The Age of Sports Heroes

With the expansion of American sports arose a panoply of sports heroes, who became part of a new popular culture that presented the public with tantalizing alternatives to an increasingly complicated, impersonal, and bureaucratic world. Heroes such as boxers Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey, baseball player Babe Ruth, and tennis phenomenon Helen Wills had several things in common: They played with unprecedented power, they dominated their sports, and their exploits were “ballyhooed” into larger-than-life status by promoters and eager news outlets. They also logged achievements that many ordinary Americans could only dream of: a Black man who beat white men bloody without being lynched; an apparent orphan who won fame and fortune with the swing of a bat; a young woman whose athletic skills took her around the world. Hero status had its perils – even as Jack Johnson was celebrated by African Americans, his victories sparked angry white retaliation, and he was forced to flee the country after a federal conviction on trumped-up charges. But such actions only underscored the cultural significance sports had acquired.