Sport in American History supports critical sport studies scholar in their public engagement and denounces and opposes all attempts to harass, doxx, or otherwise intimidate them into silence. We believe in the free exchange of ideas rooted in civility, facts, and productive public pedagogy. The blog stands behind Drs. Mellis and Kalman-Lamb as well as…
By Andrew McGregor The Dallas Mavericks chose not to play the national anthem before their first thirteen homes games. This decision flew under the radar until the team welcomed fans back to the American Airlines Center on Monday. No one missed the anthem, until it suddenly became controversial yesterday. The immediate question many fans and…
Surgent, Scott. The Complete World Hockey Association 11th Edition. CreateSpace, 2018. Pp. 536. Photos (black & white). $29 softcover. Reviewed by Richard A. Macales “Well, pioneers always suffer. I don’t care [who has] been the first to embark upon things… but it had to be done.” –Bobby Hull, 82, Hall of Fame hockey player Scott…
Knepper, Paul. The Knicks of the Nineties: Ewing, Oakley, Starks and the Brawlers That Almost Won It All. McFarland, 2020. Pp. 288. Acknowledgments, bibliography, endnotes, introduction, photographs, prologue, $35 paperback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo Gritty, tough and talented. On paper, the New York Knicks of the 1990s should have won at least one NBA title,…
O’Brien, Jim. Looking Up Once Again: A Basketball Memoir. Pittsburgh, Pa.: James P. O’Brien Publishing, 2020. Pp. 480. Photos and illustrations, color and black & white. $28 paperback. Reviewed by Richard A. Macales “Most ABA ballplayers had a considerable chip on their shoulders. Someone had wronged them; didn’t want them in their game. Didn’t pay…
By Andrew McGregor Major League Baseball doesn’t care. If you have been paying attention to the sport over the last several months, it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion. Amidst the uproar and panic of the global COVID-19 pandemic and a summer of intense social unrest and protests against systemic inequality and police brutality,…
Kemper, Kurt Edward. Before the Madness: The Wars For the Soul of College Basketball. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020. Pp. xiii, 273. Notes, bibliography, index. Reviewed by Murry Nelson One is immediately impressed by the extraordinary research done for this Before the Madness: The Wars For the Soul of College Basketball. Kurt Edward Kemper…
by Matthew Hodler and Johanna Mellis The International Swimming League (ISL) begins its second season today at 10:00am ET and it will conduct its meets in a Budapest, Hungary “bubble” until November 20, 2020. In the face of the ongoing pandemic, severely restricted international travel, and the Summer Olympic Games’ postponement—the sport’s premier event for…
Anderson, Sheldon. The Forgotten Legacy of Stella Walsh. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. Pp. 227. Notes, bibliography, and index. $38.00 USD hardback. Reviewed by Robert Pruter On December 4, 1980, in a Polish-American neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, a 69 year old Polish immigrant woman–leaving a shop and returning to her car with red and…
Abramsky, Sasha. Little Wonder: The Fabulous Story of Lottie Dod, the World’s First Female Sports Superstar. Akashic Books, 2020. Pp. 280. Acknowledgments, end notes, introduction, photographs, $25.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. Sasha Abramsky is not a sports historian. He is a journalist who has spent the past 25 years writing about politics, covering social…
Luther, Jessica and Kavitha A. Davidson. Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020. Pp. 328. Notes & Index. $26.95 hardcover. Reviewed by Noah Cohan This being 2020, an annus horribilis if there ever was one, Earthlings—and especially Americans—have a lot to reconsider. Since…
Stell, Marion and Reid, Heather. Women In Boots: Football and Feminism in the 1970s. North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2020. xvii+167. 12 unnumbered pages of plates: illustrations, portraits. Acknowledgements, sources, notes, index. $24.95 paperback. $11.99 eBook. Reviewed by Russ Crawford In Women in Boots: Football and Feminism in the 1970s, Marion Stell and Heather Reid…
Steven Elliott Tripp, Ty Cobb, Baseball, and American Manhood. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. Pp. xxii + 401. Photos, notes, select bibliography, and index. $29 paperback. Reviewed by Christopher R. Davis In the long and storied history of baseball, few individuals loom as large as Tyrus Raymond Cobb. Popular since his early playing days,…
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared at The Activist History Review and is cross-posted here with permission. By Michael T. Barry, Jr. Ever since I can remember, baseball has been a staple of my summers. As a kid, I would spend every single day playing backyard games with my friends and then nights watching my beloved Boston…
Elsey, Brenda and Nadel, Joshua. Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press. Pp. 271. Notes, bibliography, index. $24.95 paperback. Reviewed by Russ Crawford Brenda Elsey and Joshua Nadel have added an important volume to women’s sport history with Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin…
