The aim is to illustrate the opinion former Torsten Tegnér’s view of sport, culture and society, the nature of the influence he exerted primarily through his own professional magazine, Idrottsbladet, a liberal-conservative sports journalist’s attitude in confrontation with other social attitudes and some questions of principle and debates that were topical during the period within Swedish sport. Five thematic chapters demonstrate how Tegnér reacted to developments within sport that were due to social changes. Above all, the research demonstrates that the values he wished to communicate principally dealt with a healthy soul in a healthy body for the benefit and happiness of both the individual and society. Secondly, he wished to convey the culture of the middle classes. In the background, the concept of freedom was a constant overarching ideology. His reactions to the developments can be seen in the light of his passion for sport as beneficial, his family’s combination of liberalism and respect for traditions and their expectations of him, his understanding of democracy and a touch of post-Romanticism. His passion for freedom led to his political involvement against Nazism and Communism in particular. Tegnér’s means of influencing are viewed from a power perspective. As a well-qualified intellectual, by means of a significant symbolic capital, with Idrottsbladet’s position and as ‘a one-man civic educator’, he was one of those who, in the opinion of the philosopher Antonio Gramsci, were particularly important in a social power game. It is particularly interesting that his circle of readers seems to have overwhelmingly consisted of working-class youngsters.