, mind, and body that muscular Christians are trying to promote. I knew from experience that the FCA was not just a club for Christian athletes; it was trying to form me into a particular type of person. He prayed with his team before games, encouraged his players to attend church, and continued to articulate the moral benefits of the sport. [Ed. How did they evolve? Thank God, they like to go to football games! American football never gets a foothold outside of North America. While White muscular Christians like Stagg believed young Black men lacked the leadership qualities necessary to excel in football, Black coaches like Gaither directly challenged those racist assumptions. Thats where we get to the importance of athletics. Beginning in the 1960s, Christians in sports began to ask that question with greater frequency. So while physical labor might be necessary as part of ones work, things like recreation, exercise, and sports are seen as time wasters because they dont cultivate the soul and they can potentially lead to all sorts of fleshly desires. In any case, Gulick was the taskmaster who set Naismith down the road of creating basketball. Q6: Thanks for smartening everyone up. Maybe the best visual representation of this muscular Christian logic is the old logo of the Young Mens Christian Association. Woodens connection to the legacy of muscular Christianity was apparent, too, in his ecumenical understanding of the Christian faith. Many Christians back then held on to this idea that to be the best Christian, one had to focus on the inner life, on things not seen: on cultivating the mind and the heart. "By developing her body by as scientific and thorough means as her mind, Berenson wrote, women could "reach the highest development of true womanhood.". As historian Derrick White explains, Gaither (and many others) saw college football as a way to cultivate a version of Black manhood that tied student-athletes to the ideology of racial uplift and, eventually, to the mantle of racial leadership., In the 1920s, while he was a college athlete, Gaither wrote an article on the benefits derived from football that advocated for the moral value in the game. When he became a coach himself, Gaither infused his football program with Christian values. There are plenty of academic books and articles written about muscular Christianity, but the key takeaway for our purposes is this: It sanctioned the physical activity of sports by giving it moral and religious value. Still, basketball became one of the few competitive team sports available for women, and thus one of the ways in which muscular Christianity extended beyond men. With basketball in particular, Id say first and foremost that without muscular Christianity we dont have the sport at all. I have a decent grasp on this religious outlook that infused basketball, but I wanted to bring in my friend Paul Putz, who has studied Christianity and sport far more deeply than I have. ], At the same time, muscular Christians believe that Americas leaders need to be morally equipped for their taskyou know, the whole, "If men will not be gentlemanly in their play, it is our place to encourage games that may be played by gentlemen in a manly way and show them that science is superior to brute force with a disregard for the feelings of others, Naismith wrote when he, explaining how and why she adapted the sport for her students, and she framed it with a similar logic used by muscular Christians.
If sports were so good at developing positive traits in men, she noted, why couldnt sports do the same for women? What is Muscular Christianity and why did it have such a prominent role in physical education and athletics at that moment? And muscular Christianity also forged links between Christianity and sports that we still see today. As a set of beliefs about the moral potential of sports, a variety of communitiesliberal and conservative, Black and Whitehave been able to embrace its logic while deploying it in different ways and for different ends. For many athletes and coaches, this understanding of Jesus provided a tangible and practical example for them to follow. Note the peach basket has been ditched, yet the net is not yet open at the bottom. 0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit). First, basketball reflects muscular Christianitys global and imperialistic dimensions. The original crop of muscular Christians, as weve discussed, thought that commercialism would take away the potential for moral formation through sports.
Any talk about the task of building Christian character through sports can be traced back in some way to muscular Christianity. How should Christian athletes and coaches connect their faith with their participation in competitive athletics? For muscular Christians, sports are seen as a natural way to appeal to men and to bring them into the church. This is why you can have someone like John Woodena small-town Indiana boy who idolized Amos Alonzo Staggplay pro basketball in the 1930s after his college career was done, with no apparent reservations. And then theres a physical education instructor named James Naismith. The difference was that someone like Wooden believed Christian faith could be nurtured and grown from birth as a person learned to follow and practice the ideals of the master coach; an evangelical, on the other hand, believed that a person had to be born again before their Christian faith could grow. If basketball offered a more refined version of manhood than the rugged aggression of football, compared to baseball it offered a sport that was more closely linked (at least at first) with amateur ideals. It appears that you have disabled your Javascript. Its a nebulous movement, but what differentiates it from ordinary Christianity at the time is its emphasis on physicality, masculinity, and the body. Amateurism was central to that project, both because amateur sports were supposedly freer from the vices associated with pro sportsgambling, drinking, swearing, etc.and because many muscular Christians were idealistic believers in amateurism as an ideology. When he became a coach himself, Wooden took those ideas and developed what eventually became known as the Pyramid of Success. And it's closely connected with nation and empire.
