Cities 2030: A conference on urban futures

History of Basketball

History of Basketball

            Well it’s March Madness and the professional post-season is right around the corner and as recently as a couple months ago sportscasters have named Miami as the national center of basketball. As long as I can remember basketball has always been a very prevalent sport but it never carried any ties. Baseball is America’s pastime; hockey is synonymous with Canada; and soccer is the world’s game. What about basketball?

            Invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith at a YMCA in Springfield Massachusetts, basketball began as a mere template to what it has become today.  Its conception came as a need for a sport of strategy that could be played indoors. Using only a soccer ball and two peach baskets, basketball began as simple sport with only thirteen rules. Yet fueled by the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association), a growing scholastic, religious, and athletic international organization at the time, basketball spread across the United States and to many other nations as well.

            As a couple years went by the YMCA did not endorse the sport, as it often created rough crowds fueled by competition. Thus the sport took a turn towards the collegiate and more professional stage. The first college basketball game was played in 1895, FIBA, the international basketball association began in 1932, and the NBA didn’t officially start until 1949 after a couple attempts at forming national leagues (Nation Basketball League and Basketball Association of America). The NCAA emerged in 1910 and would remain as the main overseer for college basketball despite their struggles to fight match fixing and gambling in the 40s and 50s. Basketball also experienced a strong emergence and exponential growth in America’s high schools to the point where today practically every high school has a varsity basketball team.

            Yet regardless of such a strong showing, basketball underwent the racial tensions as all sports did and it found a strong home in the African-American community as well. All communities would come to house a basketball court and urban cities would build public courts in parks. As the NBA advanced and became more socially integrated the popularity of basketball rose immensely in African-American culture almost to the extent where ludicrous racial generalizations were to be made about basketball being “a black-man’s game.”

As the popularity of the sport rose so did the potential rewards that came with it. To many African-Americans it seemed like a chance to escape the inner city and make a better life for themselves however this promise only touches about 3% of high-school graduating African-American seniors, both men and women.

“In 2003 there were approximately 550,000 boys and 450,000 girls of all races who played high-school basketball. If we conservatively estimate that 20 percent of these [athletes] were black, this gives us a figure of about 200,000 black players in high-school basketball, or about 50,000 in each class. … JBHE [The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education] estimates that about 1,500 black students receive basketball scholarships each year, about 2 or 3 percent of all black high-school basketball players in each class.” (The JBHE Foundation. 16)

Bibliography:

Frommer, Harvey. "Basketball." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2013. Web.

25 Mar. 2013.

Laughead Jr., George. "History of Basketball." Kansas Heritage. Kansas Heritage

Group, 05 Jan 2005. Web. 25 Mar 2013. <http://www.kansasheritage.org/people/naismith.html>.

The False Promise of Basketball as Young Blacks' Best Route out of the Inner City

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education , No. 51 (Spring, 2006), pp. 16-17 Published by: The JBHE Foundation, Inc

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25073409

PETER ROBERTS AND THE YMCA AMERICANIZATION PROGRAM 1907–WORLD

WAR I

Paul McBride Pennsylvania History , Vol. 44, No. 2 (APRIL, 1977), pp. 145-162 Published by: Penn State University Press

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27772453

"Points Ain't Everything": Emergent Goals and Average and Percent Understandings

in the Play of Basketball among African American Students

Na'ilah Suad Nasir Anthropology & Education Quarterly , Vol. 31, No. 3 (Sep., 2000), pp. 283-305 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3196162

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL: AN EMPIRICAL TEST

NORRIS R. JOHNSON and DAVID P. MARPLE Sociological Focus , Vol. 6, No. 4 (Fall, 1973), pp. 6-18 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20830874

Quick history of jet-skiing

History of PWC (personal watercrafts)

            Less than four years ago my family moved. We stayed in my hometown; we just wanted a bigger house. This new house came with river access and two 2004 jet-skiis (although not technically jet-skiis, I use the term synonymous with PWC). This opened my perspective up to another new form of leisure activity.

