100 years ago. 100 years from now?

A hundred years ago, the three most popular spectator sports in the U.S. were horse racing, boxing and baseball. Although college football was played, it would be another seven years before the National Football League was founded. The National Hockey League wasn't launched until 1917, and the National Basketball Association not until 1949. The first significant professional U.S. soccer league wasn't established until 1921.

What were some of the major sports highlights of 1915?

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series by beating the Philadelphia Phillies, four games to one. A 20-year-old rookie pitcher named Babe Ruth led the team with four home runs in 42 games. More importantly, he won 18 games and lost only eight on the mound, completing 16 of the 28 games he started. He sat on the bench during the World Series, however, going hitless in one plate appearance and never setting foot on the mound.

Jack Johnson, the first black world heavyweight champion, lost his title to Jess Willard on a 100-degree spring day in Havana, Cuba.  Johnson said he threw the fight in the 26th round, others felt age and heat finally got to his 37-year-old body. Many boxing experts felt the fight was indeed fixed, which was not uncommon at the time.

There was no triple crown winner in horse racing in 1915, but it was the only year that fillies won two of three legs.  Regret won the Kentucky Derby and Rhine Maiden won the Preakness Stakes, but neither filly competed in that year's Belmont Stakes, in which The Finn earned the lowest winner's share in the race's history, only $1,825.

No one could listen to these big events on radio, which wouldn't begin broadcasting sports for five more years.  Only those fortunate enough to have an admission ticket could experience them live.  Otherwise, bulletins posted in public or word-of-mouth is how news about them spread until the next newspapers were published or news reels screened in movie theaters.

Television wouldn't begin broadcasting sports events until the late 1930s, when hardly anyone had access to TVs, anyway. The World Wide Web wasn't a source of news until the early 1990s, believe it or not.  Periscope, the social media app used by many to watch this month's Floyd Mayweather, Jr. versus Manny Pacquiao fight, was launched just this spring!    

Although baseball remains popular today, few would argue that football, boosted by the rise in televised games during the 1960s and 1970s, commands greater attention from most sports fans in the country. Basketball and ice hockey follow, although a good case can be made for pro soccer matching the latter's popularity in the U.S. today, especially with cable television easily making many international matches available.

The years have not been as kind to horse racing and boxing. Aside from the Saturdays in which the triple crown is contested, interest in horse racing has declined. Tracks around the country now look to casino gambling and sports betting to save them. 

The number of boxing fans has decreased since before heavyweights like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Mike Tyson were champions. In fact, the most intriguing figure in a ring these days for many people is neither a boxer or a heavyweight, but a Universal Fighting Championship bantamweight named Ronda Rousey.

Try imagining 100 years from now.

It's hard to picture pro football remaining the most popular sport in the U.S. by the year 2115. Perhaps basketball or soccer will continue their ascent and overtake football at the top. Maybe some extreme or hybrid competition that won't be organized until later this century will be more popular.  Or, as media continues evolving, will personal interactive entertainment make spectator sports as we know them today obsolete?

What do you think?

(Jess Willard versus Jack Johnson photo from fightsaga.com)