Thursday, October 27, 2011
Rugby
After the class discussion on Rugby I have become a Rugby fan. I think I like it so much because it is like American football in many ways but it is still different. Rugby is a sport that is played all over the world, popular in a lot of places but not so popular in U.S. Sport globalization class has made me realize that the sports that are popular in other areas of the world are not popular in the U.S. such as soccer and rugby. The reason I believe the global sports are not popular in the U.S is because we are totally ethnocentric. In the U.S we believe that football, basketball, and baseball are at the center of the sport world. In reality, there are many other sports which are close to, if not just as popular as "American sports". What I've learned so far this semester is that global sports are important because they are a means to establishing a connection between the U.S. and other countries. It is evident that sports can be used to bring countries and ethnicity closer and closer together. If we can find a way to embrace sports such as soccer and rugby in the U.S., this may help to establish a sense of "togetherness" which may help in other aspects as well.
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I really like what you said in this entry. I don't know if you have taken the Sport History class, but in it we discuss the roots of American football (Walter Camp was very influential in shaping the way it is played today). Interestingly both rugby and soccer played an important role in the early history of American football. In fact, football history suggests that the first game played in 1869 was a "hybrid" of rugby and soccer. And it was played at schools in the Ivy League, like Rutgers, Princeton, Harvard and Yale. I wish it was more popular in the U.S. today. You should definitely go to one of the BGSU rugby games if you get a chance.
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