Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban caused an uproar last week when he told sports news site The Athletic that the Dallas Mavericks had not played the anthem before home games this season. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban understands the strife the anthem causes.
Sports play the National Anthem in order to demonstrate allegiance and loyalty to the United States. The National Anthem was first introduced at sporting events in the United States during the aftermath of WWI, and the tradition of doing so has been regarded as a necessary patriot act ever since.
The Dallas Mavericks of the NBA had to stand firm, as playing the anthem is supposed to be a no-brainer ritual before games in American sports.
Playing the Star Spangled Banner during sporting events has become a hollow gesture of patriotism–so hollow, that by the time the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks quietly began skipping the ceremony, 13 preseason and regular-season games had passed without anyone even realizing it.
Baseball and the National Anthem
Baseball fans of the late 19th century may have heard a live Army band playing the Star-Spangled Banner during games once in a while, but the song — not yet designated the national anthem — was not a regular fixture at sporting events. The Star-Spangled Banner became officially the national anthem of the United States in 1931, and after World War II, NFL commissioner Elmer Layden ordered that every football game featured the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner.
The earliest documented instance of a national anthem being played at an American sporting event was a baseball game in 1862, during the Civil War. The use of the national anthem was brought up again during World War II, since that was when it was being played before a baseball game, leading to the expansion of this tradition into other sports.
The emergence of World War II, and particularly the nation’s entrance into the war, brought about a period of patriotic fervor, with the song being played increasingly, particularly in baseball games, but also in events of other sports. In the following two decades, teams had the song played at their home games during the holidays, as well as World Series games.
When baseball’s 1918 World Series moved to Boston, the organizers decided there to have its military band play the song before the start of the game, with recognition given to wounded soldiers in attendance. After World War I (and after the National Anthem was made a National Anthem by Congressional Resolution in 1931), the song continued to be played at baseball games, but only for special occasions such as Opening Day, National Holidays, and World Series games.
The Wartime Origins of the National Anthem
The playing of the national anthem before national sports games began was done for very specific historical reasons – namely, to compel audiences to aid in the war effort during World Wars I and II. SB Nation notes that the national anthem truly became codified in the lives of American sports only after WWII when its mandatory pregame playing was ordered by the National Basketball Associations commissioner.
The national anthem has been steeped in American history ever since Frances Key Scott wrote it, after watching U.S. soldiers hoist the massive American flag over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, during the War of 1812. President Woodrow Wilson ordered the national anthem to be played at official events of the U.S. Army in 1916, and two years later, the song was used for the first time before sporting events but has yet to catch on widely in every race.
History records a variety of games with the Star-Spangled Banner played dating back to the mid-1800s, but Ruth’s final postseason appearance with the Boston Red Sox coincided with the song’s first lasting connection to the sports world, in 1918. At the White Sox Comiskey Park, the anthem was moved from Game 1s seventh-inning stretch into the pregame festivities, while the Boston Red Sox combined playing of the song with a presentation by wounded soldiers, who received complimentary tickets.
Other ballparks began to play the Star-Spangled Banner during holidays and special occasions, and Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee made it a regular part of Boston’s home games.
Notes on the First National Anthem
The first time that the National Anthem was played at a sporting event was September 5, 1918, during the first game of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. The anthem was performed by a live Army Band. The national anthem became controversial in the NFL in 2016, when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began to kneel — rather than stand, as is the norm — during the anthem in protest against racial injustice and police brutality in the country.
The controversy intensified over Labor Day weekend with the revelation that Nike had hired the NFL’s original protester, Colin Kaepernick, to work on a new campaign celebrating the apparel company’s 30th anniversary. Just Do It Nike Original NFL protester Colin Kaepernick The clothing company. The anthem is not a practice in most countries when it comes to pro sports (think the English Premier League), and Major League Soccer used the opportunity of the fan-free pandemic season to eliminate the anthem from its returning-to-play events.
The incorporation of the anthem into sports rituals is not wholly a product of team or fan patriotic sentiment. Very concrete historical reasons did not exist beyond 1945, but the leagues realized infusing sports with patriotism was good publicity, and they kept playing. After 9/11 – and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – many teams added playing “God Bless America” as a ritual during halftime.
Like team owner Mark Cuban’s decision, the 1971 directive from Northern Illinois University president Richard Nelson not to play the National Anthem before a Huskies basketball game went largely unnoticed until a week or so into the season, when a reporter from a campus newspaper asked about the matter.