It would be easy to call a significant part of the NCAA basketball landscape a cesspool of cheating, money, and other sins. Indeed, an oft-alleged mariner on those dark waters was […]
Category: sports history
Helen Jacobs and the wearing of shorts
Yesterday marked the birthday of tennis champion Helen Jacobs. Born in 1908, Jacobs learned her trade in Berkeley, California before going on to a term as the world’s top-ranked player […]
Harry Edwards on fighting for black athletes and coaches, whether they like it or not
An excerpt from the new introduction to The Revolt of the Black Athlete: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Harry Edwards. I believe that over the last fifty years, the facts, the relationships, […]
Q&A with Debra Shattuck, Author of “Bloomer Girls”
Debra A. Shattuck is Provost and Associate Professor of History at John Witherspoon College. She recently answered some questions regarding Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers. […]
Backlist Bop: Lifters and jaffas and twin killings and homers
I once tried to explain baseball to a British friend while we watched a Cubs game. By the sixth inning, after going aground on the dropped third strike and tagging […]
Backlist Bop: Snobs, not so many slobs
Outsiders, in general, consider January off-season for golf in the northern United States. The intemperate weather replaces the pond and sand trap with […]
UIP authors around the Internet
A roundup of recent media activity by Press authors: Michael J. Socolow , author of Six Minutes in Berlin, contributed to an in-depth Only a Game piece on pioneering sportswriter Ted […]
The most important race of their lives
Excerpted from Six Minutes in Berlin: Broadcast Spectacle and Rowing Gold at the Nazi Olympics, by Michael J. Socolow A few hours later, with the Germans having already compiled one […]
Release Party: Six Minutes in Berlin, by Michael J. Socolow
The Olympics and geopolitics have gone hand-in-hand since the modern Games emerged in 1896. Michael J. Socolow’s new book examines one of the most controversial Olympiads of all time through […]
200 Years of Illinois: Grange’s Ghost Story
On October 18, 1924, a streak of fire and breath of flame named Harold “Red” Grange had a game for the ages, scoring six touchdowns against a University of Michigan defense […]
Karmageddon II
Tonight, the world once again courts apocalypse, as the Chicago Cubs put on their best woolens to embark on the long, untrod road to the World Series. Winners of over […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: Boogie Woogie Kugel Boy
Today marks National Noodle Day, an observance that simultaneously celebrates a food most beloved of preschoolers and college students while making you wonder if this national day trend has gone too […]