The use of leisure time.
Sports became a popular pastime for many Americans in the late nineteenth century.
Golf, tennis, and bicycling (which became a short-lived national craze in the 1890s)
attracted middle-class and well-to-do men and women, while baseball drew more
diverse and much larger crowds. Not long after the professional Cincinnati Red
Stockings began barnstorming around the country, the National League was formed
(1876) and the rules of the modern game took shape. The rival American League began
play in 1901, and the inaugural World Series was held two years later. Prizefighting, long
considered a working man's sport, gained wider acceptance with the introduction of the
Queensberry rules, which mandated the use of gloves, set the length of a round at three
minutes, and outlawed wrestling holds; no less a figure than Theodore Roosevelt
endorsed boxing as a manly sport. Football quickly became the premier collegiate
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- Fall '08
- Marshall
- late nineteenth century., Dr. James Naismith, shortlived national craze, rival American League, professional Cincinnati Red, inaugural World Series
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