History 368: Sport, Society, and American Culture
Fall 2011
Instructor: Richard Kimball
2139 JFSB; phone 801-422-9277; richard_kimball@byu.edu
Office Hours: M/W, 10-10:50 AM; other times by appointment
Teaching Assistant: Kara Hansen
Required Texts:
Steven A. Riess, ed., Major Problems in American Sports History
Nancy L. Struna, People of Prowess: Sport, Leisure, and Labor in Early Anglo-America
Elliott J. Gorn, The Manly Art
Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Wait Till Next Year
All of the texts should be available at the BYU Bookstore
& through various on-line distributors
Course Description
This course examines the development of American sports in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries—how sports have shaped and been shaped by American culture. Gender, race, ethnicity,
and class will be our primary touchstones as we use sports as a lens to understand the American
past. We will be less concerned with how many championships the Boston Celtics have won and
more interested in questions that speak to larger issues in American history: sports and the
development of American national identity; how sport informs ideas of masculinity and femininity;
the impact of industrialization and urbanization on sporting culture; the creation of sports “heroes”;
and how race and racism have shaped sports and society. The professionalization of sports and the
change from amateur games to big business will also be considered. Fandom, franchise mobility,
and the corrosive relationship between sports and higher education will likewise be treated in
depth. The course is built around lectures, films, and class discussion. Excellent monographs and
primary sources will provide the fodder for our discussions. Significant reading and rigorous
analysis are expected.
Attendance:
Regardless of your personal attendance habits, you will be held responsible for all material
covered in the class including lectures, discussions, and films. Missed lecture notes will not be
made available. Please obtain them from another class member (who knows, you just might meet
that special someone!).
Grading:
In a perfect world, the love of learning would be enough to get us through the semester.
On this campus, however, grades are required. To satisfy the powers that be, you will be required
to submit (and I will be required to grade) the following:
Daily Questions (30 @ 2.5 pts. each)
Book Captures (People of Prowess; Manly Art;
Baseball’s Great Experiment) [20 pts. each]
Book Review (The Manly Art)
Prospectus for Photo Research Essay
Photo Research Essay
Midterm Exam
Final Exam
TOTAL
75 pts.
60 pts.
40 pts.
25 pts.
100 pts.
100 pts.
100 pts.
500 pts.
All assignments are due at the beginning of class. They will often provide material for
discussion that day. Late papers (except for daily questions) will be penalized 10% for each day
(not class day) that the assignment is late. More information will be given for each assignment as
the term progresses.
Thirty times during the semester, you need to prepare a response to that day’s reading
assignment. These response papers should include: 1) summary of the content of the reading
selection in two or three well-crafted sentences; 2) completion of the sentence “I’m still not sure
about . . .” or “I would like to discuss this/these questions in class . . . “; 3) note what percentage of
the readings you completed (“I read 14% of today’s assignment”). Reading responses are due at
the beginning of class and CANNOT BE TURNED IN LATE (another good reason to come to
class!). This rewards those who complete the reading and attend class.
Grades in this course will not be curved. You will receive what you earn—to your delight or
chagrin. It just seems more democratic that way. Final grades will be determined according to the
standard scale:
100% - 93%
A
76% - 73%
C
92% - 90%
A-
72% - 70%
C-
89% - 87%
B+
69% - 67%
D+
86% - 83%
B
66% - 63%
D
82% - 80%
B-
62% - 60%
D-
79% - 77%
C+
59% and below
E
A
Some Words of Wisdom
While all students sign the honor code, there are still specific skills most students need to
master over time in order to correctly cite sources, especially in this age of the internet. Please know
that I will notice instances of plagiarizing in papers. Don’t plagiarize. Just don’t. If you plagiarize, you
fail the course. See http://saas.byu.edu/catalog/2011-2012ucat/GeneralInfo/AcademicHonesty.php for
specific examples of intentional and inadvertent plagiarism, as well as issues of fabrication and
falsification.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination against any
participant in an educational program or activity that receives federal funds. The act is intended to
eliminate sex discrimination in education. Title IX covers discrimination in programs, admissions,
activities, and student-to-student sexual harassment. BYU’s policy against sexual harassment extends
not only to employees of the university but to students as well. If you encounter unlawful sexual
harassment or gender-based discrimination, please talk to me; contact the Equal Employment Office at
801-422-5895 or 801-367-5689 (24 hours); or contact the Honor Code Office at 801-422-2847.
Brigham Young University is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere
which reasonably accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have any disability which
may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, please contact the University
Accessibility Center (801-422-2767). Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all
students who have qualified documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with the student and
instructor by the UAC office. If you need assistance or if you feel you have been unlawfully
discriminated against on the basis of disability, you may seek resolution through established grievance
policy and procedures. You should contact the Equal Employment Office at 801-422-5895, D-282
ASB.
