photo from athletesinaction.org
Here you will find selections with a more academic leaning or curated around specifics sport-related topics.
Cheated by
In 2010 allegations of an utterly corrupt academic system for student-athletes emerged from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, home of the legendary Tar Heels. As the alma mater of Michael Jordan, Larry Brown, Marion Jones, Lawrence Taylor, Rashad McCants, and many others; winner of forty national championships in six different sports; and a partner in one of the best rivalries in sports, UNC-Chapel Hill is a world-famous colossus of college athletics. In the wake of the Wainstein report, however, the fallout from this scandal--and the continuing spotlight on the failings of college athletics--has made the school ground zero in the debate about how the $16 billion college sports industry operates. Written by UNC professor of history Jay Smith and UNC athletics department whistleblower Mary Willingham, Cheated exposes the fraudulent inner workings of this famous university. For decades these internal systems have allowed woefully underprepared basketball and football players to take fake courses and earn devalued degrees from one of the nation's top universities while faculty and administrators looked the other way. In unbiased and carefully sourced detail, Cheated recounts the academic fraud in UNC's athletics department, even as university leaders focused on minimizing the damage in order to keep the billion-dollar college sports revenue machine functioning. Smith and Willingham make an impassioned argument that the "student-athletes" in these programs are being cheated out of what, after all, is promised them in the first place: a college education.
Economics of College Sports by
Operating behind a veil of amateurism, the NCAA and collegiate athletic departments oversee big business sports programs. These entities generate revenues comparable to professional sports, practice and play in facilities that rival those found in professional sports, and pay their top coaches salaries comparable to the salaries paid to coaches of professional sports teams. Athletes are courted with lavish stadiums, training facilities, and locker rooms. Customers are wooed with branded apparel, videos, logos, and advertisements. Business interests are captured with stadium billboards, electronic ads on scoreboards, sponsorship of bowl games, logos on uniforms, and exclusive apparel and equipment contracts. Where do, or should, these lucrative athletic ventures fit in the mission of higher education? To what extent is the central mission of creating an environment for learning and extending the frontiers of knowledge enhanced or limited by college sports? Are declarations by the NCAA to promote amateurism and competitive balance supportive of the university mission? Does the NCAA even follow its purported objectives? The Economics of College Sports contains both empirical and theoretical research to address these and related issues. Perhaps the most unique contributions focus on the interactions between legal and institutional aspects of the NCAA and their impact on the objectives and goals of university education; all of the contributions provide insights that will generate significant discussion about the policies necessary to sustain the vitality and integrity of the university education-sports coalition.
The New Plantation by
The New Plantation examines the controversial relationship between predominantly White NCAA Division I Institutions (PWI s) and black athletes, utilizing an internal colonial model. It provides a much-needed in-depth analysis to fully comprehend the magnitude of the forces at work that impact black athletes experiences at PWI s. Hawkins provides a conceptual framework for understanding the structural arrangements of PWI s and how they present challenges to Black athletes academic success; yet, challenges some have overcome and gone on to successful careers, while many have succumbed to these prevailing structural arrangements and have not benefited accordingly. The work is a call for academic reform, collective accountability from the communities that bear the burden of nurturing this athletic talent and the institutions that benefit from it, and collective consciousness to the Black male athletes that make of the largest percentage of athletes who generate the most revenue for the NCAA and its member institutions. Its hope is to promote a balanced exchange in the athletic services rendered and the educational services received.
