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Brief history of Sports :
One only has to look at the animal world to find evidence that play is an inborn characteristic of virtually all developed species. It plays an important role in education and development. We see kittens and pups fight mock battles to develop their strength, speed, endurance and will. By such innocent play, they prepare themselves for survival and fulfill their desire for challenge and pleasure.
We human beings are not just rational animals. We have an infinite thirst for knowledge, truth and happiness. It is these spiritual characteristics which distinguish human beings from animals. In the onward advance of human civilization, sports and games have also played an integral role in this unfolding of human potential. At every stage of the evolutionary process, sport has played a vital role in helping to develop, define and test newly acquired physical, psychic and social skills.
As we changed from food-gatherers to hunters, sport and play were no longer simply exercises of the "fight or flight" mechanism. They became the training which would prepare young hunters for the hunt. Youths emulated the elders of the tribe, to ready themselves for the day when they would have to do the providing. It was probably at this time that the first team sports evolved, as a result of the collective effort needed in stalking, trapping, killing and transporting.
As the population increased, conflicts arose between tribes over territory,herds,wealth, prestige and due to mutual fears. As tribes clashed with each other, the sport field became the training ground for battle. Those who succeeded in the warrior-like play of the sport field were best equipped for survival and victory on the battlefield. Spprt kept the skills and mind of the warriors sharp and ready. As well as a training for survival, it became the way in which a youth made the transition to adulthood. Young men proved their valor, strength and intelligence and thus their capacity to lead and protect their people. It was probably at this stage that the first spectator sports originated, as the community gathered round to see who would be their victors. Once this stage was reached, there is no evidence to show that there was any great advancement in the concept or purpose of sports for many millennia, save for the occasional introduction of new weapons and fighting arts.
"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done." - HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
The Olympic games :
The year 776 B.C. was an important turning point : the first Olympic games were celebrated at Olympia, in Greece, in honour of Zeus (Greek god of the gods). During the games, warfare was suspended and a period of divine peace was declared. However, the games contested were still tests of combat arts: wrestling, javelin, discus, archery, shot put, marathon, boxing etc.
Equestrian and boating sports were also developed in roughly the same period in different parts of the world. The team, ball and vehicle sports which we are familiar with today are the inventions of recent times. Here we may count basketball, baseball, football, rugby, cricket, volleyball, tennis, squash, badminton, handball, surfing, hockey, skiing, cycling, moto-cross, auto racing, etc. Polo. lacrosse and bowling are based on ancient regional games, while the basic elements of athletics have been with us for millennia.
The use of weapons in sporting contests has always fascinated those with a natural inclination for the military arts and hunting. These include trap and skeet, archery, fencing and target shooting. Nevertheless, beginning with that noble idea at Olympia 2700 years ago sport has become increasingly divorced from warfare. In an atmosphere of greater prosperity and peace, the philosophy became "Sports for the sake of sport". From that time to the present, athletes have applied themselves, body and mind, striving to be the best, to master themselves, break the record, win the medal and wear the laurels of victory.
The new era of sport
We have seen how Sport has evolved from a simple test of survival skills to training for battle, hunting and adulthood, then to an event celebrating skills, strength and endurance and finally, in recent decades, to a highly commercialized institution with questionalble social value. Sport has, in the past, occasionally been abused for the satisfaction of the lusts of the dominant class of society, however it has generally played a constructive role. Athletes, like writers and mystics, offer an example of the possibilities of what human beings could be physically, mentally and morally. Now sport must be liberated from the chains of materialism to regain its exalted position in the vanguard of human society. Sport showed us our potentiality for a perfect physique, acutely tuned mind, and united collective effort. Now as we cross the threshhold into a new era of spiritual discovery and awakening, may sport, through the medium of SSAC, gain its true meaning and prominence in human life.
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