Sports and the American spirit

Jesse Owens salutes the flag after taking gold in the Men's Long Jump during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Americans are known throughout the world for our often-fanatical devotion to sports and our favorite teams. Sports are a multibillion-dollar business in the United States, where they often secure the highest ratings on television and cable. And no wonder – they can serve as the perfect escape from the everyday challenges of life.

But sports can also serve a number of other socially important purposes. For decades, they have helped inspire Americans, building confidence in our can-do spirit. Sports create communities. They can help heal cities and the country in moments of crisis. And athletes have a long and honorable tradition of using their status to promote social justice.

Taking a stand (or a knee)

Many American kids and adults look to athletes as heroes and role models. Aware of the responsibility that comes with such adulation, many athletes give back to their communities through service or philanthropy. Some have even risked their careers by serving in the military. For example, Red Sox legend Ted Williams flew fighter planes in both World War II and the Korean War, where he was shot down in February 1953. (Williams survived and went on to play seven more seasons in the American League.)

Then there are the athletes who have used their careers to take heroic positions. Think back to Jesse Owens’ incredible stand at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. A three-time world record-holder in track and field before he went to Nazi Germany, Owens won four gold medals in the Games hosted by Adolph Hitler. He represented the United States overseas even though in parts of his own country, Owens, as a Black American, was treated as a second-class citizen under Jim Crow laws. As he wryly noted later in life, “Although I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the president either.”

Jackie Robinson shakes hands with teammate Billy Cox in Brooklyn, New York on March 24, 1953. (Photo Courtesy of Bettman/Getty Images)

Jackie Robinson (who also served in the Army during World War II) is rightly famous for breaking the race barrier in professional sports. On April 15, 1947, he became the first Black player in Major League Baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field with the strong support of Branch Rickey, the team’s owner. Despite enduring endless taunts and death threats from some opposing players and fans, Robinson didn’t let the verbal (and, on a few occasions, physical) abuse get to him. Indeed, the league recognized his enormous leadership and accomplishments in 1997 by retiring his uniform number, 42. Major League Baseball also deserves some credit for finally recognizing, earlier this year, the accomplishments of all those who played in the Negro Leagues. This decision, long overdue, even featured a bit of poetic justice: naming Josh Gibson the greatest hitter of all time ahead of Ty Cobb (a reputed racist).

While not the first Black player to join the National Basketball Association – that was Earl Lloyd in 1950 – Bill Russell was the first Black American to become a head coach in the league. A legendary athlete who helped the Boston Celtics win 11 championships in 13 seasons, he was also fearlessly outspoken on civil rights.

Tennis great Billie Jean King also used her career to fight for social justice and equality. Her straight-set victory in the 1973 Battle of the Sexes against Bobby Riggs – an over-the-hill former champ and self-avowed chauvinist who’d claimed that even a male player as old as he was could beat the top-ranked female – proved that women could compete at the highest levels. The game drew huge ratings and inspired a 2017 Hollywood film. The ongoing popularity of women’s tennis, as well as the boom in other women’s sports like basketball, owe much to King’s leadership.

Melissa Stockwell serves as another kind of inspiration. As a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, in 2004 she became the first female servicemember to lose a limb in combat in the Iraq War. Just four years later, she competed as a swimmer in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics before winning a bronze medal as a triathlete in Rio in 2016. She also competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. And she is well known to the George W. Bush Institute as a member of our Team 43 program, which uses the power of sports to highlight the courage, commitment, and resilience of U.S. veterans.

Not every stance taken by an American athlete has proved to be unifying. In 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stirred controversy by taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality against Blacks. His form of protest, applauded by many Americans, cost him his job in the National Football League.

Billy Jean King arm wrestles Bobby Riggs at a press conference on July 12, 1973. (Photo Courtesy of Bettman/Getty Images)

Inspiring moments

Less controversial have been moments like the “Miracle on Ice,” when the U.S. men’s hockey team defeated the Soviets in a 4-3 upset during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. The Soviet team came into the games having won gold at five of the previous six Olympics; they had also defeated the Americans in all 12 of their matchups over the previous 20 years. The surprise U.S. victory, coming at the height of the Cold War and at a time when the country was still reeling from the Iran hostage crisis, gave a huge boost to Americans’ spirits.

The country got a similar boost from the emotional first pitch thrown by President George W. Bush in Game 3 of the 2001 World Series in New York. Coming just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the game between the Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks brought Americans together and showed that we would bounce back stronger than ever. Ten years later, while the Mets and Phillies were playing a Sunday night game on May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced to the nation that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces. As word spread through the crowd, people started chanting “USA, USA, USA.” At first, the players, unaware of the news fans were learning on their phones, were confused. But just as crowds formed outside the White House that evening to support this act of justice, Mets and Phillies fans, usually bitter rivals, came together to applaud the achievement of U.S. forces. So did the players, once they finally learned the news.

Nearly two years later, tragedy struck the Boston Marathon when two terrorists, brothers originally from Chechnya, set off bombs at the finish line, killing three people and injuring several hundred. Americans responded by creating the A Leg Forever Charitable Foundation to assist amputees from Massachusetts who have “lost limbs under tragic circumstances.” When the Red Sox returned home to play at Fenway Park five days later, star first baseman David Ortiz delivered a rousing response to the bombing, saying, “This is our city. And nobody’s gonna dictate our freedom. Stay strong.” Those remarks sparked the “Boston Strong” movement that united the greater Boston community through various initiatives such as holding annual remembrances at every subsequent Boston Marathon.

President George W. Bush gives the crowd a thumbs up before his ceremonial first pitch in New York, NY on October 30, 2001. (White House photo by Eric Draper)

In 2017, another professional team – the NHL’s Golden Knights – helped Las Vegas recover after a shooting that took 58 lives. As The New York Times reported, “In the shooting’s aftermath, the team’s players fanned out across the community, thanking police officers, giving blood and donating tens of thousands of dollars to help victims, their families and emergency medical workers. Their response endeared them to the city’s stunned and grieving residents.” The Kansas City Chiefs responded in a similar way earlier this year, after 22 people were wounded and one was killed at a parade celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory. The players quickly responded by launching an emergency fund to assist the victims.

Using sports to make a statement

On some occasions, sports are used not to escape from the headlines but to make broader political statements. That can inadvertently punish the athletes involved. Such was the case when the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, for example, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The Soviet Union retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics – and in both cases, athletes who had trained their whole lives missed an opportunity to compete. In the 1930s, some Americans called on the United States to boycott Hitler’s 1936 Games. But had the country done so, Jesse Owens would never have had his moment.

Deciding where to draw the line can be tricky. This summer, as a result of the war in Ukraine, athletes from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to participate in the opening ceremonies in Paris. While they’ll be allowed to compete, moreover, they’ll do so representing themselves, not their countries. Given the heinous crimes committed by the regime of President Vladimir Putin and the complicity of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, one could argue that organizers should have gone further and excluded athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating at all. But Olympic officials didn’t want to hold accountable individuals from these countries for the crimes of their governments.

The decision to penalize Russia and Belarus raises another difficult question: Why punish them and not, say, China, for its appalling human rights record? China should certainly not be allowed to host another Olympic Games, as it has twice in the last two decades.

This summer and beyond, as die-hard fans and casual observers follow our teams and use sports as a welcome break from the daily grind, we should remember the important role that athletes have played over the years. They are not, and never will be, the answer to all of our problems. But they sure help – and even inspire our better angels.