Cahn, Susan K. Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Women’s Sport (2nd edition). Urbana, Chicago, & Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pp. xiii+395. Notes, index, and black and white photographs. $95 hardcover, $25 paperback. Reviewed by Colleen English Susan Cahn’s first edition of Coming on Strong, originally published in 1994, serves as a…
By Andrew D. Linden “Thanksgiving and football was the perfect blend of two great American creations,” explains ESPN reporter Sal Paolantonio. “Thanksgiving is our own holiday. And football is this great indigenous sport, created here, for Americans, so it was just this great blend of two great American creations.” Indeed, these purported American traditions helped…
By Paige Gadsby, Guest Contributor Since Congress instituted Title IX as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 and banned discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities, there has been a tremendous increase of female athletes and women’s sports on all levels. In 1972, roughly 300,000 females competed in high school athletics. That…
By Colleen English In the IAAF World Championships, the Olympic Games, and a host of other international, national, and local track and field meets, women compete in a wide variety of events, including middle- and long-distance races, like the 1500-meter, 10,000-meter, and the marathon. However, the inclusion of women in these races has a long…
By Kate Aguilar The second thing people who understood Miami had in common was the realization that the real and the fake, the dream and the nightmare, the hope and the despair, were inseparable- that, in Miami, the good always came wrapped up in the bad. ~T. D. Allman, Miami: City of the Future (1987) On August…
By Erica Zonder, Guest Contributor It has been a tough year for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Most recently, the discipline he imposed on Tom Brady for allegedly deflating footballs, discipline that he himself, as a “neutral” arbitrator, upheld during the subsequent arbitration process, was tossed by a Federal District Court judge. “Deflategate” was, to borrow…
Crepeau, Richard C. NFL Football: A History of America’s New National Pastime. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Pp. 256. Notes, bibliography, and index. $95.00 clothback, $19.95 paperback. Reviewed by Andrew D. Linden Throughout this weekend, football is king. On Thursday, the Patriots defeated the Steelers, with an impressive performance by embattled quarterback Tom Brady.…
By Andrew D. Linden and Lindsay Parks Pieper There is much to criticize in the National Football League (NFL). From the deplorable off-field antics of the players to the inherent brain-damaging violence of the sport, the NFL stands as a powerful bastion of immorality. Despite the apparent and much-discussed transgressions of the league, many scholars…
By Matthew Stewart Over the course of the next several weeks, we’ll be hearing a lot about competitors putting into action their strategies and playbooks. There will be egregious mistakes, entertaining and historic moments, close battles and blowouts alike. There will be winners and losers, heroes and goats, and when the dust settles we will…
By Kate Aguilar On Friday, July 24, 2015, popular ESPN Radio talk show host Colin Cowherd incited a stampede of criticism when on Thursday’s program he remarked that baseball was not a “thinking man’s game” as evidenced by the number of Dominican players. On Thursday’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, he began his self-proclaimed 57-second…
Sport in American History 