            The concept of a PWC has existed as far back as 1955. Original designs were cooled by air, as opposed to now when they are cooled by liquids. The first models were big and bulky with an inability to travel very fast. In 1977, Jet-skiis got a huge publicity boost when they appeared in the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me. In the mid-80’s with the popularity of these vehicles on the rise and the industry hitting a boom, more magazines came into circulation.

            The industry in now in another huge time for change with new regulations with respect to pollution and safety wanting to be addressed. The levels of pollution for these older jet-skiis are astonishing and according to Mike Nixon just 7 hours of use is the same as driving a modern car for more than 100,000 miles. (Phenomenon)

These concerns have led the industry to be in an almost constant state of change as they constantly appease those in power so that they continue selling the number one vehicle on the water, in terms of sales. As these watercrafts become more eco-friendly, and we become more conscious of the environment, we might see the emergence of a solar power jet-ski, but who knows when that will be.

Works Cited

Moore, John A. History of Personal Watercraft. 3 July 2009. Web. 21 March 2013 <http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-Personal-Watercraft&id=2561961>.

Nixon, Mike. The Personal Watercraft Phenomenon. 4 April 2003. Web. 21 March 2013 <http://www.motorcycleproject.com/motorcycle/text/phenom3.html>.

Personal Watercraft Industry Association. Personal Watercraft. Web. 21 March 2013 <http://www.boatus.com/onlinecourse/documents/pwc.html>.

Strip Clubs

Since the 20^th century, increasingly from the mid 1980’s, strip clubs have become a profitable and growing form of entertainment for heterosexual American men. Acknowledging that there are male strip clubs designed for a different audience in mind, my focus will be on the trend rather than the exception. The industry for strip clubs, an industry ran primarily by males, presents male costumers with an apparent and seemingly real product in front of their face. A product so real, so human, so intimate that the pornographic industry (magazines, television, internet) cannot compete with their virtual, pixilated snapshots. The seemingly real and limitless leisure of strip clubs is in fact identical to pornography with its spectacle and special limitation.

            Every strip club has a stage. The main stage is meant for performances, though not on an intimate level because the performance is meant for everyone and no one specific. The stage itself sits higher than the audience’s sitting position. This elevation might make it easier on the eyes, but it also creates the strange sensation of looking up to find something. Audience members tend to look down when they go to sporting events or the movies. Why must we look up to watch the strip performance?

            The space of the club is not just the stage, but also the room itself. Katherine Frank, a professional sexologist, notes how “the behavioral structure of everyday life are inverted for many costumers inside the club.” An example of inverted behavioral structure is when a woman approaches a man, thus eliminating the possibility of rejection. Another example can be seen when women ask to be looked at naked, a natural sense of human privacy now irrelevant. Frank could also be referring to the behavior of the men who can drink, smoke, and be rude/vulgar/aggressive to women with no consequence. What people do and how they behave stays in the strip club.

            Overall, the leisure activity of going to a strip club is a huge critique on the costumers and their gender identity: men who go to strip clubs for the desire to feel desirable, or to display some sort of masculinity, or to get some sort of more real pleasure, or to feel some sort of freedom. Whatever the motive may be, it is not be satisfied in their home/work life.

A Brief Background on Music

  People have been listening to music for so long that the origin of it is forgotten. There is no evidence on how music became so integrated into society. The main source of music made by humans was vocal which then evolved to using instruments for music in order to produce different kinds of sounds. In the past, music itself was important and the complexity of it did not matter. It was used for important events like preparing for war or for ceremonies. The way music started could have been a way to communicate to others or as a way of imitating natural sounds although now, music has changed into an activity mostly used for leisure and not out of necessity. There have been studies that show that music gives out an emotional response although it may be different for each listener. Morley states, “there are genuine physiological responses experienced in response to these stimuli within the structure of the music” (Morley, 151). Morley goes along to say that listening to music evokes physical responses like shivering and a racing heart, which may be why people listen to music as a form of leisure. It causes people to feel a different way and is a quick and easy way for people to feel something else in their daily lives. The different types of music have branched out with time and change of culture.  It evolved from being used in rituals to being used for a way to express emotions. The creation of instruments helped in creating different kinds of melodies and made music become more complex over time. As of the present day, music has been assimilated into the human culture and the leisure of listening to music has been a popular activity for many people.

