Abstract
The São Paulo State Department of Physical Education (DEF-SP) suspended its regular activities during the 1932 civil war and started to recruit athletes for the armed struggle. This study describes the participation of the DEF-SP in the war, analyzes the narratives published by São Paulo’s press about athletes’ enlistment and participation, and identifies strategies employed to establish a memory about the event. We found that the DEF-SP centralized the actions of sports clubs and federations to provide support to the armed struggle and form three paramilitary units. The state’s press attributed physical and moral values to sport to foster regionalist feelings among the population and affirm a regional (paulista) identity. Two years after the armistice, the First Sports Battalion Civic Association was founded to create a triumphalist memory about the athletes’ armed uprising.
Keywords:
War; Sports; Memory; Social identity