1842 A prizefight between Charles Freeman and William Perry on
December 6 becomes the first to use the railway as a means of
transporting spectators. (The prefight agreements stipulated
that the fight had to take place halfway between Tipton and
London, thus necessitating a special for the Eastern Counties
Railway.) But as the police could also ride the rails, the illegal
mill was rescheduled several times, and in the end the fans
ended up going to the fight by riverboat.
1844 In London, an English shop assistant named George Williams
establishes the first Young Men’s Christian Association
(YMCA). Williams’s dream was to provide middle-class Protes-
tant men such as himself with social clubs that encouraged
Bible study rather than tobacco and gin. And the early YMCAs
did this. But when the YMCA moved into the United States
and Canada during the 1850s, its leaders found that Bible
study did not attract as many young men as the gymnasiums of
the Swiss and German Turners.To overcome this problem,
most YMCA buildings built after 1880 included weight rooms,
gymnasiums, and swimming pools.
1846 In Singapore, members of triad-affiliated gangs are reported
fighting each other using wooden sticks and iron pipes. But by
1867, the gangsters were using muskets and small cannon, and
by 1921 they were carrying pistols. Unarmed martial arts,
meanwhile, were taught and used mostly as a form of militant
nationalism.
1852 Harvard and Yale hold their first informal sporting competi-
tion, a rowing regatta in Boston; the ties between American
sport and business are already clear, as a local railroad pays all
expenses in exchange for free advertising.
1853 The YMCA opens a “Colored” branch in Washington, DC. By
1869 Colored YMCAs existed throughout the United States. By
training hundreds of African American coaches, administrators,
and officials, these YMCAs made sport part of African Ameri-
can cultural pride.
1854 Chinese miners wave American-made spears and swords at one
another during a mining dispute in Trinity County, California.
This is the first known display of Asian martial arts in the
Americas.
1855 The United States Navy replaces its flintlock single-shot
pistols with .36 caliber Model 1851 Colt revolvers; the navy
also orders some full-flap sheaths to accompany these re-
volvers, which in turn makes it the first military to issue belt
holsters with its pistols. (Military holster design reached
fruition four years later with the development of the British
Sam Browne rigs.)
1857 An anonymous notice in the Saturday Reviewcoins the phrase
Muscular Christianity. The phrase described the philosophy
that a perfect Christian gentleman should be able to fear God,
play sports, and doctor a horse with equal skill. (“The object of
education,” said an editorial in Spirit of the Times,“is to make
men out of boys. Real live men, not bookworms, not smart fel-
lows, but manly fellows.”) (Gorn and Goldstein 1993, 94).
Chronological History of the Martial Arts 819