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Introduction

Robert Edelman is a professor of Russian history and the history of sport at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Serious Fun: A History of Spectator Sports in the USSR (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) and Spartak Moscow: the People’s Team in the Workers’ State (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009). He is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Sports History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) and is currently writing a global history of sport during the Cold War.

Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Published: 10 May 2017
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This chapter presents the state of the burgeoning scholarly field of sport history and points to what remains to be done. Scholars have increasingly have found sports to be a subject that can help answer the major questions facing historians of all sorts. Once a domain of unadorned empiricism, sports history today mobilizes complex and sophisticated social and cultural theories to derive a vast range of meanings. Additionally, the familiar categories of class, race, gender, nation, and religion can all be used to understand sport, and in turn sport can provide new understandings of those same categories. The study of sport has been enhanced by the historical profession’s cultural turn that has made numerous once marginal subjects the objects of serious and rigorous scrutiny. This collection seeks to introduce this field to academics who are considering studying this subject and general readers who are seeking a guide to further reading.

Not long ago, a British historian observing the changing landscape of academic inquiry remarked to a colleague, “Sport, it would seem, is the new film.” His remark was apt. These days no leading university would omit the cinema from its offerings, and the study of sport is rapidly approaching a similar status. Our handbook proposes to examine the present state of this burgeoning field and point to what still remains to be done. Today, sport’s grandest events are watched by billions of viewers, while billions of dollars are generated by its globalization and commercialization. Sport occupies an enormous part of the content on the Internet and other forms of media. Inevitably, sport has attracted the attention of scholars who increasingly have found it to be a subject that can help us answer the big questions facing historians of all sorts. Once a domain of unadorned empiricism, sport history today mobilizes complex and sophisticated social and cultural theories to derive a vast range of meanings. The grand old categories of class, race, gender, nation, and religion can all be used to understand sport, and in turn sport can give us new understandings of those same categories.

The emergence of sport history is the culmination of more than a half century of disparate developments. As early as 1951, John Rickards Betts completed a pioneering doctoral dissertation at Columbia University titled “Organized Sport in Industrial America.” 1 Betts, who became a member of the history faculty at Boston College, continued to research and write about sport in the 1950s and 1960s, but he was one of very few Anglophone historians to do so. Unencumbered by the intellectual inhibitions of traditional historians, physical educators took the lead in organizing the International Committee for the History of Physical Education and Sport in 1967. This step was followed six years later by the establishment of the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH), a scholarly association made up of physical educators and historians. In 1974, it launched the Journal of Sport History . NASSH was also a model for the development of subsequent associations, including the British Society of Sport History, the Australian Society for Sports History, the International Committee for the History of Physical Education and Sport, and the European Committee for Sport History. The growing academic interest in sport was not limited to history, as sport subfields took root in several other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. This interdisciplinary interest led to the establishment of numerous scholarly societies in the next two decades. The International Committee for the Sociology of Sport, the International Society of Sport Psychology, the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport, and the Sport Literature Association were among the most notable such groups.

Concurrent with the growth of these sometimes insular scholarly societies were much broader intellectual developments, as a wide variety of thinkers began advocating a more comprehensive examination of the human experience. Dismayed by the dismissal of popular culture in general and sport in particular, by the New Left and particularly the Frankfurt School, a later generation of thinkers sought a more nuanced and optimistic understanding of the reception of mass culture by very various audiences. Instead of diversion from the weighty matters of life, they sought to stress the possibilities for resistance and agency to be found in play and entertainment. At the University of Birmingham during the 1970s, Stuart Hall, Raymond Williams, and their colleagues, inspired by Antonio Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony, devoted intelligent and rigorous attention to television, film, sport, and many other human activities once dismissed as “not serious.” 2 In creating the new field of cultural studies, these scholars established the intellectual and political preconditions for sport studies to flourish. Such well-established historians as Eric Hobsbawm, Richard Holt, and Tony Mason began exploring the role of sport in the development of mass culture and class consciousness. 3 In North America, Elliot Gorn, Jules Tygiel, Steven Riess, and Randy Roberts turned their talents to sporting matters. 4 The literary scholar John Hoberman published a rich and intelligent work on sport and political ideology. 5 Allen Guttmann, of Amherst College, wrote From Ritual to Record , a seminal work that analyzed the transformation of sport from a premodern to modern phenomenon. 6 The anthropologically trained John MacAloon produced an intellectual and political biography of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, that we now can see was light years ahead of its time. 7 We have come a long way since 1938, when the great Dutch historian Johan Huizinga produced Homo Ludens , his pioneering study of the play impulse throughout history. 8

At much the same time in France, Michel Foucault was elaborating an approach to historical knowledge that placed the human body at the center of scholarly concerns and deployed a concept of power that was particularly helpful to understanding how relations of domination and subordination were constituted and expressed in sport. 9 His fellow theorist Pierre Bourdieu pointed to the importance of the habits and practices surrounding the body and argued that the body could express much that the mind and speech could not. 10 Deploying the concept of cultural capital, he called for mobilizing a rigorous, historically informed sociology to study a wide range of cultural forms, sport included. Along with sex and dance, sport is the most corporeal of human activities. By the 1990s, these and many other thinkers in turn helped precipitate what has come to be called the “cultural turn” in the historical profession. In subsequent decades senior historians who had established reputations in more traditional subfields came to examine sport with rigor and nuance. 11 They in turn inspired young researchers and graduate students in history to study sport as their career path. 12

These shifts have changed scholars’ older notions of what is important. Topics that were once deemed marginal—murder mysteries, musical comedies, soap operas, and sport, to name a few—have today assumed new significance. In the process, popular culture in general and sport in particular have become the subjects of an explosion of thoroughly serious, rigorous research and writing, filled with all manner of compelling implications. At the same time, historians of sport came to realize the importance of addressing their work to the larger profession. Sport was no longer treated as an autonomous realm—an escape from a so-called real world. It touches the most significant elements of the human condition. Sport has been a gender factory—a site where men made themselves into men and where women fought and overcame the consequences of that historically constructed “male bastion.” Sport is the terrain over which struggles between social classes, religions, and nation-states have been ardently and at times dangerously contested. It is, to paraphrase Clifford Geertz, the place we tell ourselves stories about ourselves. 13 Whether it is Bourdieu’s “cultural capital” or Huizinga’s “play,” sport is, has been, and will continue to be one of the great engines of culture creation.

While these changes were taking place in the academy, there were other processes going on in the larger world. Since the 1980s, we have been experiencing yet another wave of a globalization process that has had several previous iterations in the course of world history. Sport has now come to occupy an increasingly large portion of the world’s cultural, economic, and political space. Such organizations as soccer’s international federation (FIFA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) boast more members than the United Nations and offer a platform to large and small nations alike that is unrivaled by any other cultural or political body. The production, communication, and consumption of sport through myriad and increasingly complex interrelationships across transnational corporations, federations, and forms of media have allowed recent so-called mega-events to balloon to cumulative audiences in excess of 40 billion. High-performance athletes enjoy greater mobility and visibility, and conglomerates have more vested interests in supporters, stadia, clubs, franchises, and international markets than at any other point in the history of sport. So-called mega-events that last for weeks and are transmitted all over the world are more “mega” and costly than ever. Both the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi and the 2014 men’s soccer World Cup in Brazil were simultaneously dripping in political implication and commercial exploitation. The women’s soccer World Cup and the new and hard-fought gender equality of the Olympic Games have generated profound rethinking of what is femininity and, in their wake, masculinity. The historic dominance of men in sport, a product of the nineteenth century, is now challenged by the useful if fluid concept of metrosexuality.

As sport itself has gone increasingly global, so has its study. International scholarly sport societies have grown and matured. All publish journals and organize annual conferences. Many colleges and universities offer courses on a wide range of sporting topics. Graduate students now choose sporting topics for dissertations and succeed in finding gainful employment. There are even chairs of sport history at major universities. Today, the leading university presses have all published books on this subject. Networks of researchers have formed with only a tenuous relationship to the established sport studies associations. The 2010 Sport in Modern Europe Project was one such example of a European-based network, led by academics from departments of history, sociology, literature, and business in several countries. The Cold War International History Project’s multiyear, multisite research program on Cold War sport is another example of broadly international cooperation to tackle an important element of transnational history.

Sport, for us and for most historians, is a form of competition featuring physical performance, pursued in accordance with written rules and administered by formal organizations. Rather than focus on recreational physical activities, or the German gymnastics tradition, sport’s main competitor as a form of bodily culture, we are primarily concerned with organized spectator sport.

We believe sport occupies a profoundly useful place within the larger historical profession. Joseph Nye’s concepts of soft and hard power have been extremely useful to scholars, but which of them best describes sport? 14 Because sport is liminal, it constitutes and expresses its meanings not only through institutions and printed sources but in the spaces between them—in families, neighborhoods, courtyards, street corners, the criminal world, parks, pubs, kitchens, cafes, schools, schoolyards, and places of worship. If sport has been one part of a popular culture that seeks to impress and convince, it can be seen as a form of soft power, but the links among sport, physical fitness, and military preparedness make it an especially hard form of soft power. At the same time, the question of fitness is one element of the military world that does not directly involve weapons and destruction, making sport a softer form of hard power.

A great deal of energy has gone into studying how sport reflects the strengths of competing political and economic systems, but sport can just as easily mask their weaknesses. Indeed, sport can do both at the same time. For scholars seeking to make sense of the big issues of history, sport then turns out to be what the British journalist Simon Kuper has called a “slippery tool.” 15 Due to its competitive nature, sport is unlike such well-studied cultural activities as ballet, theater, music, literature, movies, art, and design. It is unscripted, unpredictable drama that feeds off deep personal and collective loyalties and fascinations. It produces easily measured results from which governments and their citizens draw rapid conclusions. Yet, for the historian intrigued by the fabric and weave of societies rather than grand moral master narratives, these can be tricky calibrations. Sport is not a shortcut that obviates the need for meaningful contextualization and rigorous research.

While sport history is primarily focused on the modern period and the rise of sport is usually associated with the coming of modernity, we offer three chapters explicitly about premodern sport and several others that touch on premodern antecedents to modern sport. First and foremost, this is a historical handbook and not a work of anthropology. It is, therefore, largely but not entirely limited by the existence of written sources and documents. Accordingly, the premodern chapters are concerned with those activities in Europe, North America, and Asia that played roles in the development of modern sport. Africa, which commands one of our chapters, offers the clearest contrast of the anthropological with more conventional historiography. Relevant documents were produced by the colonial powers who sought to portray indigenous populations as “peoples without history” before the coming of the “white man” and his often uncivilized imposition of the civilizing mission.

Because it is impossible to provide full coverage of every sport and country, we have chosen to take a more thematic approach. Still, geography is important. The section on the familiar modernization narrative provides coverage of Great Britain and North America and examines the most popular forms of sport. Other geographic regions are addressed separately, covering an even wider range of sports and their precursors. We look at the many directions of transnational acculturation and seek to reveal the diffusion of sport to and from all parts of the planet.

Sport history remains a developing field that has only recently begun to occupy a significant space in the larger profession. For decades the great bulk of research and writing on our subject has been concerned with Europe and North America and focused on the sporting activities of men who consciously and unconsciously created a masculinity factory from which women were excluded. As is the case throughout the discipline, that emphasis is changing. We have endeavored in this work to examine a broad range of regions in what was once called the developing world. Much less work presently exists on Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Yet, that situation too is now changing as younger scholars all over the world have taken up the subject of sport as their area of specialization to which they plan to devote their careers.

Theorizing Sport History

For too long, historical writing on sport was dominated by an unadorned empiricism that had long ago been deemed insufficient by most researchers. Numbers of home runs and goals were surely interesting, but what did they tell us about the grand questions and great debates confronted by practitioners? Historians these days are guided by a great variety of theories that help us choose our topics, structure our narratives, and derive our meanings. For these reasons, scholars from sociology and cultural studies discuss the contributions their disciplines have made and can make to the understanding of sport. We also asked a historian of international politics to pose two questions: What can historians expect and demand from historians of sport in order to include sporting matters in their larger accounts, and what must sport historians do to be taken seriously by the rest of the discipline?

