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At the turn of the 20th century, track and field in the U.S. was the domain of the wealthy. While baseball and prize-fighting attracted athletes from the lower orders of society, athletic clubs generally recruited the top sporting graduates from private colleges--except one.
New York's Irish-American Athletic Club was founded by and for immigrants. Membership was not exclusively Irish--Jews, African Americans, Scandinavians, Italians, and even a handful of Englishmen joined the club, which dominated local and national athletics for more than a decade. The I-AAC laid claim to the title of best athletic club in the world following the 1908 Olympic Games, bent the rules on amateurism and challenged the ban on Sunday entertainments before succumbing to aftereffects of World War I and Prohibition.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Preface
¿1.¿The "staid" and the "poor man's" Athletic Clubs
¿2.¿"For the encouragement of manly sports and exercises ... of the Irish-American Athlete": The First and
Second I-AAC
¿3.¿"The 'Mecca' of attraction for every proud son and fair
daughter of Erin": The Building of Celtic Park
¿4.¿"Our name is the Irish-American Athletic Club":
The I-AAC and Other Ethnicities
¿5.¿"An overwhelming success numerically and financially":
Establishing the GNYIAA Between 1898 and 1904
¿6.¿"A roistering carefree set of hellions": The Irish Immigrant
Athlete and the I-AAC
¿7.¿"The banner organization of the United States": St. Louis
and Onwards, 1904-1906
¿8.¿"The social element in Clubs is like 'dry rot'": Snobbery
and the American Athletic Club
¿9.¿"The first, if not the foremost, athletic club in the world":
The I-AAC Between 1906 and 1908
10.¿"If you see an Irish head, hit it": The I-AAC and
Accusations of Professionalism
11.¿"You carry the Stars and Stripes proudly!" The I-AAC
Athletes at the 1908 Olympics
12.¿"Blood stirred by its games and sports": The I-AAC
and Promoting Irish Sport and Identity in America
13.¿"Condemned for wholesale proselyting": The I-AAC
Growth Between 1908 and 1912
14.¿"Such shameful spectacles would never be permitted
pious New York": The I-AAC: Policemen, Politicians and Sabbatarians
15.¿"In spite of depressing conditions": The Beginning
the End of the I-AAC (1912-1916)
16.¿"Service first, athletics afterward": The I-AAC
Finally Closes
17.¿"Perhaps we shall again see the day"
Glossary of Athletic Events
Appendix: Irish-American Athletic Club Team Honors
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Patrick R. Redmond has written for the BBC and London newspapers Irish World and Irish Post. He lives just outside of London.
