Crock is an impressive athlete - and by 1940s standards, he’s a huge and very muscular man. He has a endless repertoire of physical skills - if a technique is part of an established sport, even an obscure one, he can almost certainly execute it with superior skill, precision and power. Sportsmaster can at the very least approach world records in all disciplines, and was seen actually breaking world records, for instance in hammer throwing. He could easily be a mega-star sportsman - he just doesn’t want to.

He’s also a proficient gadgeteer - his stuff is not particularly powerful, but he can work with a lot of different skills (chemistry, electronics, demolitions, automata, etc.) - though he will always adopt a sportive theme to his gadgets. Like his wife, he somehow always had access to ample resources and customised bases of operations. Presumably crime does pay - or he was wealthy to start with, like most 1940s characters.

Several incidents had the Sportsmaster produce equipment and projectile from seemingly nowhere. This is a genre thing - everybody could do that back then and it wasn’t supposed to be remarkable. Since it’s recurrent he’s been given an Expertise in designing, building and deploying collapsible equipment so his Gadget can include that feature at little cost, but it was artistic licence in the stories and not an important part of the action or character.

History

Back during the 1940s, “Crusher” Crock was an incredible athlete, able to play any sport on the planet like a world champion. Among many other disciplines he was a formidable player in ice hockey, baseball and gridiron football. He was also famous as a tennis player, a skier, etc. and his style was familiar to many sports fans.

However, “Crusher” played to win at any cost, and routinely injured opposing sportsmen. After he crippled a football player, he was expelled from the team and the coach had him barred from all sports. A sore loser as always, Crock assembled a gang of thuggish sportsmen. His masked mystery team challenged the Long Island polo team to a match, but it was actually a plot to rob the audience after gassing them to sleep using tricked-out polo balls. Green Lantern (Alan Scott) intervened, and Crock had to flee.

Crock decided to take over the world of American sports and turn it into a racket, but Green Lantern intervened again. After escaping from a deathtrap, Scott challenged him to a fair fencing duel, but Crock was apparently killed when he tried to hit the green grappler against injustice (that’s Green Lantern) in the back with an axe.

His apparent death was the real cheat, however - Crock faked his demise and soon escaped from his coffin.

(One story has a reference to Manhunter (Paul Kirk) clashing with Sportsmaster during the 1940s, though Kirk was dead when Sportsmaster first appeared. The most economical hypothesis is that Kirk clashed with Crock while Crock was still a crooked sportsman, and never managed to prove that Crock was culpable of whatever the story was about).

The sporting spirit

Within months Sportmaster was back, robbing jewels at “Spiffany’s” with a boomerang and explosive tennis balls. Days later he attacked an outdoors stadium, air-skiing in to grab a valuable cup and the model who was awarding it to the winners. Chased by Green Lantern, Crock had to drop the girl (and, accidentally, the cup) to distract the emerald-clad crusader.

With GL thus occupied, Sportmaster saw an opportunity to kill Alan Scott. Crock had just heard that Scott was being hospitalised, and the famous radio announcer was the only person who knew for a fact that Crock and Sportmaster were the same person. However, Sportsmaster only found “Doiby” Dickles in the hospital room. Knowing that Alan Scott would soon discover that “Crusher” Crock was still alive, Sportsmaster kidnapped Dickles and shoved him into Crock’s empty coffin. Scott investigated Crock’s coffin in time to save Dickles, thus winning Sportsmaster’s little game.

Sportsmaster challenged the emerald-clad crusader anew, re-kidnapping the model from the stadium and confronting his foe to decide on the place and time of their duel. It took place at Lake Victory, near the Greek-style statue to sportsmen. In the end the Sportsmaster was knocked out by a freak ricochet from his own throwing hammer, and disappeared in the lake.

Crock laid low for a bit to let Green Lantern think he had drowned. During this time he established the identity of wealthy sportsman “Corck”, and the Crime Syndicate of Sports - apparently a network of insiders within the Gotham sports scene that would give him access to matches. He then launched his blackmail scheme, sabotaging sports equipment with explosives and poison gas until the city would pay him off. Green Lantern challenged him and the Sportsmaster set up a series of crooked sports events they would compete in, in front of a packed stadium. Despite competing without cheating, Green Lantern won - and unmasked “Corck” as the Sportsmaster. Crock was arrested.

Injustice play

Sportsmaster spent but days in prison. He was recruited by the Injustice Society, by then a brand-new organisation - which presumably means that he was broken out of jail by the Wizard.