Premodern Sport

Sport is a modern set of practices closely tied to the rapid evolution of capitalism and the growth of cities. The Industrial Revolution had its roots in the revamping of agriculture and the exploitation of colonial people and goods from empires. Nevertheless, physical contests of all sorts had existed for centuries prior to the coming of modernity, and we cannot ignore them. Those who have argued ancient Greece was the cradle of democracy and civilization also see it as a matching cradle of sport. The practice and organization of physical contests were highly developed and well organized in the Greek and Roman empires. From the Olympic Games to the spectacles of gladiatorial combat, the ancient world has often been seen as the first site of sporting activity. In both places sport became a form of popular culture through which citizens were created. The fit athlete and the fit warrior became central figures in the projection and maintenance of empire.

By the nineteenth century, philo-Hellenism became a driving force in the creation of the modern Olympics. The founder of the modern version of the Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, claimed to be reviving the games of ancient Greece, but he also used the Greek example to gain support in Germany and other countries for his movement. One must then ask if this highly male, elitist, and positive interpretation of these ancient societies was connected to only one of many possible interpretations of the classical world. If ancient Greece, in particular, was the cradle of civilization, what sort of civilization was it, and what role did sport play in its creation and reproduction?

It has been said that medieval sport is still awaiting its H. A. Harris, the author of one of the definitive texts on ancient Greek sport. Nevertheless, there is a body of literature on medieval sport, albeit one that relies heavily on British and western European sources from the later Middle Ages. Many sports of the period such as wrestling, archery, and water tilting had martial origins. One study of the sporting pursuits of thirteenth-century English peasants noted that nearly half were “war-related.” People at both ends of the social spectrum pursued sport, while religious leaders attempted to exert varying degrees of control over these bodily and often violent pastimes. The tournament, in which noblemen engaged in jousts and melees, is the best-known form of medieval sport, but less violent activities such as forms of tennis also took root. One of the differences between medieval and modern sport is the increased degree to which contemporary sport seeks to minimize violence, injury, and death and thus be less warlike. Sport, as Norbert Elias wrote, is part of the “civilizing process,” but battles on the playing field are mimetic and not real despite the militarized language that often surrounds them. 16

The early modern period witnessed the rise of several activities that adopted some of the defining characteristics of modern sport. This process occurred in only some sports and advanced at different rates in different countries. Cricket, horse racing, and golf, to cite three examples of sports that eventually became global, developed written rules, formed clubs, recorded results, and consciously sought to attract spectators in the premodern period. The growth of premodern sport took place in the context of efforts—of varying success—by church and state to control and direct leisure pursuits and in particular to harness the violence associated with some of them.

Modern Sport

Historians no longer believe that the origins of capitalism and industrialization were the exclusive products of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century British genius. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom was the cradle of certain modern sports, most notably soccer/football. Over a century, these claims were expanded, and a master narrative of sport’s creation and growth developed. Today, this version of history is thought to have roughly the same validity as the claim that “jazz came up the river from New Orleans.” Nevertheless, it is worth repeating to establish an understanding of what might be called the first wave of sport history.

With the first stages of the agrarian and industrial revolutions late in the eighteenth century, a burgeoning and expansive middle class elite emerged. These newly wealthy men had not gained their power and status from the traditional sources of military service and landed wealth. Instead, they sat in offices and “made” money. Sport then became a way to demonstrate their otherwise ambiguous strength and manliness. At the same time, the higher rungs of the British middle class sought to send their sons to the ancient institutions of secondary education known as the “public schools.” Today, the names Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and many others can be called global brands, but in the late eighteenth century these were unruly places. Headmasters, most notably but not exclusively Thomas Arnold of Rugby, came to introduce sport into the curriculum in order to provide a release for otherwise violent and sexual adolescent energy. In the process, they sought to create the future leaders of the nation and empire. This experiment was a huge success. Sporting activity then spread to elite British universities.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, rules were codified for various sports. By the 1880s and 1890s, many sporting activities had spread virally to the various laboring classes who had moved into the newly expanding cities and had achieved greater leisure time and expendable income through decades of political struggle. With mass audiences, sport subsequently became organized and commercialized. A crucial role in these processes was played by technological breakthroughs in transportation, most notably the railroad, which allowed athletes and fans to travel greater distances to games and events. The telegraph permitted the instantaneous reporting of sports events to places far away from where the contests were taking place. In the process, sport became national rather than simply local. All of this was said to have taken place outside the purview of the state. Yet such a view overlooks the close ties of sport to the military and to empire. Sport may not have been war, but many elites have mistakenly and tragically thought so.

In light of the strong criticism modernization theory has endured in recent years, one may well ask which parts of the old modernizing narrative are still seen as true. The rise of industry and the rise of modern sport have been closely tied to each other. Accordingly, these profound changes led to the emergence of a class of sporting entrepreneurs who found new sources of profit in what had been games and pastimes. Were Britain and the United States the only centers of sporting activity, or was the path to sport repeated elsewhere? How did sport constitute and express the demands and aspirations of the industrial age? Were the often conflicting roles of social classes the same elsewhere as those described in the standard “British model” of modern sport’s emergence? Again, was sport’s growth truly independent from the state, and did governments play similarly limited roles elsewhere?

The urban centers that arose all over the world in the nineteenth century contained the necessary conditions for the rise of modern sport. Large numbers of spectators, transportation systems, communications systems, media companies, and technological expertise could only be found in cities. Although sport developed at different times in different parts of the world, the central role of the city has been consistent. Historians have examined not only the effect of the city on sport but the impact of sport on cities. The first wave of sport historiography produced several works on sport and urbanization during the Industrial Revolution. Writers addressed the relationship between sport and class identity, ethnic identity, associativity, and assimilation. Later works, incorporating research from sociology, urban studies, architectural history, and geography, have opened new avenues of inquiry by examining evolving concepts of space.

Advances in the technology of communication both drove and supported the growth of modern sport. Mass-market newspapers, powered by the telegraph and later the telephone, were able to supply readers with quick and detailed information about sporting events. These publications and the multiple discourses they produced intensified the appetite of the sporting public for more and bigger spectacles. At the same time, the power of sporting accounts drew readers to the press and improved readership and advertising revenues. By the 1920s, the mass press was joined by radio and newsreels to expand and excite the audience for sport. The impact of these new and older media on the citizenry has been the subject of a rich and ongoing debate.

Empires have played fundamental roles in the diffusion of sports. Scholars have examined the impact of colonializing nations with their administrators carrying balls, bats, and rule books from their elite institutions of higher learning. Yet others have stressed the role of existing indigenous cultures and pastimes. Did modern sport trample traditional games and force locals into a single oppressive and controlling mode of civilization? Were those local populations able to use and change sports in ways that allowed them to resist the authority of their colonial masters? Much of this work takes C. L. R. James’s classic study of Trinidadian cricket as a conceptual starting point. 17 Yet one must also ask how the sports of formal colonial empires run by administrators and soldiers differed from the informal commercial empires established by expatriate businessmen, managers, engineers, workers, engineers, and sailors. Finally, what kinds of states emerged in the developing world after the initial period of diffusion and the later collapse of colonialism? Did these new governments deploy sport in ways that enhanced their authority, or did sport remain one form of popular culture that supported continued resistance to authority?

Patterns of Diffusion

How did certain sports spread from the places of their creation to other parts of the world? How in less than three centuries did we get from a situation in which the rules of games varied from village to village to the opening matches of men’s soccer World Cups when the entire planet gazed upon one single place and everyone knew how the game would be played? The diffusion of sport is not simply a process of cultural flow from Europe and North America. It has been a complex, multidirectional phenomenon. The diffusion of three of many possible sports illustrates differing patterns of dispersal and shifting balances of political and financial power within world sport. There are also sports of equal importance that have, however, not generated the wealth of serious, theoretically informed academic literature. Track and field (athletics), basketball, Asian martial arts, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, ice hockey, skiing, and even gymnastics have yet to inspire the massive body of work one fully expects to appear in the future.

New Globalizations and Their Discontents

Originating in the nineteenth century, the modern Olympic Games are the world’s premier sports event. Because of their magnitude and public visibility, the Olympics have provided a stage on which most of the major developments and conflicts of modern sport have played out for more than one hundred years. The International Olympic Committee, which drew its early inspiration from the gentlemen amateurs of Victorian Britain, has confronted the major issues of the twentieth century—nationalism, professionalism, and commercialism, not to mention war and peace. Initially, banning female participation, the Olympics became one of the principle arenas where women struggled for inclusion. Scholarly interest has been piqued by the widespread perception, encouraged by the IOC, that Olympic sport is a “movement” capable of inspiring social and political transformations. Along with a politically conservative version of internationalism, Olympism maintained a politically liberal belief in the possibility of social improvement. In practice, commitment to these ideals was combined with continuing cooperation with some of the world’s vilest regimes. Accordingly, historians have been eager to analyze this grandiose, idealistic framing of the Olympics, frequently offering critical alternative readings of the Games and their meanings. In the course of the most recent wave of globalization, the Olympics have transformed from a festival of nominal amateurs to an extravaganza of openly professional athletes competing on a world stage promoted by global marketing and sponsorship campaigns.

As a result, a high-stakes cauldron of competition has emerged that offers great monetary rewards for the most visible and elite performers. Although doping in sport is often framed as a contemporary issue driven by athletes’ desires to win riches, athletes, ancient and modern, have long sought to supplement their normal diets with foods, drinks, or drugs to improve sport performance. Accounts of nineteenth-century sport doping abound. The IOC discussed the problem as early as the 1930s. In the post–World War II period, the use of performance-enhancing drugs grew throughout the world. In 1968 the IOC introduced drug testing, and most other major sports organizations eventually followed. Efforts at doping control in the late twentieth century were carried out by disparate organizations with almost no coordination among them. A series of international doping scandals in the 1990s culminated in the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which sought to impose a single anti-doping regime on world sport. The history of doping and anti-doping efforts raises fundamental questions about how different societies view the nature of sport, competition, fair play, as well as the health and rights of athletes. In an environment in which the hormonal, structural, and genetic manipulation of athletes are all possible, doping squarely raises the question of what it means to be human.

Reconsidering Old Categories and Contemplating New Ones

The long-established historical categories of class, gender, race, religion, and nation have guided historians for decades, but how useful are each of these analytical tools for the understanding of sport? They can still provide ways to explain behaviors, choices, and identities. At the same time, the history of sport may require other historians to modify their understandings of the ways these categories work and what they can and cannot explain. In recent years, the historical profession has taken a variety of “turns.” Moving on from the “cultural turn,” scholars have taken things one step further and have devoted attention to the role of emotions. Although many studies make use of the emotional to make sense of sport, the literature on this topic is still thin, but two new approaches have been influenced by the psychological. Sport is watched by both spectators and participants. It is inescapably visual. Following this logic, the scholarly study of sport has taken an explicitly visual turn. Art historians, photographers, film makers, television producers, and webmasters have turned increasing attention to sport, and, in the process, they have produced sources of use to the historian. At the same time, sport historians have turned more and more to using visual sources in both teaching and research.

Despite noteworthy exceptions such as Allen Guttmann’s The Erotic in Sport and Thomas Scanlon’s Eros and Greek Athletics , sexuality in sport has received less attention than the related topics of gender roles and sex-based discrimination. 18 The connection between sport and sexuality, however, has spanned the history of sport from the homosocial bonding of Greek athletics to the contemporary eroticization of soccer player David Beckham and countless other athletes. The relationship between sport and sexuality has been the subject of considerable conjecture. Victorian public school headmaster Edward Thing maintained that sports would keep public school boys from masturbating. Freud claimed that sport was a means of sexual sublimation. And, as any viewer of Hollywood boxing movies knows, corner men believe that sex weakens the legs. Sexuality is integral to sport. Athletic bodies typically reflect prevailing notions of sexual attractiveness. In this way, body culture is closely linked to the emotional turn in the historical profession.

In 2012, a multiyear research project on sport in the Cold War sent out a call for papers, and scores of proposals came in from all over the world. Nearly half of them were from graduate students and early-career professionals. The topic’s strong resonance with young historians demonstrates two things. First, researchers in our field have come to produce first-rate scholarship of sufficient quality to attract others to follow their path. Second, we are on the verge of greater growth with a new, younger cohort who have chosen sport history as their field of specialization. Our hope is that this handbook will inspire others to take up the proverbial torch or grab the baton from the previous runner. Sport is, indeed, the new film, and that is a very good thing indeed.

1. John Rickards Betts , “Organized Sport in Industrial America” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1951) .

2. Stuart Hall , Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse (Birmingham, UK: Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, 1973) ; Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain (London: Hutchinson, 1976) ; Raymond Williams , Television: Technology and Cultural Form (New York: Schocken Books, 1975) .

