Building off of our recent series, The Life and Legacy of Muhammad Ali Blog Series, the Sport in American History blog is happy to announce a new series titled Title IX at 45. On June 23, President Richard Nixon signed into law the Educational Amendments Act of 1972, which included Title IX. This law, which…
Fallon, Michael. Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. 472 pp. Notes and index. $34.95 (clothback). Reviewed by Tolga Ozyurtcu “I’m recording the game. Please, no spoilers.” More than getting students to do the reading, even more than whatever it is the Lakers are purportedly doing, this is…
Nelson, Murray R. Big Ten Basketball, 1943-1972. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017. Pp. 256. Appendix, notes, bibliography, and index. $39.95 softcover. Reviewed by Andrew McGregor March has arrived, much to the glee of basketball fans. Conference tournaments are in full swing across the country, helping solidify the fates of those teams living on the bubble before…
By Zachary R. Bigalke Major League Soccer (MLS) kicked off its 22nd season over the past weekend, welcoming two new teams into the fold to expand the league into two 11-team conferences. Fifteen years after the league contracted its two Florida teams, the long-term plan executed by Don Garber seems to have fully flowered. Having…
By Andrew McGregor This semester Lawrence (Larry) Glickman is trying something new with his students at Cornell University. He is teaching a class on “Sports and Politics in American History.” Over the course of the fall and winter Glickman reached out to me and other Sport in American History contributors for help navigating the field of sport…
Gems, Gerald R., ed. Before Jackie Robinson: The Transcendent Role of Black Sporting Pioneers. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. Pp. 324. Notes and index. $35 paperback. Reviewed by Christopher R. Davis In popular memory, one of the most significant historical developments in the twentieth-century United States, the civil rights struggle, is often reduced to…
Shattuck, Debra A. Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2017. Pp. xiii +307. Appendices, notes, bibliography and index. Clothback $25.95. Reviewed by Leslie Heaphy Debra Shattuck knocks it out of the park with her first book. Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers fills a huge void in sports literature regarding women…
By Cat Ariail “Track and field, along with tennis, golf and swimming, are considered the ‘lady-like’ sports that women actively participate in. The reason for labeling these sports as ‘lady-like’ is that there is no body contact – and certainly there is none in track and field. It is an accepted fact that track and…
By Ari de Wilde In a news cycle that has been marred with broad national discussions of discriminatory immigration laws and attorney generals disobeying executive orders from President Donald Trump, it was with pleasure that I watched the CBS 60 Minutes news story on “Enhancing the Bike” in professional cycling.[i] Investigative journalist Bill Whitaker’s story…
Sulecki, James C. The Cleveland Rams: The NFL Champions Who Left Too Soon. Jefferson: McFarland, 2016. Pp. vii+288. Appendix, notes, bibliography, index, and black and white photos. Reviewed by Russ Crawford Long before LeBron James briefly abandoned the Cavaliers, and the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens, another major sports franchise bailed on…
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