Review of Keepers of the Flame

Vogan, Travis. Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Pp. ii + 238. Notes and Index. $90 hardback, $25 paperback. Reviewed by Stephen Townsend Travis Vogan has a reputation as a lucid and aggressive interrogator of sporting cultures. So, when I was asked to…

Review of Man Versus Ball

Hart, Jon. Man Versus Ball: One Ordinary Guy and His Extraordinary Sports Adventures. Lincoln: Nebraska University Press, 2013. Pp. 184. $24.95 clothback. Reviewed by Lindsay Parks Pieper As a graduate student in a sport finance class, I was assigned to cover the Women’s Football Alliance’s semi-professional team, the Columbus Comets. To get a closer look…

Review of Qualifying Times

Schultz, Jaime. Qualifying Times: Points of Change in U.S. Women’s Sport. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Pp. xiv +280. Illustrations, notes, index. $95 cloth back, $26 paperback. Reviewed by Bieke Gils Yes, there are things to cheer about when considering the changes in U.S. women’s sport over the past century; however, as Jaime…

Review of Martha’s Vineyard Basketball: How a Resort League Defied Notions of Race and Class

Bayne, Bijan C. Martha’s Vineyard Basketball: How a Resort League Defied Notions of Race and Class. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Pp. xv + 213. $40.00 clothback. Reviewed by Tyran Kai Steward In 1975, Universal Pictures released the blockbuster film Jaws, the Steven Spielberg-directed American thriller based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel of the…

Review of: Sport History in the Digital Era

Osmond, Gary and Murray Phillips, eds. Sport History in the Digital Era. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. xii + 279. Notes, Index. $60 Clothback. Reviewed by Andrew McGregor Digital history and the digital humanities often seem like opaque buzzwords conceived by young, tech-savvy scholars trying to gain a foothold in an increasingly competitive academic…

Review of NFL Football: A History of America’s New National Pastime

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.…