[ARETE] Sport and Society March 28, 2023

[richard crepeau]

Sport and Society for Arete

March 28, 2023



For those who think that sport and politics are separate entities, I offer a look at the strange world of Florida politics and the presidential aspirations of the governor of Florida. I do this as a historian and, in particular, a sport historian; as a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Central Florida; and as a citizen of Florida and the United States.

Over the past two or three years as Ron DeSantis has been seeking to raise his national profile as a Republican alternative to Donald Trump,  the governor has been mounting an attack on education, critical race theory(CRT), and the LGBTQ community. These targets all are connected, directly or indirectly, with sport.

When I was in graduate school many years ago, CRT was a term of which I was not aware. However, it was something I practiced during my entire academic career as a Professor of History. Any study of American History from the colonial period to the present cannot avoid dealing with race and racism because they are central realities of the American Experience.

In Sport History,  these issues stare you in the face. The prohibitions, restrictions, and proscriptions on African Americans and other people of color morph and change over time, but they are always present. Horse racing illustrates this from the period of slavery to the present. Baseball moved from discrimination to exclusion and then back. Professional football restricted, then excluded, and went back to restrictions over the course of a century of its existence. Add to this, the country club sports of golf and tennis and the picture is clear.

In the educational world of Ron DeSantis, these realities need to be treated carefully so that students would not feel uncomfortable. The discomfort of the targets of discrimination is never mentioned. In DeSantis’ world there was and is no systematic or institutional racism. Rules, regulations, or gentlemen’s agreements are not to be taken as evidence to explain the exclusion of people of color from multiple areas of sport. These matters should not be included in the Sport History curriculum or any History curriculum in Florida or anywhere else in DeSantis World.

Universities and school boards are now required to police their curriculum carefully, monitoring what is taught, by whom, and what materials are used. African American authors are suspect; known radicals must be exposed; books must be censored. The notion of a Black Studies curriculum is rejected by DeSantis. He scoffs at the notion that it has any legitimate educational value. For him, it is just another element in the “liberal woke agenda.”

How does anyone teach Sport History with these sorts of restrictions? Is Jackie Robinson’s story to be redone to eliminate race from the narrative? Were there no African American quarterbacks in the National Football League because they had neither the desire nor talent for the position? Did the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling heavyweight fights have no implications for race? What did it mean when there was a search for “A White Hope” to defeat heavyweight champion Jack Johnson?

Next there is the matter of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. Although originally created to protect those up through third grade, it will now be extended to include high school education. This law is clearly aimed at the LBGTQ community and has multiple levels of meaning. Just one of the many ramifications found in the legislation are transgender issues.



DeSantis and the Florida legislature are targeting trans persons, essentially barring them from following their gender identity, and barring LBGTQ issues from the curriculum. Knowledge of, or interest in, gender identities beyond “male” and “female” are prohibited. An attack has been launched against those who do not conform to the simple bifurcated identities: “men are men, and women are women, case closed.” Science be damned.



Athletes are required to report their gender identity as recorded at birth. That designation will be used when they compete in inter-scholastic athletics in Florida. No trans-athletes will be allowed to compete in Florida athletics, nor will the possibility of such a thing be acknowledged in the study of sport, including Sport History. The law is justified under the guise of protecting female athletes from having to compete against males, thereby preventing the destruction of women’s sport and protecting the progress achieved by Title IX.



In one of the more cynical moves, the governor is seeking to take control of the Florida High School Athletic Association. A bill, currently moving through the legislature, will terminate the independent governing board, replacing it with a new larger board chosen by the governor.



There are many issues surrounding this change, one being a guarantee that Florida athletics will not allow any ambiguity on the issue of gender identity. Trans-athletes will be barred. Within sport’s governing bodies at large, there is no agreement on these matters, but within the world of Ron DeSantis there will be no disagreement.



In teaching sport history, how will gender issues be handled? How will such Olympic giants as Bruce Jenner be treated historically? Will Jenner’s identity be defined by Jenner or by state boards making uninformed judgements? Or will Jenner just be erased from Olympic history and be dismissed as a non-person? Will sex identity be discussed in any course materials dealing with the history of sport? Will the case of Castor Semenya or that of Lia Thomas be hidden from view?



Ron DeSantis is not interested in the nuances of these arguments. He has answers, and they are driven by his political ambitions. He shouts from the housetops that he is defending freedom and that Florida is the freest state in the Union. In reality, he is building a dystopia where truth is what he says it is. If you don’t agree, you could lose your job and your freedom.



This road has been travelled many times in human history, and the scenery along the way is not pretty, littered, as it is, with banned books, ruined lives, and the crippling of democracy.



On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don’t have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.





Copyright 2023 by Richard C. Crepeau





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