Sport in History Podcast

Our Friends over at the History of Jackson have been kind enough to share this short podcast interview with David Horspool with the Sport in History Podcast, with Jackson Van Uden, founder of History with Jackson, interviewing David at Chalke History Festival about his book 'More Than a Game: A History of How Sport Made Britain' published in late 2023 by John Murray Publishing. 'More Than A Game' is available now to purchase in hardcover and paperback versions online and from all retail booksellers.

While the decline in Black American baseball players has received lots of scholarly attention in the last three decades, scholars have not spent as much time studying the decline of Black American fans at Major League Baseball (MLB) games. The few of examinations of the number of Black American fans at MLB games that exist tend not to take the structures of the fan experience at MLB games into account. In contrast, this paper examines that experience, which reveals that the persistent, but adaptable, marginalization of Black fans at MLB games—from describing them differently, to treating them differently, to segregating them, to building new ballparks far removed from Black communities, to not marketing to Black audiences, to making it difficult for Black fans to reach games—is a major contributing factor to the disproportionately low number of Black American fans at MLB games today.

Throughout the twentieth century women's rights to compete in sport at international level started to be realised, with major tournaments and competitions starting to, reluctantly, open their doors to female athletes. Nonetheless, this battle had been difficult and long for many women's sporting organisations who relied on dedicated committee members to push forward an international playing agenda. Formed in 1926, the All England Netball Association (AENA) was the first dedicated governing body for the sport, aiming to expand netball's reach by providing opportunities for girls and women to participate in such activities beyond the confines of the schools within the United Kingdom by disseminating rules and establishing competition across the Commonwealth. However, with no globally agreed laws, there was difficulty providing international competition. To unify netball, the AENA committee brought together key netballing figures from across Australia, New Zealand, Ceylon, South Africa and the West Indies in the hope of agreeing a new version of the game for international dissemination. This was realised in 1960 when the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) was established, with AENA members being awarded selection of the first officers as a tribute to their dedicated work in bringing many netballing nations together. This paper will explore the development of netball's international governance, considering the efforts of the AENA committee in creating a unified voice for netball. Samantha-Jayne Oldfield is a senior lecturer in sport history and the sociology of sport at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is an associate editor for Sport in History and is an academic consultant for England Netball's netball heritage and archives group. A founder of the Netball History Network, she is committed to establishing an international community of netball scholars and publications, whilst developing her own research project surrounding the founding women of England Netball and the construction of a more comprehensive history of the organisation.

This emerging, ongoing research project delves into the historical influence of class distinctions on cricket in Greater Manchester, focusing on grassroots cricketers and their connection to their playing kit. With a background as a Salford native, the researcher is intrigued by the interplay of sport and social class, especially through the lens of cricket attire. Leisure time is a realm where symbols can easily shape social status, offering temporary social mobility away from work (Joseph, 1986). This study delves into the cricket kit as a semiotic sign, unveiling hidden narratives about class identity and cricket, primarily in Greater Manchester. It also explores how urban cricket integrates into the local culture. Material methods, particularly material collections (Holmes and Hall, 2020), have significantly influenced the research. The project treats the cricket kit bag as a collection and seeks to reveal personal connections to cricketers' kits, shedding light on how identity and place inform this collection. A reflexive mode of documentary practice is employed to critically examine the researcher's role in shaping and representing the research. This approach involves self-awareness and scrutinizes the researcher's impact on the subject matter and its interpretation by the audience (Nichols, 2017). In summary, this research project aims to offer a diverse urban perspective on the intricate relationship between sport and social class by exploring the class connotations of the traditional cricket kit and its significance to Greater Manchester club cricketers. Danny Orwin is an Early Career Researcher and Fashion Film Lecturer at Manchester Fashion Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University. My research stems from an interest in the role of filmmaking in investigating fashion cultures, and how through exploration of this, themes of place and identity can be revealed.

Dr Michael Connolly is currently lecturing in Sport Management at the University of Stirling, placed within the Faculty of Health Science and Sport. His research is centred within the Sport division and over the past five academic years he has worked towards producing the world's first biography of Brother Walfrid - most recognised as the prime founder of Celtic Football Club in Glasgow in 1887/88. Michael's thesis is titled "Faith, Community and Football: The Life of Brother Walfrid" and draws on fresh primary source material uncovered through rigorous archival work in Scotland, Ireland, England and France. The research project reached completion on the 1st November 2022,with the thesis published as a book titled Walfrid: A Life of Faith, Community and Football by Argyll Publishing.

