ABSTRACT
The development of sports for American soldiers and sailors over the course of the past four centuries parallels the development of sports for the civilian population. Likewise, the growth of sports programs within the armed forces closely follows the general expansion and contraction of the numbers of men and women serving in the military at any particular time. For the bulk of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries sports such as rounders and similar bat-and-ball games played by civilians and combatants alike were disorganized and spontaneous. Then during the nineteenth century the modernization of sport in the civilian world affected and was influenced by the experiences of the men who fought in the Civil War. By the end of the nineteenth century military commanders embraced the usefulness of sport as a mechanism to keep young soldiers busy with appropriate activities and as a way to ensure good unit order and discipline. The twentieth century witnessed the growth of military sports as the American armed forces organized to fight in the two World Wars. Soldiers were encouraged to demonstrate their physical prowess not only on the battlefield but also on the playing field. Even today, soldiers compete in sports offered at their forts and bases and against civilian athletes through the Army Master Athlete program.
