Immigration and sport - 1

Immigrant and ethnic ________ (play) were long associated with basketball, but they did not become important until the sport itself became more popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
Prior to World War II, the early ________ (profession) clubs were dominated by Irish, Jewish, and Italian players.
Hockey gradually spread to the United States and then to Europe. Until World War II, it remained ________ (large) a North American sport, but in 1956, the Soviet Union won a gold medal in the first Olympic ice hockey competition.
The number of foreign-born players is rising in major American sports, and like all ________ (employ), professional sports teams want to find the best players wherever they happen to be born.

________ by the late 19th century, an increasingly large percentage were Irish and German.
________ African Americans and Caribbean players had an increasing role in the development of baseball.
________ representing 27% of the league.
________ the new immigration brought into the country immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.
________ were America's two greatest sports before World War II.