THE START OF THE JOGOS ESCOLARES DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL: A NEW PHASE OF THE STATE SCHOOL SPORTS EVENT

Abstract

The Jogos Escolares do Rio Grande do Sul (JERGS) are a sporting event that currently brings together students from public schools across the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Resulting from social and educational demands, the first initiatives for the creation of the JERGS took place in the 1970s, when the event still had the corporate name of Campeonato Estudantil Gaúcho (CEG). After going through a significant rupture in the structural order that demarcated its historical conformations, in 1986, this event was renamed JERGS, an event that marks a new phase of the event. Given this, the present study sought to investigate which sociocultural and political-administrative factors influenced the change in name of the Campeonato Estudantil Gaúcho in 1986, when the event was renamed Jogos Escolares do Rio Grande do Sul. This research is characterized as a study with a historical-cultural bias, located in the field of investigation of the History of Sport. Information about our research object was obtained through oral sources and documentary sources. The oral sources were collec ted through Oral History interviews, while the documentary sources correspond to printed documents that make up the personal collection of the interviewed agents. The collected materials were subjected to thematic content analysis and document analysis techniques, respectively. The results indicate that there is a high probability that the rupture investigated was recurrent due to social and political-administrative demands that the country went through in the previous year, with the end of the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985). When a new political moment begins in Brazil, changes are also identified in various instances of society, since federal determinations also fall on the Brazilian states and,
consequently, on their governmental proposals and actions.