Tennis and it's Beginning

It can be seen though an analysis of the history of tennis why individuals would choose to play this sport over many others.  Back in the 1600’s tennis was popular among royalty such King Henry VIII and throughout history other powerful and wealthy individuals played the sport. One can then infer that those who desire to play tennis over other sports is because it represents an elevated and sophisticated culture that people want to be associated with.  Back in the 1600’s only the rich could afford to build what was a standard tennis court at the time, severely depriving commoners from playing the sport.  This kept the real sport very exclusive and forced commoners to come up with revisions to the game so they could play without an actual court.  

Although in the present day most hotels and resorts offer tennis as a main leisure activity that all guests can partake in.  This cannot be a coincidence that the physical courts for tennis are located in hotels where mostly wealthy and well-traveled individuals would be able to afford to play the sport.  Additionally, for women in the 1920’s tennis may have come to represent a break from contemporary society as “Her calf-length cotton frocks were described as “shocking and indecent”, worn as they were without corsets or petticoats, but her speed and grace about the court made her a heroine with women keen to throw off the shackles of decorum ”(Pictorial History of Tennis).  This could represent a need for women during the early 20^th century to depart from the customs and manners profound in society at the time.  Tennis can be seen as the medium though which women were able to gain freedom from the mundane and strict rules after a normal working day.   

An Explanation of Doodling

The art of doodling has been around for a vast amount of time. Author Robert G. Bednarik suggests that early doodles date back to Paleolithic times, in which doodles were etched on cave walls (177). Many early species engaged in this activity as well, helping to spread its popularity, which has continued into today’s society. Menzel, an avid doodler, notes that doodling has become universal (175). A number of people ranging from students to doctors make doodles regularly. For example, a variety of students doodle while in class or doing work.

Doodling became an exciting activity, but the word to describe it was not invented yet. The name for this specific activity was not given until mid twentieth century, with the first use in the Oxford English Dictionary (Battles 1).  Everyone was doodling frequently, but never had a way to express it to other people. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “an aimless scrawl made by a person while his mind is otherwise applied”(Battles 1). Here, the inference is that doodling only occurs while one is already doing something else, such as talking on the telephone.

Doodling gained large prominence in this century, but the origins of it aren’t very clear. Some sources gathered that the word originated from the Portuguese doudo, meaning foolish, while others say it is a form of cheating or something enjoyed by mad men (Battles 1). This suggests that doodling was a silly activity, or something to keep busy. It also implies that doodling may have been a way of swindling others or causing them harm to seek pleasure.

            The act of doodling began to increase in popularity, but eventually, faded into the background. This was probably due to technological activities taking place of handwritten activities. When doodling became popular again, it was associated with other drawing aspects like sketching (Battles 2). New ideas about doodling drew more attention to it and attracted more people to join.

An increase of focus on doodling gave way to questions about what the benefit of doodling is. According to Battles, doodling brings joys that are sensuous and immediate (2). Bednarik agrees with Battles in that doodling is an activity where “… the artist becomes a mere spectator to his own spontaneous graphic production,” (177). Doodling is not planned, making the activity exciting and generating a rush to fulfill it. The artist watches as whatever is on their mind comes to life through doodles on a page.

To conclude, doodling is a very key leisure activity in today’s society. It began as an activity of cavemen to pass time, and is now an activity to freely express one’s mind without inhibition. Doodling has gained popularity and will continue to grow as an activity that allows one to escape the pressures and stresses of the world by doodling whatever comes to mind, with no limitations.