2: Literature Review
John F. Rooney Jr. of Oklahoma State University is the leading sports geographer and his research from 1974 in his book A Geography of American Sport from Cabin Creek to Anaheim is the foundation of sport geography research. In 1974, when Rooney did his research, he determined “The region encompassing Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and spilling over into several adjacent states is truly phenomenal as a player source region” (Rooney, 1974 p. 156). Rooney defined a player being from a certain state based on the high school attended. He collected data from major college and university varsity basketball player rosters from 1961 to 1967.
Rooney’s player production value was determined on the county and state level of where the …show more content…
They based the regions they defined on 70 factors such as participation in high school sports, sport association memberships, and per capita origins of intercollegiate and professional athletes. Rooney and Pillsbury’s paper reemphasizes Rooney’s earlier research that Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, produce a high number of basketball players they refer this region as the “American Heartland”. Besides the “American Heartland” Rooney and Pillsbury also wrote about other regions in the United States and the sports which are prevalent to each region through participation or fandom. Figure 3 shows the map they created and what regions were created from their work. Each region was given a defining name to explain the type of sport for the region. “Sport for the Sport’s Sake”: in this region there is a wide variety of sports played at a community level but rarely are there high quality players for any given sport to come from this region. “Rocky Mountain High” is more focused on the individual sports such as skiing, running and hunting. “Cowboys and Mormons” sees basketball and football thrive but has poorly funded universities (there is also a high concentration of rodeo, hunting and fishing in this region). “Pacific Cornucopia” features year around sports such as baseball, and this area is known to produce more high talent baseball players. “Texas Southwest” is known for football. “Pigskin Cult” is another region where football is king. “South Florida” region is where no particular sport identifies as the dominate sport. “Eastern Cradle” is where many of the national sports can trace their birthplace. Currently the region is not known for producing a high talent level of players. “Miles and Mines” has a concentration of boxing, football, and auto racing. Rooney
John F. Rooney Jr. of Oklahoma State University is the leading sports geographer and his research from 1974 in his book A Geography of American Sport from Cabin Creek to Anaheim is the foundation of sport geography research. In 1974, when Rooney did his research, he determined “The region encompassing Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and spilling over into several adjacent states is truly phenomenal as a player source region” (Rooney, 1974 p. 156). Rooney defined a player being from a certain state based on the high school attended. He collected data from major college and university varsity basketball player rosters from 1961 to 1967.
Rooney’s player production value was determined on the county and state level of where the …show more content…
They based the regions they defined on 70 factors such as participation in high school sports, sport association memberships, and per capita origins of intercollegiate and professional athletes. Rooney and Pillsbury’s paper reemphasizes Rooney’s earlier research that Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, produce a high number of basketball players they refer this region as the “American Heartland”. Besides the “American Heartland” Rooney and Pillsbury also wrote about other regions in the United States and the sports which are prevalent to each region through participation or fandom. Figure 3 shows the map they created and what regions were created from their work. Each region was given a defining name to explain the type of sport for the region. “Sport for the Sport’s Sake”: in this region there is a wide variety of sports played at a community level but rarely are there high quality players for any given sport to come from this region. “Rocky Mountain High” is more focused on the individual sports such as skiing, running and hunting. “Cowboys and Mormons” sees basketball and football thrive but has poorly funded universities (there is also a high concentration of rodeo, hunting and fishing in this region). “Pacific Cornucopia” features year around sports such as baseball, and this area is known to produce more high talent baseball players. “Texas Southwest” is known for football. “Pigskin Cult” is another region where football is king. “South Florida” region is where no particular sport identifies as the dominate sport. “Eastern Cradle” is where many of the national sports can trace their birthplace. Currently the region is not known for producing a high talent level of players. “Miles and Mines” has a concentration of boxing, football, and auto racing. Rooney