The San Francisco 49ers have one of the best records in NFL history, with 20 division championships, seven conference titles, and five Super Bowl championships. On a team with outstanding talent each year, who among its past and present players could be ranked as the 50 greatest? Who would occupy the coveted #1 spot? Jerry Rice? Ronnie Lott? Joe ......
How Tom Matte's Memorable 1965 Season Highlighted a Remarkable NFL Caree
An intimate look at the career of Baltimore Colts' running back Tom Matte and his infamous stint as an emergency quarterback. In 1965, Colts' running back Tom Matte became the first emergency quarterback in NFL history when both the legendary Johnny Unitas and his backup were hurt in consecutive weeks late in the season. Wearing a wristband to ......
The tales of early ESPN people who gambled their careers while critics carped that "all-sports television will never work" are full of guile, luck, fear, fun, and unbridled optimism. As ESPN's founding executive producer, Peter Fox was privy to some spectacular professional efforts by a cadre of Connecticut locals who made the dream real. The ......
The product of a hardscrabble childhood, J. Mayo "Ink" Williams parlayed an Ivy League education into unlikely twin careers as a foundational producer of Black music and pioneering Black player in the early NFL. Clifford R. Murphy tells the story of an ambitious, upwardly mobile life affected, but never daunted, by white society's racism or the ......
The product of a hardscrabble childhood, J. Mayo "Ink" Williams parlayed an Ivy League education into unlikely twin careers as a foundational producer of Black music and pioneering Black player in the early NFL. Clifford R. Murphy tells the story of an ambitious, upwardly mobile life affected, but never daunted, by white society's racism or the ......
A fascinating look at the rise of the SEC from a regional league to today's dominant college football conference. The story of the Southeastern Conference has humble origins. Born in a Knoxville hotel in 1932 after splitting away from another league, the SEC was built by southern gridiron pioneers who believed football could bring prominence and ......
Sport often mirrored the racial climate of the time, but it also informed and encouraged equality on and off the field. In Boston, the Black athletic body historically represented a challenge to the city's liberal image. Boston's Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism interprets Boston's contested racial history through the diverse ......
Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport explores the historical role of sport in the prescription for mental and physical health through the epidemic of neurasthenia, a debilitating neurological disorder that afflicted American society throughout the latter nineteenth century. Gerald R. Gems argues that the practice of sport and sport ......
A timely exploration of modern women's boxing, from its first inclusion in the 2012 Olympics to today, featuring such trailblazers as Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, Claressa Shields, and more. On April 30th, 2022, the first boxing super-fight of the era, headlined by two women and fought at Madison Square Garden, lived up to its hype and then ......