How did World War affect sports and pro athletes?

Answer 1

World War 2 affected sport and pro-athletes the same as any man in that day. Some were drafted into the service and many enlisted. Pro-sports games were discontinued during the war time in the Allied nations. Most of the athletes returned to their teams at the end of the war. In that era Baseball was the most popular and well attended sports venture before and after the war. Football was not as popular then as it is today. Baseball and the War made a huge difference for the Blacks in sports. Some team owners began to hire more Black athletes for their white teams.

The lines of demarcation began to fade when the team owners saw what the Blacks could do during the war. Some blacks however, who were on the black teams did not choose to crossover to white teams. Discrimination and racism did not get cured over night because of the war. The few changes made on the all white teams did not cause team owners to hire hundreds of black.

Team salaries were affected by the war indirectly. As the economy improved during the war and after the war and the depression faded away ball players began to make more demands of the team owners and it escalated until today.

Many communities chose to have women play on teams while the war was waged. There is a movie about this. Some of the women who played on the womens' league are still alive and great pictures of their games and teams. This was a spark for all female teams to become semi-pro, in many sports, beyond the college level.