sports — Bunk History

Hail Mary

In the 1970s, some athletes began questioning the alliance between sports, conservative Christianity, and politics.

by Paul Putz via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on September 9, 2024

Basketball players resting on court

Game Changer

On the mismatched sporting advice of Clair Bee and John R. Tunis.

by Dan McQuade via Lapham’s Quarterly on July 10, 2023

Ralph Samuelson water skiing

The Man Who Invented Water Skiing

One hundred years ago, Ralph Samuelson successfully skied across the waters of Lake Pepin.

by Sarah Kuta via Smithsonian Magazine on July 1, 2022

Making Philly a Blue-Collar City

Sports, politics, and civic identity in modern Philadelphia.

by Timothy Lombardo via Sport in American History on September 6, 2018

Agency, Order and Sport in the Age of Trump

Jim Thorpe, Jack Johnson, and the sporting middle ground.

by Andrew McGregor via Public Seminar on July 18, 2018

New York Marathon runners on the Verrazano Bridge.

Rat Race

Why are young professionals crazy for marathons?

by Dylan Gottlieb via Public Seminar on February 15, 2018

The Forgotten Origins of Politics in Sports

Black athletes didn’t “politicize” American sports. They’ve been a battleground from the very beginning.

by Kenneth Cohen via Slate on January 2, 2018

How Superstition and the Opera Gave Birth to Mascots

The dark origins of the first mascots.

by Michael Imhoff via SB Nation on December 11, 2017

How the National Anthem Got Tangled Up With American Sports

Like most relationships, it’s complicated.

by Tevi Troy via Politico Magazine on September 26, 2017

The Manly Sport of American Politics

19th-century Americans abandoned the English phrasing of "standing" for election and begin to describe candidates who "run" for office. The race was on.

by Kenneth Cohen via Commonplace on April 1, 2012

Marty Reisman playing table tennis with the ball in the air.

The Real Marty Supreme

Marty Reisman, a brilliant, hustling ping-pong showman, rose from NYC clubs to global fame, clashed with officials, defied the sponge era, and left a legend.

by David Davis via Defector on November 12, 2025

Spectators watch the Atlanta Crackers play at Ponce de Leon Park. Postcard from 1915.

“Cobb Out Front in Bid for Stadium”: Professional Baseball and the Rise of Suburbia, 1957-1962

Leaders in Cobb county pushed a huge stadium plan in the late ’50s to lure teams and suburban growth, but funding, leagues, and politics stalled it.

by Andrew J. Bramlett via Atlanta Studies on October 20, 2025

A woman showing another woman how to throw a bowling ball.

The Bowling Alley: It’s a Woman’s World

Even when it was considered socially unacceptable, American women were knocking down pins on the local lanes.

by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on September 24, 2025

An acrobatic water skier performs during a show.

The Wonderful World of the Water Ski

Invented in 1922, water-skiing quickly became shorthand for American ideas on beauty, athleticism, and affluence.

by Dorothy A. Mays, Betsy Golden Kellem, Stephen E. Branch, Sondra Reierson via JSTOR Daily on August 27, 2025

A teacher holds a students feet while the student does situps as part of a fitness test.

Can President Trump Run a Mile?

By reviving the Presidential Fitness Test, Trump is joining his predecessors in setting forth a competition that he would likely fail at.

by Zach Helfand via The New Yorker on August 12, 2025

Weston pictured in 1909 sporting his signature walking outfit.

Edward Payson Weston: The Most Famous Athlete You’ve Never Heard Of

In 1861, Edward Payson Weston walked the 500 miles from Boston to D.C., and launched a legendary career as a pedestrian in the process.

by Lily Applebaum via Boundary Stones on June 24, 2025

Collage of magazine text and outdoor images.

The Decline of Outside Magazine Is Also the End of a Vision of the Mountain West

After its purchase by a tech entrepreneur, the publication is now a shadow of itself.

by Rachel Monroe via The New Yorker on April 18, 2025

Several women on bicycles.

The Surprising History of Women and Bicycling

It's not about the bike or the bloomers.

by Maya Rodale via Hidden Herstories on March 31, 2025

How Sports Betting Took Over March Madness

For decades, the NCAA vigorously opposed sports gambling. Now, March Madness is one of the most bet-on sporting events.

by Johnathan D. Cohen via Made By History on March 20, 2025

A line of women athletes linking arms and wearing shirts with a passage from Title Nine on the back.

Women's Sports Happened By Accident, And Could Be Taken Apart On Purpose

The long battle against Title IX.

by Diana Moskovitz via Defector on March 6, 2025

"College Sports: A History"

A new book considers the challenges of controlling the commercialization of college sports.

by Glenn C. Altschuler, David Wippman via Inside Higher Ed on November 26, 2024

The Earth drawn as a baseball flying through space.

Climate Change Comes for Baseball

The summer sport is facing big questions about how it will adapt.

by Ellen Cushing via The Atlantic on November 2, 2024

Drawing of a competetitve pedestrian walking in the late 1800s with spectators watching.

America’s Earliest Sports Stars Were … Professional Walkers?

Walking needs no publicist. The simplest, most accessible form of exercise has been around since humans first foraged and traveled on the ground.

by Jackie Mansky via Zócalo Public Square on October 18, 2024

A colorful collage of Chicago Hustle basketball players during games.

When Chicago Hustled

In the late ’70s, a pro women’s hoops team briefly captivated the city by living up to its name. Then it all unraveled.

by Jarrett Van Meter via Chicago Magazine on September 18, 2024

Paul Newman lets a lit cigarette hang from his mouth while lining up a pool shot in a scene from the film The Hustler, 1961. Getty

Playing It Straight and Catching a Break

Cue games have had a lingering influence on our language and culture—even before the contributions of “Fast Eddie” Felson.

by Katrina Gulliver, Robert R. Craven via JSTOR Daily on September 1, 2024

Nine synchronized swimmers underwater in a pool.

Why No Men Will Compete in Synchronized Swimming in Paris

For the first time, men are permitted to compete in artistic swimming at the 2024 Olympics. But none will.

by Vicki Valosik via Made By History on August 5, 2024

A photograph of TJ Hicks running in the 1904 Olympics with his two coaches holding him upright.

How the 1904 Marathon Became One of the Weirdest Olympic Events of All Time

Athletes drank poison, dodged traffic, stole peaches and even hitchhiked during the 24.85-mile race in St. Louis.

by Ellen Wexler, Karen Abbott via Smithsonian Magazine on June 27, 2024

Man in a swimming pool, with other swimmers behind him.

Just When You Thought It Wasn’t Safe…

How Wilbert Longfellow turned America into a nation of swimmers.

by Vicki Valosik via The American Scholar on June 24, 2024

Zdeněk Koubek running.

Human Velocity

“The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports” upends long-held assumptions about trans people’s participation in sports.

by Michael Waters, Frankie de la Cretaz via The Baffler on June 7, 2024

A collage of George Eyser, St. Louis imagery, and Olympic medals.

A Forgotten Turner Classic

Who was George Eyser, the one-legged German-American gymnast who astounded at the Olympic Games?

by Joshua Prager via The American Scholar on June 3, 2024

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