FW: Supreme Court's Earl Warren reads the sports pages first -- is this from Yale's William Lyon Phelps?

Mon Jul 2 17:33:24 UTC 2012

Great finds by Barry and Garson!  This has long been one of my favorite quotes. although for a Mets-Jets-Knicks-Islanders fan like myself, it is not at all clear that the sports pages are really records of human triumph and success.

Fred Shapiro

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Garson O'Toole [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 11:12 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: FW: Supreme Court's Earl Warren reads the sports pages first              -- is this from Yale's William Lyon Phelps?

Great finds, Barry! Thanks for sharing them. Here is a prolix version
of the sentiment from the pen of William Lyon Phelps in 1922.

Cite: 1922 November, Scribner's Magazine, Volume 72, As I Like It by
William Lyon Phelps, Start Page 626, Quote Page 628, Charles Scribners
Sons, New York. (Google Books full view)

http://books.google.com/books?id=zfEqAQAAMAAJ&q=%22sporting+page%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt - condensed version]
Is not this the true reason why so many of the intelligentsia, on
opening the morning paper turn first of all to the sporting page? …
The front page is covered with failures-failures of capitalists and
laborers to avert disastrous strikes, failures of statesmen to bring
peace to the world, … How different is the sporting page, where we
read of the glorious triumphs of Ty Cobb, Sarazen, Sweetser, Tilden,
and Johnston! The sporting page is the Daily Hope. It advertises
success rather than failure.
[End excerpt - condensed version]

