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Americans’ interest in spectator sports seems excessive and even obsessive to many foreign visitors. Not all Americans are interested in sports, of course, but many are. Some seem interested in little else. Television networks spend millions of dollars arranging telecasts of sports events and constantly search for new ways, such as using computer graphics and hiring famous or glamorous announcers and commentators to make their coverage more appealing. Two television networks, both of which broadcast twenty-four hours daily, are devoted entirely to sports. Publications about sports sell widely. In the United States,professional athletes often become national heroes. Sports stars such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods have become more widely recognized than any national leader other than the president, and many professional athletes receive yearly salaries in the millions of dollars.

What seems distinctive about the American interest in sports is that it is not confined to particular social classes. People in all walks of life are represented among ardent sports fans, and the collective audience for sports events is enormous.

The immense network of outdoor and indoor sports and athletic competitions is mainly funded by public subsidies and private sponsorships. Except for those sponsored by public schools, most sports activities are privately funded, and even American Olympic athletes receive no direct national sponsorship. Little League baseball teams, for example, are usually sponsored by local businesses. Many commercial football, basketball, baseball, and hockey teams reflect large private investments. Although sports teams are privately owned, they play in stadiums that are usually financed by taxpayer-provided subsidies such as bond measures. State taxes provide some money for state university sporting events. Taxpayer dollars also support state parks, the National Park Service, and the Forest Service, which provide places for Americans to enjoy camping, fishing, hiking, and rafting. Public money also funds the Coast Guard, whose crews protect those enjoying boating around the nation’s shores.

Expressions from sports are extraordinarily common in everyday American speech. Baseball is probably the source of more idiomatic expressions （examples: get to first base, touch base with, cover all the bases, throw a curve, strike out） than any other sport. That fact can be a disadvantage to foreign visitors trying to communicate with Americans, because most of them come from countries where baseball is not played, and even if baseball is a national sport in their country, they still may not understand the meaning given to the idioms.

African Americans are heavily overrepresented in the major sports of baseball, football, basketball, and track. While African Americans constitute about 13 percent of the country’s total population, they make up well over half of most college and professional football and basketball teams. It is not unusual to see a basketball game in which all the players on the floor are black.

The feminist movement has brought considerable attention to women’s athletics, so female athletes and games among female teams get more attention in the United States than elsewhere. The attention given to women’s sports in the United States is no doubt due in large part to a 1972 law that outlawed gender discrimination in schools. The law mandated equal opportunity and treatment for men and women in athletics as well as in academic programs.Although professional female athletes and coaches are still paid less than their male counterparts, American women’s participation in sports has grown significantly over the past few decades. Beginning in the late 1990s, women’s professional basketball was regularly televised on national networks, and female professional basketball players began to appear in television advertisements—the ultimate sign of social acceptance.

The most popular sport in much of the world—soccer—is becoming increasingly popular in the United States as well. Nevertheless, the most popular sports there are still American football, baseball, basketball, and in some states, hockey—games that are not played in large numbers of countries.

Sports play such an important role in American life that the sociology of sports, sports medicine, sports psychology, and even sports marketing have become respectable scholarly specializations. Perhaps scholars will someday be able to account for the popularity of sports in America and for the various ways in which the role of sports in America differs from that of other societies.

Youth is synonymous with energy—mental and physical. Organized and informal sports provide teens with an opportunity to expend some of that energy and, more importantly, to learn the value of fair play, to achieve goals, and to just have fun.

In 2003, 58 percent of boys and 51 percent of girls in high school played on a sports team. The most popular sports for boys are American football, basketball, track and field, baseball, and soccer. For girls, the most popular are basketball, track and field, volleyball, softball, and soccer. As a result of a U.S. law that encourages women to take part in athletics, girls’participation in high school athletics has increased by 800 percent over the past 30 years. Other organized high school sports often include gymnastics, wrestling, swimming, tennis, and golf. Away from school, teenagers participate year-round in community-sponsored sports leagues. In addition, particularly in the summer, they engage in informal “pick up” games of one sport or another in the streets and parks of their neighborhoods.

In 2001, a higher percentage of high school seniors reported participating in athletic teams （39 percent） and music/performing arts activities （25 percent） than academic clubs （15 percent）, student council/government （11 percent）, and newspaper/yearbook （10 percent）. Females were more likely to participate in newspaper/yearbook, music/performing arts, academic clubs, student council or government, and other school clubs or activities than males.Males, however, were more likely to participate in athletics.

