Badminton's up-and-down popularity
WASHINGTON - Modern badminton started as a sport for military gentlemen in mid-19th-century England. The Duke of Beaufort, on a visit to India, picked up a version of the game called poona and brought it back to Badminton House, his residence in Gloucestershire. It then spread to every country where Britain maintained a military post: that is to say, almost everywhere.
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The game was first played seriously in the United States in 1878 at the Badminton Club of New York, a weekend meeting place for socialites. By the 1930s, it had been adopted by the Hollywood elite: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Boris Karloff, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks.
The United States dominated the sport after World War II, winning 23 world individual championships. Vacation lodges in the Adirondacks drew lines for badminton on polished hardwood floors. Sports Illustrated put the top U.S. male player, Joe Alston, on a 1955 cover.
Requiring either a big, flat lawn or a big, high-ceilinged room, the game remained a sport of the wealthy until America acquired middle-class suburbs and back yards. Suddenly, anyone could put up a $10 badminton set purchased at Woolworth's, and everyone did. By the 1980s, almost 15 million Americans were playing the game as recreation, according to a sporting goods association survey.
The popularity didn't last. Because it's an easy game to learn (although difficult to play well), kids loved it and adults subsequently abandoned it as child's play. Adults, especially rich adults who set the trends, turned to tennis. By 2001, only 7.7 million Americans were playing badminton, more than two-thirds of them age 24 or younger. More people played badminton than racquetball or squash, but twice as many played tennis. About 900,000 people play badminton 25 times or more a year.
The United States' standing dropped to 25th as tournament play shifted to Asia, along with Central Europe, West Africa and Denmark.