What's your upcoming book, The Spirit of the Game, about? Basically, if you want to know how and why Christianity became a consistent and conspicuous presence in modern-day American sports, my book gives you the history. 
The physical education department of the school is led by Luther Gulick. [ed. I get to think and write about those two themes quite a bit in my current role as the Assistant Director of the Sports Ministry Program at Baylor's Truett Seminary. As for the origins of my interest, I'm one of those academics who got into a subject for autobiographical reasons. Because it usually did not emphasize specific and particular Christian doctrines, it was malleable and broad, able to adapt to and accommodate a variety of religious perspectives. note: The Triangle magazine from January 1892 mentioned in last weeks article. Muscular Christians said that sports were not inherently sinful, nor were they simplyentertainment and recreation; instead, sports could be a way to develop and grow Christian character. That, I think, is where James Naismith would have landed. [ed. The Buffalo Germans, pictured above, were perhaps the most famous of these early amateur-turned-pro hoopsters.]. One of the most important organizations in that space, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes [FCA], played a formative role in my life. In the United States, it takes off in large part because there's both a growing fear of overcivilization in the late 19th century and a growing excitement about the possibility of national expansion. But playing in order to make money, win acclaim, or for other supposedly selfish reasons corrupted the idealism that made sport an engine of positive moral formation. Muscular Christians try to counter this feminine reputation by either bending over backwards to attract men to church or by trying to find ways to bring Protestant values to men outside the church. There are other defining features of muscular Christianity, too.
Second, Naismith believed basketball could help participants build character and develop skill and courage without the brutality of sports like rugby and football. The Christian faith was not so much about sinners in need of salvation, but seeds in need of nurturing and growth through the church as well as through family, school, and sports. And it also became popular in rural and small-town communities in states like Kansas and Indiana. note: girls playing basketball in Washington, DC, in 1899. It is interesting, too, to consider how the founder of basketballs views on amateurism evolve over time. If you look closely, you can see James Naismiths article debuting Basket-Ball. Editor of the magazine was Luther Gulick another monumental figure in early basketball.]. By maintaining a firewall between amateurism and professionalism, muscular Christians believed they were protecting the potential for moral formation through sports. On the other hand, many muscular Christians of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries would have fit more into the liberal side of Christianity than the conservative side. Naismith believed basketball was at its best when coaches were not involved in the game, only the players on the court.