Sports also play an important role in the everyday social scene at American colleges and universities. University sports programs are offered at the intercollegiate （organized competition） and the intramural （club-like, less competitive） levels. Many universities offer sports scholarships at the intercollegiate level to students who are both academically qualified and skilled in a particular sport. Athletic scholarships are awarded for everything from archery to wrestling, with an eye on gender equality to achieve a balance between men’s and women’s scholarships.

Playing for a college team on scholarship is one way students help pay for the cost of earning an undergraduate degree. About $1 billion in athletic scholarships are awarded through the National Collegiate Athletic Association （NCAA）¹each year. Over 126 000 student-athletes receive either a partial or a full athletic scholarship. These scholarships are awarded and administered directly by each academic institution, not the NCAA. Award amounts vary from a few thousand dollars to nearly $30 000 for one academic year and do not necessarily cover the full cost of tuition and living expenses. Scholarships are offered on a percentage basis, and universities have strict limits on the total amount they can award each year.

Basketball is a uniquely American sport. It originated in 1891 when James Naismith, a young physical education teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, was instructed by his boss to invent a new game that could be played indoors during the cold winter months to keep the students occupied and out of trouble. Naismith thought back to his boyhood in Canada, where he and his friends had played “duck on a rock”, which involved trying to knock a large rock off a boulder by throwing smaller rocks at it. He also recalled watching rugby players toss a ball into a box in a gymnasium. He had the idea of nailing up raised boxes into which players would attempt to throw a ball. Naismith had two bushel baskets, used for carrying peaches, nailed to the balcony at opposite ends of the school’s gymnasium. He set up two nine-man teams, gave them a soccer ball, and told them the object was to toss it into the basket being defended by the opposing team. Most of the rules Naismith drew up still apply in some form today. He called the game Basket Ball, the modern version of which is played by over 250 million people worldwide in an organized fashion, as well as by countless others in “pick-up” games.

Basketball gained quickly popularity due to its simple equipment requirements, indoor play, competitiveness, and easily understood rules. The first professional basketball league was formed in 1898. Today, the National Basketball Association （NBA） is the major professional basketball league in the world, with teams in the United States and Canada. The NBA now has 29 teams competing in two conferences, the Eastern and Western, in four separate divisions. Every year, in the second week of February, the NBA interrupts its season to celebrate the annual All-Star game, featuring the game’s best players as selected by fans throughout the United States and Canada. At the end of the season, the champions from the Eastern and Western conferences meet in a best-of-seven series to determine the NBA champion.

Superstar players like Michael “Air” Jordan increased the popularity of basketball internationally. In 1992, a so-called Dream Team, made up of the top American professional basketball players, represented the United States in Olympic Games for the first time. Many teams in the National Basketball Association now have foreign players, who return home to represent their native countries during international competitions, such as the Olympic Games. Dirk Nowitzki who plays for the Dallas Mavericks is Germany’s most popular sports exports to the United States. More than 200 national federations belong to FIBA, the Federation of International Basketball, an independent organization that governs international basketball.

Since its invention, basketball has also been a popular sport for women. Basketball was also a popular sport for women. Women’s basketball came of age with the gold-medal victory of the American women’s basketball team at the 1996 Olympics, increased media attention to women’s college basketball tournament, and the establishment of professional women’s basketball leagues. The Women’s National Basketball Association （WNBA） was founded in 1997.

Basketball has a unique appeal. As one sport journalist explained, “The deep appeal of basketball lies in the fact that the poorest of kids can make it rich, and that there is a mystery in how he does it. Neither baseball nor football creates the special, jazzed-up excitement of this game in which the human body can be made to do unearthly things, to defy gravity gracefully. A trust in mystery is part of the foolishly beautiful side of the American dream, which actually believes that the impossible is possible.”

American football is a distinct type of football that developed in the United States in the 19th century from soccer and rugby. It requires teams to run, throw and kick an oval ballacross a 100-yard field （91.4 meters）, is unrelated to the game most of the world knows by that name, and which Americans call soccer. And even the American game has variants, as there are slightly different rules for the versions played by college teams, professional teams and Canadian Football League teams.

Football is played by school, college and professional teams and is one of the most popular American sports, attracting thousands of participants and millions of spectators annually. American football was made popular by teams representing colleges and universities.

For some of its history, professional American football was played within a single National Football League （NFL）², although rival leagues did spring up as the game grew in popularity and the lure of television dollars emboldened competitors. In 1960, one such rival league, the American Football League （AFL） competed for premier talent. As the leagues contemplated a merger, they agreed to a single game each year between their respective champions. Because many collegiate football championships were known as “bowls” for the bowl-shaped stadiums that hosted them, one AFL owner referred to the new game as a “super”bowl. The name proved popular with the public.

