Athletics (Amateur)

Amateurism

Amateurism as a concept likely originated in England, where, in essence, it prevented the working classes from competing against the aristocratic elite. Englishmen used the concept to help define their social status since, as Eric Hobsbawm asserts, an important aspect of amateur sport was the self-selection of worthy opponents. Upper-class and middle-class sport with its systematic emphasis on amateurism as a criterion was a spontaneous attempt to draw class lines against the masses.

Under this system, leisure time was required to pursue sport, which was to be an avocation entirely independent of work. The idea among the early proponents of amateur sports was that participation for money was disdainful and did not correspond to the gentlemanly spirit of competition. The amateur athlete was considered to be untainted and morally superior.

The sports clubs formed in the latter third of the 19th century were the domain of wealthy, white men in positions of power. In the United States, for instance, [Page 42]during the last third of the 19th and early part of the 20th century, the driving force in amateur athletics were the urban athletic clubs, which at the outset at were primarily interested in track and field.

In the 1870s the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) promoted competitions including only amateurs, defined by the NYAC as “any person who has never competed in an open competition for public or admission money, or with professionals for a prize, nor has at any period in his life taught or assisted in the pursuit of athletic exercises as a means of livelihood,” were allowed to participate. This was the definition later adopted by the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America, and the games of any athletic club were restricted to those who met the club's definition of an amateur and a gentleman. In the intervening years the notion of amateur has taken on a far more populist, if somewhat less clear, definition.

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