Physical education and sport in university

During the first years of the fascist period nothing was done to promote sport in universities – not even for males – because it was considered an Anglo-Saxon custom, alien to Italian traditions.⁹⁴

Nevertheless in 1920-1921, before Mussolini’s government, a university elite of fascist faith created the Gruppi Universitari Fascisti [University Fascist Groups]- GUF on its own, while Catholic youth gathered in the Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana [Italian Catholic University Federation]- FUCI. To complete university organizations, socialist-oriented and YMCA-associated groups were present as well.

GUF of the time created the Comitato Olimpico Studentesco Italiano [Italian Students' Olympic Committee]- COSI, programming the Olimpiadi Nazionali Universitarie [University National Olympics] for April 1922 with competitions in sports, arts and literature.⁹⁵

From 1923 to 1926, with Mussolini in power, GUF survived with much difficulty, because it lacked moral and financial support from the Party. But in December 1927, GUF was invited to draw up the first agreements with CONI on the massive sports campaign that was being carried out.

Lando Ferretti, at the time President of the CONI Board, carried out a thorough campaign in favour of university sports among members of the Party, urging them to "break down the bronze doors of universities in the name of Fascism and Sport” and to “create a Casa dello Studente [Student House] in every institute of higher instruction (…)."⁹⁶

Playing on the nationalistic and imperialistic spirit advertised by the regime, Ferretti was able to convince the PNF managing members, claiming, for example, that: "whereas the English Colleges have prepared the basis for Britannic imperialism for centuries, our Student Houses will prepare the basis for Italian imperialism."⁹⁷

The first positive outcomes were achieved towards the end of the Twenties at the National Sports Championships and later at the World University Championships where, according to Ferretti, Italian university students of GUF had become "athletes with a statue-like build, … that lacked nothing compared to their Oxford, Cambridge, Harrow and Yale peers."⁹⁸

The agreements between GUF and CONI were officially reconfirmed in December 1928, through the Sports Charter. Article 5 stated that:

"University Groups will have to support all their activities through Federations or sports clubs, in full enforcement of the proceedings stipulated in the CONI-GUF pacts."⁹⁹

Therefore, GUF became officially dependant on CONI directed by Augusto Turati (1928-1930), by Iti Bacci (1930-1931), by Leandro Arpinati (1932-1933) and finally by Starace up to 1939.

In 1930, when the Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento [Juvenile Fasci of Combat] directed by PNF were created for young men between the ages of 18 and 21, the inclusion of GUF members in Ricci’s ONB was requested, but that proposal was firmly refused.¹⁰⁰

Every university sports and culture activity was in the hands of CONI, PNF and GUF operating jointly, and in the first months of 1931 an attempt to enrol high school students in GUF was made.¹⁰¹

This manoeuvre, organized without Ricci’s knowledge, was not supported by Mussolini, who publicly denounced it in the Grand Council of 6 June 1931.¹⁰² On 29 May of the same year, Mussolini, in a telegram to the prefects, ordered the suppression of FUCI.

Lastly, in 1937, GUF was also absorbed by GIL, like every other Italian youth organization.

In 1934, GUF organized local intra-faculty competitions for the first time:

the university Agonali Games; while on a national scale the Littoriali della Cultura e dello Sport [Littoriali of Culture and Sport] had been a reality since 1932.

This was the most important and most publicized university competition of the time. The complex ceremonial of the Littoriali was endowed with an oath of allegiance to Italy and Mussolini, brimming with sportive ardour and warlike spirit.

It stated: "I will fight to overcome every trial, to conquer every record.

With strength in the contest, with knowledge in scientific assemblies, I will fight to win in the name of Italy. So I will fight, as the Duce orders: I swear!"¹⁰³

On an international level, GUF members were trained for the Campionati Mondiali Universitari [World University Championships], where they achieved good results.

The best GUF athletes were also selected for the Olympic Games where, in 1932 and 1936, important victories were obtained in Los Angeles and Berlin.¹⁰⁴

The first Littoriali were held in Bologna in 1932. To compete in the Littoriali, students had to be either enrolled in university or have graduated, but under the age of 28. A preliminary competition of target shooting was mandatory for every participant, in agreement with the militarization process of the time, after which every other competition ensued.

For the Littoriali of Sport held in Turin in 1933, female university students, who had started getting involved with GUF in 1931, were also summoned.

These mixed Littoriali were an exceptional event never to be repeated

during the Thirties, representing the completion of intense female mobilization campaign for physical activity carried out at the time.

The year before, ONB had officially inaugurated the courses of the prestigious Accademia Femminile Nazionale di Educazione Fisica [National Female Academy of Physical Education] in Orvieto, an efficient and modern structure that was the pride of ONB. (Chapter 5.3)

About 100 female GUF athletes competed in the aforementioned Turin Littoriali of 1933, in a limited number of athletic disciplines (swimming, basketball, track and field, tennis and fencing) gathered under the generic denomination of 'female games',¹⁰⁵ but their presence, alongside the men’s, caused both astonishment and bewilderment.

It is noteworthy that at the time, not only the most convinced Italian traditionalists, but also the Church of Rome and most sport physicians were against female competitive sports. ( Chapter 5.1) They all advised moderate physical activity in order to preserve the grace, composure and reserve of Italy's young women.

Towards the end of the Twenties, the Vatican had officially supported ONB female programmes, stating that: "(…) barring all excesses, eliminating every gymnastic form pertaining to male physical exercises, prohibiting coeducation, we gladly see Christian foundations being carried out in this very delicate section of public education: in other words, we see perfect harmony between the just concern for women’s health and physical development, and the strict guarantees necessary to ensure their modesty and gentleness. The National Balilla Body, thus solving an issue largely debated by tradition, custom and good sense of our people, deserves the most sincere gratitude of Christian families."¹⁰⁶

In fact, the Vatican had always been hostile to the presence of females on sports grounds, especially if in mixed groups. This firm opposition had already prevented the then director of CONI, Leandro Arpinati, from sending Italian female athletes to the 1932 Olympics held in Los Angeles, but the 1933 Littoriali of Turin once again raised the same troublesome issue. To prevent further disagreement, it was cautiously decided in future to confine the Littoriali only to males.

Under GIL, mass involvement in sport resulted in the creation of the female Littoriali, organized separately from males. Finally, in 1941, conformism

and traditionalism having been demolished in the name of the superior fascist cause, university students of both sexes once again enacted the Littoriali of Culture and Sport.

It is important to point out that anybody could enrol in university even without being a member of fascist organizations, but they could not participate in any GUF cultural and sports activity without being affiliated to it.

As for the specific presence of female university students, this was quite scarce during Fascism. The enrolled formed a small elite coming from the higher, better-off social classes.

In the 1920-1921 academic year, about 18% of graduates were female, but the enrolled (about 17.4% of the total) attended courses directed at school teaching rather than the professions commonly considered unfit for female nature and ability.¹⁰⁷

Often female students were mocked by their male colleagues and subjected to tasteless pranks,¹⁰⁸ as in tune with the chauvinist and 'goliardic' mentality of the time, and they were not usually encouraged by their parents to apply themselves to studies, as were males (Chapter 4.2). Consequently, in the 1936-1937 academic year a decrease in female enrolments, compared to 1920-1921, was reported: from 17.4%, female students had become 16% of the total.¹⁰⁹

Nevertheless, at the beginning of the Forties, the general mobilization brought on by the war, produced positive effects for women. Not only could Italian women have access to jobs once monopolized by men (Chapter 4.3), but they also enrolled in great numbers in schools and universities.

In the 1941-1942 academic year, 22% of the university population was female.¹¹⁰ These last data could be interpreted as the effect of abandonment by men then occupied by the war, but if the actual number of female graduates of those years is considered, the increase is still substantial. In fact, while in the 1936-1937 academic year, 1,929 women had graduated, in 1941-1942, the number had climbed to 3,012, with an effective increase of about 34%.¹¹¹

In conclusion, as was previously true of schools, women attained a certain space in universities as well during the fascist period. Next to the usual

courses, available for an elite, the aforementioned National Female Academy of Physical Education in Orvieto was opened, as well as other university-level institutes directly organized by PNF. These institutes prepared women for secure and traditionally 'female jobs', like rural and pre-school teachers, social assistants and experts in domestic science.¹¹²

Towards the end of the Thirties and in the first years of the Forties, the rising presence of women in work and politics of the country, also favoured by men’s war commitments, led to a general acceptance of a female presence in Italian society with favourable effects in culture, and in sport.