3. Eric Hobsbawm , Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990) ; Richard Holt , Sport and the British: A Modern History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989) ; Tony Mason , Sport in Britain: A Social History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989) .

4. Elliot Gorn , The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986) ; Jules Tygiel , Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983) ; Steven Reiss , City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports (Urbana–Champagne: University of Illinois Press, 1991) ; Randy Roberts , Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979) .

5. John Hoberman , Sport and Political Ideology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984) .

6. Allen Guttmann , From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sport (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978) .

7. John J. MacAloon , This Great Symbol: Pierre de Coubertin and the Origins of the Modern Olympic Games (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981) .

8. John Huizinga , Homo Ludens (Haarlem, The Netherlands: Tjeenk Willink, 1938) .

9. Michel Foucault , Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977) .

10. Pierre Bourdieu , Outline of a Theory of Practice (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977) .

11. Robert Edelman , Serious Fun: A History of Spectator Sports in the USSR (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) ; Kay Schiller and Christopher Young , The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010) .

12. Amy Bass , Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002) ; Sandra S. Collins , The 1940 Tokyo Games: The Missing Olympics: Japan, the Asian Olympics and the Olympic Movement (London: Routledge, 2007) ; Barbara Keys , Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006) .

13. Clifford Geertz , “Deep Play: Notes of the Balinese Cockfight,” in The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 421–453 .

14. Joseph Nye , Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (New York: Basic Books, 1990) .

15. Simon Kuper , Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe during the Second World War (London: Orion, 2003) .

16. Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning , The Quest for Excitement: Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process (Oxford: Berg, 1986), 43 .

17. C. L. R. James , Beyond a Boundary (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013) .

18. Allen Guttmann , The Erotic in Sports (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996) ; Thomas F. Scanlon , Eros and Greek Athletics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) .

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Sport History Review

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Volume 55 (2024): Issue 1 (May 2024): Special Issue: Nature Sport and Environmental History: Adulation or Alteration of Nature?

Sport History Review is the continuation of the Canadian Journal of the History of Sport: Revue Canadienne De L’Histoire des Sports , published from 1970 to 1995. Sport History Review is devoted to promoting the study of all facets of the broad field of the history of sport. The peer-reviewed journal is published for sport history specialists who engage in research and/or teaching within an academic context as well as for those with special interest in sport history.

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Editors Emeriti

Alan Metcalfe, PhD (Founding Editor: 1970–1995): Canadian Journal of History of Sport and Physical Education (ISSN 0008-4115), continued as Canadian Journal of History of Sport / Revue Canadienne de L’Histoire des Sports (ISSN 0712-9815)

Don Morrow, PhD (Founding Editor: 1996–2015; Consulting Editor: 2016): Sport History Review (ISSN 1087-1659)

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Jörg Krieger, Aarhus University, Denmark

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Sport in History

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Volume 49, Number 1, Spring 2022

The Journal of Sport History is published three times a year in spring, summer, and fall by the North American Society for Sport History. The purpose of the North American Society for Sport History is to promote, stimulate, and encourage study and research and writing of the history of sport, and to support and cooperate with local, national, and international organizations having the same purposes. The Society conducts its activities solely for scholarly and literary purposes and not for pecuniary profit.

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House of Cards: Leisure, Freedom, Authority, Revolution, and the Diary of Landon Carter
Aram Goudsouzian

Race around the Mountain: Competitive Cycling among the Coloured Communities of Greater Cape Town, 1930–1960
Todd H. Leedy
Spurs Fandom in San Antonio: The Baseline Bums and HemisFair Arena, 1973–1993
David Christopher Galindo
One Night in Miami dir. by Regina King, and: Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali dir. by Marcus A. Clarke, and: Muhammad Ali dir. by Ken Burns et al. (review)
Kate Aguilar
King Richard dir. by Reinaldo Marcus Green (review)
Samantha White
Heartland (2007–2021 and ongoing) (review)
Scott A. G. M. Crawford
The History of American College Football: Institutional Policy, Culture, and Reform by Christian K. Anderson, and Amber C. Falluca (review)
David E. Sumner
Passing the Baton: Black Women Track Stars and American Identity by Cat. M. Ariail (review)
Courtney L. Flowers
The Black Athlete in West Virginia: High School and College Sports from 1900 through the End of Segregation by Bob Barnett et al. (review)
Josh Howard
The Idea of Sport in Western Culture from Antiquity to the Contemporary by Saverio Battente (review)
Keith Rathbone
The Fastest Game in the World: Hockey and the Globalization of Sports by Bruce Berglund (review)
Tara Mitchell Mielnik
From Football to Soccer: The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States by Brian D. Bunk (review)
Zachary R. Bigalke
Degrees of Difficulty: How Women's Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell from Grace by Georgia Cervin (review)
Bonnie M. Hagerman
Critical Reflections on Physical Culture at the Edges of Empire ed. by Francois Johannes Cleophas (review)
Ornella Nzindukiyimana
Sport, Film and National Culture ed. by Seán Crosson (review)
Andrew Bailey
More than Medals: A History of the Paralympics and Disability Sport in Postwar Japan by Dennis J. Frost (review)
Samuel Brady
Sport History: The Basics by Gerald R. Gems (review)
Richard C. Crepeau
The Sports Revolution: How Texas Changed the Culture of American Athletics by Frank Andre Guridy (review)
Corye Perez Beene
Faster, Higher, Stronger, Comrades! Sports, Art, and Ideology in Late Russian and Early Soviet Culture by Tim Harte (review)
Samuel X. Fleischer
The History of Physical Culture in Ireland by Conor Heffernan (review)
Donal Howley
Disability, the Media and the Paralympic Games by Carolyn Jackson-Brown (review)
Sports and Politics: Commodification, Capitalist Exploitation, and Political Agency ed. by Frank Jacob (review)
Aaron L. Haberman
Before March Madness: The Wars for the Soul of College Basketball by Kurt Edward Kemper (review)
Sheldon Anderson
Women's Artistic Gymnastics: Socio-Cultural Perspectives ed. by Rosly Kerr et al. (review)
Olaf Stieglitz
Power and Politics in World Athletics: A Critical History by Jörg Krieger (review)
Matthew L. McDowell
The Age of Fitness: How the Body Came to Symbolize Success and Achievement by Jürgen Martschukat (review)
Richard Ravalli
Fighting Visibility: Sports Media and Female Athletes in the UFC by Jennifer McClearen (review)
Linda Levitt
Racing for America: The Horse Race of the Century and the Redemption of a Sport by James C. Nicholson (review)
Christina L. Hennessey
Egypt's Football Revolution: Emotion, Masculinity, and Uneasy Politics by Carl Rommel (review)
The Myth of the Amateur: A History of College Athletic Scholarships by Ronald A. Smith (review)
Robert Epling
Racism, Activism, and Integrity in College Football: The Bates Must Play Movement by Donald Spivey (review)
Stephen H. Norwood
The Emergence of Football: Sport, Culture and Society in the Nineteenth Century by Peter Swain (review)
Conor Curran
pp. 100-101
Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939–45 by Matthew Taylor (review)
Benjamin Sacks
pp. 101-102
Discredited: The UNC Scandal and College Athletics' Amateur Ideal by Andy Thomason (review)
Ronald A. Smith
pp. 103-104
Strength Coaching in America: A History of the Innovation That Transformed Sports by Jason Shurley et al. (review)
Joseph Thompson
pp. 104-106
Sir Stanley Rous and the Growth of World Football: An Englishman Abroad by Alan Tomlinson (review)
Charles Campisi
pp. 106-107
The Athlete as National Symbol: Critical Essays on Sports in the International Arena ed. by Nicholas Villanueva Jr. (review)
Charles H. Martin
pp. 107-109
Memphis Hoops: Race and Basketball in the Bluff City, 1968–1997 by Keith B. Wood (review)
Adam J. Criblez
pp. 109-110

Previous Issue

Volume 48, Number 3, Fall 2021

Volume 49, Number 2, Summer 2022

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HIST 090 The History of Sport: Welcome

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Game On! The Oral History of Las Vegas Sports

Las Vegas is rapidly becoming a sports entertainment mecca. Calling the city home are the Stanley Cup-winning Las Vegas Golden Knights, two-time national champion Las Vegas Aces, the UNLV Rebels, the Las Vegas Aviators, the Las Vegas Raiders, and the soon-to-arrive Athletics. The city is abuzz with sporting excitement.

Building on this momentum, the Oral History Research Center, part of Special Collections and Archives at UNLV, is launching a new project and oral history collection to document the history of sports in Las Vegas. Help us collect stories from the people who shaped sports through Game On! The Oral History of Sports in Las Vegas .

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Documenting history : We're diving deep into the sporting past of Las Vegas, from its earliest teams to the current champions.
Extensive coverage : We expect to collect approximately 140 interviews covering a wide array of sports including hockey, football, baseball, softball, auto racing, tennis, basketball, poker, boxing, rodeo, golf, running, esports, and so much more.
Easy access to resources : All collected materials (including donated documents, manuscript collections, and photographs) will be available to the public through Special Collections and Archives at Lied Library.

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Las Vegas is a dynamic city and a destination for professional and amateur sports. Your support will preserve the first-hand stories of those who made this extraordinary time in Las Vegas possible — the athletes, entrepreneurs, owners, politicians, decision makers, and fans.

As a donor, you will receive project updates and exclusive event invitations, while helping us preserve the dynamic sports history of Las Vegas.

Thank you for your consideration in supporting Game On! The Oral History of Sports in Las Vegas.

Oral History Research Center Phone: 702-895-2222 Email: [email protected]

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Home » 500+ Sports Research Topics

500+ Sports Research Topics

Sports research topics cover a vast array of areas in the world of athletics, from the physical and psychological impacts of sport on athletes to the social and cultural implications of sports on society. Sports research can include studies on training techniques, nutrition, injury prevention, performance enhancement, and much more. It can also explore the societal impact of sports, such as the role of sports in shaping national identities, gender roles, and cultural values. As a result, the field of sports research provides a unique lens through which to understand the complex relationship between sports and society, and offers insights that can benefit athletes, coaches, and sports enthusiasts alike. In this post, we will explore some of the most fascinating and important sports research topics that are currently being investigated.

Sports Research Topics

Sports Research Topics are as follows:

The psychological benefits of participating in team sports
The impact of sports on academic achievement
The role of sports in promoting physical health and fitness
The impact of sports on mental health and well-being
The benefits and drawbacks of early specialization in youth sports
The relationship between sports and character development
The role of sports in building social capital and community cohesion
The impact of technology on sports training and performance
The influence of gender on sports participation and achievement
The impact of culture on sports participation and achievement
The economics of professional sports: salaries, revenue, and team valuations
The role of sports in promoting diversity and inclusion
The impact of sports on political and social change
The impact of sports sponsorship on consumer behavior
The impact of doping in sports on athlete health and performance
The role of nutrition in sports performance
The impact of weather conditions on sports performance
The influence of crowd behavior on sports performance and player behavior
The impact of sports injuries on athlete health and career longevity
The impact of sports on tourism and local economies
The role of sports in promoting peace and conflict resolution
The impact of globalization on sports and their respective cultures
The impact of sports on national identity and patriotism
The impact of sports media on fan behavior and athlete performance
The impact of sports on the environment
The influence of sports fans on team strategy and decision-making
The impact of sports gambling on sports integrity and athlete health
The impact of sports specialization on long-term athlete development
The influence of sports referees and officials on game outcomes
The role of technology in sports officiating and decision-making
The impact of sports on youth development and socialization
The role of sports in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment
The impact of sports on personal identity and self-esteem
The role of sports in promoting physical literacy and lifelong physical activity
The impact of fan behavior on athlete mental health and well-being
The influence of sports broadcasters on fan behavior and attitudes
The role of sports in promoting healthy competition and fair play
The impact of sports participation on academic performance in children
The influence of social media on athlete behavior and fan engagement
The impact of sports on international diplomacy and political relations
The influence of coach behavior on athlete mental health and performance
The role of sports in promoting cultural understanding and awareness
The impact of sports science on athlete training and performance
The impact of youth sports on parent-child relationships
The influence of sports team culture on athlete behavior and performance
The role of sports in promoting environmental sustainability
The impact of sports on social mobility and economic inequality
The influence of sports on global health issues
The impact of sports on regional and national identity
The role of sports in promoting positive youth development and resilience.
The impact of technology on sports performance
The effects of altitude on ball flight in sports like golf and tennis
The effects of sports on stress management
The impact of COVID-19 on the sports industry
The impact of technology on sports officiating and rule enforcement
The role of sports in promoting cultural heritage and preservation
The impact of sports on mental toughness and resilience among athletes
The effects of different types of recovery interventions on sports injury rehabilitation
The role of sports in promoting intergenerational connections and social capital
The effects of different types of sports psychology interventions on team dynamics and performance in professional sports
The role of sports in promoting peacebuilding and conflict resolution in divided societies
The impact of sports on career development and job satisfaction among sports journalists
The effects of different types of recovery interventions on injury prevention and performance in powerlifting
The role of sports in promoting social innovation and entrepreneurship among youth
The impact of sports on social identity and community building among refugees and immigrants
The effects of different types of sports nutrition interventions on brain health and cognitive function in older adults
The role of sports in promoting sustainable urban development and active transportation
The impact of sports on social capital and political engagement among LGBTQ+ athletes
The effects of different types of training interventions on injury prevention and recovery in equestrian sports.
The impact of sports on body image and self-esteem among female athletes
The effects of different types of sports equipment on performance and injury risk in extreme sports
The role of sports in promoting cultural diplomacy and international relations
The impact of sports on emotional regulation and mental health among adolescent athletes
The effects of different types of nutrition interventions on injury prevention and recovery in team sports
The role of sports in promoting civic engagement and political participation among athletes
The impact of sports on cognitive development and academic achievement in early childhood
The effects of different types of sports psychology interventions on sports performance and mental health
The role of sports in promoting environmental education and sustainability in schools
The impact of sports on career development and employability among retired athletes
The effects of different types of mindfulness interventions on sports performance and well-being
The role of sports in promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding
The impact of sports on emotional intelligence and leadership development among coaches
The effects of different types of sports supplements on performance and health outcomes
The role of sports in promoting disaster risk reduction and resilience in coastal communities
The impact of sports on social identity and group dynamics in fan communities
The effects of different types of sports training on injury prevention and recovery in power sports
The role of sports in promoting digital literacy and technological innovation in youth
The impact of sports on social-emotional learning and character development in schools
The effects of different types of nutrition interventions on sports performance and cognitive function in older adults
The role of sports in promoting gender equity and empowerment in sports organizations
The impact of sports on cultural identity and community building among Indigenous peoples
The effects of different types of training interventions on injury prevention and recovery in para-athletes
The role of sports in promoting global health and disease prevention
The impact of sports on social support and mental health among parents of youth athletes
The effects of different types of recovery interventions on sports performance and injury prevention in master athletes
The role of sports in promoting community-based health education and behavior change
The impact of sports on identity development and socialization among adolescent girls
The effects of different types of sports nutrition interventions on gut microbiota and health outcomes
The role of sports in promoting intercultural communication and language learning
The impact of sports on psychological well-being and job satisfaction among sports officials
The effects of different types of mindfulness interventions on injury prevention and recovery in endurance sports
The role of sports in promoting sustainable tourism and economic development in rural areas
The impact of sports on social integration and inclusion among individuals with disabilities
The effects of different types of sports equipment on biomechanics and performance in precision sports
The role of sports in promoting community resilience and disaster risk reduction in urban areas
The impact of sports on social-emotional development and academic achievement among at-risk youth
The effects of different types of sports nutrition interventions on immune function and health outcomes
The role of sports in promoting social justice and human rights in sport governance
The impact of sports on community development and social capital in post-conflict areas
The effects of different types of resistance training on injury prevention and recovery in endurance athletes
The role of sports in promoting intergenerational relationships and aging well-being
The impact of sports on social support and mental health among retired athletes
The role of sports in promoting civic activism and social change
The impact of sports on sleep quality and quantity in professional athletes
The effects of different types of stretching on recovery and injury prevention
The role of sports in promoting environmental justice and sustainability
The impact of sports on emotional intelligence and social skills among youth athletes
The effects of different types of resistance training on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting peace and conflict resolution in divided societies
The impact of sports on academic achievement and career success among athletes
The effects of different types of endurance training on injury prevention and recovery
The role of sports in promoting cultural diversity and inclusion
The impact of sports on team cohesion and communication
The effects of different types of dietary interventions on sports performance and recovery
The role of sports in promoting mental health and well-being in marginalized communities
The impact of sports on cognitive function and academic achievement in children
The effects of different types of cooling interventions on sports performance and recovery
The role of sports in promoting community resilience and disaster preparedness
The impact of sports on social capital and social mobility in low-income communities
The effects of different types of sports nutrition interventions on bone health and injury prevention
The role of sports in promoting global citizenship and intercultural competence
The impact of sports on personal and professional development among athletes
The effects of different types of training programs on sports performance and injury prevention in older adults
The role of sports in promoting human rights and social justice
The impact of sports on decision-making and risk-taking behavior in adolescents
The effects of different types of aerobic exercise on cognitive function and brain health
The role of sports in promoting sustainable development and social innovation
The impact of sports on social integration and belonging among refugees and immigrants
The effects of different types of sports equipment on injury risk and performance
The role of sports in promoting gender equality and empowerment in developing countries
The impact of sports on academic engagement and achievement among middle school students
The effects of different types of hydration interventions on sports performance and recovery
The role of sports in promoting community-based tourism and economic development
The impact of sports on identity formation and self-concept among athletes
The effects of different types of sports training on bone health and injury prevention in female athletes
The role of sports in promoting environmental conservation and climate action
The impact of sports on personal values and character development among athletes
The effects of different types of sports nutrition interventions on cardiovascular health and performance
The role of sports in promoting community-based disaster response and recovery
The impact of sports on social support and well-being among LGBTQ+ athletes
The effects of different types of recovery interventions on injury rehabilitation and return to play in professional athletes
The role of sports in promoting social entrepreneurship and innovation
The impact of sports on moral reasoning and ethical decision-making among athletes
The effects of different types of training programs on cognitive function and academic achievement in children
The role of sports in promoting social inclusion and equality in urban settings
The impact of sports on social identity and collective action among fans
The effects of different types of recovery interventions on sports performance and injury prevention in adolescent athletes
The effects of different types of recovery modalities on injury prevention in sports
The role of sports in promoting cultural diplomacy
The impact of sports participation on academic achievement among college students
The effects of different types of hydration strategies on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting social cohesion and community building
The impact of sports on physical and cognitive aging
The effects of different types of warm-down on sports performance and injury prevention
The role of sports in promoting positive youth development
The impact of sports on crime and delinquency among youth
The effects of different types of endurance training on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting gender equity and empowerment
The impact of sports on mental health among athletes
The effects of different types of carbohydrate intake on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting international relations and diplomacy
The impact of sports on body image and self-esteem among adolescents
The effects of different types of sports drinks on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting environmental sustainability and conservation
The impact of sports on cognitive function and brain health
The effects of different types of sports psychology interventions on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting social justice and human rights
The impact of sports on physical activity levels and sedentary behavior
The effects of different types of pre-game nutrition on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting economic development and tourism
The impact of sports on cultural and national identity
The effects of different types of footwear on injury risk in sports
The role of sports in promoting civic engagement and democracy
The impact of sports on sleep quality and quantity
The effects of different types of anaerobic training on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting intergenerational relationships and socialization
The impact of sports on body composition and weight management
The effects of different types of sports psychology interventions on injury prevention and recovery
The role of sports in promoting peacebuilding and conflict resolution
The impact of sports on self-efficacy and self-esteem among athletes
The effects of different types of protein intake on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting health equity and reducing health disparities
The impact of sports on social capital and community resilience
The effects of different types of high-intensity interval training on sports performance
The impact of sports on stress and stress-related disorders
The effects of different types of dietary supplements on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting human development and well-being
The impact of sports on emotional regulation and mental health
The effects of different types of strength training on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting social innovation and entrepreneurship
The impact of sports on social identity and belonging
The effects of different types of cognitive training on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting disaster resilience and preparedness
The impact of sports on academic engagement and achievement among high school students
The effects of different types of stretching on injury prevention and sports performance.
The effects of different types of training on athletic performance
The effectiveness of different coaching styles in sports
The role of nutrition in athletic performance
The psychology of injury rehabilitation in sports
The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports
The role of sports in promoting physical and mental health
The impact of social media on sports marketing
The effectiveness of sports marketing campaigns
The effects of gender and ethnicity on sports participation and performance
The impact of sports sponsorship on athlete performance
The role of sports in promoting teamwork and leadership
The effects of environmental conditions on sports performance
The impact of sports on community development
The psychology of winning and losing in sports
The effects of sleep on sports performance
The use of virtual reality in sports training
The impact of sports injuries on athletes’ careers
The effects of altitude on athletic performance
The use of data analysis in sports performance assessment
The role of sports in reducing stress and anxiety
The impact of sports on academic performance
The effects of different sports on cardiovascular health
The use of cryotherapy in sports recovery
The impact of social media on sports fans and fandom
The effects of different types of footwear on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting physical activity among children and adolescents
The effects of different types of stretching on sports performance
The impact of sports on social and cultural values
The effects of hydration on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting global understanding and diplomacy
The effects of different types of surfaces on sports performance
The impact of sports on economic development
The impact of sports on mental toughness and resilience
The effects of different types of recovery methods on sports performance
The use of mindfulness in sports performance and injury recovery
The impact of sports on environmental sustainability
The effects of different types of warm-up on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting tourism and travel
The impact of sports on crime reduction and community safety
The effects of different types of sports equipment on performance
The impact of sports on job creation and employment opportunities
The effects of different types of physical activity on mental health
The role of sports in promoting social mobility and equality
The impact of sports on identity formation and socialization
The effects of different types of pre-game rituals on sports performance.
The role of sports in promoting healthy aging
The impact of sports on conflict resolution among youth
The effects of sports on job satisfaction and productivity
The role of sports in promoting environmental conservation
The impact of sports on language proficiency and communication skills
The effects of sports on the development of social skills
The role of sports in promoting peaceful coexistence and tolerance
The impact of sports on community building and cohesion
The effects of different types of sports on hand-eye coordination
The impact of sports on personal growth and self-discovery
The effects of sports on cultural competency
The role of sports in promoting social and emotional learning
The impact of sports on community health
The effects of different types of sports on reaction time
The role of sports in promoting social justice and equity
The impact of sports on academic motivation and achievement
The effects of sports on the development of grit and resilience
The role of sports in promoting civic engagement and social responsibility.
The impact of sports on tourism
The role of sports in promoting physical activity
The effects of playing sports on cognitive development
The impact of sports on political identity
The effects of sports on self-esteem and body image
The role of sports in promoting teamwork and collaboration
The effects of different coaching styles on athlete performance
The impact of sports on national security
The role of sports in promoting cultural exchange and diplomacy
The effects of sports on language acquisition
The impact of sports on family dynamics
The role of sports in promoting conflict resolution
The impact of sports on social mobility
The effects of different types of training on injury prevention
The role of sports in promoting global health
The effects of sports on decision-making and risk-taking behavior
The role of sports in promoting physical and mental well-being
The impact of sports on social justice
The effects of sports on academic achievement among at-risk youth
The role of sports in promoting cultural heritage
The impact of sports on personal identity
The effects of sports on emotional intelligence and empathy
The role of sports in promoting gender equality
The impact of sports on identity formation
The effects of different types of sports on balance and coordination
The role of sports in promoting social capital
The impact of sports on social integration and inclusion
The effects of training at high altitudes on athletic performance
The psychological factors that contribute to athlete burnout
The relationship between sleep and athletic performance
The effects of music on sports performance
The effects of caffeine on sports performance
The impact of climate on sports performance
The use of supplements in sports performance
The role of genetics in sports performance
The effects of aging on sports performance
The impact of sports injuries on athlete’s careers
The relationship between sports and mental health
The effects of gender on sports performance
The impact of social media on sports
The effects of sports fandom on mental health
The use of technology in sports coaching
The impact of team culture on sports performance
The effects of sports specialization on athlete development
The role of sports psychology in athlete performance
The effects of plyometric training on athletic performance
The impact of climate change on outdoor sports
The effects of team dynamics on sports performance
The impact of sports participation on academic achievement
The effects of sports sponsorship on athlete performance
The role of biomechanics in sports performance
The effects of stretching on sports performance
The impact of sports equipment on performance
The effects of altitude training on endurance sports performance
The effects of different types of training on sports performance
The role of nutrition in injury prevention
The effects of mental preparation on sports performance
The effects of climate on indoor sports performance
The role of sports in cultural identity
The impact of sports participation on youth development
The effects of strength training on sports performance
The role of coaches in athlete development
The impact of sports on national identity
The effects of different playing surfaces on sports performance
The role of recovery in sports performance
The impact of sports on local economies
The impact of sports on gender and racial equality
The effects of team size on sports performance
The role of sports in promoting social inclusion
The effects of sports on personal development
The impact of sports on conflict resolution
The effects of sports on leadership development

