Sports & Leisure - Overview
The nation's passion for sports is obvious every day—at NASCAR races, kiddie soccer matches, and countless other contests. From a handball used by Abraham Lincoln to Chris Evert's tennis racket to a baseball signed by Jackie Robinson, the roughly 6.000 objects in the Museum's sports collections bear witness to the vital place of sports in the nation's history. Paper sports objects in the collections, such as souvenir programs and baseball cards, number in the hundreds of thousands.
Leisure collections encompass a different range of objects, including camping vehicles and gear, video games, playing cards, sportswear, exercise equipment, and Currier and Ives prints of fishing, hunting, and horseracing. Some 4,000 toys dating from the colonial period to the present are a special strength of the collections.
"Sports & Leisure - Overview" showing 5 items.
Tennis Racket
- Description
- This racquet was used by American tennis player Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) while winning the Wimbledon Men’s Singles championship in 1975. With the victory, Ashe became the first African-American to win the prestigious event, defeating fellow American Jimmy Connors three sets to one.
- Ashe, a native of Richmond, Virginia, was the also first African-American to be named to the U.S. Davis Cup Team (1963) and to win singles titles at the U.S. and Australian Opens (1968 and 1970.)
- Ashe was a vocal advocate for civil rights, both in the United States and abroad, and was involved in many humanitarian efforts, including the opening of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. He has been recognized with honors such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and has had a statue erected on Richmond’s Monument Avenue.
- In 1997, the U.S. Tennis Association’s opened the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadow, New York. The court serves as the principal stadium for the U.S. Open.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1975
- associated dates
- 1991-04-09
- 1970-1980
- user
- Ashe, Arthur
- maker
- Head
- ID Number
- 1991.0178.01
- catalog number
- 1991.0178.01
- accession number
- 1991.0178
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Breezer 1 Mountain Bike
- Description
- First prototype of the JBX1 "Breezer 1” mountain bike. Hand built by Joe Breeze in 1977, the JBX1 was the first bicycle frame designed specifically for mountain biking.
- The “Breezer 1” was constructed with components that could withstand the repeated pounding of mountain bike riding, such as Araya brand 26” steel rims, Phil Wood hubs, Sun Tour derailleurs, and Dia-Compe brakes. The steel “riser” handlebars and Magura brand brake levers were repurposed from motorcycles and adapted to work with the “Breezer 1’s” stem and brake calipers. The large size of the Magura motorcycle levers provided increased braking leverage and was advantageous when trying to ride in wet conditions with slippery steel Araya rims. Other parts, such as the Sun Tour thumb shifters were adapted from five-speed touring bikes and only came in right hand models. The left side thumb shifter, which controlled the front derailleur, was a right hand shifter that was mounted backwards.
- Prior to the construction of the “Breezer 1”, mountain bike racers would modify vintage cruiser bikes, nicknamed “clunkers”, with coaster or drum brakes, sturdier wheels with knobby “balloon tires”, and “fork braces” to keep the frames from bending under the stresses of off-road riding. Mountain bike riders in Marin County, California would race these “clunkers” down mountain trails in events called “Repack Races”. The term ”Repack” was coined because the hub-based brakes would inevitably overheat, lose their effectiveness, and have to be disassembled and repacked with fresh grease prior to another ride down the mountain.
- Joe Breeze’s “Breezer 1” design served as a benchmark for mountain bikes to build and improve upon. In 1979 Tom Ritchey of Redwood City, California, started building fat-tire mountain bikes, which were sold by two veterans of the “Repack Races”, Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly. In 1982, mountain bicycles were offered by two separate companies -- Specialized Bicycles came out with the Stumpjumper and Univega released the Alpina Pro. The following year, Gary Fisher founded his own mountain bicycle company, which sold bicycles under the brand "Gary Fisher" from 1983 to 2010.
- The 1980s and 1990s saw mountain biking evolve from a niche sport to an International Cycling World Championship event in 1990. It became an Olympic event at the 1996 Atlanta games. Additionally, mountain biking became an increasingly popular amateur sport. Once only available from specialty shops, mountain bikes were suddenly being sold as recreation bikes at department stores and big box retailers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1977
- maker
- Breezer Bicycles
- maker; designer
- Breeze, Joe
- ID Number
- 2012.0066.01
- catalog number
- 2012.0066.01
- accession number
- 2012.0066
- serial number
- JBX1
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Basketball
- Description
- A basketball is defined as “an inflated spherical ball used in the game of basketball.” Most basketballs have an inflatable, inner, rubber bladder, are wrapped in layers of fibers, and then are covered with leather, rubber, or a synthetic composite. The surface of a standard 29.5 inch ball is divided by “ribs” and contains approximately 4,118 pebbles, at a diameter of 2.5 millimeters each. The traditional basketball is orange with black ribs although the balls come in a variety of colors. The Wilson Sporting Goods Company began producing basketballs early in its history, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that the Wilson ball was chosen as the official basketball of the National Basketball Association, cementing its place in sports history. The ball shown here was used by the donor, Thomas Weber, during the early 1970s in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1974
- associated dates
- 1976
- 1974-1976
- user
- Weber, Thomas E.
- maker
- Wilson Sporting Goods Company
- ID Number
- 1980.0682.01
- catalog number
- 1980.0682.01
- accession number
- 1980.0682
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Field Hockey Stick
- Description
- The field hockey stick is the most important piece of equipment used in the game of field hockey. It can be made from a variety of materials but is traditionally made of a hard wood, such as ash. Composite materials, including fiberglass, carbon, graphite and Kevlar can also be used. Field hockey sticks are only made for right handed players. They have a toe with a rounded edge which faces the right while the flat part of the toe faces to the left. The stick length varies according to the player’s height and the weight may vary anywhere from 18 to 25.9 ounces. The grip is composed of different materials, such as suede and rubber, to limit the amount of moisture on the stick. The stick shown here was used by the donor, Meg Galligan, while playing field hockey for Boston College between 1974 and 1978. It is made of wood and wrapped with cotton tape, for grip, at the top of the stick and plastic tape, for strength, at the bottom of the stick.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1974
- date made
- ca 1974
- user
- Galligan, Meg
- maker
- Sport Craft
- ID Number
- 1982.0400.01
- catalog number
- 1982.0400.01
- accession number
- 1982.0400
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Football, used in Super Bowl XIV
- Description (Brief)
- This ball was used in Super Bowl XIV, held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on January 20, 1980. In the game, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Los Angeles Rams 31-19. It was the Steelers' fourth Super Bowl win and the second straight year that Terry Bradshaw took home the Most Valuable Player trophy.
- The Wilson Sporting Goods Company introduced the Wilson Duke football during the early 1940s. Wilson has provided the official ball for the National Football League's Super Bowl since Super Bowl II in 1968.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1979
- user
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- maker
- Wilson Sporting Goods Company
- ID Number
- 1980.0131.05
- accession number
- 1980.0131
- catalog number
- 1980.0131.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center