A New Season by
This book demonstrates how colleges might retain threatened varsity programs and expand sports opportunities for women students if they replaced the current commercial model with one that emphasizes student participation. This would benefit the college students who play varsity sports, instead of benefiting the coaches, athletic directors, or over-generous boosters who dominate many programs. In Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, schools have been handed a golden opportunity to bring fiscal sanity and academic integrity back to their campuses by once again making students, and not money, the focal point of athletic policies. This book demonstrates how colleges might retain threatened varsity programs and expand sports opportunities for women students if they replace the current commercial model with one that emphasizes student participation. This would benefit the college students who play varsity sports, instead of benefiting the coaches, athletic directors, or over-generous boosters who dominate many programs. Reformist tinkering has done little to solve the deep-seated problems plaguing college sports. Porto argues that replacing the enormous commercial pressures corrupting college sports with a student-oriented participation model can solve these problems. Fiscal sanity, academic integrity, personal responsibility, and gender equity in college sports are possible. Faculty members can lead a broader movement to reclaim their institutions from the college sports industry. This book shows how college sports may once again be the integral part of the educational program the NCAA advertises them to be_and that they should be.
Unpaid Professionals by
Brief historical overview and the experience of Black athletes and students at predominantly White institutions : a mind is a terrible thing to waste -- The new plantation model : a conceptual framework for diagnosing the experiences of Black athletes at predominantly White NCAA division I institutions -- Intellectually inferior and physically superior : racist ideologies and the Black athlete -- Operating in the "black" financially : on the back of the Black athletic body -- The Black athlete's racialized experiences and the predominantly White intercollegiate institution -- The sociocultural environment of predominantly White NCAA institutions : the Black athlete as oscillating migrant laborers -- Politics and the Black athletic experience -- Friday night lights : a dream deferred or delusions of grandeur -- Athletic reform and decolonization.
College Sports Inc by
​For several decades in America, athletic programs in colleges and universities received financial support and resources primarily from their respective schools and such sources as alumni and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). More recently, however, college coaches assigned to athletic departments and the presidents and marketing or public relations officials of schools organize, initiate, and participate in fund-raising campaigns and thus obtain a portion of revenue for their sports programs from local, regional and national businesses, and from other private donors, groups, and organizations. Because of this inflow of assets and financial capital, intercollegiate athletic budgets and types of sports expanded and in turn, these programs became increasingly important, popular, and reputable as revenue and cost centers within American schools of higher education.​​
Hawaii Sports by 
Indian Games and Dances with Native Songs by 
Japanese Sports by 
The Economics of Professional Team Sports by
This book is unique in that it offers the first truly rigorous application of economic principles to its subject. The authors analyse:* the economic literature on sporting leagues* the demand for professional team sports* the players' labour market.Amongst the topics discussed are the US system of franchising and draft picks and the chances of thei
How You Play the Game by 
Public Dollars, Private Stadiums by 
Sports Geography by 
Sports by
What are the different sports and games that are played all around the world?
Sports by
Sports is a comprehensive reference to 125 amateur and professional sports, featuring classic Olympic athletic events (track and field, aquatics, gymnastics, combat sports, and equestrian events), as well as team, individual and motor sports (boxing, hockey, tennis, skiing, soccer, basketball, and Formula 1). With one thousand annotated illustrations and four hundred color photographs, this book explains the games' history, rules, strategies, facilities and equipment. In addition, there are highlights of the greatest players from the past and present, analyses of changes in technology and comparisons of performance over the years. The presentation of the information is fascinating for browsers and fans. How big is a soccer pitch? What are the four types of tennis court surface? How do you throw the hammer? It is all here, plus three indices (terms, symbols and illustrations). Athlete profiles that list physical and mental requirements for each sport are invaluable guides for young athletes choosing a sport. For a full table of contents and sample page spreads, visit: fireflybooks.com/books/sports.html
Sports Firsts by 
Playing to Win by
Traces the development of U.S. military sports and explains how and why the American armed forces embraced sports as a crucial part of training and entertainment for the men (and ultimately women) in uniform. This book explains how and why the American armed forces embraced sports as a critical part of training and as entertainment for the men -- and, eventually, women -- in uniform. The author traces the development of military sports from the Spanish-American War through the end of World War II and shows how they became an integral part of military culture. Wakefield uses the military's sports program to explore issues of power, masculinity, and race as they were expressed and reinforced through athletic competitions and demonstrates how they strengthened hierarchical relationships. She also shows how the armed forces attempted to use sports to further national interests on the diplomatic front and to reduce racial and sexual tension. In addition, Wakefield argues for the interpenetration of the worlds of sports and war, showing how sports metaphors were used to masculinize the military enterprise and maintain morale. Wartime propelled interest in sports, and sports helped to maintain patriotism and gender identity among the troops. The book makes the case that the size and scope of the military's efforts to draw all soldiers and sailors into sports reflect the extent to which competitive athletics in the twentieth century have come to represent a means for advancing not only war but peace. "...Wakefield's work gives historical depth to the demarcation of sports and war as a distinctly male domain, showing how sports serve the interests of war and how war illustrates the themes ofsports". -- Michael S. Kimmel, co-author of Men's Lives: Readings in the Sociology of Masculinity
The Sports Rules Book by
From alpine skiing to wrestling, and all sports in between, The Sports Rules Book is an all-inclusive resource covering 54 sports. Quickly glean information on each sport's origin and history, basic procedures, terminology, equipment, competitive playing areas, scoring systems, player positions and primary features, common rule violations and their consequences, and, where applicable, officials' signals. The Sports Rules Book is your guide to understanding all the athletic activities we compete in and enjoy.