This episode is a recording of a Roundtable discussion during the first Cricket Research Network conference, held at the Museum of Welsh Cricket in Cardiff on 23 February 2024. The discussion was Chaired by Professor Dominic Malcolm (Loughborough University) and the participants (in the order in which they appear on the recording) were: Michael Collins, Associate Professor Modern History, UCL and member of the Independent Commission on Equity in Cricket (ICEC) Raf Nicholson, Senior Lecturer, Bournemouth University and Chair of the Cricket Research Network Mark Frost, Development Manager, Cricket Wales and Glamorgan Cricket Kate Aldridge, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, England and Wales Cricket Board The theme of the conference was ‘Cricket in a post-ICEC World: Where do we go from here?' and the Roundtable discussion was framed around three central questions: what had been achieved since the publication of the ICEC report, what were the priority areas for future development, and how could the Cricket Research Network contribute to the important work of reducing, and ultimately eliminating, structural and institutional racism, sexism and class-based discrimination in the game.

'For those who like the life nothing could be better': The Games Mistress in Interwar Britain During the Edwardian period the ‘sporting girl' was increasingly being framed as modern and aspirational. Intensive exercise programmes had been introduced at many British girls' schools and the physical education colleges were graduating substantial numbers of women gymnastics and games teachers, the demand for whom increased rapidly with an expansion in the playing of team sports. Some headmistresses placed greater importance upon the character of her games mistress than any other member of staff, because the games mistress interacted with girls in their more spontaneous and unguarded moments; ‘hers was the exceptional opportunity of helping them to play in a manner to show not merely proficiency in games, but character as well'. This connection to pupils was reflected in the literature that referred to ‘what a ripping games mistress they'd got', and to recollections of everyone having had a ‘crack' on the games mistress in their schooldays. Most of these women have left little trace in the historical record, but that should not dissuade the historian from making the effort to uncover their life courses. Combining evidence from a broad spectrum of key primary sources, including newspapers, the 1911 and 1921 censuses, college records, literature, girls' annuals, specialist periodicals, photographs, local and family histories, and the 1939 National Register, this paper illuminates some of the biographies and experiences of the women who led the development of sport and physical activity for girls both inside and outside the school environment, at national and at regional level. These narratives may lack evidence in parts, but they provide enough material to give us a picture of the lives of those involved and allow us to interrogate some of the stereotypes that have been assigned to the figure of the Inter War games mistress. Dave Day is Professor of Sports History at Manchester Metropolitan University where his research interests include the historical development of coaching and training practices as well as the life courses of nineteenth and twentieth century sports coaches. A significant feature of his research has been the pioneering of biographical techniques and the use of genealogical resources and he is continuing to explore new methodologies and sources for the creation of sports history. Dave's current research projects include exploring the transcultural transmission of coaching traditions across national borders, the gendered socialisation into sport through the medium of Victorian children's' periodicals, and the lives and experiences of women coaches in the first half of the twentieth century. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the European Committee for Sports History, past editor-in-chief of the Sport in History journal, and a past Chair of the British Society of Sports History.

In the decades surrounding the turn of the twenty-first century, few brands across the globe gained more recognition than that of FC Barcelona. During this period, the club engaged in two mission that were seemingly at odds with one another. The first was to globalize the club's reach and expand into international markets. The second was to retain its historic nationalist significance. This paper explores how the club negotiated the tensions between these two missions in the 1990s and 2000s, and in doing so, fostered a connection between Catalonia and international publics that had not existed before, all to the benefit of the region's nationalist movement. After varied attempts at profiting from engaging with international audience, this eventually took the form of a brand-consumer relationship. In negotiating this expansion, club leaders and various interested actors not only turned FC Barcelona into a consumable product, but also rendered international fans as consumers. By providing a narrative account of this development, I show how nationalist institutions and symbols are not neutralized by global processes, but can adapt to and ensconce themselves in international networks all while furthering their nationalist purpose. Max Ferrer's PhD research at King's College London focuses on the intersection between nationalism and globalization in the region of Catalonia since Spain's return to democracy in 1978. Organized around various case studies, including mass tourism, elite sport, and higher education, this dissertation examines the evolution of Catalonia's nationalist movement, which was strengthened and defined by the global era. In doing so, it attempts to situate the role of culture in promoting an image of the region as a distinct political entity and evaluating culture's role as a mediator between globalization and nationalism. Prior to his PhD research, he completed an MA at Columbia University's European Institute, where his thesis won the Institute's Distinction Award and led to a chapter in Routledge's European Integration and Disintegration: Essays from the Next Generation of Europe's Thinkers.