Baseballs association with professionalism made it less appealing to muscular Christians as a character-building sport. It could be linked with womens sports as well, but with womens opportunities for competition severely limited, it was usually closely connected with men. [Ed. Weve already talked about how basketball was picked up by women. And its in the 1890s when the YMCA adopts its famous inverted triangle logo, with the three sides representing the unity of spirit, mind, and body that muscular Christians are trying to promote. I knew from experience that the FCA was not just a club for Christian athletes; it was trying to form me into a particular type of person. He prayed with his team before games, encouraged his players to attend church, and continued to articulate the moral benefits of the sport. [Ed. How did they evolve? Thank God, they like to go to football games! American football never gets a foothold outside of North America. While White muscular Christians like Stagg believed young Black men lacked the leadership qualities necessary to excel in football, Black coaches like Gaither directly challenged those racist assumptions. Thats where we get to the importance of athletics. Beginning in the 1960s, Christians in sports began to ask that question with greater frequency. So while physical labor might be necessary as part of ones work, things like recreation, exercise, and sports are seen as time wasters because they dont cultivate the soul and they can potentially lead to all sorts of fleshly desires. In any case, Gulick was the taskmaster who set Naismith down the road of creating basketball. Q6: Thanks for smartening everyone up. Maybe the best visual representation of this muscular Christian logic is the old logo of the Young Mens Christian Association. Woodens connection to the legacy of muscular Christianity was apparent, too, in his ecumenical understanding of the Christian faith. Many Christians back then held on to this idea that to be the best Christian, one had to focus on the inner life, on things not seen: on cultivating the mind and the heart. "By developing her body by as scientific and thorough means as her mind, Berenson wrote, women could "reach the highest development of true womanhood.". As historian Derrick White explains, Gaither (and many others) saw college football as a way to cultivate a version of Black manhood that tied student-athletes to the ideology of racial uplift and, eventually, to the mantle of racial leadership., In the 1920s, while he was a college athlete, Gaither wrote an article on the benefits derived from football that advocated for the moral value in the game. When he became a coach himself, Gaither infused his football program with Christian values. There are plenty of academic books and articles written about muscular Christianity, but the key takeaway for our purposes is this: It sanctioned the physical activity of sports by giving it moral and religious value. Still, basketball became one of the few competitive team sports available for women, and thus one of the ways in which muscular Christianity extended beyond men. With basketball in particular, Id say first and foremost that without muscular Christianity we dont have the sport at all. I have a decent grasp on this religious outlook that infused basketball, but I wanted to bring in my friend Paul Putz, who has studied Christianity and sport far more deeply than I have. ], At the same time, muscular Christians believe that Americas leaders need to be morally equipped for their taskyou know, the whole, "If men will not be gentlemanly in their play, it is our place to encourage games that may be played by gentlemen in a manly way and show them that science is superior to brute force with a disregard for the feelings of others, Naismith wrote when he, explaining how and why she adapted the sport for her students, and she framed it with a similar logic used by muscular Christians. If sports were so good at developing positive traits in men, she noted, why couldnt sports do the same for women? What is Muscular Christianity and why did it have such a prominent role in physical education and athletics at that moment? And muscular Christianity also forged links between Christianity and sports that we still see today. As a set of beliefs about the moral potential of sports, a variety of communitiesliberal and conservative, Black and Whitehave been able to embrace its logic while deploying it in different ways and for different ends. For many athletes and coaches, this understanding of Jesus provided a tangible and practical example for them to follow. Note the peach basket has been ditched, yet the net is not yet open at the bottom. 0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit). First, basketball reflects muscular Christianitys global and imperialistic dimensions. The original crop of muscular Christians, as weve discussed, thought that commercialism would take away the potential for moral formation through sports.
Any talk about the task of building Christian character through sports can be traced back in some way to muscular Christianity. How should Christian athletes and coaches connect their faith with their participation in competitive athletics? For muscular Christians, sports are seen as a natural way to appeal to men and to bring them into the church. This is why you can have someone like John Woodena small-town Indiana boy who idolized Amos Alonzo Staggplay pro basketball in the 1930s after his college career was done, with no apparent reservations. And then theres a physical education instructor named James Naismith. The difference was that someone like Wooden believed Christian faith could be nurtured and grown from birth as a person learned to follow and practice the ideals of the master coach; an evangelical, on the other hand, believed that a person had to be born again before their Christian faith could grow. If basketball offered a more refined version of manhood than the rugged aggression of football, compared to baseball it offered a sport that was more closely linked (at least at first) with amateur ideals. It appears that you have disabled your Javascript. Its a nebulous movement, but what differentiates it from ordinary Christianity at the time is its emphasis on physicality, masculinity, and the body. Amateurism was central to that project, both because amateur sports were supposedly freer from the vices associated with pro sportsgambling, drinking, swearing, etc.and because many muscular Christians were idealistic believers in amateurism as an ideology. When he became a coach himself, Wooden took those ideas and developed what eventually became known as the Pyramid of Success. And it's closely connected with nation and empire.
What's your upcoming book, The Spirit of the Game, about? Basically, if you want to know how and why Christianity became a consistent and conspicuous presence in modern-day American sports, my book gives you the history.