The Super Bowl³is the final contest of the NFL’s season. Each year, on a Sunday at the end of January or beginning of February, tens of millions of Americans declare their own unofficial holiday. Americans increasingly have gathered in private Super Bowl parties, where they enjoy food, drink and televised football. An estimated 130 million to 140 million viewers—nearly half of the U.S. population—will tune in to some part of the game. Four of the 10 most watched programs in U.S. history have been Super Bowls.

The sport that evokes more nostalgia among Americans than any other is baseball. So many people play the game as children that it has become known as “the national pastime”.

The exact origins of baseball are unknown, but most historians agree that it is based on the English game of rounders.

It became quite popular in the early 19th century; many sources report the growing popularity of a game called “townball”, “base”, or “baseball”. In 1845, Alexander Cartwright⁴formalized a list of rules by which all teams could play. Rules, scoring and record-keeping gave baseball gravity. As one sport historian noted, “Baseball without records is inconceivable.” For most Americans, for example, it is common knowledge that Roger Maris’s 61 home runs （balls that cannot be played because they have been hit out of the field） in 1961broke Babe Ruth’s record of 60 in 1927.

The first professional baseball league was established in 1871. By the start of the 20th century, most large cities in the eastern United States had a professional baseball team but baseball truly came of age in the 1920s, as Babe Ruth⁵（1895-1948） playing for the New York Yankees became a national hero.

Over the decades, every team has had its great players. Jackie Robinson⁶（1919-1972） played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. A gifted and courageous athlete, he was the first African-American player in the major leagues in 1947. Prior to Robinson, black players had been restricted to the Negro League.

Starting in the 1950s, baseball expanded its geographical range. Western cities lured teams to move from eastern cities or formed so-called expansion teams with players made available by established teams. From the start, major league baseball has been divided into the National League and the American League.

The major league baseball season lasts from April to October and includes the regular season, the playoffs, and the World Series. The most victorious team in each league is said to have won the “pennant”; the two pennant winners met after the end of the regular season and a series of playoff within league subdivisions in the World Series⁷. The winner of this series becomes the major league world champion.

Until the 1970s, because of strict contracts, the owners of baseball teams virtually owned the players. Since then, the rules have changed so that players are free, within certain limits, to sell their services to any team. The results have been bidding wars; stars are paid millions of dollars a year. Disputes between the players’ union and the owners have at times halted baseball for months at a time. Baseball is both a sport and a business. Many disgruntled fans sometimes view the business side as the dominant one.

Major league baseball （MLB）⁸is the highest level of professional baseball competition in North America including teams from the United States and Canada. Today, baseball is played in the United States on the amateur level in Little League, high school and university and various community leagues.

Over the course of the 20th century, baseball spread to many nations, notably many Latin American countries, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, but also Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. Cuba’s first professional league was formed in 1878, just shortly after the first American league was established. Baseball became popular in Japan after American soldiers introduced it during the occupation following WorldWar II.

Baseball was a demonstration sport at the 1912, 1936, 1956, 1964, 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. It became a medal sport in 1992. Cuba has won three of the four gold medals since then, with the U.S. claiming gold in 2000. Softball, a variation of baseball, was added in 1996. In 2005, the International Olympic Committee voted to eliminate baseball from the Olympics after 2008. The 2008 Beijing Olympics will probably be the last Games with baseball and softball for the foreseeable future.

Comparable to the soccer World Cup, the first annual World Baseball Classic⁹took place in venues in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico in March 2006. The purpose of the four-round tournament, which featured 15 teams from overseas plus a United States squad, is twofold—first to build worldwide exposure for the game, and second, to encourage grassroots development of the sport and athletes in both traditional and nontraditional baseball nations.

What the rest of the world calls football, is known as soccer in the United States. Originally called association football （the name soccer is a corruption of “assoc” which is derived in turn from association）, soccer is distinguished from American or Canadian football and from rugby in that it is primarily played with the feet.

Soccer was slow to attract fans in the United States, where such sports as baseball, basketball, and American football were more popular. Today, however, according to FIFA（Fédération Internationale de Football Association）¹⁰, the United States has more official soccer players than any other nation in the world—almost 18 million. No other sport crosses so many cultural boundaries, and it no surprise that it is the fastest growing team sport in the United States.

