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Scout Sport Leagues?


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A mention in another thread brought to mind the Cub Scout days of my youth. Our Pack participated in a Cub Softball League. We had the usual stuff, ballcaps, tshirts, dad coaches... I played first base and right field for three summers (yes, it was only summer!) .!

Do we have any Scout sport leagues out there? I do not know of any such things in my area.

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I think if kids want to do base ball they should go though the organizations that currently do that. little league for instance. If you have a few hours for the kids get them in the woods on a hike. or bicycleing. swimming. recreateing leagues of packs takes away from scouting.

 

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The Varsity Scouting program has a sports emphasis, but that is only for boys 14 and older. It is my understanding that the Varsity program is used by the LDS Church in their Scouting program, but by very few non-LDS CO's. I don't think I have ever seen a Varsity Scout unit.

 

Beyond that I am not aware of any units that participate in an organized sports league. I remember that when I was a Scout, at summer camp we would sometimes challenge another troop to some kind of sports game, but nothing more organized than that. I suspect that if I mentioned that to the Scouts in "the troop I serve", they would wonder how they were supposed to fit a softball game or soccer game in among the planned activities that seem to take up every minute of the day in the summer camp they attend.

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Scout team sports leagues were a big part of the early years of Scouting. The troop I was with for 27 years was founded in 1908. By 1914, it had two basketball teams in regular Scout league Competition.. I have not reviewed the newspaper clippings to see about other seasons. Years later, when I was A Scout, our district had a softball league and a touch football league. (The championship in California's rainy season, was the "Mud Bowl" - and it was.)

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There seems to be no study on the subject.

 

Scouting has been going on here since 1908. I am sure I have not heard of lots of Scouting stuff since I didn't join until 1954, and this although I volunteer with a Scouting museum.

 

The newspaper clippings (starting to fall apart) from the early years are full of reports of Scout athletic leagues

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Cleveland could be an outlier, but it seems odd to be to think Cleveland was that out-of-step with the rest of the country, It was one of the first "First Class" councils and was visited by BP and BSA's Darth Vader.

 

 

There is some evidence of team sports in the early years outside NE Ohio.

 

:

http://www.shelbycountytexashistory.net/Shelby/schools/1920basketball.htm

 

History of Princeton Troop 43

"A report in 1933 sounds a note familiar to Scouters. The Scoutmaster made an appeal for Scouts to wear their uniforms to meetings, consisting of knee pants and long stockings! During Boy Scout Week, which commemorated the more than five million Scouting members that year, our Troop celebrated with a basketball game against a YMCA team."

 

I have a picture of a Japanese-American basketball team of Troop 84, Salt lake City before WW II, but can;t seem to post in here.

 

BSA sponsored a manual of how to pitch in baseball authored by Christy Mathewson. Not much need to know how to pitch without a team for which to pitch.

 

Boy's Life for August, 1912, had four articles on how to play baseball. The cover showed a batter and catcher.

 

In 1926, every troop in Manitiwoc, WI sponsored two basketball teams. http://images.library.wisc.edu/WI/EFacs/MTWCImages/OccSeries/Monograph48/reference/wi.monograph48.i0001.pdf

 

Brewster N.Y. Troop 1 [still in operation and another troop older than BSA] had a baseball team. May 5th[1911]: “The Boy Scouts have organized a ball team that listens like the goods. They will cross bats with the Pawling Scouts on the Electrazone Field at 1 o’clock to-morrow afternoon†(The Brewster Standard, page 5, 5-5-1911)

May 12th: “Boy Scouts at Baseball†“Pawling’s bunch of Boy Scout baseball players were big fellows but no match for our lads when it comes to playing the national past game. Brewster 14 / Pawling 6 “(The Brewster Standard, page 1, 5-12-1911)

Nov 24th: “A Boy Scout Hockey Team is being organized. The evening meeting is at the Town Hall. The Saturday hikes will be inaugurated to-morrow†(The Brewster Standard, page 6, 11-24-1911)

 

In 1964, Angola, Indiana had a "Scout and Kids Baseball League."

 

The troop sponsored by Grace Church in Sheboygan, WI had a basketball team.

 

And, by the way, Juliette Lowe played basketball with her troop's team.

 

If you prowl the records of your local newspapers for the early years of Scouting, I'll bet you find what I find In Cleveland's press records.

 

 

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When I was an Explorer in the late 60's we had a yearly basketball tournament with about 6 posts competing in a round robin tournament at a local junior high school gym. It was a good time. And perish the thought today, we all showered and changed clothes together!

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When I was an Explorer in the late 60's we had a yearly basketball tournament with about 6 posts competing in a round robin tournament at a local junior high school gym. It was a good time. And perish the thought today' date=' we all showered and changed clothes together![/quote']

 

Guess the girls were not among the "we all"? ;)

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