Intercollegiate Athletics at Gettysburg College, 1920-1975

Abstract

Some historians suggest that despite markings on the calendar the Twentieth Century did not begin in America, culturally speaking, until after the 1917-1918 war. Until that time, they assert, Americans thought and behaved as they had in a prior and more innocent age. After 1918 Americans adopted the more frenetic life-style of what has become known as the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, or the Mad Decade, a period which ended with the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The era saw the emergence of such athletic titans as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Harold Red Grange, Bobby Jones, Bill Tilden, and others. An indication of the new place of women during the period was the fame won by Gertrude Ederle in swimming, Helen Wills Moody in tennis, and Glenna Collett in golf. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/collegehistory/1003/thumbnail.jp