As sports and games grew at colleges and universities in the second half of 19^th century, professional and amateur leagues began to rise and athleticism expanded across the western world.  It did not take a prophet to predict that this growing phenomenon would soon produce international competitions in individual sports.  In fact, cricket matches between the US and Canada started sporadically before the Civil War.  Before he proposed the advent of the Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin helped organize rowing and rugby competitions between England and France.  In a speech in 1919 to commemorate “The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Olympic Games,” the Baron acknowledged the Olympic era was a direct response to the athletic renewal already underway. Today’s quote is from that speech.

“The time had come to reopen the Olympic era, and through that act to give fruitful sanction to the athletic renewal that was in its infancy. We did so by bringing together the athletic utilitarianism of the Anglo-Saxons and the prestigious and resonant approaches bequeathed by Ancient Greece ... Gentlemen, that work has now been solidified by a quarter century of success.”