The Swimsuit Issue and Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity and Sports Illustrated (Suny Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations) by
Explores the cultural meanings of the swimsuit issue and shows how Sports Illustrated secures a large audience of men by creating a climate of hegemonic masculinity. "The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is the cultural keystone of what is worst about male-dominated sport media. This book is the most systematic treatment of the SI swimsuit issue to date, and it reveals some of the ways that sexism, racism, heterosexism, and Western ethnocentrism have been woven into the cultural fabric of menis sports. But it is more than an analysis of SI. Davis unfurls cutting-edge critical analysis of media through this ostensible exercise in the study of a sport magazine issue. The book is a fine example of the explanatory power of feminist analysis that takes other multiple systems of domination into account; i.e., race, ethnicity, nationalism, and sexual orientation". -- Don Sabo, coauthor of Sex, Violence, and Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity This cultural study of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue shows how it encourages individual and institutional practices that create and maintain inequality. Laurel Davis illustrates how the interactions of media production, media texts, media consumption, and social context influence meaning, and how individual's reactions and interpretations are influenced by their views about gender and sexuality, views that have been shaped by their personal social experiences. Based on extensive interviews with Sports Illustrated consumers, producers, editors, and models, as well as the author's analysis of every swimsuit issue from the first in 1964 to those of the 1990s, it argues that Sports Illustrated uses the swimsuit issue to secure a large maleaudience by creating a climate of dominant masculinity that tramples women, gays and lesbians, people of color, and people from the postcolonialized world on the way to the bank.
Women's Sports by 
Women of Sports by
An introduction to women's track and field is followed by a brief history which focuses on some of the sport's past stars and pioneers. Each of eight chapters features an athlete with information on her early on her early life, how she got to where she is today, her athletic accomplishments, quotes from her and about her, a tip or playing technique, statistical charts, and, most important, a defining moment in her athletic career. Featured athletes are Sally Barsosio, Gaff Devers, Stacy Dragila, Cathy Freeman, Emma George, Marion Jones, Inger Miller, and Angela Williams. The final chapter of the book will look at the future of the sport and identify some up-and-coming stars.
Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States by
An examination of the sporting experience of Native Americans, African Americans and the immigrant groups of the USA from colonial times to the present. It includes entries on racial and ethnic groups, ethnic sports, mainstream sports, ethnic and racial institutions and famous sports figures.
