sports

The Dodgers Were Right to Honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

by Lily Lucas Hodges

Catholic groups charged that the LGBTQ group mocked their faith with their appropriation of nuns' dress. But the group more importantly defied Catholic teaching to promote life-saving health care and education about sexuality at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. 

Lady Vols Country

by Jessica Wilkerson

The author remembers Pat Summitt's championship women's basketball teams at the University of Tennessee as a demonstration of how sports "encompass a battleground for determining how gender manifests in the world, how women and girls can use their bodies, and who can access self-determination."

Sports Historian Victoria Jackson: Trans Bans in Sports Part of History of Suspicion toward Women's Sports

Recent state laws regulating the participation of transgender athletes in girls' sports are part of a long history of policing gender in athletics. 

FBI Releases Bill Russell's File, Which Includes Allegation of Betting Against Own Team

The Bureau's file on the late NBA star demonstrates their suspicion of the civil rights movement and disdain for politically engaged Black athletes. It also contains a memo alleging Russell placed a significant wager against the Celtics as player-coach, although many known facts and lack of follow-up make that allegation doubtful. 

New York State Faces Local Backlash for Ban on Native Team Names

New York's state Board of Regents estimates that 60 school districts still use Native-related nicknames or iconography. Under new policies, those schools would lose funding if they don't change the names. 

Historian's Book on 1970s NBA Shows Racial Politics around Basketball Have Always Been Ugly

by Jay Caspian Kang

The decade saw Black players become dominant in the league and assert their rights as skilled workers. Owners pushed back through the media, smearing the players as entitled drug abusers, as historian Theresa Runstedtler's new book explains. 

The NBA Embraced Blackness in the 1970s—Moral Panic Ensued

Theresa Runstedtler looks at the NBA's key transitional decade as a time when Black players didn't simply change the style of play but demanded fair treatment for the value created by their skilled labor, following the ethos of civil rights and Black Power. 

Medical Historians: We've Been Taught to Forget What We Used to Know about Head Injuries in Sports

Stephen Casper, Emily Harrison and Jeremy Greene argue that league-affiliated researchers who claim the jury is out about whether head injuries in competition contribute to long-term cognitive and mental deterioration are ignoring a long archive of medical studies that solidifies the link. 

Why Did it Take Until 2023 for Two Black QB's to Start the Super Bowl?

by Kate Aguilar

While Patrick Mahomes bested Jalen Hurts in Sunday's Super Bowl, historically the game signified the slow eclipse of prejudices keeping Black players from the all-important quarterback position.

Why Won't Her College Honor "Queen of Basketball" by Renaming its Arena?

Luisa Harris didn't just lead the Delta State Lady Statesmen to three consecutive championships in the early 1970s. She helped integrate the basketball program and the college. Is that the reason why her name and image are so conspicuously absent today? 

The Qatar World Cup is History

by Laurent Dubois

The World Cup, more than any previous version, symbolizes the contradictions of the joy of play being entangled with nationalism, global capitalism, and repressive theocratic autocracy. 

Is Messi the Avatar of a Post-Macho Argentina?

by Brenda Elsey

Lionel Messi's tenure at the top of the soccer world has coincided with an upsurge of feminism in Argentina and its sports culture, changes Messi has quietly supported. 

Kyrie Irving Just the Latest Outspoken Athlete to Go Rogue

by Greg Kaliss

It's entirely fair for the Nets' guard to face criticism for his boosting of an antisemitic film, but the uproar carries the risk of silencing athletes who might otherwise use their public platforms for political advocacy. 

Despite Defeat, Iran's Footballers Won

by Golnar Nikpour

Iranian players' show of solidarity with protesters facing government repression has been more important than the results on the pitch. 

Eastern Europe Brought Soccer Into the Modern Age. Why is it a Wasteland Now?

A legacy of innovation spurred by Hungarian clubs in the 1930s and 1950s sustained high quality soccer in eastern Europe through the fall of communism, but changing economic and social currents have diminished the competitiveness of former eastern bloc countries in today's big-money game. 

Qatar Isn't The First Regime to Polish its Image With a World Cup

Despite "disappearing" 30,000 political opponents, FIFA allowed Argentina's military dicatorship to host the 1978 World Cup. 

Ora Washington was a Champion in the Segregated World of Tennis, But Died in Obscurity

Dominant in African American tennis (and basketball) competition, Washington never had the opportunity to test her ability against the champions of the white tennis establishment. 

Corporate America Copied the NFL's "Rooney Rule"—But Also its Lack of Enforcement

The NFL teams' agreement to interview minority candidates for coaching jobs always had a fault: nothing happened to teams who abused the process and interviewed candidates with no intention of hiring them. 

"Misogynoir" Exemplified in the Degradation of Black Women Athletes

by Donald Earl Collins

The treatment of basketball star Brittney Griner by Russian authorities (and the indifference to her case by many Americans) shows that Black women athletes still have to navigate a world of racism and sexism that diminishes their achievements and their security. 

National Archives Exhibition Challenges the Meritocratic, Democratic Myths of American Sports

Sports have long served as a means of inculcating the values of the dominant groups in American society, and sometimes to challenge them. The first sports-related exhibition at the National Archives Museum curates documents and artifacts to tell the story.