By Andrew McGregor Editor’s Note: The bulk of this post first appeared at the Society for U.S. Intellectual History (S-USIH) Blog on January 25th. It has undergone slight revision and is being cross-posted here with permission. Over the past year we’ve been witnessing a revival of athlete activism reminiscent of the “Revolt of the Black…
LeBlanc, Diane, and Allys Swanson. Playing for Equality: Oral Histories of Women Leaders in the Early Years of Title IX. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016. Pp. 208. Notes, References, Index. $29.95 softcover. Reviewed by Erica Zonder As Title IX approaches its 45th anniversary, it seems timely to read about the experiences of the early pioneers and…
Note: This article is adapted from “‘A Good Base Ball Club Is a Splendid Advertisement to a Town’: Baseball and the New South in Clifton Forge, Virginia,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 124, No. 3 (2016): 186-215. Clifton Forge, Virginia, is (and was) a small town in the Appalachian Mountains, but in 1890, the town…
Last year, the National Football League’s (NFL) St. Louis Rams packed up and moved to Los Angeles, returning to the Southern California metropolis after twenty years in the Midwest. Two weeks ago, the San Diego Chargers announced they would play the 2017 season in Los Angeles. And just last week, the Oakland Raiders signed papers(pending…
Dechant, John. Scoreless: Omaha Central, Creighton Prep, and Nebraska’s Greatest High School Football Game. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. Pp. x+239. Illustrations, acknowledgments, bibliographic essay. $18.95 paperback. Reviewed by Paul Putz In the fall of 1960, nearly fifteen thousand people in Omaha, Nebraska, took in a high school football game between two undefeated…
Franks, Joel S. Asian American Basketball: A Century of Sport, Community, and Culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016. 280. 18 photos, notes, bibliography, index. 45.00. Softcover. Reviewed by Samantha White Asian American Basketball: A Century of Sport, Community, and Culture, by Joel Franks, examines the intersection between race, ethnicity, gender, and sport. While Franks notes in…
By Cat Ariail “Indoor track, sport’s answer to the three-ring circus, springs full-grown from the winter much as Athena sprang fully-armed from the head of Zeus,” asserted Sports Illustrated’s Tex Maule in 1958.[1] In a subsequent article, Maule suggested the sport “takes on a carnival air when the lineal descendants of the fleet cave man…
By Caleb Still, Guest Contributor Racism and civil rights protests have long been a part of the fabric of American society. Black athletes have participated in these protests, risking their careers and source of income to advocate on behalf of oppressed people in the United States. Historically, black athletes have recognized their unique position and…
William A. Young. J.L. Wilkinson and the Kansas City Monarchs: Trailblazers in Black Baseball. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017. $35.00 paperback. Reviewed by Josh Howard. This book began, like so many other projects, with a trip to a museum. William Young was inspired by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and the story presented…
By Andrew McGregor Two weeks into the new year, many of us are trying to stick to our resolutions. Getting in shape, working out more, and focusing on our health are often among the things we resolve to change or improve. As we embark on these challenges in 2017, I caught up with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela to…
Sport in American History 