5.3 Training of physical education teachers

By the end of the Twenties, the idea that a healthy physical and sporting education should be diffused not only at school but in society was widely shared by the fascist authorities, who assumed the task to convince people and bring their children to this activity.

As an example, in 1929, at Udine, the provincial head of ONB inaugurated the new scholastic year by saying: "Sport should be universalised, so as all children of any and every social class can usefully exercise. A healthy and diverting sports training should be given both to the child of a worker, who should be sometimes removed from its workshop or unhealthy house, and to the student of a wealthy family, who should be removed from his studies.

This problem deals with societal morals as well."¹¹³

As has already been mentioned (Chapter 5.2), in those years there was a great lack of teachers qualified in physical education, to whom the task to train the body and forge people morally could be given, according to the cultural and ideological values of the fascist revolution.

The extra-scholastic ENEF institution had failed miserably not only in sporting organisation within the country, but also in the formation of staff.

In truth, under General Grazioli's leadership, ENEF had organised a special university course to train physical education teachers in 1926, at Bologna, and similar initiatives were undertaken by other universities, but these experiments did not last long.¹¹⁴

In fact, in the following year the ONB, by assuming full control of juvenile physical education, urgently worked for the foundation of university courses to train secondary school students, according to Law Decree No.

2341 of 20 November 1927. Art. 8 of this Law said:" The Opera Nazionale Balilla (...) has been authorised to institute one or more fascist

magisterial Schools for physical education, with superior functions and degree.¹¹⁵

By means of financial support from the Government, and the strongest determination of the ONB leader Renato Ricci, the male Royal Fascist Academy for Physical and Juvenile Education was founded in Rome, in 1928. In only ten years qualified male staff increased notably: in 1926 there were 1,000, and in 1936 about 14,000 physical education teachers. They did not only find employment in the school, but also in extra-scholastic institutions of the state, such as ONB, OND and MVSN.

In addition, local summer courses were held from 1929 onwards to train primary school teachers and directors,¹¹⁶ but there was still a big lack of qualified staff for supporting the ambitious and wide programming of national 'sportivisation' and indoctrination planned by ONB. Ricci tried to more deeply involve primary school teachers by organising provincial, regional, and even a national course in the male Royal Fascist Academy of Rome. Teachers attending the Roman course were fully reimbursed and the final diploma opened the way to teaching physical education also in secondary schools.¹¹⁷

Once having worked hard and tried to resolve the problem of forming a male physical education staff, Ricci concentrated his attention on a political and financial campaign in favour of an Academy for women. In fact, as already mentioned (Chapter 5.2), from 1929 onwards the physical education of young women was officially in Ricci's hands, and the very same problem of a lack of teachers for schools, and staff for ONB, had to be resolved soon.

After about three years of experimental courses,¹¹⁸ in 1932 all difficulties were overcome by Ricci, and the female Royal Academy for Physical and Juvenile Education finally opened in Orvieto, under the control of ONB and the Ministry for National Education.¹¹⁹

In 1937, ONB was abolished and total control of juvenile physical education was assumed by GIL and the Party. Under GIL, a third year course was added in male and female Academies, and they lasted until 2 August 1943, when the Party was abolished as a consequence of Mussolini's dismissal.

Then, all competencies were assumed by the Ministry for National Education, while the Italian Social Republic, which had been founded by

Mussolini in Northern Italy (Chapter 4.3), started new Academies for male and female physical education teachers, in Gallarate and Castiglione Olona respectively.¹²⁰ These latter were newly organised by ONB, but their existence was difficult, due to the fact that a civil war was occurring in Northern Italy. Both Academies were finally closed in June 1945.

5.3.1 ONB Academy of Orvieto, forge of the revolutionary new woman