Why do we play sports and where did this fascination with hitting, heading, kicking or throwing various shaped balls around come from? Many of us reading here will have inherited the Sports playing or watching bug from a parent, a brother, a friend, an uncle, but I think it's fair to say many of us picked it up from our Dads and that was certainly the case for me and It's even fair to say that I've surpassed his love of sports at this stage and I am passing the passion onto my sons (I only have one daughter and she is in heaven)
So it's fair to say that sporting passion and indeed talent and flows down blood lines, but when did it all begin and when did humans first play sports or rather when do we think they did based on historical references, cave paintings and stories passed down through the generations? Now, there was no mention of the disciples having a quick 5 a side before the last supper in the bible 2000 years ago, unless I missed that, although there are a couple of mentions of soccer, ok, I won't even go there, as I might offend some people who are super religious. What I want to explore though is when was the first proof of sport of some sort in history.
I mentioned cave paintings above, as I had a vague recollection of looking into this before and indeed there is a link. Cave paintings found in France appear to depict sprinting and wrestling in the Paleolithic age, which would have been more than 15,000 years ago. Other cabe scratchings 7000 years before Christ appear to show a wrestling match, that's two votes for wrestling so far, Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior will be thrilled! (I'm showing my age) and we can complete a trio of early Wrestling mentions with pre historic paintings from caves in Japan which look to depict Sumo wrestlers.
We also see mention of running and archery in early pre historic cave paintings. This all makes sense, as you couldn't nip out to 7 eleven or spar for a twix and a can of coke back then, rather you had to go chase a deer or a rabbit or the like. So having people in your collective or tribe who could run fast, wrestle an animal to the ground or shoot with a bow and arrow would have been paramount. How could they tell who were the best at each discipline? Well If they staged pretend battles and pitted man against man, they could, so these head to head battlesvare likely to be the moment we accidentally invented sports. It's a good theory and makes sense from where I'm sitting.
Mo Salah is what we like to call a baller, and if you go back far enough Mo Salah's great great great (insert 25 more greats) grandfather would have been rubbing shoulders the Pharaohs around 2000BC. We have evidence that indicates that wrestling, weightlifting, long jump, javelin,
swimming, rowing, archery, fishing and athletics, as well as various kinds of ball games, were well-developed and played in Egypt at this time. So we know that ancient Egypt was rich in sport.
What about ancient Greece where the Olympics originated? Surely they have a rich sporting history going back over many centuries. I'll let Wikipedia help here as they tell it better than I could:
"The Minoan art of Bronze Age Crete depict ritual sporting events - thus a fresco dating to 1500 BCE records gymnastics in the form of religious bull-leaping and possibly bullfighting. The origins of Greek sporting festivals may date to funeral games of the Mycenean period, between 1600 BCE and 1100 BCE. The Iliad includes extensive descriptions of funeral games held in honour of deceased warriors, such as those held for Patroclus by Achilles. Engaging in sport is described as the occupation of the noble and wealthy, who have no need to do manual labour themselves. In the Odyssey, king Odysseus of Ithaca proves his royal status to king Alkinoös of the Phaiakes by showing his proficiency in throwing the javelin. It was predictably why in Greece that sports were first instituted formally, with the first Olympic Games recorded in 776 BCE in Olympia, where they were celebrated until 393 CE. These games took place every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. Initially a single sprinting event, the Olympics gradually expanded to include several footraces, run in the nude or in armor, boxing, wrestling, pankration, chariot racing, long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw. During the celebration of the games, an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel from their countries to the games in safety. The prizes for the victors were wreaths of laurel leaves. Other important sporting events in ancient Greece included the Isthmian games, the Nemean Games, and the Pythian Games. Together with the Olympics, these were the most prestigious games, and formed the Panhellenic Games. Some games, e.g. the Panathenaia of Athens, included musical, reading and other non-athletic contests in addition to regular sports-events. The Heraean Games, held in Olympia as early as the 6th century BCE, were the first recorded sporting competition for women."
Seeing as I've a big Irish head on me, I'm going to include our National sport of hurling, which I did a post on previously. If you're a new user check it out on YouTube, it's a fantastic sport and is the fastest field sport in the world, I think only ice hockey is faster. We'll have to take to hurling on ice if we want to take outright top spot, now there's a show idea for you! Now, back the history of sport and specifically Irish sport Hurling. It is one of the oldest field games in the world and has been popular for at least 3000 years throughout Ireland with the first written reference dating back to 1272 BC. The game of Hurling is regularly mentioned in Irish legends of yore, the most famous being the Táin Bo Cuailgne, a legendary tale from early Irish literature. This folk story describes the exploits of Cú Chullainn (Hound of Cullen) who got his name after killing a fearsome guard dog by driving a sliothar (hurling ball) down its throat. Such stories often portray Hurling as a form of martial training and proficiency on the Hurling field was equated with skill in battle in ancient Ireland. We love a good auld battle here, be god! Throughout the olden days, Hurling thrived as a wild and often violent practice with few set rules and was sometimes known ad faction fighting. The early game was played on a plain about 200-300 yards long, with victory going to the first team to drive the ball through the goal of the opponent. A full village of people often togged out for each time and I'd say there would have been some amount of broken fingers and worse.
When the Normans came to power, they saw Hurling as savagery and the game was outlawed in the 12th century, but it survived and even flourished up to the early 19th century mainly due to patronization by the landlords, at least we can thank the landlords for something, the miserable bastards!
By the time of the Great Irish Potato Famine of 1846 to 1850 Hurling had declined dramatically and was in danger of dying out completely but for a number of strongholds. The mass emigration and huge deathtoll did not help of course. According to GAA records "by the late 1850s, Hurling was being played all over Munster and records of the game survive in Donegal and Down and Kilkenny and Longford." Right, I won't go any further down that rabbit hole, but suffice to say Hurling is likely to have been one of the first sports played in Ireland way back in the day.
The photos used in this post are not my own and were sourced at the following URLs:
