[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

There is nothing special about the National Anthem for a sporting contest. We only started this practice in the last 50 years or so. And it was not done at every sporting event until probably the last 30 years. Again, it is after all my opinion.

I'm glad that it's only an opinion because I would hate to think that one could confuse it with some facts.

This "practice" started about seventy years ago, not fifty years ago.

From Wikepedia:

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that "The Star-Spangled Banner" be played at military and other appropriate occasions. The playing of the song two years later during the seventh-inning stretch of the 1918 World Series, and thereafter during each game of the series is often cited as the first instance that the anthem was played at a baseball game, though evidence shows that the "Star-Spangled Banner" was performed as early as 1897 at opening day ceremonies in Philadelphia and then more regularly at the Polo Grounds in New York City beginning in 1898. In any case, the tradition of performing the national anthem before every baseball game began in World War II.

I graduated from high school forty-three years ago (not thirty years ago) and The Star Spangled Banner was played before every single basketball game, both home, and away.

Of course, I'm sure that things were considerably different in Chicagoland back then.