In order to find a scholarly article on my topic I utilized EBSCO Host. EBSCO host made it relatively easy to find a scholarly article through the search at the top for key words in which I searched “Athletes” and “Bad Boys”. One extremely helpful attribute of this site was on the left side there was a check box for “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals”. Through this database I found Richard “Pancho” Gonzalez, Race and the Print Media in Postwar Tennis America from “The International Journal of the History of Sport” by Jose M. Alamillo. Alamillo begins the article with a brief history about Richard ‘Pancho’ Gonzalez then analyzing the way that different media sources portray him as a ‘bad boy’ during wartime and throughout his life. Then it looks at the way that media transitions into portraying Gonzalez for his athletic achievements making him out to be a role model.
Gonzalez starts out as poor boy whose mom bought him a cheap tennis racket to keep him off the streets. Then was welcomed into a country club where he felt a little out of place. He was really good though and was then invited to many tournaments playing against big names and given a $60,000 contract. But then he had an awful season and was let go from his contract. Gonzalez continued into having to choose between the United States and Mexico. He chose to keeps his citizenship in the United States over Mexico.
The main point of this article is how a Gonzalez, a Mexican American citizen overcame all sorts of barriers in order to achieve his status as a tennis player. The difference between Gonzalez and athletes today I would venture to say has to do with his race. Gonzalez was widely known and scrutinized because of his race and racial assumptions/stereotypes. For example in the article it is said that, “Gonzalez’s ‘bad boy’ image was partially attributed to his early teenage years when he ‘played hooky’ from school and was sent to reform school for stealing. But it was his face scar and racial and ethnic identity that were given greater importance within the racially charged atmosphere of wartime Los Angeles.” (950, Alamillo) Through Alamillo bringing us as his audience through Gonzalez’s life we are able to see where his attention comes from. Alamillo’s audience in writing this text is meant for sports fans, specifically tennis fans. Gonzalez is a well-known tennis player and this journal article takes a journey through his life and athletic career something that is very much of interest to tennis fans. I find it fascinating in the conclusion of this article that from Gonzalez’s own autobiography he would note that, “I’ve got the feeling that the interest in Pancho Gonzales was not based on what I could do with my racket, but rather, on what I had achieved off the court – as a non-conformist. I was a curiosity number.” (Alamillo, 960) Gonzalez notes that the attention he gains is not from his performances but from what is happening off of the court. Alamillo presents this rhetorical message successfully through the story of Gonzalez’s life. I can’t help but wonder in hearing about how the media tracked Gonzalez throughout his life noticing in this article that it was largely based on things off of the court and that being a fact that he took note of as well… Do athletes do deviant things in order to be known? Is that why athletes are often times known as ‘bad boys’? In Gonzalez’s case, I don’t feel that that is something he sought after however it has revealed to me the way in which athletes become known and that is through deviance. Gonzalez’s deviance was because of his culture which turned into a positive form of deviance, but often times deviance is easiest to obtain through negative means.
José M. Alamillo (2009): Richard ‘Pancho’ González, Race and the Print Media
in Postwar Tennis America, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 26:7, 947-965
