1
Coach Ted Leps
Email: tleps@bridgeportisd.net
Course description:
We examine the historical development of sports in the United States from a societal and cultural viewpoint. The course provides opportunity to examine the relationship between sports and nationalism, sports and politics, sports and the economy, sports and society change, sports and gender, and sports and American expansion.
Course contents include lecture, secondary readings, primary source readings, and film. We will examine the gradual development of an American sports culture and the changing attitudes towards sports. Emphasize will be given to early sports culture, including blood sports, and particularly to the creation and development of baseball, pugilism (boxing, college football, and basketball within the American context.
Knowledge of sports is not a prerequisite for the course.
This syllabus is subject to change.
Course outline, by week (Subject to change)
Introduction to the course, Colonial Sports Culture
Puritans and Sport
A.
“Puritans and Sport: The Irretrievable Tide of Change” Nancy Struna, Journal of Sport 4 1977 http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1977/JSH0401/jsh0401b.pdf
Excerpt from Ken Burn’s “Baseball” documentary
College Football
“ATHLETIC SPORTS” The Albion, A Journal of News, Politics and Literature (1822-1876); Apr 5, 1873
A.
“The Rise and Fall of the Flying Wedge: Football’s Most Controversial Play” Scott A.
McQuikin and Ronald A. Smith, Journal of Sports History 20 (Spring 1993) http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1993/JSH2001/jsh2001f.pdf
B.
“FOOTBALL UNFIT GAME SAYS PRESIDENT ELIOT” New York Times (1857-1922);
Feb 3, 1906
Football Reform
A.
“The Gridiron Crisis of 1905” John Watterson, Journal of Sport History 27 (Summer 2000) http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH2000/JSH2702/JSH2702f.pdf
B.
“THE NEW FOOTBALL” Walter Camp, Outing Magazine (1906-1911); Oct 1910; 57
C.
“YALE FROWNS UPON NEW FOOTBALL RULES” New York Times (1857-1922); May
22, 1910

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The Black Sox Scandal:
A.
“At the Nexus of Labor and Leisure: Baseball, Nativism, and the 1919 Black Sox Scandal”
Robin F. Bachin, Journal of Social History, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Summer, 2003), pp. 941-962
Golden Age of Baseball
A.
Babe Ruth http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/yeung/baberuth/home.html
look at section “In Sports”
Basketball, A Sport with a Purpose
A.
“Origin of the Game of Basket Ball” Sporting Life (1916) http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1916/VOL_66_NO_20/SL6620019.p
df
B.
Jews and Basketball http://www.jewishmag.com/45mag/basketball/basketball.htm
Women and the Rules of Sport
A.
Women and Basketball (and Bicycles) “American Women and Sport” Jane Curry and
Marjorie Bingham, OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 7, No. 1, History of Sport, Recreation, and
Leisure (Summer, 1992), pp. 39-49
Ali
A.
“The Importance of Muhammad Ali” Thomas Hauser http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/03_2010/historian5.php
Baseball and Race
A.
“The Negro Leagues” Jules Tygiel, OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 7 (Summer, 1992), pp. 24-
27
Women and Sports in Late-20 th Century (Essay due in class)
A.
“The Battle of the Sexes” Gail Collins http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/03_2010/historian2.php
B.
“The History of Women’s Baseball” Kerry Candaele http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/03_2010/historian7.php
NBA
Americans and Football Soccer
A.
“Review of Colin Jose, American Soccer Leap, 1921-31” in Journal of Sport History 27
(Summer 2000) http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH2000/JSH2702/JSH2702p.pdf
B.
“USA doesn’t deserve outcast status” Paul Gardner, Soccer America 2000 http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SoccerAmerica/2000/sa1450g.pdf
C.
“Why Soccer is not popular in the United States” http://www.helium.com/items/843027-why-soccer-is-not-so-popular-in-the-us-as-elsewhere
Final