By Patrick Salkeld Controversy surrounded Jürgen Klinsmann’s tenure as the head coach of the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) since nearly the beginning. He created tension between himself and Don Garber, the Commissioner of Major League Soccer (MLS), about implementing promotion and relegation in the United States and the quality of American soccer in…
By Emalee J. Nelson Surfs Up! The art of surfing is unique to the core of its existence. Unlike many sports today, there are only a few places in the entire world where surfing is even possible. Popular spots today include off the coasts of Southern California, Australia, South Africa, Southwest France, and of course, Hawaii. It…
By Andrew McGregor Last night, amidst a mobilization of supporters — including hundreds of veterans — and against a looming deadline upon which the land they occupied would be “closed for winter,” the protestors at Standing Rock received good news. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied an important easement to Energy Transfer Partners, the…
By Andrew McGregor Spatial history has been slow to come to sport history. Although the spatial turn has been underway for several decades, changing how historians analyze, view, and present history, sports are often left out of major mapping projects. A quick look through the projects completed by the Stanford University Spatial History Project and the…
By: Roberto José Andrade Franco Boxing has long been a sport for the lower-classes which, for most of its early history was illegal and practiced in secrecy to avoid arrests. However in the late 1800s there was a change in who practiced boxing. This shift came from a variety of reasons including a movement away…
By Patrick Salkeld I started to write and research for this paper in February 2016 after I submitted a proposal for the inaugural Gender and Sexuality Studies Conference held at the University of Central Oklahoma in September 2016. I already planned to write about Robbie Rogers and his contribution to global history when he came…
By Michael Paul Martoccio, Guest Contributor It finally happened. And as a life-long White Sox fan I’m pressed to say it: Congratulations Cubs! The goat has been slaughtered, the curse broken. Yet as the city cleans up its 108-year-old strategic ticker-tape reserves, I am left to reflect on one overlooked part of this year’s World Series:…
Last week the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Their victory inspired what’s been reported as the seventh largest gathering in human history in downtown Chicago. Millions of fans flocked to the streets to celebrate what has for generations been a mere fantasy. Millions more watched the World Series as its intense seven games served as a…
By Russ Crawford Recently baseball fans have been clamoring online to have Charlie Sheen, one of the stars of the Major League series, throw out the first pitch during a World Series game in Cleveland. There is no doubt that the antics of Sheen’s character, Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn, provide entertainment and excitement to long-suffering…
By Emalee Nelson This fall, a pioneering television show emerged on FOX’s primetime lineup. Pitch tells the fictitious, yet inspirational, story of Ginny Baker, the first woman to play Major League Baseball for the San Diego Padres. The series tackles a variety of issues one can imagine a woman would face competing in a league…
Sport in American History 