Crock joined the 1948 roster - Wizard, Fiddler, Icicle, Huntress - for a competition where the members vied to pull off the most impressive patriotically-themed crime. The Sportsmaster stole the USS Constitution, distracting Hawkman and the guards as he affixed jet engines to Old Ironsides - then sailing away. Even with the rockets, Hawkman easily caught up with the famous ship and punched the Sportsmaster out, but the Wizard intervened and mesmerised Hawkman.

The Society kidnapped a stadium full of people to vote on which crime was the most impressive, but were defeated by the spectators and the Justice League. Sportsmaster was knocked out by the Atom.

At some unknown point in 1948 Green Lantern and Sportsmaster clashed again, though this fight is only known through a brief flashback. Sportsmaster stunned Green Lantern with a baseball bat blow and, for unknown reasons, destroyed a nearby corner store with an explosive baseball. The shopkeeper, Seamus Sullivan, practically worshipped Green Lantern, and to see him felled with a mere wooden bat and his shop destroyed was a major shock to him. Mr. Sullivan, who had an undiagnosed neurological condition making him unstable, killed the Mayor of Gotham City and four other men to denounce Green Lantern as a false idol, slashing the words “Made of Wood” on their chest as a reference to Sportsmaster’s bat. These serial murders were famous back then, though they remained unsolved for 55 years. The engraved bat with which Sportsmaster had hit Green Lantern remained in the Sullivan family for three generations.

Some years later the Sportsmaster was arrested by Argent operatives, though nothing else is known about this incident.

With the exception of the Argent case, the Sportsmaster vanished for more than 15 years, as did his fellow Injustice Society member the Huntress. The two were in a relationship, and from the dialogue one gets the impression that they toured the world for years, spending their ill-gotten gains and eventually marrying. In the mid-1960s, with the return of costumed adventurers in the US, they decided to get back home and challenge their old foes. The criminal couple dubbed itself “Mr. and Mrs Menace”, though they still referred to themselves as Sportsmaster and the Huntress.

Tag team

The Sportsmaster went solo to steal a valuable cup. Disguised as a discus-thrower statue he had himself shipped near the cup, along with other fake statues. After the Sportsmaster produced a special fishing rod with which he snatched the cup, his trick statues exploded to keep the guards occupied, and he flew away on rocket skis. The guards being from the Larry Lance Detective Agency, this led to a clash with the Black Canary.

Meanwhile the Huntress stalked and bagged Wildcat - but when her husband met up with her she stumbled upon Starman. Black Canary then came in, hot on Sportsmaster’s trail. ”Mr. and Mrs. Menace” briefly beat back the newcomers, but had to retreat.

Thrilled to clash with super-heroes again, the couple then attacked a golf tournament on a flying platform, with the Sportmaster knocking out all competitors with spectacular golf shots so they could steal the prize. Starman and Black Canary defeated Sportsmaster and the Huntress despite the Huntress’s traps.

While they soon escaped, the Sportsmaster and the Huntress did not appear again for ten years. During that time they had a daughter, Artemis Crock, whom they raised to become a super-villain upholding the traditions of both her parents.

Return of the Injustice Society

The Injustice Society re-formed and was active during the mid-1970s. This time, the other members were Icicle, the Shade, the Gambler and of course the Wizard. Few of their adventures were chronicled, and the one that was - involving the arrival of writer Cary Bates, turned evil and superpowered, and opposed by writer Elliot S! Maggin - probably wasn’t part of anything approaching continuity, at least post-Crisis.

The Huntress and Sportsmaster (or rather their Earth-1 version, see the Huntress’s entry) consolidated their wealth by roaming abroad and stealing treasures. However, they ran into a problem - a South American pyramid lost in the jungle held a particularly valuable gemstone, but “Mr. and Mrs. Menace” didn’t want to deal with the murderous traps therein. They captured Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Robin (Richard Grayson) to have them do the work.

The Sportsmaster organised a series of duels between Robin and Batgirl (including a Ben Hur-style chariot race, an archery competition and a fencing duel) to disguise the reason why he and his wife wanted them to enter the pyramid. However, Batgirl and Robin realised what the villains’ plan was and, using the gemstone as a lure, captured them.

