By Scott Myers With the recent announcement (December 16, 2020) by MLB that it will now recognize the Negro Leagues for the period of 1920-1948 as ‘Major League’, it is apparent that MLB should be thoroughly embarrassed for taking so long to do so. Thousands of MLB careers were denied to worthy African American and…
By Erin Redihan This summer the Olympic Games return to Tokyo for the first time in fifty-six years, bringing with them some familiar storylines that resemble the news leading up to the 1964 summer contests. The last time Tokyo hosted, the Cold War was not quite raging, but still impacted how the Soviet and American…
By Michael T. Barry Jr. One of the most anticipated sporting events of 1965, and the 1960s in general, was the North American Boxing Federation’s heavyweight championship bought between Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali just came off an impressive victory over Sonny Liston, and Floyd Patterson was once a two-time world champion. Like…
By Alec Hurley On a late July day in 1980, Renaldo Nehemiah, prohibitive favorite and world record holding hurdler, ascended to the top of the podium. His path to dominance in the pre-Olympic years was highlighted by victories at the 1979 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cup and Pan-American Games. A junior, collegiate,…
By Robert J. Lake On the 16th August, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) approved a complete overhaul of the Davis Cup, the men’s international tennis championship dating back to 1900. A two-thirds majority among the 140 member nations approved the move to turn it from a competition involving several rounds of play throughout the calendar year…
By Tom Fabian North Korea is arguably the most reclusive and enigmatic nation in the world. Due to a historically strained relationship with the United States and the advent of Westernization, the “Hermit Kingdom” has cloistered itself off from the rest of the world as one of the last truly communist states. With escalating rhetoric…
By Katie Taylor In 2015, the Arizona Cardinals broke new ground in the NFL by hiring Jen Welter as a training camp assistant coach, the first woman to hold such a position. Less than a year later the Buffalo Bills hired Kathryn Smith as a full-time, quality control-special teams coach, though she unfortunately lost this…
By Louis Moore Nothing happened! No race riots. No so-called “racial contamination.” No intermarriage. Just a football game. On October, 11, 1947, Chet Pierce, the 6’4” 215-pound lineman for Harvard, became the first Black man to play an integrated college football game in the South. “In the shadow of Confederate monuments,” he played that game…
Editor’s Note: This is part final post of a five part biographical series on Barney Gill by Russ Crawford. He first encountered Barney Gill while researching his book on American football in France. Gill’s story didn’t make it into the book and was too good not to share. Click here to read parts one, two, three, and…
Editor’s Note: This is part four of a five part biographical series on Barney Gill by Russ Crawford. He first encountered Barney Gill while researching his book on American football in France. Gill’s story didn’t make it into the book and was too good not to share. Click here to read parts one, two, and three. Check…
Sport in American History 