The popularity of sports in the 1920s rose mainly because of

Sports which grew and flourished in the nineteen twenties due to unprecedented publicity and promotion included baseball, tennis, golf, swimming, football and boxing. Newspapers, magazines, radio and movies all played a role in boosting the profile of sport and the sporting giants.

The 1920's was a transition period for many sports. Sports that had up until that time been largely amateur events caught the eye of promoters who could see an opportunity to capitalize and make money. The professional football league, golf tours, and tennis circuitwere organized. Media publicity ensured large crowds and guaranteed the financial success of the ventures, allowing new stadiums to be built and providing steadily increasing salaries for the sports stars.

As people spent more time watching and listening (radio) to sport, they engaged in less sport themselves, a trend which has continued down to the present day resulting in the so-called "couch-potato" syndrome. Watching Babe Ruth play baseball became more important than playing baseball yourself. However this was not true of all sports, as tennis and golf in particular boomed due to their higher profile, and were popular with both men and women.

Money also became a factor in college sport where it was claimed that sports had also become commercialized to the point where the few were exploited to make a spectacle for the many and where the games became a source of financial revenue rather than a school of sport and exercise for the majority, and no longer focused on sportsmanship or moral development.

The sports stars of this era remain well known even today, such was their fame and the publicity they received for their amazing careers, endorsements or promotions. Very few will not have heard of Babe Ruth in baseball, Jack Dempsey in boxing, Johnny Weissmuller in swimming, Knute Rockne and Red Grange in football, Bill Tilden and Helen Wills in tennis, and Bobby Jones and Glenna Collett in golf.

As the current sports champions were coming to the close of their careers a younger generation of sports stars were in the making.

The momentum these sports built up in the 1920's has ensured that these sports have endured in popularity to the present day. Present day sporting stars are often compared to the greats of the 1920's and great publicity attends the player who exceeds the records set 80 years ago, ensuring our old heroes are not forgotten. Pilgrimages are made to the various halls of fame where the 1920's giants are immortalized in memorials and collections of memorabilia that showcase their careers.Famous Athletes

Babe Ruth

At age seven, Ruth was sent to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory where he learned life lessons and baseball skills from Brother Matthias Boutlier of theChristian Brothers, the school's disciplinarian and a capable baseball player. In 1914, Ruth was signed to play minor-league baseball for the Baltimore Orioles but was soon sold to the Red Sox. By 1916, he had built a reputation as an outstanding pitcher who sometimes hit long home runs, a feat unusual for any player in the pre-1920dead-ball era. Although Ruth twice won 23 games in a season as a pitcher and was a member of three World Series championship teams with Boston, he wanted to play every day and was allowed to convert to an outfielder. With regular playing time, he broke the MLB single-season home run record in 1919.

After that season, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee controversially sold Ruth to the Yankees, an act that, coupled with Boston's subsequent championship drought, popularized the "Curse of the Bambino" superstition. In his 15 years with New York, Ruth helped the Yankees win seven American League (AL) championships and four World Series championships. His big swing led to escalating home run totals that not only drew fans to the ballpark and boosted the sport's popularity but also helped usher in the live-ball era of baseball, in which it evolved from a low-scoring game of strategy to a sport where the home run was a major factor. As part of the Yankees' vaunted "Murderer's Row" lineup of 1927, Ruth hit 60 home runs, extending his MLB single-season record. He retired in 1935 after a short stint with the Boston Braves. During his career, Ruth led the AL in home runs during a season twelve times.

Ruth's legendary power and charismatic personality made him a larger-than-life figure in the "Roaring Twenties". During his career, he was the target of intense press and public attention for his baseball exploits and off-field penchants for drinking and womanizing. His often reckless lifestyle was tempered by his willingness to do good by visiting children at hospitals and orphanages. He was denied a job in baseball for most of his retirement, most likely due to poor behavior during parts of his playing career. In his final years, Ruth made many public appearances, especially in support of American efforts in World War II. In 1946, he became ill with cancer, and died two years later.

Jack Dempsey

The smell of sweat fills the tiny room of screaming fans. Two boxers bob and weave in a miniscule ring, desperately attempting to bring each other to the ground. The primitive intensity of the fight continues to elevate, as fans can almost taste the tension in the pungent, sweat-filled air. Fatigue begins to set in on the opponent as his limp body starts to give into to the mighty bought. An ultimate look of fear sets in the opponent's eyes as Jack Dempsey's fist comes flying towards his face. His eyes close as a powerful and ferocious blow ensues. The opponent's body crumbles to the floor, his last recollection is being the bell sounding Jack Dempsey's victory. This was the scene was the commonality for many boxers who faced Jack Dempsey in the 1920s.Born in Manassa, Colorado on June 24, 1895, William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey rose to sports stardom in the 1920s. As a nomadic traveler from 1911 to 1916, Dempsey began boxing in the small mining towns of Colorado under the name "Kid Blackie." He emerged from numerous saloon floor-boxing matches to rein victorious in over 80 professional fights by the meager age of 24. Dempsey was perhaps best known for his thrilling knockout victories, many of which occurred in just seconds of the fight’s onset.Dempsey proved his phenomenal ability in a battle of "David and Goliath" match of fists. His iron strength and killer left hooks allowed Dempsey to beat Jess Willard in 1919, leaving the giant bewildered and shattered. This victory awarded Dempsey both the heavyweight title and the nickname of the "Manassa Mauler, " the name that soon haunted potential opponents all around the country. Dempsey became a ring warrior through his tough defense of his title six times in just seven years. In most of his matches, there were no survivors.A day of disbelief for Dempsey occurred on September 23, 1926 when he was defeated by Gene Tunney and lost his heavyweight title. Ironically, this match yielded the largest paid attendance in boxing history. Tunney and Dempsey went head to head and fist to fist again in 1927 in hopes that Dempsey would reclaim his title. Dempsey lost this rematch, which was coined "The Battle of the Long Count" because of a call by the referee that Dempsey did not return to a neutral corner after Tunney had fallen. Tunney won the match three rounds later.Dempsey continued boxing in exhibitions after his defeat but retired from professional boxing in 1940 and went on to be a successful restaurant owner in New York. Dempsey retired with an astounding record of 60-7-8. Fifty of these wins were knockouts. He was a universally accepted sports star. With his bobbing and weaving stance, amazing speed, graceful agility, and pure power, Jack Dempsey will forever remain the perfect boxer and one of the greatest box office attractions of all time.

