ESPN’s The Undefeated’s is in the process of unveiling their 50 Greatest Black Athletes. The rankings have inspired conversations across social media about black athletic excellence as well as the impact and historical significance of certain figures. As the debates unfold, we want to share our platform for sport historians (and others) to weigh in, offer their own Top 10 lists, and provide brief commentary to help educate our readers about overlooked or underrated black athletes. Our goal is to broaden the conversation, promote further discussion, and provide direction for people to learn more.

Scholars interested in participating should submit a list of their ten most historically significant black athletes (regardless of whether they appear on The Undefeated’s list). Please include a few sentences on why you selected and how you ranked them. You are also encouraged to include references to further reading in your submission (we prefer hyperlinks but will accept reference lists). Send your lists and/or any questions to Blog Editor Andrew McGregor (amcgrego@purdue.edu) by August 20, 2017 for full consideration. Submissions received after this date will be considered for possible standalone posts.

We plan to share submitted lists as a roundtable style post with each scholar weighing-in with their own list and a brief justification of each selection. We hope to publish the full post before the end of August. Depending on the number of submissions we receive, we may add a second post or crowdsource a reading list.