Philosophy of American Sport: Toward a Quest for Virtue

The growth, development, and popularity of sport in the United States of America is as dramatic and as dynamic as the growth and development of the country itself. Sport in America in its early years was a pastime of the landed gentry, the industrially wealthy and, for lack of a better phrase, the “idle rich.” But it was a series of events immediately prior to and significantly after World War II which propelled sport to the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.There are five elements of the American tapestry which have contributed to the exponential growth of sport in America today, which, combined, form a Construct of American Sport. Those five elements are the American economy; the competitive nature of the American psyche; the sense of teamwork in American character; the American educational structure from kindergarten through the college experience; and the organized recreational leagues that have emerged in community after community.In Philosophy of American Sport: Toward a Quest for Virtue, the author discusses how the blending of these seemingly tangential elements idealized in American sport actually has its roots in the ancient concept of “virtue.” Through an explicit application of these elements it is apparent that American sport, with all its successes and failures, with all its vices and foibles, exhibits a true quest for virtue, woven into the fabric of why and how America and Americans approach life and reflected in the microcosm of American sport.