Abstract
The present study addresses the role played by sports at Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) units in Brazil. The Association operated in Rio de Janeiro (1893), Porto Alegre (1901) and São Paulo (1902). With an educational project aimed at contributing to intellectual, moral-religious and physical formation, sports began to be applied in the different YMCA units in the late 1910s. Our purpose was to understand Brazilian YMCAs’ investment in building a sporting ethos in 1903-1929. We used the following sources: leaflets, letters, reports, minutes of meetings and the magazine Mocidade: Revista Mensal das Associações Christãs de Moços no Brasil. By materializing a sporting ethos through its actions in Brazil, YMCAs contributed to bring sports to Brazil and to sustain their presence.
Keywords:
Sports; History; Association; Brazil