birdog1960 Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 "play ball". frank deford had a history lesson on sports events beginning with the star spangled banner today.http://www.npr.org/2014/09/10/347100345/the-national-anthem-and-the-national-pastime. i had no idea it was such a recent institution beginning with the 1919 world series (and the story of the first playing is pretty cool). i'll bet others here also thought it had been happening for a lot longer. makes me wonder when anthems began at the olympics. likely after 1919. was this an american invention?
/dev/null Posted September 11, 2014 Posted September 11, 2014 I don't know about the origins of anthems at the Olympics. But I do know the torch relay was a product of Nazi Germany
DC Tom Posted September 11, 2014 Posted September 11, 2014 I don't know about the origins of anthems at the Olympics. But I do know the torch relay was a product of Nazi Germany The original Olympics weren't just games, they were political/religious festivals and holidays. So I would not be surprised if the anthems were a modern interpretation of some ancient Greek practice of singing hymns to the Olympian gods. Particularly considering that each polis typically professed some sort of patronage relationship with a given god (e.g. Athena for Athens, Poseidon for Corinth, Apollo for Delphi).
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