1970's+Sports

= Overview = Sports in the 1970's were very big businesses. Sports like football, tennis, baseball, basketball, etc. became entertainment money; by mid-70s professional athletes were paid to perform. Baseball, football, and basketball players belonged to the teams that drafted them, and players could be traded at the owners' discretion. Players got freedom after that. Lots of athletes got payed $100,000 per year in the 1970's. Pete Rose got a contract for 1 million dollars in 1979. NBA players were payed $109,000 by the early decade and 50% more than that by the end of the decade. CBS got earnings of up to $656 million for professional football in 1978. Television expected to have more audience because of important games. In fact, the National Football League (NFL) increased its season from 14 games to 16 games and Major League Baseball (MLB) made a more anticipated play off machine. Blacks also impacted sports in the 1970's.

Women's sports
Women were not given equal chances in sports. 5'9 full a merican basketball player, Ann Myer was offered a $50,000 contract with the Indiana Pacers in the NBA in 1979. But she was let go from the team before the season began and signed with the Women's basketball League. The Civil Rights Act of 1972 guaranteed women equal opportunities, which means women get the chancein college sports. The law required universities to spend equal amounts on men's and women's athletic teams. Women were better in individual sports than in team sports. [|Billie Jean King], Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, and Evonne Goolagong were marketable because of their game. In 1972 King received $10,000 for winning the U.S. Open tennis championship while the male winner, Illie Nastase, got $25,000. She agitated for parity in purses, and in 1973 she got it. That year, when she prevailed over Wimbeldon champion Bobby Riggs in a winner-take-all, tennis match billed was called a battle between the sexes with a prize of $100,000. Winner Margaret Court received $15,000, the same as the male champion, John Newcombe. Women golfers were less attractive to viewers than female athletes in other sports, but their payments increased to about one-third of male golfers. The Colgate-Dinah Shore Winners Circle tournament put women's golf on television, and the purse was $250,000. But there was only one Dinah Shore tournament each year. the boldest moves by a woman was Janet Gutherie. As a thirty-eight-year-old physicist who, was licensed to drive in the Indianapolis 500 auto race. In 1977 before she got a car good enough to qualify. She came in 18th of 33 cars.

= Boxing =

During the 1970s the most popular boxer was Muhammad Ali. At June 20, 1970 Ali's was sentenced to 5 years of jail because he refused to join the Army. In September of that year he received his boxing license. Ali's opularity quickly increased. Ali was the “reincarnation” of Joe Louis. The heavyweight champion was comfortable among white fans. His desire to speak out on issues of race did not seem to pose a threat to the white community. Ali had passion to everything he did in and out of the ring. Many whites ignored the controversial Ali and saw Ali as the funnyman. To African-Americans, Ali was a leader and a spokesman. He preached a black Muslim message of revolutionary change within the African-American community, and he become a kind of statesman representing the black community during his visits to African and Muslim countries. He loudly denounced the Vietnam War and publicly questioned why an unproportionate number of ghetto blacks were carrying the burden of fighting the war. Surrounding Muhammad Ali was not only the sound of fans applauding his skill, but the shrill voices of students, black muslims, and white bigots protesting in favor of or against the pronouncements of Ali. No other high-profile athlete embraced the social controversies and politics of his era in such an outspoken fashion as did Ali.

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important people:
 * [|Billie Jean King]
 * Olga Korbut
 * Ann Myer
 * Bobby Riggs
 * Arthur Ashe
 * [|Muhammad Ali]
 * [|Evel Knievel]`

= = =By Lisa And Dennis =