Spurs Era San Antonio: Exploring the Historical Antecedents and Evolution of a Sports Fandom

Galindo, David Christopher (2024) Spurs Era San Antonio: Exploring the Historical Antecedents and Evolution of a Sports Fandom. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

Basketball’s rise as a participation sport dates to the late nineteenth century. Over the twentieth century, the game’s growing popularity resulted in its professionalisation and increased spectatorship across the United States. The San Antonio Spurs professional basketball franchise, established by 1973, and whose origins and evolution this thesis investigates was a clear example of this phenomenon. More importantly, it explores the historical antecedents of Spurs fandom. Although sports fans have been researched extensively, this thesis addresses a historiographical gap by examining sports fandom at macro and microsocial levels while acknowledging fans as complicated historical agents instead of passive exploited economic victims. Elaborative archival research illustrates how the franchise, press, politicians, and fans established the Spurs into the nation’s consciousness. An extensive prosopographical analysis of cyber obituaries details the characteristics of the Spurs fan community and contemplates broader historical inequities and disparities that have implications far beyond sport. A forensic examination of web cemeteries illustrates how San Antonians embraced the team and used their fandom to enhance relationships and cope with life and death. These methods facilitated the analysis of an elemental Spurs fan community, the Baseline Bums. Serving as perhaps the first example of how to incorporate web cemeteries in historical research, this thesis forges a new path to develop interpretations on the human experience. Such a historical exploration unveils the experiences and values of ordinary people. Consciousness, sentience, and mortality define our humanity, imploring us to seek meaning and belonging in our fleeting existence; this thesis demonstrates, to varying degrees, how people found them through Spurs fandom. In so doing, this thesis significantly contributes to the field by offering a novel approach that enhances our understanding of the histories of sports fandoms and modern human communities.