Sports History

Joe Louis was the World's Most Popular Athlete; Racist Businessmen Refused to Let Him Endorse Fords

by Silke-Maria Weineck

Market research documents related to the Ford Motor Company's refusal to grant retired champ Joe Louis a dealership franchise reveal a combination of middle-class prejudice and the willingness of the business world to accommodate Jim Crow. 

Rule 50 and Racial Justice: The Long History of the IOC War on Athletes' Free Expression

by Debbie Sharnak and Yannick Kluch

"The recent rise of athlete activism brings the IOC’s claim that sports are a neutral space into direct conflict with athletes’ increasingly vocal demands for freedom of expression and the right to use their platform to advance human rights and social justice issues."

Simone Biles is the Latest Olympian to Withhold Her Labor for Change

by Johanna Mellis

Simone Biles' decision not to compete in several gymnastic events is part of a legacy of athletes' refusal to compete dating back to Hungarian athletes' protests of Communist repression in 1956. 

How the Budding USA-France Basketball Rivalry Developed

by Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff

"Basketball diplomacy at the Olympics exposes the hidden ties that bind the United States and France together."

How Historians Convinced SCOTUS that the NCAA's Idea of Amateurism is a Myth

by Ronald A. Smith

The Supreme Court was influenced by the work of a team of historians to reject the NCAA's arguments about amateurism and open the way for college athletes to profit from their names, images and likenesses – something history shows they did extensively before the NCAA's rules. 

George Floyd Changed The World of Athlete Activism

by Carl Suddler

The protests over George Floyd's murder involved Black athletes at a time when athletes are highly visible and broke with a decades-long tendency to steer clear of controversy.

Justice for the Negro Leagues Will Mean More Than Just Stats

Major League Baseball will incorporate player records from various Negro League competitions in its official statistics. Black players denied the chance to play in the segregated Major Leagues will now be listed among the official all-time greats, but will this move actually raise awareness of the political and social forces that kept the game segregated?

Neoliberalism with a Stick of Gum: The Meaning of the 1980s Baseball Card Boom

by Jason Tebbe

The baseball card craze of the late 1980s promised Gen X kids a repeat of the collectible windfall like the Boomers enjoyed with their surviving 1950s Topps cards. The reality proved quite different, giving a lens onto economic transformation. 

What Counts, These Days, In Baseball?

by David Henkin

A cultural historian considers recent baseball controversies in light of new books on the sport, and concludes that ideas of fair competition have much more to do with our social context than fans acknowledge. 

Olympic Protester Tommie Smith Reclaims His Legacy in a New Documentary

"There’s a lot of people out there who lived the history I lived way back then. That history is not gone, and it will never die."

Baseball’s Race Problem

by Gene Seymour

Following comedian Chris Rock's observations, Gene Seymour argues that baseball is out of step with a multicultural America and ruled by traditions and unwritten rules that limit its appeal outside of White America. 

Remembering Wilma Rudolph, the “Queen of the Olympics”

by Scott N. Brooks and Aram Goudsouzian

"Maybe most important, Rudolph was a real Black woman, not a stereotype. The Olympics lent her a special platform at a unique moment in American history, and Rudolph capitalized upon it with grace."

As College Football Grapples with the Coronavirus, it also Confronts its Racist History

by Bennett Parten

It's no coincidence that the south is the heartland of college football. The region first embraced the game as an expression of southern honor culture. While southern colleges were slow to adopt integrated rosters, today's Southeastern Conference teams rely heavily on the unpaid labor of Black players. 

Today in History: Cy Young's First Professional Game

Today marks the anniversary of baseball legend Cy Young's first professional game.

From Strikes To World Wars To Pandemics — The History Of Shutting Down America’s Sports

To bring American games to a stop requires apocalyptic events.

Where Did The Term ‘Redskins’ Come From?

Monday’s announcement that the D.C. region’s football team would be abandoning the Redskins brand marks the end of a decadeslong push to shift the team away from the historically racist and oppressive term.

A Brief History of Anti-Fascism

by James Stout

Today's anti-fascism isn’t about waving flags at football matches; it's about fighting, through direct action, racists and genocidaires wherever they can be found. The author discusses the history of the movement.

Cancel the Fall College Football Season

by Victoria L. Jackson

For too long, instead of facilitating the intellectual advancement and economic empowerment of young Black men, college sports have helped make American universities another institution perpetuating the undervaluing of Black lives.

When the KKK Played Against an All-Black Baseball Team

by John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro

For the white-robed, playing a black team was a gift-wrapped photo op, a chance to show that the Klan was part of the local community—even the black citizens.

Peter Norman: Unsung Hero of the 1968 Olympic Protest

The Australian sprinter stood in solidarity with Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Olympics in Mexico City.