Steve Chappell's Winsome Wisdom

Steve Chappell's  - Winsome Wisdom: What it Was, Was Football...or Soccer?

One of my fondest memories as a child was lying on the living room rug with my dad while listening to music on his brand new state-of-the-art high fidelity rig. There was no stereo yet, just hi-fi. Back in those days, a Scott amplifier, Dual 1019 turntable and Acoustic Research AR-3 speakers made the music sound like you were right there in the studio.
 
Daddy introduced me to Ravel, Stravinsky, Lily Pons, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Les and Larry Elgart, Tex Ritter, Frank Sinatra, Les Paul, and Tennessee Ernie Ford, just to name a few. This time, however, it wasn’t music we were hearing. It was the voice of a young comic from Mt Airy, North Carolina, named Andy Griffith. The album entitled What it Was, Was Football featured a description of a football game, as seen by a naive country preacher who, looking for some food, gets herded into a college football game by mistake.

Fast forward more years than I care to relate, and I suspect the spectacle of the international brand of "football" would be a bit less confusing to Deacon Andy had he been watching the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) Women’s World Cup, specifically the final match between the United States and Japan. Despite the recent shadow of scandal within the FIFA, the games go on.

In 1999, the FIFA Women's World Cup final match between the U.S. and China on July 10 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, was the most-attended women's sports event in history with an official attendance of 90,185. The television audience was estimated at 40 million! This year’s final match pitted the United States against Japan in a decisive win during the 90-minute duel for the American team. It marked their second World Cup achievement.

What a difference a half-century has made! During the 50s, my childhood years, very few with the possible exception of the private schools had even heard of soccer. Our outdoor sports activities were football and baseball. My first introduction to soccer was in 1957 when I began seventh grade at Baylor School in Chattanooga. Baylor had a varsity soccer team, and I wondered why since no one ever watched the matches.

But as fate would have it, soccer began to appear on the fields (pitches) in cities, towns, and villages across the U.S. during the summer months. Kids from 5 to 15 were carpooled to soccer matches as well as baseball games and dancing classes. Over time, soccer surpassed baseball as a participant sport. The term "soccer mom" evolved, and a new American pastime was born

So, what it was, was football? Or was it soccer? I can imagine Deacon Andy Griffith bellowing his observations about "...all them young ladies a-runnin’ up and down that cow pasture, kickin’ that little black-and-white ball all over the place, knockin’ each other down, and I don’t know what all! And they wasn’t wearing nothing but two different color shorts and shirts... they were! And every time they kicked that little ball into that net, folks stood up a-hollering’ and wavin’ American flags!"

I wonder if he would have spilled his big orange drink this time?