The History of Sports

Where do we begin with the history of sports? The history of sport is as old as human kind. To begin with what has been recorded or documented in the history of sports takes us back at least 3000 years. The early history of sports often involved the preparation and training for war or hunting. But there were sports games that involved the throwing of spears, rocks and lots of play-fighting. Ancient Greece introduced formal sports with the Olympic Games in 776 BC.

Alexander Cartwright invented the modern baseball field in 1845. The cricket bat was invented around 1853. Derived from the English game rugby, American football was started in 1879 by Walter Camp who was a player and a coach at Yale University. Golf originated from a game played on the coast of Scotland during the 15th century. Golfers would hit a pebble instead of a ball around the sand dunes using a stick. Around the 14th century, the Dutch started using wooden platform skates with flat iron bottom runners. The skates were attached to the skater’s shoes with leather straps.

As the years passed, these sports were developed by the people and also a variety of new fields were added in this area.