From Next to Now: The WNBA in 2018

By Cat Ariail When advertising its inaugural 1997 season, the WNBA announced, “We Got Next.” The slogan represented a clever adaptation of the playground basketball expression. Unintentionally but appropriately, it also captured the perpetual liminality of the league. For much of its twenty-two year history, insecurity has characterized the league, with professional women basketball forever…

Review of Football for a Buck

Pearlman, Jeff. Football for a Buck: The Crazy Ride and the Crazier Demise of the USFL.New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2018.  $18.30 paperback. Review By Jon Hart This review originally appeared on Stadium Journey. Re-posted with author permission. Prolific author Jeff Pearlman, @jeffpearlman, has written eight books. By his own admission, he had the…

Sport and Society – FBS, NHLBS, and NFLBS

Editor’s Note: “Sport in American History” is excited to cross-post Richard C. Crepeau’s “Sport and Society” column. This post was originally published on December 4, 2018. A full archive of his Crepeau’s columns can be found by clicking here. Here we are once again at the end of the regular season in college football. The conference championship games have…

Job Opportunity for Sport Historians

Dr. Johnny Smith has passed along the following job posting that may be an interest to sport historians, particularly those without a PhD. The job is with a company called Heritage Works. They are looking for someone trained in history or sport history to work as an archivist in the private sector for professional sports…

Review of Baseball Hall of Fame Autographs

Keurajian,Ron. Baseball Hall of Fame Autographs,Second Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,2018. Pp 303. Appendix, bibliography, glossary, illustrations and notes. $49.95 paperback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. It’s a sign of the times: Collecting sports autographs is a big business, with potentially lucrative paydays. In August, a baseball signed by 11of the original National…