American History through American Sports

Volume 1: Creating Sports Culture: Beginnings



Section One - Critical Issues

1. America Plays: Sports in Colonial Times - Russ Crawford

2. Holy Cow! How the Advent of Early Sports Broadcasting Dramatically Changed How Professional Sports Teams in the United States Are Marketed - Ric Jensen

3. Sports as Spectacle: Early Athletes as Popular Culture Icons - Ray Gamache

4. Professional Sports: Big Money and Sports as an Industry - Brad Schultz

5. Cables, Speakers, and Screens: The Development of Technology in Sports Broadcasting - Alex Kupfer



Section Two - The Big Four

6. Four Yards and a Cloud of Dust: The Greatest Running Back in Football History - Kaitlin Krister

7. Baseball: The Nation's First National Pastime - Adam G. Capitanio

8. Jackie Robinson: The Patron Saint of American Sports - Leslie Heaphy

9. The Yankee Dynasty - Donna Waller Harper

10. The Babe: Reconsidering America's First Sports Legend - Gina Anne Conley

11. A Concise History of Early Baseball - Scott Reinardy

12. Cobb's Ghost: An Argument for Baseball's Greatest Hitter - Lori Amber Roessner

13. Organized Chaos: The Early History of Professional Basketball -- Jim Fisher

14. Soccer on the Pond: Hockey's Role in Young America - Melanie Formentin



Section Three - Outside the Lines

15. Soccer Means Football Here: Why the World's Game Never Made it to the US - Glen M.E. Duerr

16. Fight Night: Boxing's Popularity in the Early Twentieth Century - Joe Marren

17. Reintroducing the Olympics: Making Track and Field Relevant - Ben Dettmar

18. The Tobacco Spittin', Moonshine Runnin' History of Early NASCAR - William Matthew McCarter

19. Gentlemen, Start Your Engines: Early American Automobile Racing - Norma Jones

20. Mountain Bike: Californians Reinvent Bicycling - Frédéric Savre



Volume 2: Sports at the Center of Popular Culture: The Television Age



Section One - Critical Issues

1. ESPN: Television Transforms Sports Culture - Patrick Sutherland

2. Spectacle: Creating Sports Icons in a Media-Saturated World - Leigh H. Edwards

3. Marvel Comics' Sports Comics in the first half of the 1990s - Rob G. Weiner

4. It's About the Shoe: Nike and the Endless Sneaker Wars - Yuya Kiuchi

5. Defense Wins Championships: Sports Philosophies and Folk Wisdom - Patrick Mayock

6. It's in the Game: The History of Sports Video Games - Andrew Baerg



Section Two - The Big Four

7. The Super in the Super Bowl - Michael Mooradian Lupro

8. Bowled Over: The BCS and the Ongoing National Champion Controversy - Chris Sweeney

9. My NFL: The Fantasy Football Craze - Jesse James Draper

10. More Than the Crack of the Bat: "Walk-on Music" and Popular Music in Major League Baseball - Mathew Bartkowiak and Yuya Kiuchi

11. Visualizing the National Pastime: Lew Fonseca and the Birth of the MLB Film Bureau - Andrew G. Harrington

12. Greg Maddux as Genius and the Sublimated Homosexual Desire of American Baseball Fans - Josef Benson

13. Saving the NBA: Bird, Magic, and Jordan Rescue Professional Basketball - Justin D. Garcia

14. The Great One: Wayne Gretzky's Enduring Legacy - Peter Fontana



Section Three - Outside the Lines

15. Soccer Moms and Football Dads: Sports and the Daily Life of American Youth - Jana Mathews

16. When Pele was King: The rise and fall of the North American Soccer League - Glen .E. Duerr

17. Professional Wrestling: Creating America's Fight Culture - Eero Laine

18. The Gold: The Olympics in the Modern Age - Stephan Wassong

19. Tiny Dancers: Olympic Gymnastics Captivates the World - Axel Kupfer and Stephan Wassong

20. Rubbing is Racing: The New Nascar - P. Huston Ladner

21. Boogity, Boogity, Boogity, Let's Go Racing...Girls? Female NASCAR Drivers - Norma Jones

22. The Intimidator and Junior: The Legacy of the Earnhardts - P. Huston Ladner



Volume 3: Sports in a Digital Age



Section One - Critical Issues

1. Wired: Sports and the Digital Age - Steve Fox

2. Social Media: Athletes, Teams, and Fans Collide Online - Randall W. Monty

3. Social Media, Spaghetti Westerns, and Modern Spectator Sports - Nicholas David Bowman

4. Doping: Deviant Behavior and the Consequences of Drugs in Professional Baseball - Salvador Murguia

5. The Demise of Amateur Sports: College Athletes in the Modern Age - Alexandra Dellas

6. Out of Bounds: Professional Athletes, New Media, and Violence Against Women in the Twenty-First Century - Natalie Carter



Section Two - The Big Four

7. All Football All the Time: The Role of Media in the Rise of NFL Fanaticism - Gordon Gibb

8. The World's Game?: Baseball and Globalization - Craig Greenham

9. Why I Hate the Yankees - Gary Gershman

10. LeBron James, ESPN, and 'The Decision' - Gordon Gibb

11. The World Catches Up: Basketball as a Global Game - Martin J. Manning

12. Banking on "Sid The Kid" and "Alex The Great"-The National Hockey League Turns to Two Young Stars As Its Saviors - Ric Jensen

13. Do We Still Play on Ice: The NHL's Warm Weather Movement - Stephen P. Andon

14. The Great Outdoor Game: NHL Finally Gets Marketing Right - Melanie Formentin



Section Three - Outside the Lines

15. "Beckhamania:" David Beckham's Evolution from Skilled Athlete to Global Superstar - Danielle Sarver Coombs

16. Don't Tread on Me: Soccer in the USA - Danielle Sarver Coombs

17. Reopening the Curtain on Rugby in America - Ray Schuck

18. Digital Sports Fans, Lance Armstrong, and Virtual Communities - Andrew R. Meyer

19. Pushing the Limits: Ultra-marathons, Ironman, and the Modern Athlete - Matt Mihalka

20. In the Octagon(TM): Mixed Martial Arts Comes to Life - Miles Adam Park

21. Adrenaline Rush in a Bottle! The Growth and Mainstreaming of Extreme Sports - Norma Jones