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The Russian word for a sports fan is "bolel'shchik." I'll explain in a minute. But first, did you know that for a long time Americans had no word for it?
Sports fans appeared in the US in the 1850s, but the word didn't come about until early XX c..
The Russian word for a sports fan is "bolel'shchik." I'll explain in a minute. But first, did you know that for a long time Americans had no word for it?
Sports fans appeared in the US in the 1850s, but the word didn't come about until early XX c..
Until baseball began to proliferate in NYC and people began to support teams from their neighborhoods, their only interest in sports was betting. The concept of following a team over a period of time with nothing at stake except emotional investment was utterly new...
So, for a long time, folks who weren't into this culture, just assumed these were some new type of gamblers. This is how they were described in newspapers. Eventually, the word "fanatic" was used.
This, of course, tells us something about the prevailing emotion in the stands...
This, of course, tells us something about the prevailing emotion in the stands...