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

200+ Funny Research Topics

300+ American History Research Paper Topics

500+ Cyber Security Research Topics

500+ Environmental Research Topics

500+ Economics Research Topics

500+ Physics Research Topics

Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project

[2021-2-TR01-KA210-YOU-000051144]

Project Type: Erasmus+ KA210-YOU

Granting Organization: Turkish National Agency and European Commission

Project No: 2021-2-TR01-KA210-YOU-000051144

Project Partner Organizations: World Ethnosport Confederation (Turkey), TtB (Norway)

TPM-1 Kick-off Meeting Report

Event Date: 06.04.2023

Event Location: World Ethnosport Confederation Headquarters - Istanbul, Turkey

The first Transnational Project Meeting (TPM) of the "Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project" carried out within the scope of Erasmus+ KA210-YOU took place on 06.04.2023 at the World Ethnosport Confederation Headquarters. Representatives from the World Ethnosport Confederation (Turkey) and TtB (Norway) participated in the event. Participants included Reyhan Tilbaç Tuncer, Fatma Şeyma Ağaca, Mustafa Tuncer, Mehman Ahmadli, and Pakiza Ahmadli. The day's program began with registration and welcoming, followed by the opening speech and project introduction. The general information presentation about the project was made by the project manager. The introduction of partner organizations and participants was carried out through short presentations by each organization. During the break and lunchtime, participants had the opportunity for networking and social interaction. After the breaks, the examination of project goals and activities continued in the event, ensuring the sharing of responsibilities and expectations. After lunch, work packages and task distribution were discussed. Agreements were reached on the details of work packages and tasks, and task distribution was made. Following the coffee break, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, communication, and dissemination strategies were focused on. The event concluded with a Q&A session, the participants' questions being answered, and closing remarks. The planning of future meetings was also among the discussions. This successful TPM-1 event was considered an important start for the project.

Evaluation: The first Transnational Project Meeting (TPM) of the Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project was held on 06.04.2023 at the World Ethnosport Confederation Headquarters. This evaluation report has been prepared to ensure the successful launch of the project and to determine the results of the event.

1. Event Process

The event was successfully conducted following the planned program. Effective communication was established among participants, and a common understanding of the project's goals and activities was developed. All sessions were conducted according to the schedule, and there were no setbacks during the event process.

2. Participant Feedback

Feedback was collected from participants at the end of the event. In general, participants were satisfied with the organization and operation of the TPM-1 Kick-off Meeting. Sharing information about the project's objectives and activities enabled participants to contribute more to the project.

3. Event Outcomes

The TPM-1 event is valuable in terms of successfully launching the project and bringing together partners to exchange information about the project. Joint decisions were made on work packages and task distribution, and monitoring and evaluation processes to be followed in the later stages of the project were determined. Also, sharing communication and dissemination strategies is crucial for the project's promotion and sustainability.

4. Next Steps

Following the TPM-1 Kick-off Meeting, the following steps are planned to ensure the successful continuation of the Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project:

a) Fulfilling Tasks According to Work Packages and Progressing According to the Timeline: All partner organizations will fulfill their responsibilities and ensure the project progresses according to the timeline based on the work packages and task distribution determined at the event.

b) Regularly Conducting Monitoring and Evaluation Processes and Preparing Necessary Reports: Monitoring and evaluation processes related to the project will be carried out regularly. Within this scope, the level of achievement of the project's goals and partners' performance will be assessed, and necessary reports will be prepared and shared with relevant parties.

c) Conducting Awareness-Raising Activities in Line with Communication and Dissemination Strategies: Awareness-raising activities will be conducted following communication and dissemination strategies to reach a wide audience with the project's goals and results. This will increase the project's impact and sustainability.

d) Planning Future TPM Events: TPM events, which will be held regularly to ensure the project's successful continuation and progress, will be planned. These events will not only encourage the sharing of knowledge and experience among partners but also allow for updates on the project's goals and activities.

TPM2 Report

Event Date: 06.08.2023

The second Transnational Project Meeting (TPM) of the "Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project" carried out within the scope of Erasmus+ KA210-YOU took place on 06.08.2023 at the World Ethnosport Confederation Headquarters. Representatives from the World Ethnosport Confederation (Turkey) and TtB (Norway) participated in the event. During TPM2 the status of the project was discussed and the progress that had been made so far was reflected. The Norwegian team informed the hosting organization about the questions for the ongoing Learning-Training-Teaching (LTT) activity in Istanbul.

Evaluation: The first Transnational Project Meeting (TPM) of the Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project was held on 06.08.2023 at the World Ethnosport Confederation Headquarters. This evaluation report has been prepared to ensure the successful launch of the project and to determine the results of the event.

Feedback was collected from participants at the end of the event. In general, participants were satisfied with the organization and operation of the TPM2. Sharing information about the project's objectives and activities enabled participants to contribute more to the project.

The TPM-2 event was very important for the partners to make sure that everyone was on the same page. The issues discussed and the plan was made for the future of the project.

Learning-Training-Teaching (LTT) activity Report

Event Date: 01.08.2023 - 07.08.2023

The LTT-1 (Learning, Training, Teaching Activities) activity of our Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project with project number 2021-2-TR01-KA210-YOU-000051144, supported and funded by the National Agency and the European Union, is organized by the World Ethnosport Confederation and It was held with the participation of Norwegian representatives. An interactive game was played by grouping the participants.

After the participants were introduced to the ice-breaking activities on the first day, an informative presentation was made about Erasmus+ and Youthpass. The concept of Digital Transformation was discussed, and participants were provided with research under the subtitles of digital transformation components and current digital transformation trends, and then the participants detailed their research with their presentations.(such as Digital Transormation,Artifical Intelligence.)

On the second day, a dynamic start was made by playing traditional sports and games, and the participants were finished with group work and presentations on the transition process of traditional values to digital values, the human figure in the digital world, the future of digital transformation and the impact areas of digital transformation.

We made them watch videos about our traditional sports. Participants asked detailed questions about our traditional sports and we answered them.They played a digital game according to the traditional dishes and games of the countries.After lunch, we played a game of mangala.There was a presentation and group discussion about Transition Process from Traditional Value Chain to Digital Value Chain , Changing Human Figure in the Digital World, Future of Digital Transformation, and then we made an end-of-day evaluation.

On the third day, we started the day with fun games. We did Brainstorm. It was completed by discussing digital transformation examples from different sectors, digital transformation and changing value creation processes, the concept of digital customers in the digitalizing world and innovation in digital transformation and making group presentations.Ideas were generated on how to solve the problems in the presentations.The traditional ‘Aşık Game’ was introduced and played by dividing into groups among the participants.

The fourth day,the effects of digital change in different fields such as art and culture were discussed and the participants made presentations on the examples of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Norway. Since the participants liked traditional sports and games, they had the opportunity to re-experience and completed the fourth day of the project.At the end of the day, there was a video shoot. (To create content.)They introduced themselves and shared their feelings and ideas about the event.

On the last day, presentations and discussions were held on how young people can improve their green (environment) and digital features, the green deal known as the Green Deal, and the areas affected by digital transformation. After the break, both the day and the week were evaluated and the LTT-1 activity of the project was completed.The final day of the project was held at the Rami Library and the closing was made.

Intellectual Outputs

W ithin the project together with "World Ethnosport Confederation" we created two Intellectual Outputs. The first intellectual output was about the research and video release on the handicrafts of Turkey and Norway while the second intellectual output focused on the etymology of the idiom in the language and their connection to the traditional sports. Meanwhile the results were very effective in terms of attracting the people to the outcome of the project with interesting videos. To check and watch the intellectual outputs, please check the following links:

Intellectual Output 1: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VYqyoS0wzP0XvhBtC6NC2NYfu_qPBlYX?usp=sharing

Intellectual Output 2: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12U9l0t5gYYEy0i4MCuD4gQChqPgJxSCA?usp=sharing

Get in touch

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+47 405 62 492 [email protected]

15 History Project Ideas for High School Students

Indigo Research Team

If you have a deep interest in past events and feel a connection to different periods, pursuing history projects might be for you.

Studying history allows you to understand the reasons behind decisions made over time and gives you valuable skills that can contribute to shaping a better future. Not to mention, passion projects for high school students have become increasingly important to make your college application better.

So, if you are interested in history, here is the list of 15 creative ideas that you can start now:

Creative Ideas for History Projects

1. comparative research studies: history vs present times.

Comparing history and present times through research could be a great history research project idea for high school students. This study offers a valuable opportunity to delve into the complexities of historical events and societies. By examining two or more instances, you can develop critical thinking and analytical skills while uncovering patterns and trends that may not be apparent at first glance. These studies provide an avenue for exploring the similarities and differences between different periods and places, shedding light on the factors that shape societies and influence historical outcomes.

When engaging in a history research project, it is crucial to start by selecting specific historical events or societies to compare. This allows you to focus on research efforts effectively. In addition to investigating political, economic, social, and cultural aspects, it is equally important to dive into the causes and consequences of these events. If you need help to do research, you can always find research mentors who can guide you through the process.

2. Israel-Palestine conflict

The war between Israel and Palestine is one of the trending history project topics , so high school students can get a lot of information online. Learn about the root cause of the conflict by researching the historical background, key events, religion, and cultural values.

3. Ancient Civilizations scrapbook

A virtual Scrapbook is another creative idea for a history project for students. You can choose your favorite ancient civilization and start collecting old images and maps. Join maps and images and write short descriptions for the readers. Do extensive research and learn about their daily life activities to showcase their lifestyle. This project will spark your creativity.

4. Historical Fashion Show

If you have a passion for trends and fashion, the evolution of style is a perfect history project idea. Choose a specific period to take a stroll through the history. Your historical fashion show project will be more interesting if you consider a large period. Conduct research and present how ancient people used to cover their bodies. If you have enough time, you can create simple costumes from ancient civilizations to represent different eras. The video below can also be your reference in creating your historical fashion project.

5. History Box

High school students can create a history project by transforming historical events into three-dimensional masterpieces. You can choose your favorite history projects, such as a big discovery, a famous battle, or any other historical event that inspires you.

Take a shoe box, colored paper, and pens to transform your history project idea into a 3D scene. Incorporate small details like landscapes, buildings, and figures to tell the whole story. Write captions on each item to help other students understand the history.

6. Historical Cooking Show

Calling all foodie students! If you are passionate about cooking, you can try this European history project ideas. Choose your European cuisine and dig deep into how ancient people used to prepare food. Prepare old European dishes and record your adventurous video. Explain the whole recipe and how it reflects the culture of that time.

7. Inventions show

Create a visual show of inventors and inventions. Conduct thorough research, pick a few big inventors, learn about their contributions, and present your knowledge through digital presentation. You can also mention how their inventions changed the lifestyle of that era. This visual showcase will motivate you and your classmates to do something big and create a better future.

8. Historical Comic Show

Create a comic strip by using historical events. Choose a particular era and gather drawings and captions to narrate the key moments. This history project idea will polish your storytelling skills and make history more accessible and entertaining.

9. Podcasts from the Past

Creating a podcast series of historical figures can take your creativity to the next level. Interview "guests" from the past, portraying their achievements, struggles, and impact on society. Use your creativity to make it informative and entertaining for your audience.

10. Timeline Wall

High school students can use a blank wall to showcase significant events of a specific region. Suppose you want to showcase US history, then conduct research and list down important events of the past. Using different colors and markers, you can illustrate events on the wall.

11. Presidential Time Capsule

This is one of the best US history final project ideas. Students can represent different presidents by exploring their political achievements, personal aspects, and societal influences. You can create artifacts to showcase the life of a specific president. This US History project idea will enhance your artistic skills.

12. Oil Board Game

Are you looking for Texas history project ideas? This educational oil board game will allow you to explore the oil industry of Texas. You need extensive research to learn about the boomtown era, economic fluctuations, and the impact of oil discoveries. Players will take on the roles of independent oil entrepreneurs, navigating the economic landscape to strike it rich or face financial pitfalls.

