Adam v. Eve

06/02/21 • 35 min

Adam v. Eve The story of the Women’s Sport Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s is really two stories—it is the story of women pushing for access in the American sports world; and it is the story of many men opposing their participation and pushing back. In “Adam v. Eve,” Professor Matt explores what happened when the Modern Feminist Movement and the masculine American sports culture collided. Bibliography: Amy Burfoot, First Ladies of Running: 22 Inspiring Profiles of the Rebels, Rule Breakers, and Visionaries Who Changed the Sport Forever (New York: Rodale, 2016). Jamie Schultz, Qualifying Times: Points of Change in U.S. Women’s Sport (Urban and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2014). Susan Ware, Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women’s Sports (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2011).

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The Russians Are Coming

The Russians Are Coming The Cold War was a military contest, a fight to secure economic markets, a race for scientific breakthroughs—and it was an athletic competition. Every four years, the Olympic Games provided an arena where American and Soviet athletes could meet and wage a battle for international supremacy. “The Russians are Coming” is the story of hotly contested medal counts, secret political defections, how heroes are made, and why you did the standing broad jump in elementary school. Bibliography: Susan Cahn, Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1994). David Goldblatt, The Games: A Global History of the Olympic Games (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2016).* Allen Guttmann, The Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984). Toby Rider, Cold War Games: Propaganda, the Olympics, and U.S. Foreign Policy (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2017). * Special mention to David Goldblatt and his line about getting “tased from a drone”...so good I had to steal it!

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Return of the Great White Hope

Return of the Great White Hope In the 1980s, many white Americans invested their emotions in a handful of white athletes—athletes both real and fictional. In the last episode of Season One, we explore the popularity of Larry Bird, Gerry Cooney, and Rocky Balboa in the 1980s—three “Great White Hopes” competing in professional sports that were dominated by black Americans. Bibliography: Todd Boyd, Young, Black, Rich, and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion, and the Transformation of American Culture (New York: Doubleday, 2003). J. Anthony Lukas, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families (New York: Vintage, 1985). Carlo Rotella, “The Stepping Stone: Larry Holmes, Gerry Cooney, and Rocky,” in Amy Bass, ed., In the Game: Race, Identity, and Sports in the Twentieth Century (New York:” Palgrave, 2005).