Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

The Duty of Their Elders” – Doctors, Coaches, and the Framing of Youth Football’s Health Risks, 1950s–1960s

Bibliographic Data

ID9090802
AuthorsKathleen E Bachynski (NYU Langone Health), Kathleen Bachynski (0000-0002-8195-7773, NYU Langone Health, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume74
Issue2
Pages167-191
Publication date2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5045 • E-ISSN: 1468-4373
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jhmas/jry042
PMID30649392
OpenAlexW2910521246
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

After World War II, organized tackle football programs for boys younger than high school age grew enormously in popularity in the United States, prompting concerns from pediatricians and educators about the sport's physical and emotional health effects. At the same time, sports medicine was emerging as a sub-specialty. Examining how American sports medicine doctors and football coaches established their professional authority on youth football safety in the 1950s and 1960s reveals how their justifications for this collision sport were connected to broader cultural trends. Doctors and coaches, who were virtually all men, emphasized their firsthand knowledge of an all-male sport that was widely promoted as a means of teaching boys to become men. They insisted that proper supervision and equipment were sufficient to protect young athletes. Their arguments for youth football's benefits were based on the belief that men best knew how to impart desired values such as loyalty, patriotism and discipline to boys. In framing football's health risks as manageable with adult supervision, coaches and sports medicine doctors played a crucial role in promoting the vision of American manhood associated with tackle football.

American football · Duty · Football · Framing (construction) · Medical education · Political science · Popularity · Psychiatry · Specialty · Athletic Training and Education · History · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sports injuries and prevention · Sports, Gender, and Society

  • Two Sports, Two Systems, One Goal

    Open Access•Annette Greenhow, Alison Doherty•Frontiers in Sports and Active…•2021

  • Reading Football

    Michael Oriard•Reading Football•2000

  • American manhood

    E Anthony Rotundo•American manhood•1993

  • The Lethal Weapon

    Open Access•J Nadine Gelberg•Bulletin of Science Technology &…•1995

  • The Importance of Fathers

    Shani Harris Peterson•Journal of Human Behavior in the…•2007

  • The Rise and Fall of the Magic Sponge

    Neil Carter•Social History of Medicine•2009

  • Accidents and acts of God

    H Loimer, Michael Guarnieri•American Journal of Public Health•1996

  • Reflections on a half century of injury control

    Julian A Waller•American Journal of Public Health•1994

  • Merchants of Health

    Nancy Tomes•Journal of American History•2001

  • A Doctor of Their Own

    David Rosner, Heather Munro Prescott•Journal of American History•2000

  • Beginnings Count

    Thomas R Oliver, David J Rothman et al.•Journal of American History•1999

  • The Cowboy Suit Tragedy

    Barbara Young Welke•Journal of American History•2014

  • Divided loyalties in medicine

    Open Access•Diana Chapman Walsh•Social Science & Medicine•1986

Unique citing works1
Citations per year0.2
Citation span2021 - 2021 (1)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae