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Duy Huynh ENGL 109 Professor Bruner 11/21/2013 Does Everyone Really Have an Equal Chance in Sports? Sports have been a huge part of American society for many years. People have played sports for entertainment and competition for hundreds of years, and it continues to impact our lives today. Recently, sports in the 20th century have changed a lot and the sphere of influence has grown much larger. During this time, many social improvements like integration and equality for all athletes has increased despite its many controversies and obstacles. Racial inequality has been in sports just like it has been in society. Other times, a players gender changed their opportunity and chances to become great. Many sports like baseball and football were favored to be made of white teams. The movie Remember the Titans exposes a very significant true story of how a football team had to learn to work together despite differences in color and background. This movie portrayed the conflict of racial discrimination well and shows us the issues of racial inequality in sports. There were many instances of racial inequality and discrimination in the movie. When the team first started the white players were very reluctant to integrate with the black players. In this time period, racial integration was just beginning to occur across the country. There was a lot of opposition from whites who protested at the schools. The movie continued to show some more fights between the players but halfway through camp two players on the team finally became friends and managed to get the team to come together despite their differences. Racial integration in sports had to work through a lot of opposition and conflicts during the 1970s.

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In the United States, African Americans and females have had trouble fighting for their right to compete along with white males. In 1973, professional tennis player Billie Jean King played Bobby Riggs in a match in the Battle of the Sexes (Kirkpatrick). Bobby Riggs had won the first match of the Battle of the sexes and in the second match, lost to King. Her victory was a significant accomplishment to women around the world because of its publicity. This match was significant in that it proved Bobby Riggs wrong in his argument that men were better than women. This match shows that women were at a disadvantage to men in sports and looked down upon most of the time. Also, in 1967, Katherine Switzer ran the Boston Marathon and managed to complete it despite after Jock Semple trying to drag her off the street on public cameras (BBC). Women at this time were not allowed to legally run the marathon. People believed that running would make them like men and caused a lot of controversy. This was around the same time period where womens sports were not recognized. When Switzer finished the race and after six years, women were finally allowed to run the marathon alongside men. Today we still see many cases of inequality in sports. In the tennis world, Roger Federer has made a total of $71 million in prize money and endorsements; while on the womens side, Maria Sharapova has made only $29 million (Badenhausen). The gap in earnings is huge for what these players have to do to accomplish wins and championships. Although some people may think that the womens game is different and can be easier, women have to compete with women and men with men, so the competition level is still there and earnings should not be based on sex.

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At my high school, we have a large baseball field that is in the most perfect condition 24/7 year round. The grass is always cut and green, the walls are made of stone and the field includes an indoor batting cage. It is maintained by our baseball coach almost daily and looks better than some of the larger stadiums you see on T.V. Meanwhile, the girls softball team has a small field up in the woods with a fence all around and two dugouts. This shows that there is still a lot of inequality in sports today whether it is at the professional level or at the local, high school level. In the early 1900s there were no African Americans in the Major Baseball League. Baseball was still strictly a white sport following the Civil War and all-black teams like the Pythian baseball club of Philadelphia were denied membership by the National Association of Base Ball Players (Segal 1). Jackie Robinson became the first African American to break the color barrier in baseball. His initial promotion into the team was met with lots of opposition from within the team other teams and fans. Robinson was able to hold his position and received support from some of the other MLB players like Pee Wee Reese (1947). Robinson was able to show the country that blacks should have equal rights in baseball and in all other sports. Other sports like football had a slower integration of non white players like Fritz Pollard, who wasnt first but worked to continue integration in football (Martin 7). Racial inequality has much improved since the 1970s but is still evident in some places. We can see that minorities still have a disadvantage in sports at the young age compared to whites. There are many examples of single people standing up for their rights and equality, but it seems as though it takes a lot for the world to realize color should not matter in sports. These peoples actions have caused desegregation of sports around the world. Today, there seems to still be discrimination and inequality in sports. There is a lot less inequality among races and more between genders. Also, inequality is more hidden and people who cause this are more

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careful to keep it a secret for fear of publicity and local reporters finding out. Even though females have gotten the equal chance to play sports, but women still are at a disadvantage professionally and locally. Movies like Remember the Titans give historical stories of the struggles that many athletes had to endure to get their rightfully deserved rights. Diverse unfocused boys who were unwilling to talk to each other, broke the mold in the state of Virginia because they found a way to accept their teammates as equals at a time when it was neither popular or in many cases safe. That brave mentality started them on a journey of a lifetime and once they decided to become a team, they battled under extreme circumstances until reaching the pinnacle of high school football, a State Title, is a quote from Herman Boones speech to Providence College. Herman Boone was the coach who managed to pull a tangled football team together under tough circumstances (Remember). Inequality still exists in our society, but maybe if there was more equality in sports, people would begin to see the positives and move to better society as a whole.

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Works Cited "BBC News Magazine." BBC News. N.p., 16 Apr 2012. Web. 21 Nov 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17632029>. Badenhausen, Kurt. "Federer, Sharapova Dominate 2013 List Of The World's Top-Earning Tennis Players." 26 Aug 2013: n. page. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/08/26/endorsements-fuel-theworlds-highest-paid-tennis-players/>. Kirkpatrick, Curry. "Mother's Day Ms. Match." n. page. Print. <http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1087355/index.htm>. Martin, Charles H. "Race And Sport: The Struggle For Equality On And Off The Field." Journal Of Southern History 73.3 (2007): 748-749. America: History and Life with Full Text. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Remember the Titans. Dir. Boaz Yakin. Perf. Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Donald Faison, and Nicole Parker. DVD. Disney, 2001. Segal, Stephen. "An Unbreakable Game: Baseball And Its Inability To Bring About Equality During Reconstruction." Historian 74.3 (2012): 467-494. America: History and Life with Full Text. Web. 6 Nov. 2013