Article ID: CBB732501054

“The Duty of Their Elders” – Doctors, Coaches, and the Framing of Youth Football’s Health Risks, 1950s–1960s (2019)

unapi

After World War II, organized tackle football programs for boys younger than high school age grew enormously in popularity in the United States, prompting concerns from pediatricians and educators about the sport's physical and emotional health effects. At the same time, sports medicine was emerging as a sub-specialty. Examining how American sports medicine doctors and football coaches established their professional authority on youth football safety in the 1950s and 1960s reveals how their justifications for this collision sport were connected to broader cultural trends. Doctors and coaches, who were virtually all men, emphasized their firsthand knowledge of an all-male sport that was widely promoted as a means of teaching boys to become men. They insisted that proper supervision and equipment were sufficient to protect young athletes. Their arguments for youth football's benefits were based on the belief that men best knew how to impart desired values such as loyalty, patriotism and discipline to boys. In framing football's health risks as manageable with adult supervision, coaches and sports medicine doctors played a crucial role in promoting the vision of American manhood associated with tackle football.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB732501054/

Similar Citations

Article Pfister, Gertrud; (2011)
“Sports” Medicine in Germany and Its Struggle for Professional Status (/isis/citation/CBB001250796/)

Article Monet, Jacques; Quin, Grégory; (2013)
Sauveur-Henri-Victor Bouvier (1799--1877): Orthopédiste, Chirurgien et Promoteur de l'Éducation Physique (/isis/citation/CBB001420254/)

Article Taghvaei Zahmatkesh, Parvin; (2013)
A Survey of Islamic Physicians' Views on Sports (/isis/citation/CBB001510300/)

Thesis Bartz, Robert J.; (2005)
Generalists First: The Movement to Refashion General Practice in Post-World War II America (/isis/citation/CBB001561601/)

Book Jonathan Engel; (2018)
Unaffordable: American Healthcare from Johnson to Trump (/isis/citation/CBB064961709/)

Chapter Rogers, Naomi; (2009)
Feminists Fight the Culture of Exclusion in Medical Education, 1970--1990 (/isis/citation/CBB001031394/)

Book Altenstetter, Christa; (2014)
Medical Technology in Japan: The Politics of Regulation (/isis/citation/CBB001422095/)

Book Koch, Tom; (2014)
Thieves of Virtue: When Bioethics Stole Medicine (/isis/citation/CBB001550877/)

Article Tobbell, Dominique; (2013)
Plow, Town, and Gown: The Politics of Family Practice in 1960s America (/isis/citation/CBB001214263/)

Book Rodwin, Marc A.; (2011)
Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Medicine: The United States, France, and Japan (/isis/citation/CBB001552495/)

Article Rupert, James L.; (2011)
Genitals to Genes: The History and Biology of Gender Verification in the Olympics (/isis/citation/CBB001250798/)

Article Melo, Victor Andrade de; Peres, Fabio de Faria; (2010)
Sport, medicina e arte: a “ciência encantada” do corpo nas obras de Thomas Eakins (/isis/citation/CBB001420441/)

Book Alberto Ortiz Lobo; Rafael Huertas; (2018)
Criticas y alternativas en psiquiatria. Ensayos de historia de la psiquiatría (/isis/citation/CBB424369984/)

Article Daniel Terry; Ha Hoang; Blake Peck; Quynh Lê; (2021)
The Historic to Contemporary Challenges among International Medical Graduates Seeking to Practise in Australia (/isis/citation/CBB421342121/)

Article Donna Harsch; (2015)
Translating Smoke Signals: West German Medicine and Tobacco Research, 1950–1970 (/isis/citation/CBB396960115/)

Authors & Contributors
Lê, Quynh
Hoang, Ha
Ortiz Lobo, Alberto
Mody, Fallon
Alam, Eram
Peck, Blake
Concepts
Physicians; doctors
Medicine and sports
Medicine
Physical training; exercise
Health care
Health
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
Places
United States
Japan
Germany
Australia
Bristol (England)
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment