Designing my "History of U.S. Sports" syllabus: Looking for good stories

[TheFrenzy]

I was recently asked to teach ASU's "History of U.S. Sports" class this fall—the largest upper level history course we offer.

96 of the 100 available seats have already been filled.

And while I could go into the methodological and pedagogical approaches I will be taking, one thing I want to make sure I do is to give my students at least one great story per lecture. Stories like the bearded House of David baseball team or the first "olive ball" (football) team to play in China or the bizarre popularity of 19th century pedestrianism.

Because, let's be honest, that's why these students are signing up for this course.

We'll be covering all of the major sports—from the "Big Four" in North America to the more traditional competitions like boxing, horse racing, and automobile racing all the way to e-sports and the future of sports.

So what are your absolute favorite inspiring/shocking/bizarre/hilarious sports stories?

[TheFrenzy]

Even ridiculous stories like the kid who won the national Madden tournament with a punter at quarterback are fair game.

[akarlen]

One of my favorites is the story about the Green Bay Packers fan that gave blood to pay for his family's season tickets -- It turns out he had familial hemochromatosis (the lifesaving treatment is bloodletting, of sorts) and it likely saved his life.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/MensHe...ry?id=10109129

[LCM1223]

Back to the football forum with you, heathen!

[TheFrenzy]

Originally Posted by akarlen

One of my favorites is the story about the Green Bay Packers fan that gave blood to pay for his family's season tickets -- It turns out he had familial hemochromatosis (the lifesaving treatment is bloodletting, of sorts) and it likely saved his life.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/MensHe...ry?id=10109129

Great story!

Originally Posted by LCM1223

Back to the football forum with you, heathen!

For what it’s worth, I posted this here because everyone knows baseball collectors are the most knowledgeable sports fans.

[soey10]

I just learned about the most accomplished deaf/mute player dummy Taylor and find his story really incredible and inspiring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JeremyNick]

You need a chapter devoted to the Phallacy of the Bills Mafia.

Also one on this story.
https://www.wtae.com/amp/article/ste...-game/37920533

[carlo16]

So you’re gonna ruin sports for 100 kids?

[TheFrenzy]

Originally Posted by carlo16

So you’re gonna ruin sports for 100 kids?

lol

It’s funny you say that. This class will actually be a critical examination of the recent “cultural turn” in sports history which attempts to deconstruct sports and reduce them down to nothing more than power structures of race, class, and gender.

I take the approach that there is something irreducibly special about “sports”—something that gets to the heart of the human spirit.

So as I’ve told my students in other sports-related history courses, my goal is for them to love the game even more by the time we are through.

[Luisrobertholi]

Originally Posted by TheFrenzy

lol

It’s funny you say that. This class will actually be a critical examination of the recent “cultural turn” in sports history which attempts to deconstruct sports and reduce them down to nothing more than power structures of race, class, and gender.

I take the approach that there is something irreducibly special about “sports”—something that gets to the heart of the human spirit.

So as I’ve told my students in other sports-related history courses, my goal is for them to love the game even more by the time we are through.

Disregard him. Whoever is taking your class is in for a treat, and is something I would look forward to as a gen Ed at my university.

My input would be to include early-era baseball, as there are many fascinating events and history into what makes baseball, baseball.

Ex: rules that we take for granted now, and how they came around?

Maybe the Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars?

[TheFrenzy]

Originally Posted by Luisrobertholi

Disregard him. Whoever is taking your class is in for a treat, and is something I would look forward to as a gen Ed at my university.

My input would be to include early-era baseball, as there are many fascinating events and history into what makes baseball, baseball.

Ex: rules that we take for granted now, and how they came around?

Maybe the Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars?

Thank you for the kind words. It does suck that the trend right now in sports history is in fact to “ruin” many of the things that we find meaningful about the games. I’ve heard too many cultural historians cite James Baldwin and the “right to criticize perpetually” as their model.

A good teacher (like a good coach) knows how to balance criticism and praise.

And so we’ll cover the areas where sports has failed to live up to its own ideals—but we won’t stop there. For example, baseball was the first major American institution to desegregate. That means something. Something good and positive and praiseworthy.

[justrun7]

There's tons of great stories out there but here are some of my favorites that college kids would most likely enjoy.

The 1904 Olympic Marathon - seems like it could be made into a movie like Rat Race

Cuban players defecting from Cuba and similarly North Korean athletes closely guarded at the Olympics

The Dock Ellis LSD No Hitter

Jason Grimsley Climbed Through a Ventilation System to Free Albert Belle's Confiscated Bat

[UCCF]

It won't fill a whole class, but the Rick Monday saves the flag from burning in the outfield story was pretty good. In the context of when it happened (just post-Vietnam, just post-Watergate), it was a big story at the time.

[OscarOne]

I still think the last time Cleveland won the World Series is a hell of a story.

-Cleveland was the first team in the American League to break the color barrier. Larry Doby became the first Black player in baseball’s American League just a few months after Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers. A year later, in 1948, Satchel Paige joined the Cleveland Indians as the team’s second Black player.

-To get to the World Series, Cleveland had to win a one-game playoff with the Red Sox This was because both teams ended the season with the same record. It was the first-ever one-game playoff in the American League. The game was hopping too: roughly 34,000 people crammed into Fenway Park to see the game.

-The dude who won that game for Cleveland was Gene Bearden. Bearden was a rookie but had beaten Boston twice that season. Still, most people thought that Cleveland manager Lou Boudreau would start one of his other top-tier aces. He was a 20-game winner that season. He was also an amazing story.

Bearden served in World War Two, and was on the USS Helena when it was attacked by the Japanese and sunk. Bearden survived the battle but was a mess. During the attack, he was knocked unconscious and had to be pulled from the wreckage by an officer and put in a life raft. His wounds were serious: he has a skull fracture and his knee was all but destroyed. He would spend two days floating in the Pacific, and at one point a Japanese destroyer would drive right by him, filming the life raft and the wounded survivors. Eventually, Bearden was plucked out of the ocean by a friendly destroyer and was sent to the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. He would end up having a plate inserted into his skull, and a metal hinge inserted into his damaged knee. Bearden was told that he would survive, but his days as a pitcher were all but over. That was obviously not the case.

-It was the first World Series to be televised beyond the previous year's limited New York-Schenectady-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington network

-Cleveland would win the World Series--and be the last non-New York team to do so until the Braves in 1957.

[mfw13]

Joe Gaetjens goal that enabled the US to defeat England at the 1950 World Cup is a great story.....

Another good story focused on immigration is that of the Alou brothers, who in September 1963 all started in the outfield for the San Francisco Giants together.

The Boone & Bell families are also good baseball stories, being the only two 3-generation MLB families.

[Pacmeyer]

Jesse Owens Munich Olympics. A lot of students may know about it but still hard to imagine a sports history course without touching on this.

[TheFrenzy]

Originally Posted by Pacmeyer

Jesse Owens Munich Olympics. A lot of students may know about it but still hard to imagine a sports history course without touching on this.

The Owens story is incredibly important, especially in relation to Marty Glickman's story.

Glickman tells the story best himself, but the summary is that both Glickman and Sam Stollar were two young Jewish sprinters on the US Olympic 4x4 relay team there in Munich, 1936. And while we typically tell the story of Jesse Owens as a great American tale of essentially giving the middle finger to Hitler and him having to award gold medals to a Black athlete, the reality is that the American leadership was more concerned about the political fallout that would result if they ran two Jewish sprinters and won in Hitler's stadium. So Glickman and Stollar became the only two healthy scratches in the history of US Olympic track and field.

(Not that Glickman held this against Owens or Metcalf—as he says, he was the only White member of the track team to attend Owens' funeral.)

[preakness]

Spend absolutely zero seconds on Ian Thomas

Do a segment on which college has the hottest cheerleaders (Oregon and USC are easily 1-2 but ASU might crack top 10)

[hairysasquatch]

Originally Posted by preakness

Spend absolutely zero seconds on Ian Thomas

Do a segment on which college has the hottest cheerleaders (Oregon and USC are easily 1-2 but ASU might crack top 10)

Bring in Preakness for a guest lecture on Illinois football.

[Skipscards]

I would have loved your class back in school. I took a History of Baseball course in college and we took a trip to Cooperstown.

Some random ideas…Check out the Battered Bastards of Baseball on Netflix. Great story that really speaks to the monopolistic nature of pro sports.

Read Lords Of The Realm by John Helyar. That book could be your class.

Rickey Henderson never cashed his first Million Dollar Bonus check. Instead, he framed it and put it on his wall.

The story of how the major sports handled the JFK assassination.

Tons of stories about military service. Ted Williams in particular. He flew 37 combat missions in Korea and most were in the same squadron as Astronaut John Glenn.

The story of the AAGBL is pretty amazing. As is the Negro Leagues and the rise and fall of the Federal League.

Miracle on Ice with amateur Hockey Players.

Anyway, have fun!

[gresh87]

I would encourage them to look for recent trends in sports.

How have analytics transformed the games? What does it mean? Where does it go from here?

How did the so-called "player empowerment" era begin? Who were the pioneers? What are the pros/cons? What does this mean for the future of the sport?

[seanbros55]

The Fried Chicken and Beer Red Sox Meltdown of 2011 as a lesson on how important clubhouse culture/leadership is.

[roush16racing]

Don't forget to mention grown men wearing jorts, flip flops, NBA jerseys etc waiting in line the night before to purchase trading cards at Target, and then beating each other up. Just kidding, but good luck in your new venture.

[JeremyNick]

Definitely include the story of Bull Nunn. A journalist whose reporting on HBCUs led the Steelers to sign him as a scout. He ultimately became a key piece of the greatest single team draft in pro sports history, the Steelers 1972 draft - selecting 4 HOFers in the first 5 rounds.

He opened the door to scouting of HBCUs with his success as a Steelers scout.
Good book on him is “The Color of Sundays”.

[StateEx]

Put "Summer of '49" on the reading list!