Freedman, Lew. The Boyer Brothers of Baseball. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers. 2015. Pp. 252. Bibliography, Notes, Index, and 23 Photos. $29.95 paperback. Reviewed by Jorge Iber A quick perusal of baseball-reference.com under the heading of “Largest Baseball Families” generated a listing (though the site argues that it is likely an incomplete enumeration)…
Zagorski, Joe. Forward by Rocky Bleier. The NFL in the 1970s: Pro Football’s Most Important Decade. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016. Pp. 434. Notes, References, Index. $39.95 softcover. Reviewed by Rich Loosbrock The National Football League (NFL) sits atop all other sports in the United States in every measurable category: ratings, fan interest, and revenues. It…
This weekend, sport historians will flock to the campus of the California State University, Fullerton, in sunny southern California for the annual convention of the North American Society of Sport History (NASSH). For the last three years, the Sport in American History Blog has published a review of the conference (2014, 2015, and 2016), offering a glimpse…
By Alex Parrish The sports world was stunned on April 19th at the news of the apparent prison suicide of Aaron Hernandez, the former standout tight end at the University of Florida and the New England Patriots. Hernandez was already considered an example after his conviction for a 2013 murder, but his death at age…
Gillmeister, Heiner. Tennis: A Cultural History. 2nd Edition. Bristol, CT: Equinox, 2017. Pp. xvi+599. Notes, bibliography, illustrated sources, index. $45 paperback. Reviewed by Robert J. Lake In 1997, when Heiner Gillmeister brought out his first edition of Tennis: A Cultural History, there was very little else on the market in terms of tennis history texts.…
Sports in American Life: A History. By Richard O. Davies. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016. xi + 407 pp. Illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95. Reviewed by Patrick Salkeld This past year I finished my second (and final) year of graduate school at the University of Central Oklahoma. I also completed my first year of teaching…
The following is an excerpt from Tall Tales and Short Shorts: Dr. J, Pistol Pete, and the Birth of the Modern NBA. Published by Rowman & Littlefield on May 26, 2017, Adam J. Criblez provides an account of professional basketball in the United States in the 1970s. This excerpt comes from Chapter 1: “1969 to 1970” and…
By Cat Ariail Next year, I’ll be teaching an introduction to American Studies course, using sport to, as stated by the ASA, engage in “the interdisciplinary study of US and history in a global context.” The course will follow the keywords pedagogy so I’ll be using sport history and culture to analyze the meanings of…
Crawford, Russ. Le Football: A History of American Football in France. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. Pp. 366. 25 illustrations, 18 tables, endnotes, bibliography, index. $39.50 hardcover. Reviewed by John E. Price That football is a quintessentially American game is axiomatic, even tautological, to many. Sports reporters and commentators have opined for decades on…
By Andrew McGregor Recently the University of North Carolina (UNC) cancelled history professor Jay Smith’s class “Big-Time College Sports and the Rights of Athletes, 1956-Present.” The Daily Tar Heel reported that the department was “under pressure from the college to cancel the class to prevent students from learning about the University’s recent scandals.” His colleagues…
Endsley, Brian M. Finding the Left Arm of God: Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1960-1963. Jefferson, ND: McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers, 2015. Pp. 296. Bibliography, Notes, and 64 Photos. $29.95 paperback. Reviewed by Jorge Iber Even the most casual fan of American sports history is no doubt familiar with the name Sandy…
By Josh Howard It’s been nearly two years since I was asked to join the Sport in American History team as a co-editor. The site had been around for a bit over a year at that point and grown quickly. That growth continues. I – along with everyone else on the blog – am thrilled…