Peoples around the world have played soccer-style games for centuries. Games similar to soccer were played in China more than 2 000 years ago. Such games were also played in ancient Greece and Rome. When Pilgrim ships first sailed into the harbors of Massachusetts in the 1620s, they discovered Native Americans playing a soccer-like game called pasuckuakohowog, meaning “they gather to play ball with the foot”. Playing fields were beaches a half-mile wide with goals one mile apart. As many as 1 000 people played the rough-and-tumble game at a time. Knowing who was on your team wasn’t easy because players wore disguises. Matches sometimes lasted for days, and always ended with amagnificent feast.

In colonial America, games more similar to modern day soccer were also played. In the early 1800s, a number of North American colleges had soccer teams, but the rules were informal and differed from school to school. The first official soccer club in the U.S., the Oneidas, was formed in Boston in 1862, during the Civil War. A monument now stands on the Boston Common, where the Oneidas played their home matches. Immigrants from Europe to industrial communities in the Northeast and Midwest spurred the development of American soccer in the last part of the 19th century. They brought along their soccer traditions and formed local teams. The first attempt to establish a professional soccer league dates back to 1884 when the “American League of Professional Football” was founded but it closed during the same year.

International Participation

The U.S. Soccer Federation was established in 1913. The same year it joined the world governing body FIFA. The first official national championship tournament was played in 1914. Predecessor to the U.S. Open Cup, it is the oldest cup competition in United States soccer and is among the oldest in the world. The annual U.S. Open Cup is a single-elimination tournament open to all affiliated amateur and professional teams in the United States.

The U.S. was one of 13 nations to compete in the first FIFA World Cup competition in Montevideo, Uruguay. Argentina beat the U.S. in the semi-final and the United States team, who was favored to win, finished third overall. The U.S. competed in 1934 and then in 1950 at the World Cup in Brazil. In the 1950 tournament, the American team beat England 1-0, one of the biggest upsets in soccer that year. The U.S. returned to World Cup competition in 1990, after a 40-year absence. Since then, it has qualified for each tournament.

In 1994, the United States hosted the World Cup. That sparked increased interest in the sport and built on the legacy of the North American Soccer League （NASL）, which in the late 1970s brought international stars like Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer to the United States.

In America the women’s game piggybacked the interest created by the men’s North American Soccer League. In fact, one of the slogans of the NASL was: “Soccer is a kick in the grass and girls play, too.”

The women’s national team is a very successful international player. It won the first Women’s World Cup ever in 1991. Women’s soccer became an Olympic sport at the 1996 Atlanta games, and the Americans won the first Olympic gold medal. The United States hosted theWomen’s World Cup in 1999, and the championship performance of the national women’s team was enthusiastically followed in the United States. The championship game generated a higher rating than the finals of professional hockey and basketball. American soccer players became the nation’s heroines, appearing in Nike commercials and on the covers of Sports Illustrated and Newsweek . Never before in American history had soccer been given so much attention.

Soccer is just as popular for girls as for boys in the United States. Over forty percent of soccer players in the U.S. are women. Soccer is the most popular women’s sport in college. An estimated 18 188 women played soccer in the three college divisions in 2001, compared with 17 788 in track and field. In some cases, women soccer stars are more well-known than men. Soccer star Mia Hamm was listed recently as one of the “Most Fascinating Women in Politics”in a political magazine poll.

Of the 18 million Americans who play soccer, 78% are under the age of eighteen. In the 1990s, soccer was recognized as the fastest-growing college and high school sport in the United States. The experts say soccer has become popular with children because almost anyone can play. There are teams for girls, boys, older children and young adults. This widespread participation among youth is making the sport more popular. Many Americans become interested in soccer because their children play. This has produced a new American expression, “soccer mom”. This refers to the large group of mothers who drive their children to soccer games and watch them compete. The group is so important that it has been recognized as an informal political interest group to be reckoned with in elections.

Youth soccer is played at school and also in leagues run by volunteer-driven organizations such as the “American Youth Soccer Organization” and “U.S. Youth Soccer”.

The popularity of youth soccer, and the attention gained when the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994, led to increased interest in the sport in the United States. In 1996 a new outdoor league, Major League Soccer （MLS）¹¹, debuted with professional teams in 10 U.S. cities. Five years later, in 2001, a U.S. women’s professional league, the Women’s United Soccer Association （WUSA）, began its first season with 8 teams. There are some unique differences between the two leagues. While MLS often loses its best players to overseas clubs and can find few big stars willing to play in the United States, the WUSA faces the reverse situation: it has attracted the very best female players in the world. WUSA was suspended after three seasons in September 2003. Women’s Professional Soccer （WPS）, formed in 2007, againwill give young women worldwide a chance to play professional football. The first season started in April 2009.