1940s: Sports and Games

World War II (1939–45) disrupted professional sports events. After the entrance of American troops into the war in 1941, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, many of the finest athletes joined the military. Some teams disbanded when their players went off to war. Most continued with a limited number of players and tight budgets. Even with these wartime cutbacks, sports remained a favorite pastime for Americans. When the war ended, talented players returned, money again poured into sports organizations, and television enlarged the audiences, professional sports again became a dominant entertainment moneymaker in America.

The war did offer women more opportunities in sports. With so many male athletes fighting for the country, women athletes were encouraged to join the All-American Girls Baseball League, which was popular during the war. Women also attracted attention in golf and tennis.

One of the most important events in sports came in 1947 when Jackie Robinson (1919–1972) signed on to the Brooklyn Dodgers major-league baseball team. Although African Americans had been champions in the boxing arena for some time, Robinson's breaking of the color barrier in baseball was especially important, because baseball was America's favorite sport. By the end of the 1940s, some of the best players in baseball were black. Other sports soon began integration of their own.

At home, games were welcome diversions from the war and later remained fun entertainment. The Slinky, a coiled-wire toy that continues to be popular, "walked" down steps to the amusement of kids and adults alike. Scrabble, a word board game, tested the vocabulary and spelling of countless people across the country. Tonka trucks offered children the chance to imagine the life of construction workers with pint-sized dump trucks and tractor toys.