The Earliest Known Record Of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' Being Played At A Sporting Event Was In 1862
While the first professional baseball game wasn't played until 1869, and the National and American Leagues weren't founded until 1876 and 1901, respectively, people had played amateur baseball for years before these events. So it shouldn't be a surprise that the first known record of "The Star-Spangled Banner" being played at any sporting event in the United States came decades before the practice became an actual tradition.
According to John Thorn, the official historian for Major League Baseball (MLB), it was first played at the opening game at William Cammeyer’s Union Grounds park in Brooklyn on May 15, 1862.
"They hire a band because it's a big celebration," anthem expert and university musicology professor Mark Clague explained to NPR in 2018. "When you have live music in 1862, during the Civil War, you're going to play patriotic songs. So they play 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' sort of coincidentally. It's not part of a ritual; [it's] not played to start the game."
The first time the song was played at any major-league team's Opening Day, meanwhile, was in Philadelphia on April 22, 1897.
The Anthem Boosted Morale During Game 1 Of The 1918 World Series
Only around 10,000 fans reportedly showed up for Game 1 of the 1918 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, and they weren't exactly in a cheery mood.
And why should they have been? By September 5, 1918, 100,000 of US soldiers had been slain in WWI since entering the conflict 17 months earlier. Furthermore, MLB players were now being drafted to fill the need for more soldiers. While on the home front, acts of domestic terrorism, like a September 4 blast that took the lives of 30 people as it ripped through the Chicago Federal Building, added to the general misery.
A break in the gloom came in the middle of the seventh inning. It was common practice at the time for military bands to play at games. When the band struck up "The Star-Spangled Banner," Red Sox third baseman Fred Thomas, who was on leave from the Navy, turned towards the flag and saluted while his teammates stood with their hands over their hearts.
"First the song was taken up by a few [fans], then others joined, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field," The New York Times reported. "It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day's enthusiasm."
Reportedly, September 5, 1918, wasn't the first time "The Star-Spangled Banner" had been performed at a World Series game. But the song struck a nerve with people that day, spawning a new tradition.
Playing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' Became More Common Among Other Teams In Baseball After 1918
The 1918 World Series moved to Boston after three games. While the Cubs had "The Star-Spangled Banner" played during the seventh inning stretch, the Red Sox upped the ante by making the anthem part of the pre-game ceremonies. They also gave free tickets to wounded veterans, who were introduced to the crowd during the playing of the song prior to Game 6 of the series. The Chicago Tribune reported, "[The soldiers'] entrance on crutches supported by their comrades evoked louder cheers than anything the athletes did on the diamond."
The enthusiastic fan response to "The Star-Spangled Banner" - and the sharp increase in attendance - didn't go unnoticed by other MLB teams. Over the next few years it became standard practice for the song to be played on Opening Day, during World Series games, and at contests played on holidays. Harry Frazee, the owner of the Boston Red Sox, was so impressed with the fans' response to the anthem during the 1918 World Series that he ordered the club to have it performed at every home game beginning the following season. Hiring a band to perform the anthem was often cost prohibitive, but as teams installed better public address systems, recordings of the song started to be used in place of a live performance. This advance in technology allowed "The Star-Spangled Banner" to be heard more and more often at MLB games in the years between WWI and World War II.
During WWII, The Anthem Was Again Used At Sporting Events To Inspire Patriotism
It is no coincidence that the tradition of playing the anthem before every MLB game really began with the 1942 season. After all, the United States had entered WWII just a few months earlier, and the war effort needed support from American citizens. Playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at games appealed to the fans' patriotism, just as it had done back in 1918.
"National anthems are political," Marc Ferris, the author of Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America's National Anthem, told USA Today in 2017. He continued, "Sports are a kind of bloodless warfare. A sort of war without death."
The author said that, unlike many other places, the United States is a patriotic country and playing the national anthem was a way to show that patriotism.
Of course, sporting events weren't the only places where the anthem could be heard during WWII. "The anthem was heard everywhere," Ferris stated. "Before the opera, before the movies, before the theater."
But while it was rare to hear "The Star-Spangled Banner" played prior to a movie or an opera once WWII came to an end in 1945, the majority of sports teams either continued or adopted the practice of playing it before games.
After WWII, NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden Ordered The Anthem To Be Played At All Games
Elmer Layden first gained football fame in the 1920s as a member of Notre Dame's famed "Four Horsemen" backfield. In 1941, he became the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL).
At the end of WWII, Layden ordered NFL teams to start playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at their games. He told The New York Times:
The playing of the national anthem should be as much a part of every game as the kickoff. We must not drop it simply because the war is over. We should never forget what it stands for.
Two decades later, as the Vietnam War raged on, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle started enforcing a policy that stated that players had to stand at attention during the anthem, with their helmets tucked under their arms. The policy mandated that the players could not talk, chew gum, or move their feet while "The Star-Spangled Banner" was being performed.
Playing The Anthem Also Became The Norm Among Other Sports After WWII
When the National Hockey League (NHL) was founded in 1917, it had just four teams, all located in Canada. As of 2020, it comprises 31 teams, 24 of which are in the United States. Despite the location of the clubs, only 26.1% of the players who participated in the 2019-20 season were born in the United States. In fact, 17 countries are represented, with Canadian-born players (42.6%) making up the largest portion.
Despite this, the NHL mandated back in 1946 that "The Star-Spangled Banner" be played before games "as a show of patriotism." That rule is still on the books today, although since the 1970s the league has allowed "God Bless America" to be used as a substitute. And of course, in any contest between two of the Canadian-based franchises, the Canadian national anthem ("O Canada") is substituted.
Not only did the NFL and NHL both begin regularly playing the anthem before its games in 1946, so did the newly formed National Basketball Association (NBA). Tim Frank, a spokesman for the NBA, told The New York Times in 2016 that the playing of the anthem before the league's games is done "in honor of the United States and those who have sacrificed to protect it."
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