[Begin excerpt - complete excerpt]
Is not this the true reason why so many of the intelligentsia, on
opening the morning paper turn first of all to the sporting page? I
remember once, during the war, while travelling on a train, a newsboy
brought in the papers, which were eagerly bought. Sitting near me was
a clergyman in clerical dress, who opened his paper feverishly, and
turned instantly to the sporting page, without looking to see what had
happened in France. Perhaps this habit, which is more common than some
may think, needs no apology. The front page is covered with
failures-failures of capitalists and laborers to avert disastrous
strikes, failures of statesmen to bring peace to the world, failures
in Ireland, failures of stock-brokers, failures of theatre-managers,
failures of husbands, and wives in the art of living together. All of
these groups of people should be experts, and their pathetic failures
are daily and depressingly recorded. How different is the sporting
page, where we read of the glorious triumphs of Ty Cobb, Sarazen,
Sweetser, Tilden, and Johnston! The sporting page is the Daily Hope.
It advertises success rather than failure.
[End excerpt - complete excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 8:29 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      FW: Supreme Court's Earl Warren reads the sports pages first --
>              is this from Yale's William Lyon Phelps?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Barry sent the message below to several ads-l members. I now forward it
> to the entire list.
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Barry Popik [bapopik at aol.com]
> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 5:19 AM
> Subject: Supreme Court's Earl Warren reads the sports pages first -- is this from Yale's William Lyon Phelps?
>
> What a day. A Supreme Court decision and the NBA draft!
> ...
> Earl Warren famously said that he reads the sports pages first. The YBQ
> and Wikiquote (you can correct them; I can't cite my own work) have
> 1968, but I also found the quote in 1967.
> ...
> Also, the spirt of the quote appears to come from Yale's William Lyon
> Phelps.
> ...
> Teddy Roosevelt was credited in 1971, but I haven't found anything to
> support this. You can share this with ADS-L and with Yale if you wish.
> ...
> Barry Popik
> Austin, TX
> www.barrypopik.com
> ...
> ...
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/the_sports_page_records_peoples_accomplishments_and_the_front_page_has_noth/
> Entry from June 28, 2012
>
> “The sports page records people’s accomplishments and the front page
> has nothing but man’s failures”
>
>
> Many people read the sports section of a newspaper first, even before
> the front page. One famous person who did this was Earl Warren
> (1891-1974), the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In
> October 1967, Warren explained, “The front page advertises man’s
> failures; the sports pages report men’s achievements.” In July 1968,
> Warren said, “They say the sports page records people’s accomplishments
> and the front page has nothing but man’s failures.”
>
> Warren might have been paraphrasing from Yale University professor
> William Lyon Phelps (1865-1943), who wrote in his Autobiography (1939):
>
> “Yet the fact that the majority of men turn first of all to the
> sporting page of the newspaper can be accounted for on the ground that
> the first page is usually a record of failures—failures in business,
> failures in the art of living together, failures in citizenship, in
> character, and many other things; whereas the sporting page is a record
> of victories. It contains some good news, a commodity so rarely found
> on the first page.”
>
>
> Wikiquote: Earl Warren
> Earl Warren (19 March 1891 – 9 July 1974) was the 30th Governor of
> California (1943–1953) and 14th Chief Justice of the United States
> (1953-1969).
>
> Sourced
> I always turn to the sports section first. The sports section records
> people’s accomplishments; the front page nothing but man’s failures.
>  . As quoted in Sports Illustrated (22 July 1968)
> . Variants:
> . I always turn to the sports page first, which records people’s
> accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.
>  .. As quoted in Best Sports Stories: 1975 (1976) by Irving T. Marsh
> . I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people’s
> accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.
>  .. As quoted in The Norton Book of Sports (1992) by George Plimpton,
> p. 470
>
> Wikipedia: William L. Phelps
> William Lyon Phelps (January 2, 1865 New Haven, Connecticut - August
> 21, 1943 New Haven, Connecticut) was an American author, critic and
> scholar. He taught the first American university course on the modern
> novel. He was a well-known speaker who drew large crowds. He had a
> radio show, wrote a daily syndicated newspaper column, lectured
> frequently, and published numerous popular books and articles.
>
> Google Books
> October 1932, The Rotarian, pg. 18:
> Touchdown!
> By Fielding H. Yost
> Director of Athletics, University of Michigan
> (...)
> WE hear criticism of the emphasis given sports by the newspapers. We
> hear slighting criticism of the man who buys and reads the newspaper
> for its sports section alone. We hear criticism of the “over-emphasis”
> placed on football. This criticism never disturbs me, for I believe
> that if there are enough men, in the welter and turmoil of the modern
> world, who find time to interest themselves in clean, virile sport, we
> can point to these men as unfailing signs of an ultimate salvation for
> us all. I would far rather have America be called a nation of sports
> enthusiasts than (Pg. 19—ed.) a nation of money-grabbers. I would far
> rather have my boy study the sports section than the stock-market
> pages, or, for that matter, the lurid first-page stories of the world’s
> woes and sordid scandals.
>
> Google Books
> Autobiography:
> with letters
> By William Lyon Phelps
> Oxford: Oxford University Press
> 1939
> Pg. 356:
> The love of most men for sport and their absorbing interest in it
> cannot perhaps be defended rationally; it is an instinct going deeper
> than reason. Men like W.H. Hudson, Bernard Shaw, and others to whom
> sport was abhorrent, were without “sporting blood.” Yet the fact that
> the majority of men turn first of all to the sporting page of the
> newspaper can be accounted for on the ground that the first page is
> usually a record of failures—failures in business, failures in the art
> of living together, failures in citizenship, in character, and many
> other things; whereas the sporting page is a record of victories. It
> contains some good news, a commodity so rarely found on the first page.
>
> Google Books
> Bury Me in an Old Press Box:
> Good Times and Life of a Sportswriter
> By Fred Russell
> New York, NY: A. S. Barnes and Company
> 1957
> Pg. VIII:
> But I believe that most people who turn to the sports page first do so
> because there is so little fun anywhere else in the paper. The
> “funnies” are not even called that anymore, and the term “comic strip”
> is a gross misnomer for all but a few. As for the front page, it seems
> eternally permeated with the perils of our position in the Middle East,
> arguments among politicians, automobile wrecks and bad weather.
>
> Google News Archive
> 7 October 1967, St. Petersburg (FL) Times, “Warren: Dedicated Baseball
> Man” by Drew Pearson, pg. 7A, col. 1:
>  WASHINGTON—For the first time in 14 years, Washington’s No. 1 baseball
> fan is not able to watch the entire World Series. He is tied up on the
> Supreme Court.
>  (...)
> Most people connect Earl Warren with school desegregation or
> complicated legal decisions. But he has a secret sideline—sports. He
> reads the sport pages in the morning before he reads the front page
> headlines because, he says, “The front page advertises man’s failures;
> the sports pages report men’s achievements.”
>
> 9 July 1968, Omaha (NE) World-Herald, Sports Section, pg. 13, col. 1:
> Chief Justice Earl Warren Reads Sports Section First
> By Jerome Holtzman
> Chicago Sun-Times Service.
> Earl Warren, the retiring Chief Justice of the United States Supreme
> Court, revealed that he is an inveterate sports page reader.
>
> “I suppose I’m like every one else—I always turn to the sports section
> first,” he said.
>
> Chief Justice Warren then added: “You know what they say. They say the
> sports page records people’s accomplishments and the front page has
> nothing but man’s failures.”
>
> Sports Illustrated
> July 22, 1968
> They Said It
> Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U.S.: “I always turn to the sports
> section first. The sports page records people’s accomplishments; the
> front page has nothing but man’s failures.”
>
> Sports Illustrated
> August 26, 1968
> 19th Hole: The Readers Take Over
> PRECEDENTED DECISION
> Sirs:
> I am a charter subscriber, and this is my first letter to one of my
> favorite and more enjoyable magazines. In “They Said It” (SCORECARD,
> July 22) you attribute to Chief Justice Earl Warren: “I always turn to
> the sports section first. The sports page records man’s
> accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man’s failures.” I read
> the quote many years ago—and at that time it belonged to the late
> William Lyon Phelps, professor of English literature at Yale.
>  WILLIAM M. CLINES
> Los Angeles
>
> Professor Phelps, a sports enthusiast, tennis player, golfer, baseball
> fan and a distance runner in his college days, phrased the same thought
> somewhat less succinctly in his Autobiography with Letters: “The love
> of most men for sport and their absorbing interest in it cannot perhaps
> be defended rationally; it is an instinct going deeper than reason....
> The fact that the majority of men turn first of all to the sporting
> page of the newspaper can be accounted for on the ground that the first
> page is usually a record of failures—failures in business, failures in
> the art of living together, failures in citizenship, in character, and
> many other things; whereas the sporting page is a record of victories.
> It contains some good news, a commodity so rarely found on the first
> page."—ED.
>
> Google Books
> San Diego magazine
> Volume 23
> 1971
> Pg. 10:
> Teddy Roosevelt’s line about looking at the sports page first because
> it listed man’s accomplishments and the front page last because it
> recorded man’s failures would have to be amended.
>
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