Talk:History of sport

untitled
Strangely, the article practically ignores the war-like interpretation of the one print Reference, Mangan (1996) --if its title as apt; I haven't read it. And the national-ist interpretation is reflected only in the one cross-reference (See also). --P64 20:34, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

modern
I've added an expansion notice to the modern section, which has hardly started so far. Calsicol 16:33, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

The article may need a characterization of modern sport. Is there something commonly modern across sports with all the differences regarding the significance of spectators, coooperation, scoring, and mechanical or horse-power? --P64

football in USA
"while American football where very popular in the south-east. With baseball spreading to the south, and American football spreading to the north after the Civil War." (It is premature to focus much on grammar and spelling.) What football is this, just before and after the war? Soon after this passage the article seems to place crucial earliest(? I believe so) developments in American football later. --P64 20:18, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Multiple Issues
Sorry for being "that guy" who tags articles and doesn't edit them, but I noticed several issues here and wanted to point them so someone with more expertise in the area can fix them up. This article has the potential, due to its topic, to be very interesting and informative, and much of what's already on it helps in that regard. However, it's got a long way to go:

— The introduction needs a major rewrite. The tone is unencyclopedic, using words like "probably" and "seems" to reflect the speculations of the author rather than speculations of experts in the field.

— The section on American Football that describes a cultural exchange of baseball and football between the Northeastern and Southeastern parts of the country following the Civil War is, unless I'm very wrong, completely incorrect. It contradicts the article History of American football, which describes football as originating in the Northeast after the Civil War. I'm not sure about the part about baseball spreading to the South after the war; it may be true, but if so it needs to be cited.

— Per pre-existing tags, the article needs more references and wikification.

— The article needs expansion. It doesn't yet keep up with the section on sports history in the article Sport, which mentions sports of Ancient Greece and China.

Since this is kind of a broad topic to expand on, it might make sense to cover a thematic approach rather than a chronological approach. For instance, the article could discuss sports over time as they relate to religious rituals, warfare, hunting/survival, leisure time, professionalism, and fitness.

Apologies to any editors for these somewhat negative comments -- nothing personal! I've found the article even in it's present form quite interesting, and I'd love to see it fixed up and expanded. Krong (talk) 09:07, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

I've had a go. Paul Bedson ❉ talk ❉ 03:26, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

History of Sport
The whole section titled “Antiquity” is the sort of thing that gives Wikipedia a bad name. Large statements and no solid references at all. No doubt people have always played games of various kinds, but there’s no evidence that hurling, harpastum or cuju are 2500 years old. The earliest reference to harpastum is about 100 AD. If it "was much more than 2500 years old" that would make it older than Rome itself, given that the city is traditionally supposed to have been founded in 753 BC. Much the same goes for hurling and cuju. The very few references given seem to be to rubbishy journalists and people pushing agendas. Can’t someone knowledgeable fix this?

"sport"
An activity which may be defined as a “sport” must be differentiated from other activities, such as those which are of a primarily military nature; parallels between sports, which are primarily recreational (intended for the pleasure and enjoyment of both participants and spectators), and military activities exist and can be traced back into early human history, as evidenced by such Olympic events as the javelin throw, and competitive shooting. Both are examples of the practice of military sports, activities which may be used in conventional warfare (conventional, as defined within the context of the technological achievements of a historical period), as well as for recreational purposes, as in the case of the competitive javelin throw, in which distance throwing is competitive and recreational. In most cases, an activity may be defined as a “sport” irrespective of the existence of a potential regulatory organization or administrative agency. A sport is an activity which has a defined set, or multiple sets of rules, which allow for recreational, competitive play. Professional sports are sports in which a system of regulations is enforced, as well as organizations responsible for such enforcement, and other related activities such as the documentation of outcomes, and organization of tournaments and other “sport-specific” events. -- Anaceus 3/26/14  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.188.36.124 (talk) 17:12, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

ammendum, "sports"
possible ambiguities?

Marching, a form of organized, rule-bound walking is an activity practiced by military professionals. Is “marching” a “sport”? In most cases, a sport is a competitive *physical* activity. (however, for example, the sports network ESPN also broadcasts competitive, recreational national spelling tournaments, which are monitored and organized by a system of rules. Although not a physical activity, these “spelling tournaments” may be categorized as a sport) A sport is an activity that has a regulatory agency. (the manufacture of industrial solvents has a regulatory agency, does that make the manufacture of industrial solvents a sport?) A sport is a physical activity. (walking is a physical activity: is any kind of walking a sport) A sport is any kind of competition. (the practice of abstinence may be competitive, does this make the practice of abstinence a sport?) A sport is any kind of game which has rules. (the game of Risk has rules… can the board-game Risk be considered a sport?) -'anaceus' — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.188.36.124 (talk) 17:27, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

The sourcing is a trainwreck
First, everything tagged with simply needs to be removed. Plenty of time has been waited for these deficiencies to be addressed. Second, more than half the citations (to paginated material) either have no page numbers cited at all, or have invalid ones of the form 123–, just left open-ended. And lots of other sources are incomplete in other ways. Almost all of them were maformatted in various ways (misusing parameters or using deprecated ones), but I already fixed that mess. And repaired several broken ones. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  11:01, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

PS: Plus there are a few crap sources, like a 1930s Life magazine being cited for archaeo-historical timelines. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  11:28, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Who made sports
in the world 41.186.78.119 (talk) 13:24, 24 March 2024 (UTC)