In Praise of Sport

A big thank you goes out to Andrew Jackson, our 7th President of the United States. You all know him, his picture is on the twenty dollar bill. What did he do so great that his portrait should adorn our currency you may ask? Even if you don’t ask, I’m going to tell you in a roundabout way why the Treasury made a wise choice.
Oh, you might say “Old Hickory” distinguished himself during the War of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans, securing victory, after which Johnny Horton immortalized him in song. Well, I hate to be the bearing of bad tidings; but that battle was fought after the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed, signifying the war’s end. You may say he was the first President elected for all intents and purposes, by popular vote, breaking the stranglehold of the elite class and their occupation of the office. A good and just guess, but my reason is a little simpler. Jackson laid the foundation to the skyscraper of sport that exists today whose shadow stretches across the American landscape. He was the first to manufacture the textile of sport that has become so interwoven into fabric of culture. However, this is not about Andrew Jackson, it’s about what provoked this unusual acknowledgement. I recently attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new alumni center at Florida Atlantic University. How are the two connected? I’ll tell you.
Hunting and fishing were the two sporting activities rich folk did in their leisure time back prior to Andrew Jackson becoming President in 1828. At Jackson’s inauguration, he opened the White House to all who felt so inclined to join in the festivities. The “common man” could rub elbows with Washington D.C’s movers and shakers of the period. There was much drinking and carousing a stone’s throw from the Oval office which was about to be occupied by a most uncommon “common man.” In short, people trashed the joint.
Jackson won the election by “stumping” from small town to small town. He represented the interests of the majority of Americans, not the handful of select landowners and powerbrokers. He also fancied himself to be quite a horseman, and was known to lay a wager or two to prove his point. It mattered little to Jackson who owned the horse he raced against, as long as he had the opportunity to show his mettle and make a few dollars in the process. Horse Racing is known today as the Sport of Kings. Up until Jackson became President it was only Kings or America’s version of them, who engaged in the activity. Jackson brought his love for horse racing with him to the White House, and everyone that voted for him fell in love with the sport as well. If you farmed only enough acreage to feed and clothe your family, but owned a fast horse, you could race right along side plantation owners with a stable of horses. The line separating classes had been crossed, and as a nation we haven’t looked back since.
Within the decade after Jackson leaving office, the first baseball game was played at Elysian Field in Hoboken, New Jersey. That sport too tried to keep out all but the educated elite, to no avail. By 1869, the Industrial Revolution was off and running and baseball had become a profession incorporating all classes of individuals. Waves of immigrant factory workers found baseball to be a way to assimilate into American life. Soon many of them eschewed factory work for work in the ball fields. The institution of professional baseball prided itself as a means of social mobility. Football would soon follow suit. Sadly, the segregationist racial attitudes of the era were reflected in sports. It would be many years before that line of inequality was breached.
For well over a century fathers of all races, religions and classes, have spent quality time with their children playing catch, shooting hoops, or tossing the football around; but the role of sport and its influence reaches far beyond the realm of the playing field.
Educators and legislators often bemoan the feasibility of collegiate athletic programs without looking at the big picture. Only a handful of universities across the country have gained notoriety for their academics. The Ivy League schools and the military academies, Stanford and MIT top the short list. I’ve left off the University of Chicago because under the direction of famed coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, their football program put the school on the proverbial map. Producing the first Heisman trophy winner Jay Berwanger, who later became the first draft choice for the newly formed National Football League. The argument exists that the majority of college sports programs lose money. True, most do, but there are others, like the University of Florida who occasionally share their wealth with other campus departments that are suffering financially. However, the collateral benefits reaped from collegiate sports know no bounds.
Gatorade was developed because of the football program, and look at the windfall those residuals have brought to the school, the science department in particular. At Florida Atlantic University the benefits have not been as high profile, but no less noteworthy.
The school is only in its 45th year, an infant in the world of academia. The football program is in only its 8th year and 4th at the Division I level. Last year, the team won its conference title and its first ever bowl game (on national television), the youngest program in NCAA history to do so. Articles on the team appeared in national publications. With those milestones, 100,000 diplomas became more valuable. FAU alum living in Oregon can apply for jobs there and their alma mater will be recognized because some young men won a football game.
Harold and Marleen Forkas, who did not attend Florida Atlantic, were two of the first 100 season ticket holders for football 8 years ago. They adopted the University after retiring and moving to Boca Raton, Florida from Long Island, New York. The ribbon cutting ceremony that I spoke of earlier was at the Marleen and Harold Forkas Alumni Center. Their generosity and affection for Florida Atlantic came in the form of $1,100,000 (that’s a lot of Andrew Jacksons) for construction of said center; all because they bought football season tickets.
Thank you Andrew Jackson for introducing America to the ways of sport, and how everyone can embrace them no matter who they are or what socio-economic class they occupy. We’re all the better for it.