A comedian was talking on the radio about how sports teams used to be divided by age groups into divisions such as atom, peewee, bantam…. He is incredulous there existed a “midget division” and regrets that the people on his small town were all about average height.
I was unaware this had stopped being a descriptor? This term was used everywhere decades ago. If it offended people, it should clearly be changed - because who cares what a division is called. But if so, when did this take place? Did you hear this term growing up? When was the last time you heard it?
Canadian hockey has a mixed reputation for being inclusive. I am glad they no longer will use the term but am surprised it was announced in 2020. Until the comedy routine I can’t say I’d given it any thought.
I’d known that the term had fallen out of favor for dwarfism over the past couple of decades, in favor of terms like “little person,” but I’m not in touch enough with youth sports to have realized that the term was even in wide use there, much less that it was being phased out. I’m at least a bit more aware of “midget car racing,” but even that, I don’t really follow.
Suburban Montreal - in the late 50’s/early 60’s we had kids’ hockey broken down into Termite, Mosquito, Peewee, Bantam, and Midget - roughly two-year divisions. If you were good enough in Midget, you graduated to Junior “B” - or even Junior “A” - but on a team outside the suburb.
I’m not sure if any/all those names exists - what do they call that tournament now in Quebec City that used to be “Peewee”?
Warren Zevon mentions these divisions in his song Hit Somebody! The line he uses is “through pee-wees and juniors, midgets and mites.” The song is about a Canadian hockey player, so I assume these descriptors were once used in Canadian youth hockey leagues.
Minnesota - In the 70s (and earlier), youth hockey teams used the word Midget for the kids that didn’t want to play high school hockey or didn’t make the team. I’m not sure when they did away with it. My son started playing as a 5 yo in 1990 and it wasn’t used then. Those kids were on the Junior Gold teams. The age groups then were Squirts C, B & A, Peewees, and Bantams, then Jr Varsity and Varsity (high school). Now Mini Mites and Mites have taken the place of Squirt Cs. I think both youth boys’ and girls’ teams are now transitioning to the U8, U10, etc.
When I was a kid in the 80s our local baseball organization did A, AA and AAA for girls’ softball, and the boys’ divisions were named for famous players, who I can’t recall now other than “Pee Wee Reese” (I suspect they started with “Pee Wee” and decided to get creative with names). Now they are named like @Chronos notes, with ages. Same goes for soccer. Somehow we’ve managed to avoid using “midget” in our division names, at least for the past 40 years.