| The popularity of sport amongst all sections of society is a result of a complex interaction with those that it touches. It is also revealing of a malleability which has always enabled people to mould sport as they saw fit and glean from it what they wanted. This thesis aims to articulate this interrelationship using late nineteenth and early twentieth century Guelph, Ontario, as its structural parameter. It also determines whether sport became strong enough to attain the status of autonomous institution in the process by undertaking a historiographical analysis of the broad overviews which seek to explain the the role of sport within society, as well as its development within urban areas. This provides the conceptual basis for a discussion of the formative clubs, institutions and facilities of Guelph. A separate chapter is reserved for the pioneering and professional Maple Leaf Baseball Club. |