Red Grange

Red Grange, byname of Harold Edward Grange (born June 13, 1903, Forksville,Pennsylvania, U.S.—died January 28, 1991, Lake Wales, Florida), American collegiate and professional gridiron football player and broadcaster. He was an outstanding halfback whose spectacular long runs made him one of the most famous players of the 20th century. He was an important influence in popularizing professional football.

Grange was a star football player at Wheaton (Illinois) High School before entering the University of Illinois in 1922. There he played football during the 1923–25 seasons and was selected as an All-American halfback each season. He became a national idol in 1924 when he turned in one of the most sensational single-day performances by an athlete in sports history. Against a highly rated Michigan team, Grange ran for touchdowns of 95, 67, 56, and 44 yards in the first quarter of play. In the second half he scored a fifth touchdown and threw a touchdown pass in a 39–14 Illinois victory. Grange was nicknamed the “Galloping Ghost” for his blinding speed and elusive running style.

After his last college game in 1925, Grange dropped out of school and signed a professional contract with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). Amid much controversy over his decision to leave school and become a professional athlete, Grange drew huge crowds to the Bears’ final games that NFL season and on an extended barnstorming tour. He demonstrated the potential for the growth of pro football, a game that was not highly regarded at the time by many sports fans.

After his retirement from football, Grange became the first well-known athlete to become a successful radio and television broadcaster, with a career that spanned 25 years (1934–69). Grange was a charter member of both the College Football Hall of Fame (1951) and the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1963).

Bobby Jones

The greatest amateur golfer ever, Bobby Jones dominated his sport in the 1920s. In the eight seasons from 1923 to 1930, Jones won thirteen major championships, including five U.S. Amateurs, four U.S. Opens, three British Opens, and one British Amateur. On September 27, 1930, he became the only man to win all four major titles in one season, completing the "Grand Slam" of golf. Then, while still in his athletic prime at the age of twenty-eight, he retired from competition to devote more time to his family and his law practice.

Gertrude Ederle

On this day in 1926, on her second attempt, 19-year-old Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the 21 miles from Dover, England, to Cape Griz-Nez across the English Channel, which separates Great Britain from the northwestern tip of France.Ederle was born to German immigrants on October 23, 1906, in New York City. She did not learn to swim until she was nine years old, and it was not until she was 15 that she learned proper form in the water. Just two years later, at the 1924 Paris Olympics, Ederle won a gold medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay and a bronze in the 100- and 400-meter freestyle races. In June 1925, Ederle became the first woman to swim the length of New York Bay, breaking the previous men’s record by swimming from the New York Battery to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, in 7 hours 11 minutes. That same summer, Ederle made her first attempt at crossing the notoriously cold and choppy English Channel, but after eight hours and 46 minutes, her coach, Jabez Wolff, forced her to stop, out of concern that she was swallowing too much saltwater. Ederle disagreed and fired Wolff, replacing him with T.W. Burgess, a skilled Channel swimmer.On August 6, 1926, Ederle entered the water at Cape Gris-Nez in France at 7:08 a.m. to make her second attempt at the Channel. The water was predictably cold as she started out that morning, but unusually calm. Twice that day, however–at noon and 6 p.m.–Ederle encountered squalls along her route and Burgess urged her to end the swim. Ederle’s father and sister, though, who were riding in the boat along with Burgess, agreed with Ederle that she should stay the course. Ederle’s father had promised her a new roadster at the conclusion of the swim, and for added motivation he called out to her in the water to remind her that the roadster was only hers if she finished. Ederle persevered through storms and heavy swells, and, finally, at 9:04 p.m. after 14 hours and 31 minutes in the water, she reached the English coast, becoming the sixth person and first woman to swim the Channel successfully. Furthermore, she had bettered the previous record by two hours.Afterward, Ederle told Alec Rutherford of The New York Times, “I knew it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it.” Ederle’s feat was celebrated by a ticker-tape parade in New York City, and she received congratulations from fans ranging from the mayor of New York City to Henry Sullivan, the first American man ever to swim the Channel.

Ederle damaged her hearing during the Channel swim, and went on to spend much of her adult life teaching deaf children in New York City to swim. She died in 2003 at the age of 98.

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