The Rise of American High School Sports and the Search for Control, 1880–1930RobertPruter. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013.

Abstract

The Rise of American High School Sports and the Search for Control, 1880-1930 Robert Pruter. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013.When one considers the pervasive role that high school sports play in our society, it is surprising that there has been no study of their early history. Now there is. Robert Pruter's The Rise of American High School Sports and the Search for Control, 1880-1930 fills an important historiographical gap in the study of American sports.Pruter begins the unenviable task of outlining the rise of high school sports by confirming what many scholars have already assumed: high school athletics followed a similar pattern of development as college athletics. Both began as student activities organized and managed by students, often with the help of alumni, that competed against similar teams and clubs aligned with other schools and organizations, such as the YMCA or church. Indeed, many of the early high schools that Pruter mentions were elite boarding schools in Northeastern cities.As college athletic competitions expanded, so too did those in high schools. By the late-1890s and early1900s, major cities such as New York, Boston, and Chicago began creating formalized leagues for high school sports. These developments coincided with a movement to legitimize physical education as academic discipline and pursuit which was valuable for all students. Following the arguments of the leading Progressive reformers and Muscular Christians, coaches and instructors began taking an active role in the athletics and physical education opportunities of students as a means to instill discipline and good character.What followed was an era of reform and a takeover of high school sports by the educational establishment, which Pruter describes as the search for Students resisted and pushed back against administrative efforts to curb team travel, limit lost class time, and standardize eligibility. By the 1910s, institutional control of high school sports was largely accomplished. Fueled by sports such as basketball and track and field, cities and states began creating leagues to better facilitate the scheduling of large tournaments and meets. By 1915, most of states had formed their own high school athletics association.High school sporting opportunities expanded during the 1920s. New sports, like cross country, golf, hockey, soccer, and lacrosse, joined the traditional high school sports of football, basketball, tennis, and track and field. This expansion faced little opposition and likely helped administrators justify their control. …