Clem Seecharan, the distinguished historian of Guyana and Caribbean cricket, talks to David Woodhouse at a special event to celebrate his being given the Howard Milton Award for cricket scholarship. Clem talks about his youth growing up on Berbice in then British Guyana and the effect on him of reading the CLR James classic, 'Beyond a Boundary'. He also reflects on the great players that Guyana has produced over the years, including the recent match-winner against Australia, Shamar Joseph. You can access a wonderful video of Clem speaking at Moray House here https://youtu.be/ZOm5c0zpBvE?si=1V-o4MmeWp4rBhoc

Barbara Buttrick and the History of Women's Boxing in Britain This paper explores the life and career of Barbara Buttrick but also the way in which her achievements have been remembered (and forgotten). Born near Hull in 1930, Buttrick faced discrimination and disapproval in the UK and was frequently banned and boycotted. Moving to the United States in 1952, she enjoyed greater opportunities and recognition. In 1957, she beat Phyllis Kugler in a bout in San Antonio, Texas, to become the first sanctioned women's boxing title-holder. In retirement, Buttrick became a key figure in the foundation and development of the Women's International Boxing Federation. Drawing on material from the Barbara Buttrick Collection at the National Fairground Archive in Sheffield among other sources, this paper examines three key phases in the ‘making' and ‘remembering' of Buttrick in relation to the history of women's boxing in Britain. It focuses first on her boxing career in the late 1940s-1960, then examines the interweaving of Buttrick's story into the narrative of women's boxing at the 2012 London Olympics, before finally looking at the portrayal of Buttrick in Amanda Whittington's 2017 play Mighty Atoms. Matthew Taylor is Professor of History at the ICSHC and Director of the Institute of History, DMU. He has written widely on the history of sport in Britain and beyond. His last book was Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-1945 (Routledge, 2020) and he is currently completing World of Sport: Connected and Transnational Histories, which will be published by Routledge in 2024.

‘I've been with them longer than my wife.' Searching for emotional clues in published fan culture. The highs and lows of following Lincoln City 1945-2000 Histories of emotions in sports have been mainly noticeable by their absence. This paper aims to begin to fill the gap Ross McKibbin identified when he questioned the failure of historians to seriously investigate the emotional experiences of those who watched or played sports despite often citing the fundamental importance of emotion in sport's enduring appeal. Likewise, Barbara Keys has recently argued that the academic focus in sports history continues to neglect the history of emotions, adding that historians could learn lessons from popular literature. Richard Holt has argued that the lack of research into the history of emotion in sports was due to a lack of sources. In response to these arguments, this paper will argue that historians must be innovative in using sources to research the history of emotion in sports. The paper will demonstrate how a critical search for ‘emotional clues' in popular literature and published fan memoirs can contribute to a greater understanding of the continuities and differences in the expression and performance of emotion over time in the sporting context. It will do this through a case study of Lincoln City, a small lower-league provincial club. This case study will also significantly contribute to current research, which primarily concentrates on successful football clubs in large urban centres. Finally, the paper will shed light on how the history of emotion in sports can contribute to a greater understanding of the broader themes of class, gender and identity in post-war Britain. Roy Thomson is a third year PhD student at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University.

