In the 1920s, “hero athletes” were created by sports journalists. This is because the United States was going through a lot of tough times. As stated by the article, “...300,000 soldiers were either killed or wounded in World War I”. It also says “...the nation was struck by the Spanish Influenza”. And although not stated, in that time period the Great Depression was also soon. This shows that the country was impacted greatly by war, sickness, and financial struggles. Creating
“hero athletes” were a group of peoples’ solution to these problems by having someone to look up to and to get their “collective mind off war and disease”.