Each program at BYU has developed a set of expected student learning outcomes. These will
help you understand the objectives of the curriculum in the program, including this class. To learn the
expected student outcomes for the programs in this department and college go to
http://learningoutcomes.byu.edu and click on the College of Family, Home and Social Sciences and
then this department. We welcome feedback on the expected student learning outcomes. Any
comments or suggestions you have can be sent to FHSS@byu.edu.
CLASS SCHEDULE
DATE
Aug 29
Aug 31
Sept 2
TOPIC
Getting to Know You . . .
What Is Sports?
Horse Racing & Cock
Fighting
Sept 5
Sept 7
Sept 9
No Class, Labor Day
Discussion
Discussion
People of Prowess, 1-50.
People of Prowess, 51-118.
Sept 12
Sept 14
Sept 16
Discussion
Traditional Sports
Modern Sports
People of Prowess, 119-98.
Major Problems, Chapter 3
Major Problems, Chapter 4
Sept 19
Sept 21
Sept 23
Discussion
Discussion
Discussion
Manly Art, 11-68.
Manly Art, 69-147.
Manly Art, 148-206.
Sept 26
Sept 28
Sept 30
Discussion
Sport & Higher Ed
Sport in Industrial City
Manly Art, 207-61.
Major Problems, Chapter 5
Major Problems, Chapter 6
Oct 3
Muscular Mormonism
“Muscular Mormonism” (Blackboard)
Oct 5
Oct 7
Sports & Class
Sports Go Pro
Major Problems, Chapter 7
Major Problems, Chapter 8
Oct 10
Sports & Gender
Oct 12
Women Contesting
Major Problems, Chapter 9 (NOT
“Manliness in the Squared Circle”) &
Cahn, “Introduction” & “Games of
Strife” (Blackboard)
Cahn, “’Cinderellas of Sport,” &
“Beauty & the Butch” &
“Play It, Don’t Say It” (Blackboard)
Oct 14
MIDTERM EXAM
Oct 17
Oct 19
Race & Ethnicity
The Life & Times of Hank
Greenberg
“To Show What an Indian
Do”
Oct 21
READING
Major Problems, Chapter 1
Major Problems, Chapter 2 (NOT
Struna, “Sporting Life in Puritan
America”) & Geertz, “Notes on a
Balinese Cockfight” (Blackboard)
Major Problems, Chapter 10
Benjamin G. Rader, “’The Greatest
Drama in Indian Life’: Experiments in
Native American Identity and
Resistance at the Haskell Institute
Homecoming of 1926” (Blackboard)
PEOPLE OF
PROWESS
CAPTURE DUE
MANLY ART
CAPTURE DUE
BOOK REVIEW
DUE
PROSPECTUS
DUE
Oct 24
Oct 26
Unforgivable Blackness
Black Sox Scandal
Oct 28
Heroes & 1920s
Oct 31
Shadowball
Nov 2
Discussion
Nov 4
Discussion
Nov 7
Nov 9
The Jackie Robinson Story
Discussion
Nov 11
Sports & Gender in 20th
Century
Nov 14
Title IX
Nov 16
Nov 18
Muhammad & Media
When We Were Kings
Nov 21
Black Power on Campus
Demas, “Beat the Devil Out of BYU”
(Blackboard)
Nov 28
Nov 30
Dec 2
Business of Sport
Field Trip
Sports & Students
Major Problems, Chapter 14
Details to be announced
Sperber, Beer & Circus, Chapters 3 ,
7, 16, 18-20 (Blackboard)
Dec 5
Sports & Higher Ed
Dec 7
Putting It All Together
Wetzel, Peter, and Passan, Death to
BCS, Chapters 3, 4, 5 (Blackboard)
Goodwin, Wait Till Next Year (all)
MONDAY,
Dec 12,
2:30-5:30
Final Exam (as scheduled by
the university)
Daniel Nathan, “History’s First Draft:
News, Narrative, and the Black Sox
Scandal” (Blackboard)
Major Problems, Chapter 11
Neil Lanctot, “Life Inside a Changing
Industry” (Blackboard)
Baseball’s Great Experiment,
Chapters 1-5.
Baseball’s Great Experiment,
Chapters 6-9.
Baseball’s Great Experiment,
Chapters 10-12, 15, 17, Afterword.
Major Problems, Chapter 12
Welch Suggs, A Place on the Team,
chapters 9-12 (Blackboard)
Major Problems, Chapter 13
BASEBALL’S
GREAT
EXPERIMENT
CAPTURE DUE
PHOTO
RESEARCH
ESSAY DUE
PM
AS ALWAYS, THIS SYLLABUS IS LIABLE TO CHANGE. APPROPRIATE (AND BINDING) ANNOUNCEMENTS WILL
BE MADE PERIODICALLY THROUGHOUT THE TERM. STAY TUNED.