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"IX" surrounded by female athletes

The Pursuit of Equal Play: Reflecting on 50 Years of Title IX

How a 37-word clause tucked inside a new education legislation reshape women’s sports forever.
Illustration of catcher Buck Ewing of the New York Giants

Baseball's Reserve Clause and the "Antitrust Exemption"

The controversy between players and owners frequently brought baseball into the federal courts between the late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries.
Illustration of Thomas Stevens on his bike

The 19th-Century Hipster Who Pioneered Modern Sportswriting

More than a century before GoPro, Thomas Stevens’ around-the-world bike ride vaulted first-person “sports porn” into the mainstream.
Erin Jackson of the United States holds an American flag after winning the gold medal in the speedskating women's 500-meter race at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, on Feb. 13.
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The Hidden History That Explains Why Team USA is Overwhelmingly White

Exclusion and violence in Western U.S. states help explain the Whiteness of winter sports.
Silver medalists Karen Chen and Nathan Chen pose for a photo after the team event in the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing.
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The ‘Miracle on Ice’ Shaped the Olympics Coverage We’re Seeing Every Night

How rooting for American athletes became part of Olympic TV coverage.
Professional wrestling ring surrounded by audience.

“You Know It’s Fake, Right?” Fandom and the Idea of Legitimacy in Professional Wrestling

Promoters and performers in pro wrestling began increasingly prizing entertainment value over maintaining the appearance of legitimate contests.
Three women in swimsuits

Policing the Bodies of Women Athletes Is Nothing New

For women who play sports, there's often no way to win.
Olympic surfer
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Centuries of U.S. Imperialism Made Surfing an Olympic Sport

With an eye toward U.S. power, Americans spread the sport making its Olympic debut.
Pure athletic prowess wasn’t really the point—the People’s Olympiad was about cultivating a spirit of equality, in direct contrast to Nazi ideals.

The 'Protest' Olympics That Never Came to Be

A leftist response to the 1936 Games being held in Nazi Germany, the proposed competition was canceled by the Spanish Civil War.
Tsökahovi "Louis" Tewanima became an Olympian while being forced to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

The Olympic Star Who Just Wanted to Go Home

Tsökahovi Tewanima held an American record in running for decades, but his training at the infamous Carlisle school kept him from his ancestral Hopi lands
Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros

What Counts, These Days, in Baseball?

As technologies of quantification and video capture grow more sophisticated, is baseball changing? Do those changes have moral implications?
A colorful graphic featuring Curt Flood with a key on his necklace.

Curt Flood Belongs in the Hall of Fame

His defiance changed baseball and helped assert Black people’s worth in American culture.
A mural advertising the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay.
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Sports Gambling Could Be the Pandemic’s Biggest Winner

But it probably won’t be the savior some expect.
A large sports stadium surrounded by the city

Counterhistories of the Sport Stadium

As large spaces where different sectors of the city converge, stadiums are sites of social and political struggle.
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Black College Athletes Are Rising Up Against the Exploitative System They Labor In

Will coronavirus prompt the house of cards of college athletics to come tumbling down?
A sign of the Eastside Speedway

Democracy of Speed

Eighteen years of photographs at a Virginia dragstrip show a multiracial community united by their love of fast cars.
Lou Gehrig holding a baseball bat

How Baseball Players Became Celebrities

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth transformed America’s pastime by becoming a new kind of star.
Diagram of a man swinging a wooden club.

Eastern Sports and Western Bodies: The “Indian Club” in the U.S.

Although largely forgotten today, exercise by club swinging was all the rage in the 19th century.
A team photo of the 1966 Ohio State Penitentiary Hurricanes from a newspaper.

Game Day at the Ohio Pen

Remembering the Ohio State Penitentiary Hurricanes—and the day my father played against them in 1965.

Althea Gibson, Who Smashed Racial Barriers in Tennis, Honored With Statue at U.S. Open

'It’s about time,' said former doubles partner Angela Buxton.

Teddy Roosevelt Hated Baseball

It was a struggle to even get the president to go to a game.
Photo of Japanese American shops with employees and bicycles in front.

When Police Clamped Down on Southern California’s Japanese-American Bicycling Craze

Because cycling was an important mode of transportation for agricultural workers and a popular competitive sport, police saw it as a way to target immigrants.

The History Behind Baseball’s Weirdest Pitch

The improbable success of the curveball.
"Fleet" Walker (middle row, far left) poses with Oberlin College's first varsity baseball team in 1881. Walker went on to become the first African American major leaguer.

The First African American Major League Baseball Player Isn’t Who You Think

As the country celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, let’s consider the career of Fleet Walker.

Almost Undefeated: The Forgotten Football Upset of 1976

How the Toledo Troopers, the most dominant female football team of all time, met their match.

How Big Bonuses for Winning Coaches Became a Tradition in College Football

These bonuses are not a reaction to a multi-billion-dollar market that rewards winning – they are the foundation of it.
Athleisure clothing items including a windbreaker, cap, sweatpants, and running shoe.

How Athleisure Conquered Modern Fashion

The sudden ubiquity of sportswear might seem a little odd. But almost every feature of modern fashion was once adapted from athletics.

How America’s Hunting Culture Shaped Masculinity, Environmentalism, and the NRA

From Davy Crockett to Teddy Roosevelt, this is the legacy of hunting in American culture.

How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman

Wilma Rudolph won three Olympic golds and was among the first athletes to use her celebrity to fight for civil rights.

Black Athletes, Anthem Protests, and the Spectacle of Patriotism

The NFL's response to player protests reflects decades of League and U.S. attempts to portray false images of post-racial harmony.

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