Benching Jim Crow by
Chronicling the uneven rise and slow decline of segregation in American college athletics, Charles H. Martin shows how southern colleges imposed their policies of racial exclusion on surprisingly compliant northern teams and explains the social forces that eventually forced these southern schools to accept integrated competition. Martin emphasizes not just the racism prevalent in football and basketball in the South, but the effects of this discrimination for colleges and universities all over the country. Southern teams such as the University of Alabama, University of Mississippi, and the University of North Carolina were obsessed with national recognition, but their Jim Crow policies prevented them for many years from playing against racially mixed teams from other parts of the country. Devoting special attention to the Southeastern Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and teams in Texas, Martin explores the changing social attitudes and culture of competition that turned the tide and allowed for the recruitment of black players and hiring of black coaches. He takes a close look at the case of Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso), the first major white university in an ex-Confederate state to recruit African American athletes extensively. Martin skillfully weaves existing arguments and documentation on the integration of college sports with wide-ranging, original research, including previously unpublished papers and correspondence of college administrators and athletic directors uncovered in university archives.
Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols by
On the court and on the field, they are the worlds winners, exhibiting a natural grace and prowess their adoring fans can only dream about. Yet so often, when off the field, our sports heroes lose: their perspective, their balance, their place. In a work as timely as the latest fracas on the basketball court or the most recent drug-induced scandal in the dugout, Stanley H. Teitelbaum looks into the circumstances behind so many star athletes precipitous fall from grace. Why, he asks, do these sports heroes who seem to have it all also seem, increasingly, to have a superhuman proclivity for self-destruction?
Game of Shadows by
In the summer of 1998 two of baseball leading sluggers, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, embarked on a race to break Babe Ruth¿s single season home run record. The nation was transfixed as Sosa went on to hit 66 home runs, and McGwire 70. Three years later, San Francisco Giants All-Star Barry Bonds surpassed McGwire by 3 home runs in the midst of what was perhaps the greatest offensive display in baseball history. Over the next three seasons, as Bonds regularly launched mammoth shots into the San Francisco Bay, baseball players across the country were hitting home runs at unprecedented rates. For years there had been rumors that perhaps some of these players owed their success to steroids. But crowd pleasing homers were big business, and sportswriters, fans, and officials alike simply turned a blind eye. Then, in December of 2004, after more than a year of investigation, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the story that in a federal investigation of a nutritional supplement company called BALCO, Yankees slugger Jason Giambi had admitted taking steroids. Barry Bonds was also implicated. Immediately the issue of steroids became front page news. The revelations led to Congressional hearings on baseball¿s drug problems and continued to drive the effort to purge the U.S. Olympic movement of drug cheats. Now Fainaru-Wada and Williams expose for the first time the secrets of the BALCO investigation that has turned the sports world upside down.
Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroid Scandal That Rocked Professional by award-winning investigative journalists Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, is a riveting narrative about the biggest doping scandal in the history of sports, and how baseball¿s home run king, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, came to use steroids. Drawing on more than two years of reporting, including interviews with hundreds of people, and exclusive access to secret grand jury testimony, confidential documents, audio recordings, and more, the authors provide, for the first time, a definitive account of the shocking steroids scandal that made headlines across the country.
Key Concepts in Sports Studies by
Written by experienced academics used to teaching the subject this book will help students and researchers find their way within the diverse field of sport studies. Clear, well researched entries explain the key concepts in the debates surrounding the social significance and social dynamics of sport. Each entry provides: * Clear Definitions * Relevant Examples * Up-to-date Suggestions for Further Reading * Informative Cross-Referencing Valuable in its parts and indispensable as a whole this book will provide a stimulating, practical guide to the relationship between sport and society. Stephen Wagg is Professor of Sport and Society at Leeds Metropolitan University. Carlton Brick lectures in the School of Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley. Belinda Wheaton is a Senior Research Fellow in the Chelsea School, University of Brighton. Jayne Caudwell is a Senior Lecturer in the Chelsea School, University of Brighton.
Exploring the World of Sports: Linking Fiction to Nonfiction by
Motivate students to read by using a topic they love-sports-and extend learning across the curriculum Discussion starters, multidisciplinary activities, and topics for further research follow each reading suggestions. Perry describes subject-specific fiction and nonfiction materials that help students make the transition from fiction to expository text. There are also additional print and nonprint sources. Grades K-5.
Go Figure! by