This episode Souvik Naha gives a paper on the relationship between cricket, nationalism and postcolonial identities in 20th century India. What cricket tells us about the making of a postcolonial city Indian cricket mobilized a large and diverse popular following in the twentieth century. What was so special about cricket and why was it so important to a large number of people? Why do postcolonial Indians identify with the colonial game the way they do? Is the engagement with English culture a mechanism for empowering and modernising themselves? What does cricket tell us about the making of a public culture? This presentation, based on my book Cricket, Public Culture, and the Making of Postcolonial Calcutta, will discuss the moulding of the Indian public as cricket followers and cricket's role in the emergence of a postcolonial society. Through thematic explorations of cricket's significance for the people of Calcutta, it will explore the making of public culture in a postcolonial city. The followers and critics of cricket in Calcutta are the protagonists in this history. A study of their entanglement offers two important insights into the making of postcolonial society. First, it enables us to understand how people attach symbolic values to cultural forms to reimagine and reinvent themselves. Second, it enhances the analytical value of cricket as a cultural tool that empowered, modernised, and gave new meanings to its community. Souvik Naha's doctoral research at ETH Zurich, funded by a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship, examined how journalists and broadcasters popularised cricket as an ideal everyday leisure activity in twentieth-century Calcutta. In doing so, it shed light on the dynamics of cultural transfer and the afterlife of colonialism in a decolonising society, integrating the histories of everyday life, popular culture, regional politics, and the transnational circulation of ideas in a postcolonial context. This research led to a monograph that explored how cricket gave the Bengalis of postcolonial Calcutta a tool to understand and form themselves as a cultural community, creating new social relationships. Prior to joining the University of Glasgow Souvik taught History at the West Bengal State University and the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak. He also held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship at Durham University. This project extended his work on decolonisation by examining cricket's significance as a tool of reshaping Indo-British relationship after India's independence, focussing on issues of race, mobility, migration, diplomacy, and environment. This research has laid the foundation for his second monograph, which will examine the role of sport in recasting the British World and the Commonwealth in the 1940s-60s.

This episode Geoff talks to cricket historian Jeremy Lonsdale about the MCC tour to India in 1926-27. The tour, led by Arthur Gilligan, was a pivotal moment in Indian cricket history with Indian cricketers proving that they were worthy to play Test matches in the very near future. Jeremy also talks about the political implications of the tour at a time when demands for self-government were becoming ever harder for the British government to ignore. He also describes the way in which class tensions arose between the European community in India and the cricketers from 'back home'.

This episode features the keynote presentation at the 2023 BSSH Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University. Dr Heather Dichter gives a wide ranging overview of the relationship between sport and soft power over the past century from the turbulent politics of the 1930s through the Cold War to the Beijing Games. Dr Heather Dichter of De Montfort University is a leading scholar on twentieth century sports history and won the 2022 Lord Aberdare Prize for Sport Literature for her book, 'Bidding for the 1968 Olympic Games: International Sport's Cold War Battle with NATO' (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2021). https://www.umasspress.com/9781625345950/bidding-for-the-1968-olympic-games/#:~:text=In%20Bidding%20for%20the%201968,sport%20responded%20to%20political%20interference.

'The enemy within' football hooliganism and the miners' strike' During the 1980s Margaret Thatcher's government attempted to reduce the economic power of the industrial working class by legislating against the trade unions and defeating the 1984-85 Miners' Strike. At the time English football was an important part of male working-class culture, particularly for northern industrial workers and was under attack from the Government and Press over football hooliganism. It has often been argued that Thatcher's trade union policies were designed to break the economic power of the industrial working class (Young, 1993, Richards 1996). If, through comparison, a link between this policy and the treatment of football supporters is found it will determine whether this conflict had a cultural aspect. Scholars such as Giulianotti (1985) and McArdle (2000) have anecdotally made this link but there has not been sufficient analysis of the comparison. Waiton (2012, 2014) also references the similarities in Thatcher's description of football fans and strikers with the IRA but does not interrogate this in depth. This paper will address this and focus on the Government and press treatment of football and trade unions and assess whether the Government was seeking to bind the two issues together. Tom Campbell is a maths teacher at the UCL Academy in North London, he completed his masters in history at Durham University for which he won the Richie Prize prize. Despite pursuing a career in education he has kept his hand in the sports history gamen and has spoken at various conferences over the last 3 years on topics such as the interaction between racism and boxing in regency England, the importance of memory in football fandom, the development of football stadia and the history of football hooliganism. He recently published 'The enemy within' football hooliganism and the miners' strike' in Sport in History which he also spoke on at last summers' BSSH conference.

Join Conor Heffernan as he interviews Turlough O'Riordan and Terry Clavin, co-editors of the wonderful 2022 collection Irish Sporting Lives. We are also delighted to be joined by Irish Sporting Lives contributor (and force behind a successful conference) Carol Osborne. Irish Sporting Lives can be purchased directly from the Royal Irish Academy at https://www.ria.ie/irish-sporting-lives

Roger Domeneghetti is Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Northumbria University while maintaining a career as a freelance journalist where he has worked for Associated Press, Sporting Life and the Morning Star among others. In 2015 Roger's book, From the Back Page to the Front Room, a history of England's football media, was short-listed for the BSSH's Aberdare Prize and he has now followed up with Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Britain, Sport and the 1980s published by Yellow Jersey Press in 2023. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442996/everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world-by-domeneghetti-roger/9781787290594

