The Saving Grace of Sport

Why we watch & play

John Savant June 25, 2004 - 6:00pm

In the context of historical import, few things could be less consequential than the winner of the Nineteen-Anything World Series, Super Bowl, World Cup, U.S. Open...you name it. Yes, Jesse Owens’s spectacular triumphs in the 1936 Berlin Olympics rang with racial and political resonance, but the games themselves had little to do with the emerging war in Europe or with culture thereafter. As a continuing ritual, reintroduced to the world...

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About the Author

John Savant, professor emeritus at Dominican University of California, lives in San Rafael, California.

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