Olden Days Sports

     Over the years, my papa has told me many stories of “the olden days.” I’m sure everyone has heard similar stories from their grandparents or other elderly people. However, the ones that intrigue me the most are the ones about sports, particularly, stories about the different ways sports were played in the past.

     I got the idea to write this when my papa was talking to me about golf. He told me about a golf course in Mena, Arkansas (about 80 miles south of Fort Smith), where he used to live. I was only halfway listening until he said something about the greens at the course. Instead of grass, they were sand. At first I thought maybe he was confused or maybe making a sarcastic comment on the course’s sand traps. But he explained to me that the green was sand, and when you got on the green, you had to use a rake to smooth out a path to the hole.

     I started thinking about it, and the first thing I said was, “I guess to get a hole-in-one you have to hit the ball directly in the cup, because the ball won’t roll on sand. It’ll just stick where it lands.” He said I was exactly right, but now that course has regular grass greens. Sand green golf courses used to be more common, but as irrigation improved, golf courses everywhere were able to change to grass greens. I did a little research, though, and found out that these sand green golf courses do still exist. There are a couple in Missouri, one in Texas, and a couple in Kansas. If I’m ever near one, I will definitely play it, just to see what it’s like.

     Another sport that has evolved a lot since my papa’s time is football. Obviously the players are bigger, faster, and stronger, and there’s more passing now, but the rules have changed, as well. In the past, football teams played what was called a “one platoon” system. Players had to play both offense and defense. If you look at the early Heisman Trophy winners, you’ll see several with “E” listed as their position. Instead of having defensive ends and tight ends, teams simply had “ends.” These players had to be extremely fit and capable of playing an entire game without coming off the field. Today, two-way players are very uncommon in college and large high schools, with only the most athletic playing both ways. However, in small towns, it is not unusual to have two-way players because of their talent or low numbers of players.

     Finally, women’s basketball isn’t very popular today, but those who do watch it probably wouldn’t recognize the women’s basketball played just a couple decades ago. They played a form of 3 on 3, instead of the traditional 5 on 5 that men play and women now play. Six girls from each team would be on the court at the same time, but only three would be playing at a given time. Three “forwards” were specifically offensive players, while three “guards” were specifically defensive players. Each position could not cross the half court line. I’ve always been intrigued by this archaic form of basketball, but it is practically extinct. In 1995, Oklahoma was the last state to get rid of it in favor of the traditional 5 on 5 at the high school level. However, the Granny Basketball League formed in 2005 and 50+ year old women play 3 on 3 basketball under the 1920s rules.
     In baseball, games used to be broadcast over the radio and people everywhere listened intently. My great-grandmother told me, before she passed away, stories of when she was a little kid, skipping school to listen to the Cardinals play in the World Series. This has obviously changed with TV and games being played at night, so you wouldn't have to skip school or work to watch them. Also, in the past, there were "recreation" broadcasts. Because radio stations often didn't have the money or technology to broadcast live from ballparks, they relied on telegraph updates and would relay them to their listeners. The broadcaster would actually pretend they were at the game, calling it as if they were and playing sounds such as crowd noise, the crack of the bat, and the umpires on the field. If the telegraph updates were interrupted for some reason, there would be a magical "rain delay," even though rain wasn't in the forecast for that city. While this doesn't have anything to do with rule changes, I find this interesting and kind of funny.

     I’m sure there are other sports that have evolved into how we know them today, so feel free to tell me about them. Ask your great-grandparents and grandparents; they are full of stories of the “olden days.”