13. ABC Past Book

Students can create an E-book just like a dictionary where each letter represents a historical event of a specific era or region. For example, A stands for Arts & Crafts Movement Worksheet and B stands for Berlin. You can add small captions and illustrations to enhance readability.

14. Black Man Museum

Black Man Museum is one of the outstanding black history project ideas because it allows you to honor the achievements and struggles of people of color. Conduct research and find a few historical black figures, gather all the information about their achievements. You can also share stories of black people in your community. This project will spark your public speaking abilities and deepen your understanding of the diverse contributions to society.

Following are a few more black history project ideas:

The Montgomery bus boycott
The civil rights movement
Black women’s history
The black panthers
Contribution of black teachers in Society

15. Documentary on the Freedom Movement

If you’re passionate about India’s history and looking for Indian history project ideas, you can create a Documentary on the Freedom Movement. Find elders from your family or your community who witnessed the freedom of India and record their interviews. Ask about their experiences, sacrifices, and contributions to the freedom movement. This could be a good history research idea because the diverse perspectives can help you make your project more interesting.

How to Create a Successful History Project for a High School Student?

Before choosing your history project, ask yourself a few questions what do you like the most about history? How much time do you have to complete the project and what are your educational goals? These questions will help you choose the right project that will stand out from the crowd.

Here are some more tips that will make your history project rewarding.

1. Identify Your Interest

The common rule to start anything is your interest, the more you enjoy doing something, the more it will motivate you to finish the project. Start thinking about the historical events, periods, and figures that capture your attention.

2. Consider your Class Curriculum

To obtain history project ideas, you could also browse on school's history book to explore topics that you find interesting. You can also consider themes that haven’t been covered in your class yet. Choosing a topic from your class content will help you to understand better and perform well in final exams.

3. Explore Current Events

Consider current issues that have relevance to history. Connecting the dots of the present to the past can make your project more engaging and memorable.

4. Create an Engaging Documentation

Creating visually appealing documentation is not only aesthetically pleasing but also a powerful tool for exploring historical events. Start with providing a visual representation of the chronological order of key events, timelines help learners connect the dots and develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Visual cues capture people’s attention and spark their curiosity, encouraging them to dig deeper into the interconnectedness between historical events and notable figures. Ultimately, creating engaging documentation will always be beneficial for your college application or future careers.

5. Use Historical Books and Resources

When working on a history project, it is essential to utilize reliable historical books and resources. These sources provide accurate and credible information that can support your research and strengthen the credibility of your project.

Start by identifying reputable books written by historians or experts in the field. Look for well-researched, peer-reviewed, and widely recognized books within the academic community. These books often provide comprehensive coverage of knowledge that you can rely on.

There are endless creative ideas for history projects. You should choose something that you’re passionate about. We assume that this article has given you a project idea and by choosing the above tips, you can bring life to your history project.

History is no doubt one of the most interesting topics to explore in a research project. If you want to start your research journey, the Indigo Research Program is here to transform your idea into reality. We will pair you with mentors from top universities and turn your project into publishable research.

Humanities scholars research free speech, AI, sports culture and the Supreme Court

Humanities Scholars Program

By | Kathy Hovis , A&S Communications

Elizabeth Rene ’24 has had an interest in the court system since her high school days watching “Law and Order,” but she became particularly attentive to what was going on in the Supreme Court when Donald Trump became president.

“It was the greatest attack on our democracy and a lot of students my age felt this,” she said. “We started seeing invalidations of landmark precedents, such as Roe vs. Wade, and you don’t see that happening very often in democracies, where you establish a constitutional precedent and then get rid of it.”

That curiosity to understand what was going on in the court, an institution that is supposed to be impartial, sparked Rene to focus on the court for her senior thesis in the Humanities Scholars Program (HSP). She presented her work, along with 34 other students at the HSP Spring Research Conference May 3 at the A.D. White House.

“This year’s HSP conference was spectacular. The range of topics covered, the diversity of approaches, and the level of mastery demonstrated by the students were inspiring,” said Lawrence B. Glickman , Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor of American Studies in the Department of History and interim director of the Humanities Scholars Program. “So too was the support that their friends, classmates, and teachers demonstrated with their presence and their questions. It was a marvelous demonstration that humanistic scholarship at Cornell is thriving.”

VerityPlatt , professor of classics, will take over as HSP director this fall.

“It has been very exciting to see the HSP develop under the inspired leadership of Durba Ghosh and Larry Glickman into a dynamic program that nurtures undergraduate research in the humanities,” she said. “I am honored to be taking on this new role and look forward to working closely with the dedicated, creative, and inspiring students of the HSP.”

At the May event, students covered topics focused on countries around the globe and ranging from immigration, home care workers and female sports culture to the U.S.-China relationship, the repatriation of cultural objects and AI and literature.

Victoria Rinn ’24 used the resources of the Cornell Law Library, as well as an interview with her grandmother, as she compared the way legal language impacts identity politics and freedom of expression in China and Hong Kong.

“I've always been interested in the history of Hong Kong because my family escaped communist China—when Mao Zedong began persecuting the land-owning members of society—to Hong Kong not only because of the economic freedoms but also due to the larger degree of individual autonomy due to its colonial status,” she said. “Following the 2019 National Security Law protests in Hong Kong, I began to question the intersection between legislation and individual expression.”

Rinn, who plans to attend law school, said the research methods course offered to HSP students, as well as many of her classes in the China and Asia-Pacific Studies Program, were instrumental as she worked on her project.

“My government major seminar focused on China, Tibet and Xinjiang, thereby granting me the research tools necessary for my Humanities Scholars research topic,” she said. “Moreover, the Humanities Scholars Program granted me a cohort of intellectually-alike students who share a passion for the arts as I do.”

Ethan Kovnat ’24, a philosophy major, centered his work on autism and moral psychology, responding to a paper by philosopher Jeanette Kennett, who argued that since people with autism experience empathy in a different way, they cannot be considered “moral agents” under the traditional philosophical definition put forth by philosopher David Hume.

“I read this paper and thought ‘something doesn’t seem quite right,’ “ Kovnat said. “One of the things that I appreciate about Kennett is that she cites myriad psychological evidence to support her conception, but I encountered more recent literature and found empirical evidence that better reflected the actual experiences of autistic people.

“I’m arguing that Hume’s conception of agency, slightly amended, is able to accommodate autistic moral agents.”

Kovnat said his HSP cohort provided a valuable network for peer review. “Whenever I wrote something, I had this community I could go to for advice and feedback,” he said.

Rene’s research project focused on two justices, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, and their different understandings of “originalism,” a way of interpreting the U.S. Constitution following how it would have been understood at the time it was written.

“Originalism rose as a theory after the conservative backlash following the Warren court,” Rene said, referring to the period between 1953-1969 when Earl Warren served as chief justice of the court and the court handled such landmark cases as Brown v. Board of Education, Plessy v. Ferguson and Miranda v. Arizona.

Rene studied five major cases that set precedent during the Warren court, including 15 others to better understand the actions and motivations of Thomas and Scalia.

“Clarence Thomas has a tendency to encourage the court to reverse a whole bunch of precedents set decades and decades ago,” she said. “My analysis consisted of looking back and forth at moments in history to see why that precedent was so important to be established in the first place and then looking at the modern era to see how it’s been threatened by the conservative supermajority on the court today.”

The conservatives on the court, Rene argues, claim that their opinions are neutral using originalism at their defense, but the numerous inconsistencies in the way these interpretations happen allow strong polarizations to impact the court’s decisions.

“Justices are always going to possess some degree of political bias, but the degree to which the supreme court is intertwined with other branches is a recent development,” she said.

Her classes in constitutional law, along with a class taught by Alexander Livingston , associate professor of government and a member of the HSP Faculty Advisory Board, focused on W.E.B. DuBois and Martin Luther King, helped her craft her work, as they “taught me how to extrapolate someone’s writing, but also the background of the life they lived before writing that,” she said.

Rene said she also appreciated the close relationship she developed with her advisors because of HSP.

“As HSP students, we were actively seeing our advisors, who were really making sure we were using all of the resources available to us,” she said.

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Corrections

The Ahnenerbe: How the Nazis Constructed Racial Mythologies

In National Socialist Germany, the Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage) was a society dedicated to providing “scientific” proof of the Aryans’ racial superiority.

On July 1, 1935, in Berlin, Heinrich Himmler and Dutch-German scholar Herman Wirth, among others, founded the Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte ‘Deutsches Ahnenerbe’ (Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas). According to its founders, the society was meant to be devoted to the launch of research projects aiming to find scientific evidence of the Aryan race’s superiority. From 1935 to 1945, the Ahnenerbe financed worldwide archeological excavations, expeditions, and medical experiments with the double goal of legitimizing the Third Reich’s occupation of Europe and promoting its racial ideology.

The Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas

Initially, the Ahnenerbe ’s activities and ideological background were heavily influenced by Herman Wirth’s völkish theories. The concept of Geistesurgeschichte (history of primeval ideas) had been the leitmotif of Wirth’s previous research projects. The Dutch-German scholar was convinced that the roots of the Aryan race dated back to prehistoric times. Only by reclaiming this ancestral heritage would the modern-day Germans be able to return to their original glory.

While Wirth had struggled to be accepted into Germany’s academic circles, as co-founder of the Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte ‘Deutsches Ahnenerbe,’ he temporarily became a prominent Nazi scholar. He soon started combing through texts about Germanic prehistory, mythology, and folklore, hoping to gather unmistakable proof of his outlandish theories on the Aryan race, its ancient history, and religion.

From the beginning, his research projects (and those of other Ahnenerbe scholars) had a clear propagandistic intent: providing a scientific basis for the Third Reich’s claims on the spiritual and racial superiority of the Aryans. Indeed, Heinrich Himmler planned to transform the Ahnenerbe into the most prominent ideological think tank of the Nazi regime and the organizational center of the education of all future SS members.

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While Himmler shared Wirth’s fascination with religious prehistory, mysticism, and the ancient Nordic tribes, the Dutch-German lecturer’s dubious academic reputation became a cause for concern for the Ahnenerbe standing within the ideological machine of the regime. Numerous German academics dismissed Wirth’s völkish theories as unfounded myths. In particular, his book on the Ura-Linda Chronicle , an alleged 13th-century Old Frisian manuscript telling the story of the destruction of a land in the North Sea called Atland, was rejected as ridiculous. Even Alfred Rosenberg criticized Wirth’s research in his The Myth of the Twentieth Century .

In 1937, to salvage the reputation of the Ahnenerbe , Himmler decided to remove Herman Wirth from his post as the society’s president and replaced him with a scholar with a more respectable academic standing: Walther Wüst, a young professor of Indian Studies and future rector of the University of Munich. After the change of leadership, the society was also officially renamed Das Ahnenerbe . While Wirth’s influence on the Ahnenerbe considerably decreased, his passion for ancient Nordic religious rites and mysticism contributed to the creation of the image of the Ahnenerbe as an occultist society devoted to mysterious esoteric endeavors.

Searching for the “Ancestral Heritage”: Expeditions & Research Projects

Under Wüst’s aegis, the Ahnenerbe underwent a series of organizational changes that led to a considerable expansion. By the end of the war, the society consisted of 45 departments devoted to a wide range of research topics, including Germanic art history, archeology, biology, and Inner Asian studies. From 1937 to 1945, the Ahnenerbe sent anthropologists, zoologists, archeologists, linguists, and musicologists from solid academic backgrounds to worldwide expeditions that shared the same ideological objective: finding artifacts and other material evidence to prove the ancestral supremacy of the Aryan race.

According to the 1937 statute, the study of the space, spirit, and actions of the Indo-Germanic race was the first of the three main objectives of the Nazi society. Besides funding research projects and expeditions, the Ahnenerbe also planned to spread its scholars’ findings among the German population, thus establishing the regime’s interpretation of the past as the official version of events.

In particular, the Ahnenerbe started publishing a monthly magazine titled Germanien. Monatshefte für Germanenkunde zur Erkenntnis deutschen Wesens (Monthly Issue of Germanic Studies for the Discovery of the German Spirit) to promote its research. At the same time, Himmler and Wüst intended to extend their society’s reach and influence to the academic world. By the end of the 1930s, monographs and articles of scholars affiliated with the Ahnenerbe were regularly included in prestigious issues. On the other hand, the works of academics who did not share the Nazis’ worldview were censored.

Initially, Ahnenerbe scholars searched for traces of the Aryans’ glorious primeval past in the European continent, especially the northern areas. They studied petroglyphs found in the Swedish town of Bohuslän and inscriptions carved into rocks in Val Camonica, Italy. Then, between 1938 and 1939, the Ahnenerbe organized one of its most famous endeavors.

