Coolly observational yet intensely engaging, American Sports, 1970 draws a subtle but sharp parallel between the war in Vietnam and the American attitude toward spectator sports during a time of conflict. In 1970, a watershed year for popular opinion against the war, Tod Papageorge was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation grant. His ostensible subject—sports and its role in American life—quickly became charged with the political, racial, and sexual conflicts ignited by the war. Picture after picture is electric with disquiet: military men in uniform parading on the field or relaxing in the stands; cheerleaders rehearsing under the eyes of police; a couple sprawled and embracing in the debris of the Indianapolis 500; and hundreds of fans, drawn in unsettling group portraits, at various stadiums and in the stands of many classic American sporting events.
