The Age of Reason and Skepticism.

The golden age of sports had been something of a golden age of sportswriters also: Ring Lardner, Grantland Rice, Damon Runyon, W. O. McGeehan, Paul Gallico, and Heywood Broun were colorful scribes, many of whom went on to other fields of literary endeavor. These writers, who still considered themselves reporters first, had been given a great deal of leeway and freedom in terms of style and content. An "Aw Nuts" group wrote cynical, witty prose, while a "Gee Whiz" group was more romantic and celebratory. They came to dominate sports journalism in the 1930s. A few writers, however, began to look at heroes as ordinary human beings and at sports more critically. While writers were still treated well by the clubs they were covering, the journalists did not feel they were obliged to report only...