UC Sports Researcher Uncovers Cincinnati's History

When Cinergy Field came tumbling down at the very end of the year, some of Cincinnati's long-time sports fans bid it a wistful farewell, remembering the days of their youth in the stadium where they cheered for the Big Red Machine. Sports researcher and University of Cincinnati adjunct assistant professor Kevin Grace, assistant head of Archives, says the facility formerly known as Riverfront Stadium rose during a period of urban rejuvenation here in Cincinnati. Our passion for and our history of sports, he says, is one of the identifying trademarks of this city.

That history is detailed in dramatic imagery, with Grace's new book, Cincinnati on Field and Court -- The Sports Legacy of the Queen City. Released by Arcadia Publishing, the book is part of Arcadia's Images of Sports series. On the cover is a triumphant Cincinnati Reds team, the 1940 World Series champions.

The book details more than 200 photos from Grace's massive research collection. He wanted to provide a visual reference of how sports developed and grew in a major city like Cincinnati. Also, Grace says, he wanted to demonstrate that a sport is not just about the final score or the player's position on the field. "There's the community background behind it, and the economics and the sociology of it," says Grace, who has dedicated his career to those research areas and more, such as education and sport, corruption, violence and media influence.

Grace says it was primarily the industrial revolution that allowed sport to flourish in cities. The industrial revolution established working hours and reliable pay, leaving income for spending on leisure and entertainment. "So there was some disposable income and in the larger cities, there was a population that was large enough to support sports."

In the 19th century, politicians and middle class businessmen frequently owned teams to earn public favor and to attract customers. Like several baseball teams across the country, the Reds were at one time owned by local beer barons, because baseball's captive audience was the ultimate outlet to market their product.

The book contains images of both professional and amateur sports in Cincinnati from the mid 19th century to the present, from the Reds and Royals to YMCA and club teams. "In Cincinnati, one of the first emerging professional sports was boxing," Grace says, "boxing and horseracing and then baseball."

But there was also dogfighting, gambling, bowling, bicycle clubs and rollerskating. There was heated debate among college administrations that college football was too rough and detracted from classroom work, but Grace says programs continued because of the overwhelming support of the alumni.

Oddly enough, the uniforms of the first college basketball players resembled the attire of the gridiron, as the players took the court in padded pants. "Basketball was a very rough game, played in spaces that you wouldn't believe. There might be a wood-burning stove in the corner of the court where the game was in play. If fans got close enough to the opponent, they would stick him with hatpins or burn him with cigarettes, " Grace says.
 "On UC's campus, there were pillars in the middle of the old McMicken Gym, and the players learned to use them as sort of a sixth man to set up their opponent."

And for fans looking back on the golden days - when there was no corruption, when the fans never got out of control - well, those days never existed. "One of the things I wanted to show in the book is that there has been a tremendous increase in degree, but not in substance, that attitudes toward sport are the same today as they were 150 years ago. We think of the golden age of college football when it wasn't corrupt - where there weren't alumni or players or coaches cheating. But that's part of the nature of the sport and it has been ever since there's been competition in the 1880s.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," Grace continues. "We still have the same attitudes towards authority, in terms of booing the umpires and referees. Part of that is the American concept of disliking and rebelling against authority, and the umpire and referee provide an outlet for that.

"Fan behavior hasn't changed all that much either. We would like to think it has, especially after the rioting in some cities following the college football season last year. But extreme fan behavior has always been like that. It's just that now it's a matter of degree, rather than of substance. And, of course the incredible growth of the media over the past few decades showcases sport more than ever before."

Grace does believe Pete Rose will eventually sign an agreement that he bet on baseball and that he will make it to the Hall of Fame. The book has Rose's Rookie of the Year photo from 1963. Grace believes Rose's induction will bolster the movement to get Joe Jackson, one of the eight White Sox players banned from baseball for the 1919 World Series "Black Sox" scandal, into the Hall of Fame as well.

Cincinnati on Field and Court -- The Sports Legacy of the Queen City is available in bookstores including Barnes & Noble, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Borders, and the UC Bookstore. The list price for the paperback is $19.95.

Grace is also at work on two other books, Cincinnati Hoops -- Basketball in an American City, and with UC colleague Tom White, Cincinnati's Over-The-Rhine. Both are scheduled for release in October 2003.