FROM VIOLENCE TO PARTY: A HISTORY OF THE PRESENTATION OF AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lars Dzikus, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2005 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Melvin L. Adelman, Adviser Professor Sarah K. Fields Adviser Professor William J. Morgan College of Education ABSTRACT While scholars have widely discussed the cultural, economic, and political influence of the United States on Europe in general and Germany in particular, the realm of sports has received surprisingly little attention. This study ties in with the scholarly debate about Americanization and / or globalization that started in the first half the 1990s. It examines the presentation of American football in England from the 1890s through World War II as well as in Germany following the war to the present day. The study discusses what non-Americans wrote about football and what their countrymen and –women read about it. The study draws on English and German newspapers and magazines, particularly the London Times and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. It also examines the role American military, radio, television, and movies played in the diffusion of American football. In the case of Germany, the researcher draws on extensive qualitative interviews with several of the “founding fathers” of American football in Germany as well as his own experiences in the sport. The work demonstrates that American football arrived in Germany on a field that had been prepared by a three-hundred-year process of imagining Amerika. The author uses this context to explain why football has been relatively popular in Germany compared to ii other European countries. The study also explores football’s failure to get established in Germany during the post-World War II era, and describes how Germans finally formed their own clubs and leagues in the late 1970s. Using selected illustrations, this study describes (1) how German Amerikabilder—images, ideas, and symbols associated with America—have been constructed in and around football in Germany and (2) how these constructs reflect a number of heterostereotypes Germans have cultivated over centuries. As part of this process, the press presented football as a violent American game and entertainment spectacle. The study closes with an epilogue that shifts the focus from what was written about football to the meanings spectators, players, and coaches brought to the sport. iii DEDICATION To my parents, Loretta and Friedrich Dzikus, and my wife, Nichole. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Dr. Melvin L. Adelman for his generous support that has gone well beyond the call of an academic adviser. He is a Doktorvater in the best sense of the word. This dissertation would not be finished without his warm patience and continued intellectual challenge. I thank Dr. Sarah K. Fields and William J. Morgan for kindly supporting me through the process and offering stimulating insights. I owe much gratitude to my interview partners, who have shared their time, perspectives, and resources. While there are too many to list here individually, I would especially like to thank Thomas Jülicher, Holger Korber, Wolfgang Lehneis, Alexander Sperber, and John Workman for their continued support of my research. The management of the Frankfurt Galaxy, Düsseldorf Rhein Fire, World League of American Football (NFL Europe), and Hamburg Blue Devils kindly provided me with information about their organizations. v VITA February 01, 1970.…………………..Born - Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany 1989…………………………………Abitur, Gymnasium Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany 1998…………………………………M.A. Education, The Ohio State University 1994–1995…………………………Graduate School Fellowship, The Ohio State University 1995–1996 and 1997–present……………………….Graduate Teaching and Administrative Assistant, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Dzikus, Lars. “American Football in West Germany: Cultural Transformation, Adaptation, and Resistance,” In Turnen and Sport: Transatlantic Transfers, ed. Annette Hofmann, 221–239. Münster: Waxman, 2004. Dzikus, Lars. “American Football, Deutschland und der Unternehmer: Amerika in unseren Köpfen und Stadien” [American Football, Germany, and the Entrepreneur: America in our Heads and Stadiums]. Sportwissenschaft 32 (2004): 50–64. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Education vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................ii DEDICATION...............................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................v VITA..............................................................................................................................vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ..............................................................................................vii CHAPTER 1 ...................................................................................................................1 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................1 How I Came to this Study............................................................................................2 Overview.....................................................................................................................5 The Broader Scholarly Context..................................................................................15 Framework, Methods and Resources .........................................................................21 Field Observations.................................................................................................22 Qualitative Interviewing ........................................................................................24 Interpretation of Written Sources ...........................................................................26 Scope and Boundaries of the Study............................................................................30 Roadmap of Chapters ................................................................................................33 CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................35 AMERIKABILDER AND STEREOTYPES .................................................................35 Preparing the Field: Imagining Amerika ....................................................................42 Amerika before World War II ................................................................................43 Post-World War II Amerika ...................................................................................58 Football: From American Auto-Stereotypes to German Hetero-Stereotypes...............71 Visions of Modernity: A Legacy of Exporting and Receiving American Sports .........76 CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................96 FIRST DOWN: THE BRITISH ISLES..........................................................................96 “Other People’s Games”: American Football on the Pages of the Times of London...96 “See a Real Game of American Football”: Sailors on Shore.................................133 See a Reel Game: American Football on England’s Stages and Screens...............167 Discussion...............................................................................................................183 CHAPTER 4 ...............................................................................................................186 SECOND DOWN: ENTERING GERMANY..............................................................186 Getting to Know American Football ........................................................................186 The Barbwire Bowl Classic .................................................................................186 Football Reeducation...........................................................................................190 The Original Six ..................................................................................................195 Gridiron Amerika ....................................................................................................213 Violent Amerika...................................................................................................213 vii American Football in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1975-1990 ......................239 Amerika: XXL.....................................................................................................283 An “American” Party Around the Gridiron..............................................................293 CHAPTER 5 ...............................................................................................................307 THIRD AND LONG: FROM PAPER TO PEOPLE. AN EPILOGUE........................307 Future Research.......................................................................................................314 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................317 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Just a few years ago I used to associate American football, which I knew about solely from Soviet press publications, only with brutality