Timothy B. Spears is the vice president for academic development and a professor of American studies at Middlebury College. He is the author of 100 Years on the Road: The Traveling Salesman in American Culture and Chicago Dreaming: Midwesterners and the City, 1871–1929. … Continue reading From the Desk of Tim Spears: Finding the “I” in Team
Books Religious, Feminist, Activist Laurel Zwissler Review from Reading Religion: “Zwissler adds tremendous insight to the motivations and methods of religious feminist activists, including providing some explanation as to why Christian feminists don’t wield religious discourse in political realms … Continue reading News and Reviews
The running of the women’s 3,000 meter Olympic race on August 11, 1984 in Los Angeles was always going to be historic athletic moment. Young American prodigy, Mary Decker was seeking to finally medal after setting world records and she … Continue reading The Olympic Budd-Decker collision happened 34 years ago today
Roger Gilles is a writing professor at Grand Valley State University and the author of Women on the Move: The Forgotten Era of Women’s Bicycle Racing (October 2018). At this year’s Tour de France, women cyclists were once more doing … Continue reading Women’s Bicycling from 1896 to today: Still Fighting to Ride
The following is adapted from The Soccer Diaries: An American’s Thirty-Year Pursuit of the International Game by Michael Agovino, now available in paperback. Agovino recently wrote for the Washington Post about the US hosting another World Cup in 2026. … Continue reading The Soccer Diaries: When The World Cup Semifinal Came to New York
Books The Integration of the Pacific Coast League: Race and Baseball on the West Coast Amy Essington Included in the New York Times Book Review’s Summer Reading List. The Roger Kahn Reader: Six Decades of Sportswriting Roger Kahn; … Continue reading News and Reviews
Awards Amina Gautier Winner of the PEN/Malamud Award: “Amina Gautier is a prolific and award-winning writer of short fiction. In myriad stories that captivate readers and critics alike, she complicates and illuminates the intersection of self and place, with characters … Continue reading News and Reviews
Book Birthdays celebrate one year of a book’s life in tweets, reviews, and more. This month we’re saying Happy First Book Birthday to From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball during the Great War (Nebraska, 2017) by Jim Leeke. Leeke, a former news … Continue reading Happy Book Birthday to From the Dugouts to the Trenches!
The following contribution comes from Michael Oriard, author of The Art of Football: The Early Game in the Gold Age of Illustration (August 2017). Oriard played football for the University of Notre Dame and the Kansas City Chiefs and is Distinguished Professor … Continue reading From the Desk of Michael Oriard: An Aesthetic of Excess
The following excerpt comes from Before Jackie Robinson: The Transcendent Role of Black Sporting Pioneers by Gerald R. Gems (February 2017). From Chapter 3: When Great Wasn’t Good Enough Sam Ransom’s Journey from Athlete to Activist The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, … Continue reading Excerpt: Before Jackie Robinson
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