Americans might be surprised to learn that cricket – not baseball, nor football – holds the title of the nation’s first modern team sport. European immigration fueled the sport’s popularity in the first half of the 19th century, and Abraham Lincoln reportedly watched a cricket match in 1859.
Cricket’s popularity waned after the Civil War. Troops had taken to the new sport of baseball, which was easier to play on makeshift fields, and the sport eventually emerged as the national pastime.