In 1938, German zoologist and SS member Ernst Schäfer, accompanied by anthropologist Bruno Beger, led an expedition to Tibet, where he hoped to find evidence enforcing the Third Reich’s Indo-Germanic theories. By the time World War II broke out, the two scholars had collected numerous artifacts and measured the features of hundreds of Tibetans.

The Ahnenerbe & WWII Art Looting

With the beginning of World War II, the Ahnenerbe leadership directed its “research” activities to the occupied lands. In particular, Himmler was determined to legitimize the Nazi’s regime claim on these areas by proving their inherent “Germanism.” Thus, SS and Ahnenerbe members meticulously scoured eastern and western European territories, searching for every artifact that might enforce the society’s racial theories and propaganda aims. For example, in the Northern Italian region of South Tirol, where numerous ethnic German communities lived, a special Ahnenerbe division named Kulturkommission (Culture Commission) collected, classified, and shipped to Germany every “Aryan” artifact they found. The plundering operation was supposed to have been followed by the relocation of all ethnic Germans into the territories of the Reich.

Adolf Hitler did not always appreciate the society’s endeavors. “Why do we call the whole world’s attention to the fact that we have no past?” complained the Führer , “it isn’t enough that the Romans were erecting great buildings when our forefathers were still living in mud huts; now Himmler is starting to dig up these villages of mud huts and enthusing over every potshard and stone axe he finds.”

Himmler, however, was convinced that the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations were products of the Aryan race. In their looting operations, the Ahnenerbe officials often came head to head with the operatives of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg , Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg’s task force. With their respective agencies, both Himmler and Rosenberg aspired to become the most influential figures of the Third Reich’s cultural policy.

In 1941, after the launching of Operation Barbarossa, the competition between Himmler and Rosenberg continued in the occupied territories of the USSR . Field agents of the two rival agencies regularly wrote to their superiors to boast about their successes or complain when their rivals hindered their plundering expeditions. “A Dr. Brennecke of the ERR,” reported an SS member , “showed up at Armavir. As the museums had already been confiscated by the SS, his excursion had no results.”

In Russia, the Ahnenerbe officials were especially interested in archeological findings that might prove the inferiority of the Slavs and legitimize Hitler’s plan to transform the territory into a Lebensraum (living space) for ethnic Germans. While the Nazi leaders admired the cultural treasures of Western Europe, their attitude toward the Eastern areas of the continent was disdainful. In a 1941 speech, Himmler contemptuously referred to the USSR as “a population of 180 million, a mixture of races, whose very names are unpronounceable, and whose physique is such that one can shoot them down without pity and compassion…welded by the Jews into one religion, one ideology…”

The disdain toward the newly invaded land led the Nazi agency to carry out a different kind of art looting. Rosenberg and Himmler were not concerned with the “safeguarding” of the Slavs’ cultural treasures. On the contrary, they ordered their operatives to collect only those materials that supported the regime’s postwar plans in the region.

In Southern Russia, for example, Professor Herbert Jankuhn, an SS Sturmbannführer, headed an Ahnenerbe research project on the “ finds and monuments of the Gothic Empire of Southern Russia .” Professor Jankhun’s group was also interested in the collections of the Museum of Prehistoric Art in the Lavra Monastery. After the war, the SS officer claimed that the real intent behind his looting had always been the “safeguarding” of the seized items.

The Institute for Military Research: Human Experimentation

After the beginning of the war, the Ahnenerbe widened its fields of research to include natural sciences. These wartime projects aimed to sustain the country’s economy and strengthen its military forces. A group of Ahnenerbe experts, for example, searched for alternative sources for oil production, such as oil shale extraction. The new enterprises were coordinated by the Institut für wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung (Institute for Military Scientific Research).

Alongside helping the regime achieve economic autarky, the Ahnenerbe ’s new institute also launched a series of medical experiments to be conducted on human subjects. In 1942, Doctor Sigmund Rascher, on behalf of the Luftwaffe , started experimenting on inmates of the Dachau concentration camp near Munich to calculate the maximum height that the human body can survive. Besides altitude and pressurization testing, Doctor Rascher exposed some prisoners to freezing temperatures to determine how long Luftwaffe pilots could remain alive in cold water.

In 1942, another doctor working with the Ahnenerbe , the head of the department of anatomy at the Reich University in Strasbourg, August Hirt, on Bruno Berger’s suggestion, began to study Jewish skeletons and skulls collected from the bodies of prisoners held at Auschwitz death camp . In total, 115 Jews died during Hirsch’s anatomical experiments.

The End of the Ahnenerbe

The Ahnenerbe remained active until the end of the war. In Russia, for example, as the Red Army began its counter-offensive, its operatives began to ship the confiscated artifacts toward Germany. Nothing of value to the Nazi regime could be left behind for the “enemies” of the Reich to find. As the Allied forces advanced toward Berlin, the Ahnenerbe relocated its headquarters to the town of Waischenfeld, where the agency’s members destroyed many of the most sensitive documents. The US Army, however, managed to retrieve most of the Ahnenerbe ’s internal correspondence.

While numerous scholars affiliated with the Nazi agency successfully continued their academic careers in postwar Germany, Wolfram Sievers, the Ahnenerbe managing director, was condemned to death during the Nuremberg doctors’ trial for his role in the human experiments conducted on concentration camps’ inmates. He was hanged in 1948. Heinrich Himmler, the mastermind behind the Ahnenerbe , had committed suicide shortly after his arrest in 1945.

Heinrich Himmler: The Architect of the Holocaust

By Maria-Anita Ronchini MA History & Jewish Studies, BA History Maria Anita currently works as a writer in Italy. She holds a BA in History from the University of Bologna and a MA in History & Jewish studies from LMU-Munich. Her primary interest is the relationship between memory and history. Maria Anita is passionate about analyzing the construction of historical narratives and collective memories. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, watching tv, and writing fiction.

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Archaeologists Found 5 Mysterious Bodies Under the Floors of Hitler's Secret Lair

A grim discovery sheds new light on the dark history of a Nazi fortress.

a reconstructed scene of the assassination attempt at the

Amateur archaeologists were recently searching for stray artifacts in an abandoned building in Poland when they made a sinister discovery beneath the floorboards: five decaying bodies with their hands and feet missing.

The site was an infamous villa that belonged to Nazi Party leader Hermann Göring within Adolf Hitler ’s secret military headquarters, the Wolfsschanze ( Wolf’s Lair), which was deserted after a 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler and later partially destroyed by retreating German forces near the end of World War II.

Reuters reports that the Latebra Foundation , which has scoured the site of the Wolf’s Lair “with official permission for several years,” discovered the bodies of three adults, an older child, and a baby buried just below what would have been the floor of Göring’s villa. In 1939, Hitler designated Göring, at the time the commander of the German air force, as his successor.

The discovery at the site raises a host of haunting questions, including about what transpired beneath the villa’s ruins in the decades since the fall of the Third Reich.

“Everyone wondered what might have happened there ... We tried to think of something, but nothing reasonable comes to mind,” Latebra member Dominik Markiewicz told Reuters . “We didn’t know what we were dealing with at all. Were they some occult rituals of Third Reich fanatics? We have no idea.”

Latebra called the police, prompting an investigation and a forensic examination of the remains. Although the case has since been closed, and there are no conclusive answers, a new report has provided additional clues into the potential origins of the bodies.

benito mussolini meets with adolf hitler and hermann göring at the wolfsschanze in 1944

How did it take so long for the bodies to be discovered? While the Latebra Foundation has been searching the Wolf’s Lair site for years, mostly finding “uniform buttons, tools, and machine parts,” per Reuters , the archaeologists only recently focused on Göring’s villa due to the sheer amount of ground they had to cover. The villa was just one of approximately 200 buildings scattered across the huge compound, which spans an area of over 617 acres of land.

The Wolf’s Lair was off limits to the public for nearly 50 years after World War II. It sustained significant damage at the hands of the Nazis themselves, who didn’t want it to fall into the hands of the advancing Soviet forces. Hitler ordered its destruction shortly after his last visit in November 1944, with the actual demolition occurring in late January 1945, after the Soviets began their Vistula–Oder offensive.

On the same day the Soviets liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp, they captured the Wolf’s Lair without firing a single shot. Under Soviet control, the site fell into disrepair and was closed off to any exploration or excavation. The public couldn’t access the site until the collapse of communism in Poland in 1990, which may explain how the corpses remained hidden for so long.

Besides, archaeologists wouldn’t have necessarily looked to find remains at the Wolf’s Lair, as it wasn’t a death camp. Designed as Hitler’s Eastern Front headquarters, this highly secretive complex served as the strategic center for the Nazi leadership to orchestrate their military campaign against the Soviet Union.

In fact, the most famous act of violence to take place at the Wolf’s Lair during the Third Reich was directed at Hitler himself. On July 20, 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg carried out an assassination attempt on Hitler in a Wolf’s Lair conference room, by placing a bomb concealed in a briefcase. Although the explosion resulted in the death of four Nazi officers and injured others, Hitler narrowly escaped with his life, largely due to the fortuitous shielding provided by a sturdy table leg that absorbed the brunt of the blast.

adolf hitler, politician, nazy party, germany hitler's headquarters 'wolfsschanze' near rastenburg, east prussia after the assassination attempt on july 20, 1944 hermann goering and reichsleiter martin bormann inspecting the conference room to th

Who were the five people buried where Nazi leaders once plotted? A new report in National Geographic pieces together some clues from the initial investigation:

“According to the medical examiner, the skeletons appear from their age to be from the ‘interwar’ years between 1918 and 1939, and the poor condition of the remains means it is now impossible to determine the causes of their deaths.”

So, it’s possible the bodies were buried on the site before the Wolf’s Lair was even built. (Construction concluded on the compound in June of 1941.)

Some experts have tried to connect the corpses to ritual sacrifice, as leading Nazi figures like Heinrich Himmler reportedly engaged in occult practices, according to NatGeo . They point to the presence of “dart-shaped stones called belemnites” near the bodies, which were reportedly sometimes placed at pagan burial sites as a “good luck charm.” But belemnite also naturally occurs in that area, so it’s tough to definitively interpret the stones’ proximity to the graves as evidence of ritualistic practices.

Since the corpses date back to a period between 1918 and 1939, the Latebra Foundation plans to proceed with radiocarbon dating. This analysis aims to pinpoint the bodies’ time of death more precisely, potentially narrowing it down to a span of just a few years. But, as NatGeo notes, even if these three adults and two children were buried before the Nazis ever set foot within the Wolf’s Lair, that also carries a disturbing implication:

“The skeletons were buried in the floor just a few inches below the surface and right next to 1940s-era plumbing pipes for the house, meaning that if they were indeed buried before Göring moved in, construction workers would have found the remains—and must have left them where they were.”

Michael Natale is the news editor for Best Products , covering a wide range of topics like gifting, lifestyle, pop culture, and more. He has covered pop culture and commerce professionally for over a decade. His past journalistic writing can be found on sites such as Yahoo! and Comic Book Resources , his podcast appearances can be found wherever you get your podcasts, and his fiction can’t be found anywhere, because it’s not particularly good.

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Hunting: Falling turkey numbers a big concern among advocacy groups, wildlife agencies

When season’s end came last Sunday for 83 Ohio counties, the state's turkey take bested alarming results of 2021 and 2022 but fell slightly from a year ago.

Spring turkey season results suggest these aren’t exactly flush times for Ohio’s gobbler hunters.

Not that the spring take of bearded birds is inexorably moving toward some sort of abyss, but any quick or steady rebound to the golden days of a fairly recent yesteryear has yet to be discerned.

The season ended last Sunday in 83 South Zone counties, including central Ohio counties, and the take bested the more recent and arguably alarming results of 2021 and 2022. Despite the improvement, 2024's numbers did fall slightly from a year ago.

Season totals released Monday by the Ohio Division of Wildlife stood at 15,426. That number included the turkeys taken during the statewide weekend youth season in April, the birds checked in 30 days of hunting in the south zone, and those harvested in the first 23 days of hunting in the northeast zone. Hunting in those five counties (Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, and Trumbull) ends at sunset Sunday.

Taken together, that's 129 fewer birds than the 15,550 checked a year ago at the same point of the spring season. The take both this year and last was well over the 2022 total of 11,872 birds and the 2021 count of 14,546.

