In 1999, ESPN’s SportCentury ranked the top North American athletes of the twentieth century. The list, compiled by a panel of 48 journalists, observers, and administrators–and one sport scholar–included eighty-nine men, eight women, and three horses. ESPN’s more recent compilation, The Undefeated’s 50 Greatest Black Athletes, asked the public to rank the most important black…
Whitaker, Sigur E. The Indy Car Wars: The 30-year Fight for Control of American Open-Wheel Racing. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015. Pp. 223. Notes, References, Index. $35.00 softcover. Reviewed by Rich Loosbrock Greed and power play a key role in professional sports, but how often have they destroyed a league? While destroyed may be too strong…
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…
Cait Murphy. A History of American Sports in 100 Objects. New York: Basic Books, 2016. $29.99, hardback. Reviewed by Josh Howard Just a couple of short semesters ago, I found myself teaching the second half of a World History survey at Columbia State Community College in Franklin, TN. I admittedly felt a bit overwhelmed and underprepared even…
ESPN’s The Undefeated’s recently unveiled their 50 Greatest Black Athletes. The rankings inspired conversations across social media about black athletic excellence as well as the impact and historical significance of certain figures. Over the last two-weeks we asked sport historians to weigh in and offer their own Top 10 lists. A dozen scholars responded with their lists —…
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…
By Kristy McCray When Title IX was enacted in 1972, the purpose was to redress discrimination against women in many facets of education, from denial of federal financial aid to refusal of admission to medical school; how the legislation would affect college sports was not yet on the radar. In fact, it wasn’t until 1974 that…
ESPN’s The Undefeated’s is in the process of unveiling their 50 Greatest Black Athletes. The rankings have inspired conversations across social media about black athletic excellence as well as the impact and historical significance of certain figures. As the debates unfold, we want to share our platform for sport historians (and others) to weigh in,…
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…
Sport in American History 