Keywords:
Fair play, modern sport, betting, public schools, sport ethos, amateurism, professionalism.Abstract
Modern sport originated in Great Britain as a cultural product of modernity, emphasizing equality and competition. Fair play was the moral creed of the new sporting ethos, created by 19th century upper and upper-middle class Englishmen. Modern sports were forged in elite Public Schools such as Eton and Rugby, where self-government was a pedagogical innovation and where Spencer’s ‘survival of the fittest’ was part of the ideology. The thesis presented here is that fair play was advocated for the simple sake of survival in these rough games, which were gradually standardized and coded. Thomas Hughes’ novel Tom Brown’s schooldays disseminated the new sports creed and Tom Brown and his headmaster Thomas Arnold of Rugby School became role models, who inspired a whole generation, including Pierre de Coubertin. Fair play was the watchword of the gentleman amateur and the notion came under pressure when rugby and Association football were spread to the working classes. Professional players were considered by the defenders of amateurism as spoilsports, who no longer played the game for the game’s sake. The question is asked whether fair play has become an anachronistic survival of the old amateur ideal and whether the postmodern professional sport scene - as a legitimate branch of show business - should be guided by a code of professional ethics?Downloads
References
Allison, L. (2001). Amateurism and sport: an analysis and a defense. London: Frank Cass.
Andrieu, G. (1992). Enjeux et débats en E.P.: une histoire contemporaine.s.l.. Actio.
Ashworth, C.E. (1971). Sport as a symbolic dialogue. In E. Dunning (Ed), The sociology of sport: a selection of readings (pp. 40-46). London: Frank Cass. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442654044-008
Cavalini, R. (2007). Play up Corinth: a history of Corinthian Football Club 1882-1939. Stroud: The History Press. Collins, T., Martin, J., Vamplew, R. (Eds) (2005). Encyclopaedia of traditional British rural sports. London: Routledge.
Crowley, M., & Crowley, M. (1999). Spotlight on handicap, Take our word for it 66 (27 Dec; http://www.takeourword. com/issue 27.html)
Demolins, E. (1897). A quoi tient la supériorité des Anglo-Saxons? Paris: Firmin- Didot.
Dunning, E. (1971). The development of modern football. In E. Dunning (Ed), The sociology of sport: a selection of readings (pp. 133-151). London: Frank Cass. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442654044-014
Elias, N. (1971). The genesis of sport as a sociological problem. In E. Dunning (Ed), The sociology of sport: a selection of readings (pp. 88-115). London: Frank Cass. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442654044-012
Elias, N. (1986). An essay on sport and violence, In N. Elias & E. Dunning, Quest for excitement: sport and leisure in the civilizing process (pp. 150-174). Oxford: Blackwell.
Gillmeister, H. (1993). Not Cricket und Fair Play: Betrachtungen zum Englischen Sportgedanken. In V. Gerhardt & M. Lämmer (Eds), Fairness und Fair Play (pp. 127-137). Sankt Augustin: Academia.
Guttmann, A. (1987). From ritual to record: the nature of modern sport. New York: Columbia University Press.
Guttmann, A. (1985). The belated birth and threatened death of fair play, The Yale Review, 74(Summer), 525-537.
Guttmann, A. (1986). Sports spectators. New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/gutt06400
Guttmann, A. (1988). A whole new ball game: an interpretation of American sports. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Guttmann, A. (2004). Sports: the first five millennia. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Holt, R. (1989). Sport and the British: a modern history. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Holt, R. (1992). Amateurism and its interpretations: the social origin of British sport. Innovation, 5(4), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.1992.9968318
Holt, R. (1992). The amateur body and the middle-class man: work, health and style in Victorian Britain. Sport in history, 26(3), 352-369. https://doi.org/10.1080/17460260601065953
Hornby, H. (2008). Uppies and downies: the extraordinary football games of Britain. Swindon: English Heritage. Inglis, S. (2008). Forword. In H. Hornby, Uppies and downies: the extraordinary football games of Britain (p. 7). Swindon: English Heritage.
Huizinga, J. (1938). Homo ludens: proeve eener bepaling van het spelelement der cultuur. Haarlem: Tjeenk-Willink.
Indorf, H. (1938). Fair Play und der “Englische Sportgeist”. Hamburg: Friederichsen-de Gruyter.
Johnson, P. (1977). Education of an establishment. In The world of the public school (pp. 3-28). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Kircher, R. (1927). Fair Play: Sport Spiel und Geist in England. Frankfurt am main: Societas-Druckerei.
Loland, S. (2002). Fair play in sport: a modern norm system. London: Routledge.
MacAloon, J.J. (1981). This great symbol: Pierre de Coubertin and the origins of the modern Olympic Games. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
MacDonald Fraser, G. (1977). Manly little chaps. In The world of the public school (pp. 111-123). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Mangan, J.A. (1981). Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian public school: the emergence of an educational ideology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mangan, J.A. (1998). The games ethic and imperialism: aspects of the diffusion of an ideal. London: Frank Cass.
McIntosh, P. (1979). Fair play: ethics and sport in education. London: Heinemann.
McKibbin, R. (1990). The ideologies of class: social relations in Britain 1880- 1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Orwell, G. (1945). The sporting spirit, Tribune, 468 (14 Dec), 10-11.
Oxford University Press (1989). Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Renson, R. (1976). Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) and the moral aspects of play. In J.P. Massicotte & C. Lessard (Eds), Histoire, jeux et sports au Canada (1-18). Trois Rivières: Département d’Education Physique.
Renson, R. (1980). Geschiedenis van de sport in de oudheid. Leuven: Acco. Renson, R. (1999). Physical education in Europe from a cross-national perspective. In J.C. Bussard & F. Roth (Eds), Which physical education for which school? (115-130). Bulle: Association Suisse d’Education Physique.
Renson, R. (2003). Sport en opvoeding: een historische benadering. Olympic News magazine, (oct-nov-dec), 19-20.
Sanders, A. (1989). Introduction. In T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s schooldays (pp. VII-XXV). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Storr, A. (1977). The individual and the group, In The world of the public school (pp. 97-110). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Taylor, D.J. (2006). On the Corinthian spirit: the decline of amateurism in sport. London: Yellow Jersey Press. Ushborne, R. (1977). The shadow of Tom Brown, En The world of the public school (pp. 36-50). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977.
Weiler, I. (1991). Regel und Regelbruch bei den antiken Olympischen Spielen. In R. Renson et.al. (Eds), The Olympic Games through the ages: Greek antiquity and its impact on modern sport (55-64). Athens: Hellenic Sports Research Institute.
Wigglesworth, N. (1996). The evolution of English sport. London: Frank Cass. Willughby, F. (2003). Francis Willughby’s book of games: a seventeenth century treatise on sports, games and pastimes (Ed. and introd. by D. Cram, J.L. Forgeng, D. Johnston). Aldershot: Ashgate.