Still, that falls short of what hunters had come to expect.

The 2018 spring take, for example, totaled 22,612, the 2017 take 21,096 and the 2019 take 19,088. Beginning with the first statewide hunt in 2000 and through 2010, the spring take numbered more than 20,000 birds eight times in 11 years, peaking at 26,156 in 2001.

The wildlife division in 1993 instituted a two-bird season in the 42 open counties, although a second permit cost double the price of a first permit. By 2003 the premium was dropped on a second permit.

The two-bird limit remained in effect until the shrinking wild turkey population in 2022 led to a cut in the spring limit to a single bird for the first time in almost 30 years.

A few voices have called for the elimination of the fall turkey season or at least the lack of restrictions on targeting hens. The wildlife division has kept a fall season, though short, and continues to allow the taking of a single turkey of either sex.

A research project is ongoing in the state to track changes in wild turkey habits or possible effects of environmental conditions that might lead to measures that help enhance survival. Falling turkey numbers are a widespread concern among advocacy groups and wildlife agencies.

Of those 83 counties where the turkey hunting season is over, Belmont led with 451 birds checked, followed by Monroe and Tuscarawas, both with 447.

Licking finished tops among central Ohio counties with 255, followed by Fairfield with 91, Delaware with 78, Union 44, Franklin 17, Pickaway 14 and Madison four.

Parting shots

A pair of Wisconsin anglers won the Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s National Team Championship, based in Lorain, with a limit of 10 Lake Erie walleyes weighing 80 pounds, 14 ounces. Some 287 anglers from 19 states contested rough waters during the two-day event. … Lake Erie's harmful algae bloom this summer is forecasted to be similar to a year ago, which was characterized as moderate. Rain during the last weeks of May could cause a larger bloom by increasing nutrient runoff. … The Cuyahoga River was added this year to the Lake Erie streams in which steelhead are stocked. … The purchase for $15 of a 2024 Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp, featuring a pair of cedar waxwings, comes with perks and helps fund programs that benefit species of most need.

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⚾️ DI baseball championship bracket released

🏆 Notre Dame wins DI men's LAX title

🥎 WCWS is set

T&F championship selections announced

Kaitlyn Schmidt | NCAA.com | May 26, 2024

2024 college baseball conference tournaments: schedules, brackets, auto-bids.

The 2024 NCAA DI baseball conference tournaments are completed and ran from May 17 through May 26. They decided most of the 32 automatic bids to the 2024 Men's College World Series. Below is information on each conference tournament, including dates, brackets and more.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: Here's the bracket and schedule for the 2024 DI baseball tournament

The 2024 NCAA baseball selection show will air on Memorial Day — Monday, May 27 at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

*Tarleton State won the WAC tournament, but is not eligible for NCAA tournaments until completing the four-year transition from DII to DI. Grand Canyon was awarded the WAC bid.

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CBS Sports Projects Commanders To Select Freak College Star In 2025 NFL Mock Draft

Caleb skinner | may 23, 2024.

Apr 27, 2024; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes cornerback Travis Hunter (12) warms up before a

Washington Commanders

The Washington Commanders look to have found their quarterback of the future in Jayden Daniels, the former Heisman-winning LSU Tiger who was selected second overall in the 2024 draft.

Daniels likely will be asked to start immediately in the DMV in his rookie season, but it remains to be seen what kind of outcome that will have on the team when it comes to the win-and-loss record. The Commanders could shock some people in 2024 as they have a relatively average strength of schedule compared to that of other teams, but with so many new pieces there is bound to be some speed bumps along the way.

Being the second-worst team in the NFL in 2023 netted them Daniels and according to CBS Sports Washington will again be near the bottom of the league this upcoming season as they have the Commanders picking inside the top five, taking Colorado Buffaloes' freak athlete Travis Hunter with the fourth overall pick in 2025.

"Hunter has the athletic gifts to be a top-five selection as mostly a cornerback, who can also simply make plays as a receiver and return man. Another fun element in Washington with Jayden Daniels."

It is tough to predict exactly where Hunter will be asked to play when making the transition into the NFL. Throughout his career thus far he has played both sides of the ball, something that is almost unheard of in today's game, but seemingly has looked more comfortable and effective for his team by playing the cornerback role.

Even so, Hunter could continue to play both sides in the NFL, but that would likely come with a snap count at each position. Hunter is a unicorn when it comes to the game of football, so for the Commanders to nab the former No. 1 overall recruit out of high school and pair him with Jayden Daniels they would be well on their way to having one of the more entertaining units in all of football.

Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2024 season.

Follow Caleb on Twitter

CALEB SKINNER

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COMMENTS

Journal of Sport History
The Journal of Sport History seeks to promote the study of all aspects of the history of sport. We invite the submission of scholarly articles, research notes, documents, and commentary; interview articles and book reviews are assigned by the Editor. Potential contributors are urged to consult recent issues of the JSH for examples of the format ...
Sport in History
Journal overview. Sport in History is concerned with all aspects of sport and associated forms of leisure and recreation in the past. The journal is the academic arm of the British Society of Sports History and is committed to publishing original, archive-based research on the history of sport from a variety of disciplines.
Project MUSE
The Journal of Sport History is published three times a year in spring, summer, and fall by the North American Society for Sport History. The purpose of the North American Society for Sport History is to promote, stimulate, and encourage study and research and writing of the history of sport, and to support and cooperate with local, national, and international organizations having the same ...
The Oxford Handbook of Sports History
The emergence of sport history is the culmination of more than a half century of disparate developments. As early as 1951, John Rickards Betts completed a pioneering doctoral dissertation at Columbia University titled "Organized Sport in Industrial America." 1 Betts, who became a member of the history faculty at Boston College, continued to research and write about sport in the 1950s and ...
The International Journal of the History of Sport
View a list of the latest free articles available from The International Journal of the History of Sport. Now in its fourth decade, The International Journal of the History of Sport ( IJHS)is the world's leading sport history academic periodical with its fully-refereed global coverage of the subject.As well as regular issues, the IJHS also offers regionally-focused issues on the Americas ...
Sport History Review
Sport History Review (SHR) is a forum for peer-reviewed scholarly work in the broad field of sport history.Published since 1970, with an editorial review board that boasts members from around the world, SHR is committed to addressing topics of international interest. Sport historians who teach or conduct research in an academic setting or others with special interests in sport history will ...
On Sport, Public History, and Public Sport History
There are many directions such a project could go, including the decades- old ... sport history scholarship comes from scholars based in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, so this article will necessarily expand beyond the United States and into a range of ... and offer suggestions for future research. To drive public sport history ...
Journal
Sport in History. Sport in History is the official journal of the British Society of Sports History. Four times per year, it publishes original, peer-reviewed research on the history of sport, leisure and recreation. One or two of these are usually special issues. There are no restrictions on its geographical and chronological coverage.
Narrative Methods in Sport History Research: Biography, Collective
182. Stephen Hardy, 'Entrepreneurs, Organizations, and the Sport Marketplace: Subjects in Search of Historians', Journal of Sport History 13, no. 1 (1986), 14-33; Wray Vamplew, 'Australian Sport History: A Research Agenda', The International Journal of the History of Sport 6, no. 2 (1989), 252-55.
Project MUSE
Additional Information. Abstract. Abstract: This article explores public health approaches to sport history as an important direction for the field. Several histories have examined the professionalization of sports medicine, athletic training, and other related fields, providing insight into the relationship between medical specialties and sports.
Project MUSE
Volume 49, Number 1, Spring 2022. The Journal of Sport History is published three times a year in spring, summer, and fall by the North American Society for Sport History. The purpose of the North American Society for Sport History is to promote, stimulate, and encourage study and research and writing of the history of sport, and to support and ...
HIST 090 The History of Sport: Welcome
This course guide is intended to assist students in their term paper assignment for the course The History of Sport (HIST 090), taught by Professor Angela Gleason during Spring term 2022 at Yale University. The selection of resources included in this guide is not intended to be comprehensive. Library Contacts.
Making sport history : disciplines, identities and the historiography
How has their work influenced the wider world of history and been influenced by it? This important new collection of work by some of the world's leading sport historians seeks to answer these questions and more, offering a fascinating overview of the evolution, current condition and future prospects of the discipline of sport history"--
Sports
Sports are physical contests pursued for the goals and challenges they entail. Popular sports include football (soccer), gridiron football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, field hockey, cricket, tennis, rugby, and golf. Learn more about the development and history of sports in this article.
Game On! The Oral History of Las Vegas Sports
The Oral History Research Center is primarily funded by private support. Your sponsorship is essential to making Game On! a reality. Your sponsorship will help us: Facilitate project logistics: Assist hiring staff and editors. Transcribe and print oral histories: Ensure these invaluable stories are preserved and accessible.
500+ Sports Research Topics
500+ Sports Research Topics. March 26, 2024. by Muhammad Hassan. Sports research topics cover a vast array of areas in the world of athletics, from the physical and psychological impacts of sport on athletes to the social and cultural implications of sports on society. Sports research can include studies on training techniques, nutrition ...
Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project
The first Transnational Project Meeting (TPM) of the "Traditional Sports and Games History Research Project" carried out within the scope of Erasmus+ KA210-YOU took place on 06.04.2023 at the World Ethnosport Confederation Headquarters. Representatives from the World Ethnosport Confederation (Turkey) and TtB (Norway) participated in the event.
15 History Project Ideas for High School Students
The war between Israel and Palestine is one of the trending history project topics, so high school students can get a lot of information online. Learn about the root cause of the conflict by researching the historical background, key events, religion, and cultural values. 3. Ancient Civilizations scrapbook.
Sport History Relevance and How We Need to Engage
8. By 1 May 2017 Taylor and Francis recorded the following read figures: 'The Origins Debate - How Soccer Triumphed Over Other Forms of Team Sports in Manchester', Soccer & Society (published online 9 January 2017), second most read article in Soccer & Society, 4100 reads; 'Manchester's Footballing Pioneers, 1863-1904: A Collective Biography', International Journal of the History ...
History of Sports Lesson Plans & Worksheets Reviewed by Teachers
The Victor's Virtue: A Cultural History of Sport. For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed Standards. Pupils explore the meaning of the ancient Greek word aretê and the place of virtue in historical athletic competition and modern sports. They begin by reading an informational text on the goal of sports in education, and then evaluate...
Humanities scholars research free speech, AI, sports culture and the
Humanities scholars research free speech, AI, sports culture and the Supreme Court. Elizabeth Rene '24 has had an interest in the court system since her high school days watching "Law and Order," but she became particularly attentive to what was going on in the Supreme Court when Donald Trump became president. "It was the greatest ...
The Ahnenerbe: How the Nazis Constructed Racial Mythologies
On July 1, 1935, in Berlin, Heinrich Himmler and Dutch-German scholar Herman Wirth, among others, founded the Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte 'Deutsches Ahnenerbe' (Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas). According to its founders, the society was meant to be devoted to the launch of research projects aiming to find scientific evidence of the Aryan race's ...
Mysterious Bodies Unearthed at Hitler's Secret Lair
A grim discovery sheds new light on the dark history of a Nazi fortress. Amateur archaeologists were recently searching for stray artifacts in an abandoned building in Poland when they made a ...
Full article: Public history and the British Society of Sports History
ABSTRACT. This article explores the importance of sports history societies sharing their research with a broader audience. It draws on our own experiences and highlights examples of the work done by other British Society of Sports History members to disseminate their research through 'traditional' methods such as films, radio, and exhibitions and digital means, for example, Playing Pasts.
Ohio Division of Wildlife: Dwindling turkey numbers a concern in Ohio
A research project is ongoing in the state to track changes in wild turkey habits or possible effects of environmental conditions that might lead to measures that help enhance survival. Falling ...
2024 college baseball conference tournaments: Schedules, brackets, auto
The 2024 NCAA DI baseball conference tournaments are completed and ran from May 17 through May 26. They decided most of the 32 automatic bids to the 2024 Men's College World Series. Below is ...
CBS Sports Projects Commanders To Select Freak ...
The Washington Commanders could have a chance to nab one of the most exciting players in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Washington Commanders look to have found their quarterback of the future in Jayden ...

Introduction

Theorizing Sport History

Premodern Sport

Modern Sport

Patterns of Diffusion

New Globalizations and Their Discontents

Reconsidering Old Categories and Contemplating New Ones

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Volume 55 (2024): Issue 1 (May 2024): Special Issue: Nature Sport and Environmental History: Adulation or Alteration of Nature?

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