Results: Pedestrianism, America's Favorite Spectator Sport

In the 1870s and 1880s competitive walking was a sports craze. "Watching people walk was America's favorite spectator sport," Matthew Algeo says in his book, Pedestrianism. Did you know competitive walking was once a popular sport?

People didn't go just to watch the walkers. There were brass bands and vendors selling pickled eggs and roasted chestnuts. Celebrities attended the matches including future president Chester Arthur. Had you lived during this time, do you think you would have enjoyed attending such an event?

Gambling was part of the allure. People could bet on things like who would be the first to drop out of the race or the first to walk 100 miles. Scandals arose when pedestrians became susceptible to offers from gamblers to fix races. Are you surprised to learn betting scandals existed so many years ago?

A performance enhancing drug scandal arose in 1876 when famous pedestrian Edward Payson Weston was found to be chewing coca leaves (the raw material for cocaine) while walking in a race. This wasn't illegal at the time, but it was considered cheating. Were you aware athletes used performance enhancing drugs in the decades after the Civil War?

Pedestrians often had sponsorship deals. Famous Irish-American athlete Dan O'Leary was the spokesman for a brand of salt. Pedestrian John Hughes, sponsored by the National Police Gazette, walked wearing a shirt with the paper's logo on it. Did you realize the idea of corporate sponsorship, prevalent in modern sports, actually began with pedestrianism?