By Cat Ariail On June 25, 2013, Texas Senator Wendy Davis engaged in an eleven-hour filibuster to attempt to defeat Senate Bill 5, which severely would restrict access to abortion. Throughout her marathon filibuster session, Davis wore a pair of pink Mizuno Wave Rider 16 running shoes. In media coverage of the filibuster, Davis’s pink…
Overmyer, James E. Black Ball and the Boardwalk: The Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, 1916-1929. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014. 30 Photos, Appendices, Notes, Bibliography, Index. Pp. 284. $39.95 softback. Plott, William J. The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2015. 30 Photos, Appendices,…
Henne, Kathryn E. Testing for Athlete Citizenship: Regulating Doping and Sex in Sport. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2015. Appendix, notes, bibliography, and index. $90 clothback. $28.95 paperback, web PDF, and epub. Reviewed by Cat Ariail In my last blog post, I used the story of Carlota Gooden to introduce the possibility of athletic…
By Cat Ariail At the 1959 Pan-American Games in Chicago, Illinois, Carlota Gooden, a twenty-two year-old Panamanian sprinter descended from Barbadian canal workers, won two silver medals and a bronze. Her performances in the 100-meter sprint, 4×100-meter relay, and 60-meter dash entered her name in the official records of international track, a permanent inscription that…
Hines, James R. Figure Skating in the Formative Years: Singles, Pairs, and the Expanding Role of Women. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pp. xv+262. Notes, index, appendices, 38 black and white photographs, 1 table. $29 clothback, ebook. Reviewed by Cat Ariail In my earliest sport watching memory, my mom, sister, and I sit…
By Cat Ariail The New York City Marathon, scheduled for November 1, 2015, represents the premier event on the fall running calendar. Last year, women composed 20,572 of the 50,896 entrants, a number that correlates with the twenty-first century rise in female participation in distance running events. While men still are the majority of marathon…
When she was Wilma Eldridge she couldn’t get nothing. They didn’t know Wilma Eldridge; they knew Wilma Rudolph. – Coach Ed Temple [1] By Cat Ariail Describing the post-athletic career of Wilma Rudolph, her collegiate coach perceptively captures the limitations of her heroine status. At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Rudolph won the 100-meter sprint,…
Sport in American History 