How Sports Embody the American Spirit

The history of the United States is the consummate underdog story.

Underdog stories are the bread and butter of sports movies. The story is always the same, even if the details are different: All it takes to win is heart, and that desire is all it takes to bring down more-established, more-talented, better-coached teams.

Think through your favorite sports movies—Remember the Titans, Glory Road, Miracle, The Mighty Ducks, Hoosiers, Rocky—yep, they all check out.

The underdog story is a heavy-duty part of American mythology and belief. Carl Jung called it the "collective unconscious"—an unconscious mind, shared by all society, forming beliefs and attitudes and constructed from the collected experiences of a people.

It's not so in other cultures. Eastern traditions of productivity and efficiency would hold that the better prepared team wins in every circumstance. Heart, in such a case, is no substitute for rising before the sun each day and dedicating one's self to their studies.

But the underdog story is the story of America, and it is perhaps the stories of our country's founding that fuel our love for the underdog.

In the Revolutionary War, the Americans were a scrappy group of patriots, bound together by their political ideologies. They didn't have a professional army, and instead employed small militias—barely-trained, only mildly-armed men who fought because it was right.

On the other side was a juggernaut: the British Empire, headed by the Tyrant King George, with weapons, personnel, and resources freely at their disposal. They had uniforms, ample gunpowder (which the Americans lacked), and training. Their armies were larger, and when things went sour they hired German mercenaries to supplement their forces.

But still, the victory went to the underdog. The American colonists, fighting on principle rather than preparation, overturned the mighty British—and in doing so, made the underdog the mascot of a new country.

Sports history then goes on to inseparably intertwine with modern American history. Racism rose and fell with sports at the forefront. Women played baseball when the men went to war. And the 1980s are perhaps better remembered for Magic and Bird then they were for Reagan and Mondale.

But it all started when our country itself began, with the first American underdog story.

Perhaps this is why these sports movies speak to us on such an emotional level. As Jung proposed, perhaps this idea of heart over might—taught to us at home and school, since we were young enough to remember—is built into our subconscious as Americans, gently guiding our thoughts and actions.

Perhaps it's why we love sports.

So today, as we in the U.S. celebrate our Independence Day, it's appropriate to reflect on our country's history in the context we know so well—the thrill of competition, the rise of the underdog, and the victory of the strong-willed.

And if you don't have any celebrations planned, go ahead and stick in your copy of Hoosiers.