Sport and Community: the Fiction of Belonging

Nathan, Daniel A., ed. Rooting for the Home Team, Sport, Community and Identity, Champaign, University of Illinois Press, 2013. 237 pages, $25 paperback. Reviewed by Peter Marquis This review originally appeared in “Aesthetics of Theory in the Modern Era and Beyond /Photographie documentaire,” Transatlantica: revue d’études américaines 2 (2014). Reproduced with permission from Transatlantica and…

Review of Hoop Crazy: The Lives of Clair Bee and Chip Hilton

Gildea, Dennis. Hoop Crazy: The Lives of Clair Bee and Chip Hilton. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 2013. xx+322. Notes, bibliography, index, and appendices. $34.95 clothback.  Reviewed by Russ Crawford Every basketball fanatic should read this book. Not because Hoop Crazy: The Lives of Clair Bee and Chip Hilton is well researched and written;…

Review of Changing the Playbook

Chudacoff, Howard P. Changing the Playbook: How Power, Profit, and Politics Transformed College Sports. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pp. Xii+198. Notes and index. $95.00 clothback, $22.00 paperback. Reviewed by Alexander D. Hyres At the 1951 NCAA Convention, University of Pennsylvania athletic director Francis Murray observed, “This very dramatic part of our educational picture…

Review of Come Out Swinging

Trimbur, Lucia. Come Out Swinging: The Changing World of Boxing in Gleason’s Gym. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. Pp. xxi+200. Notes, bibliography, index, and methodological appendix. $27.95 hardback. Reviewed by Daryl Leeworthy Feel the Bern. An unlikely campaign slogan that has echoed around the world in the last few months, just as Yes We Can…

Review of Pop Warner: A Life on the Gridiron

Miller, Jeffrey J. Pop Warner: A Life on the Gridiron. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015, 209 pp. + Index. $29.95 paperback. Reviewed by Kate Aguilar Growing up in the Region, a colloquial term for the northern part of Northwest Indiana where the largest North American facility for U.S. Steel resides, I never put…

Review of Forever Red

Smith, Steve. Forever Red: More Confessions of a Cornhusker Fan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. 256 pages. $24.95 paperback. Reviewed by Jorge Iber The recent passing (via suicide while serving time in a California prison) of legendary Nebraska Cornhusker running back Lawrence Phillips at the young age of 40 makes this a more than…

Review of The Greatest College Football Rivalries

Gitlin, Martin. The Greatest College Football Rivalries of All Time: The Civil War, The Iron Bowl, and Other Memorable Moments. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. Black and White Photos, Notes, Selected Bibliography, Index. Pp. 345. $40.00 hardback, $39.99 eBook. Reviewed by Mercedes Townsend In the fall, I will be pursuing my J.D. at Tulane University…