When did sport begin? If sport is, in essence, play, the claim might be made that sport is much older than humankind, for, as we all have observed, the beasts play. Dogs and cats wrestle and play ball games. Fishes and birds dance. The apes have simple, pleasurable games. Frolicking infants, school children playing tag, and adult arm wrestlers are demonstrating strong, transgenerational and transspecies bonds with the universe of animals - past, present, and future. Young animals, particularly, tumble, chase, run, wrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh(or so it seems) to the point of delighted exhaustion. Their play, and ours, appears to serve no other purpose than to give pleasure to the players, and apparently, to remove us temporarily from the anguish of life in earnest. Some philosophers have claimed that our playfulness is the most noble part of our basic nature. In their generous conceptions, play harmlessly and experimentally permits us to put our creative forces, fantasy, and imagination into action. Play is release from the tedious battles against scarcity and decline which are the incessant, and inevitable, tragedies of life. This is a grand conception that excites and provokes. The holders of this view claim that the origins of our highest accomplishments - liturgy, literature, and law - can be traced to a play impulse which, paradoxically, we see most purely enjoyed by young beasts and children. Our sports, in this rather happy, nonfatalistic view of human nature, are more splendid creations of the nondatable, transspecies play impulse.

    体育运动开始于何时?如果体育运动的本质就是游戏的话，我们就可以宣称体育运动比人类古老，因为正如我们所观察到的，野兽也进行嬉戏。 狗和猫会扭抱玩球，鱼和鸟翩翩起舞，猿类会进行一些简单的、愉快的游戏。 雀跃的幼儿，捉迷藏的学童和成年摔跤者展示出人与动物界的有力的跨越世代与物种的永恒的联系--特别是幼兽，它们翻筋斗、追逐、奔跑、扭打、模仿、嬉笑(或者看起来是)，直到愉快地精疲力尽。 他们的玩耍，同我们的一样，似乎并没有别的目的而只是给游戏者以愉悦，暂时把我们从严肃生活的痛苦中拉出来。一些哲学家称我们的嬉戏是我们本质中最崇高的部分。 依他们这些随意性很大的见解，游戏无害而且实验性地允许我们的创造力、幻想和想象发挥作用。 游戏让人们从永不间断亦不可避免的生活悲剧-与乏匮和衰退进行的枯燥抗争中得到一种解脱。 这是一个令人兴奋、给人启发的伟大见解。 这种见解的持有者宣称，我们的最高成就如宗教典礼、文学、法律的起源可以追溯到游戏的冲动。 但令人不解的是我们看到只有幼兽和小孩子才最纯粹地享受着这种冲动。 从这种比较豁达和非宿命的人性观来看，我们的运动是超时代、跨物种的辉煌的创造。