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…
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…
Evans, Jeremy. The Battle for Paradise: Surfing, Tuna, and One Town’s Quest to Save a Wave. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Pp. 240. 2 Maps. $24.95. Hardback Reviewed by Tolga Ozyurtcu “Cada loco con su tema.” (Each Madman to his own peculiar madness.) “Cría cuervos para que te saquen los ojos.” (Raise ravens that…
Oppenheim, Gabe. Boxing in Philadelphia: Tales of Struggle and Survival. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Pp. xiv+202. Notes, bibliography, index. $45 hardcover, $30 paperback. Reviewed by Andrew R.M. Smith Historians of sport—especially the quasi-legal ones like prize fighting—are probably accustomed to nontraditional research practices and keenly aware that a lot of dirt will be…
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…
Austin, Brad. Democratic Sports: Men’s and Women’s College Athletics during the Great Depression. Fayetteville, AR: The University of Arkansas Press, 2015. Pp. 268. Notes, essay on sources, and index. $29.95 paperback. Reviewed by Cat Ariail In recent years terms such as “fairness” and “justice” have dominated debates about college sports. While defenders of the status…
Swanson, Ryan A. When Baseball Went White: Reconstruction, Reconciliation, and Dreams of a National Pastime. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014. Pp. xx+198. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $29.95 hardcover. By Dain TePoel “To say, as many historians have, that baseball’s racial segregation resulted from a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ is roughly the equivalent of asserting that…
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…
By Alex Parrish Winter, Scott, foreword by Tom Izzo. Nebrasketball: Coach Tim Miles and a Big Ten Team on the Rise. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Pp. xvi+355. 22 black and white photographs. $24.95 Hardcover. In 1985, Indiana University men’s basketball coach Bob Knight gave journalist John Feinstein extraordinary access to his locker room…
C. Richard King, Redskins: Insult and Brand. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. Pp. 256. 12 Illustrations, notes and index. $24.95 Hardcover. By Andrew McGregor In October 2014 I had lunch with Billy Mills. Though we keep in touch, I hadn’t seen him since 2011. He was on campus giving a talk — one similar to the…
Sport in American History 