By Wesley R. Bishop and Andrew McGregor This weekend the University of Missouri, or “Mizzou” as it’s commonly called, became the latest front in the ongoing national movement against racism. Following a string of steady and increasingly hostile acts of hate, Mizzou’s football players joined a campus wide protest, refusing to participate in athletic events…
Smith, Jay M., and Mary Willingham. Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Pp. 304. Notes and Index. $26.95 hardback. Reviewed by Jorge Iber With the current brouhaha surrounding the purported prostitution scandal tied to the University of Louisville’s basketball program,…
By Jon Hart, Guest Contributor John Alex will never forget that cold October rain, the Baker Field mud, and the moment that last-second field goal attempt fell short nearly 27 years ago. Yes, alas, The Streak was over. After losing 44 consecutive games, the Columbia football team had finally won, defeating Princeton, 16-13. “Afterwards, it…
By Andrew D. Linden and Lindsay Parks Pieper There is much to criticize in the National Football League (NFL). From the deplorable off-field antics of the players to the inherent brain-damaging violence of the sport, the NFL stands as a powerful bastion of immorality. Despite the apparent and much-discussed transgressions of the league, many scholars…
By Matt Follett In Hoover, Alabama, from July 13-16, SEC players and coaches fielded questions concerning Xs and Os, records and predictions, and even fashion during the SEC Media days. Due to the Charleston, South Carolina, killings and subsequent Confederate flag debate, reporters at the SEC Media days also broached the relationship between the flag…
I remember him saying, “You don’t want to go to many football games. It will be a unique experience for you.” I didn’t know what he meant at the time, but I would find out.–Sylvester Brooks, MTSU Student and civil rights activist in mid-1960s,from an interview given in 2000 Author’s Note: Since writing this article in…
By Michael T. Wood, Guest Contributor On 20 July 2015, the United States and Cuba reopened their embassies in Havana and Washington, D.C. This occasion represents another important step in the normalization of U.S.-Cuban relations, and continues a policy shift that began in December 2014. Even though more action is needed on both sides of…
The killings of nine Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church members in Charleston, South Carolina, have ignited a cultural clash over the symbolic nature of the Confederate Flag, of which shooter Dylann Roof proudly raised in pictures taken before the murders. Scores of written, aural, and visual news stories subsequently have been produced to identify the…
Happy Valley (2014). Directed by Amir Bar-Lev. Produced by Molly Thompson, Robert Debitetto, and David Mckillop. A&E Films and Asylum Entertainment Production. 98 minutes. Reviewed by Lindsay Parks Pieper, Adam Berg, and Andrew D. Linden In 2011, a Pennsylvania Grand Jury released information that devastated Happy Valley. The findings alleged that former assistant football coach…
I’m going to be doing a bit of “thinking out loud” in this post. It’s an extension of a Twitter conversation I had with Paul Putz about a month ago. We were talking about college sports teams in predominantly rural states as a way for their residents “to explain ourselves to other Americans” as well as…
Sport in American History 