Strange sports stories

In 1976, the Huntress wanted to switch sides since she was tired of losing. To prove to his wife that villains could win, Sportsmaster suggested a baseball match between heroes and villains. Using a remote observation and teleportation machine (!), the couple kidnapped many heroes and villains and explained how the match would take place in Crandall Stadium. The stadium was filled with hostages to force the heroes to play. Since the Huntress was strongly considering fighting on the side of angels again, she played centre field with the heroes, whereas her husband was the opposition’s pitcher.

The match - played without powers - was tied by the eight innings, and the Sportsmaster had his team start cheating so his wife wouldn’t leave him to become a heroine. The heroes started using their powers too, and eventually won (11-10) then arrested the villains. What happened next is unknown.

In 1978, on Earth-2, Thorn (Rose Canton) hired the Sportsmaster and Huntress to assist her in battling the Justice Society. They immediately agreed, since it meant for Sportsmaster a chance to fight the original Green Lantern (Alan Scott) whereas Huntress could take a stab at the new Huntress (Helena Wayne) for taking her name. Sportsmaster was eventually stopped by JSA member Power Girl.

A few years later the Sportsmaster set up a sting operation to have his revenge against the Harlequin for betraying the Injustice Society ages before. As an anonymous sponsor, he hired Harlequin and a crew of thugs to kidnap journalist Lois Lane, then revealed himself and stepped in to gun down Harlequin with a starter pistol loaded with actual bullets. However, Harlequin was actually an undercover police operative, and a disguised Superman was present as her backup. Sportsmaster was easily stopped by Superman.

Post-Crisis

At some point during the 1980s, Sportsmaster and the Huntress were arrested, and spent several years in prison. By 1987 their teenage daughter Artemis allied herself with the Wizard, joining a new version of the Injustice Society called Injustice, Unlimited. The Wizard’s team forced the Global Guardians and Infinity, Inc. to do their bidding by taking hostages, and Artemis proceeded with what had been her plan all along - she and reluctant heroic helpers Rising Sun and Nuklon bust her parents out of prison on the night before their re-trial.

The Huntress and Sportsmaster joined the Wizard’s plot, but Infinity, Inc. finally turned the tables on them. The Crock family decided to flee, and apparently evaded pursuit. As far as can be determined they established themselves in the country of Zandia, where the former Mr. and Mrs. Menace retired with their ill-gotten gains. Artemis carried on with the familial tradition, later taking the name “Tigress” - which her mother had borne in her youth.

Sportsmaster kept in touch with the Wizard and other Injustice Society veterans, such as the Gambler - but this was chiefly to play all-night poker games and the like. During one such game, Amos Fortune convinced Sportsmaster and the Wizard to join him in a cruel revenge plot against the Justice Society, kidnapping members and drugging them to fight each other in front of a bloodthirsty public. Sportsmaster acted as a ref of sorts. The plot was wrecked by Gypsy and Vixen, and Amos’s associates fled before the entire JSA came to their senses.

Two men are known to have taken on the Sportsmaster identity after Crock retired in 1987. The first was called Victor Gover, and used a very different look. The second, name unknown, had a uniform closer to the original Sportsmaster’s but was killed during a gang war.

Description

The one constant of the Sportsmaster costume is the distinctive mask - the rest is sports clothing matching whichever athletic speciality he’s using to perform his crime.

Personality

The Sportsmaster is extremely competitive and makes a big show of being a star sportsman who loves no-hold-barrels challenges and has a true competitive spirit. Though he’s obviously cheating, he keeps spinning facts and denying it - for instance he’s not carrying an hostage over his shoulder as a human shield, he just brought her along so he could immediately hand her over to the hero if his opponent wins.

It is not obvious whether this spin is sarcasm or denial. It seems to be denial, since the Sportsmaster will almost reflexively accept any physical challenge or competition to prove that he’s the better man. Apparently he deeply loves to compete, but is incapable of facing losing and handles the dissonance by persuading himself that he’s not really cheating to win at all costs.

As hinted by his name, “Crusher” is an overbearing, macho bully - boastful and domineering. He lives to crushes his opponents, see his enemies driven before him, etc. It’s also easier to justify his constant cheating while clashing with superhumans - he’s just evening the odds, after all.

Though his schtick is sports-style competition, Sportsmaster is a Thrill of Adventure man and is interested in risk and battle in general. In his youth he’d grow bored without risk, and would occasionally take unnecessary chances - such as setting a meeting with Green Lantern right in front of a police station - just for the rush and to look tough.

In some stories he makes a number of sports-related puns and references, but this is more a late Silver Age genre convention than a character trait.

Writeup completed on the 16th of January, 2012.