Conor Heffernan on US Women's Weightlifting in the 80s by British Society of Sports History

The geographies and finances of bare-knuckle prize-fighting in Britain, 1860-1880 From the mid-nineteenth century bare-knuckle prize-fighting in Britain was reported as being in retreat. Yet, despite opposition and condemnation prize-fighting retained a ubiquitous social and cultural presence, both inside and outside the ring. Large crowds made up of people from all classes and walks of life continued to enjoy the bloody and atavistic spectacle of two boxers fighting until one was unable to come 'up to scratch'. Well-known fighters enjoyed considerable fame and fortune, however, for many it was a precarious occupation, but deemed worth the risks involved. Most studies of prize-fighting have focused on the earlier bare-knuckle Regency ‘Golden Age' or on twentieth-century gloved boxing and this transformational and transitional phase of prize-fighting is largely ignored or used to compare against the inexorable advance of modernised and more commercially successful sports. However, this period witnessed the most remarkable bare-knuckle fight in Britain for decades and the Queensberry Rules introduced a more acceptable and better-regulated alternative. This paper uses my current research to explore the link between the geographies and finances of prize-fighting. It reveals that rather than witnessing the decline and fall of prize-fighting it had in fact flourished in new contexts and persisted into the late-nineteenth century and beyond. Ben Duncan-Jones is a PhD student at De Montfort University.

Andy Carter - Victorians and sport in the classical world by British Society of Sports History

This episode features a paper given by Katie Holmes at the IHR on women's running. Until October 1975, women in the UK did not compete in marathons, nor were they allowed run in any other long-distance road races. Women's Amateur Athletic Association rules prohibited them from racing further than 6000m. Road racing was an almost entirely male preserve. In May 1964, Scottish runner Dale Greig competed in the Isle of Wight Marathon, a lone woman in a field of 67 men, with the permission of the race organisers. Her run was covered by the national press but did not act as a catalyst for change. By the early 1970s, more women were challenging the athletics governing bodies' rules and seeking to take their place on the start line at road races. These women saw themselves as long-distance runners and through their activism they asserted that identity for themselves and asserted the right of all women to run. In this paper, I will give examples of the varied ways in which women broke the rules. I will consider the wider meaning and impact of their activism in the context of changes in women's sport and the women's liberation movement in the 1970s. My paper draws on oral history interviews, contemporary coverage of the issue in Athletics Weekly and the press and archival research. Katie Holmes is a runner and independent sports historian from Nottingham. Her research into the history of women's distance running in the UK is driven by a desire to capture stories which might otherwise be lost and to recover, and uncover, stories which have faded out of the collective memory due to the marginalisation of women in sport. In 2020, she was awarded an Independent Researcher Fellowship by the Women's History Network for her research into Dale Greig. In 2022 she was awarded the British Society of Sports History Sporting Inequalities prize. She is a trustee of the British Society of Sports History.

Brother Walfrid (Andrew Kerins) is best known for founding Celtic F.C. in 1888. While his name is known well within the club's history, biographical details of Walfrid are often lacking. Listen as Conor speaks with Dr. Michael Connolly from Sterling University concerning Michael's new book,Walfrid: A Life of Faith Community and Football. The book can be purchased directly from Thirsty Books for a delightfully reasonable fee of £20!

This episode features a paper given by Alec Hurley at the British Society of Sport History's Sport & Leisure History seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in London. Though sport clubs are universal, there exists – as nineteenth century French diplomat Alexis DeTocqueville claimed – a uniquely American disposition toward the formation of associations. This presentation will examine the role of nineteenth-century urban sports clubs through the nexus of place, space, and cultural identity. In doing so, I will bring together digital history, urban history, and local community histories to understand cultural relationships in a post-industrial city. Literature on smaller industrial areas, as opposed to large metropoles, remains underexamined. Roy Rosenzweig addressed that concern in his work on the labor history of immigrants in Worchester, Massachusetts, when he claimed, “the evidence from one medium-sized city can only resolve these questions in tentative ways.” He did, however, provide a caveat that if reliable data could be elicited from comparative cities, scholars could draw grander conclusions. My choice of location: Rochester, New York, fits the requirements for Rosenzweig's comparative city. As such this presentation will explore how I used and continue to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to demonstrate the interaction, evolution, and shifting impact that various ethnic communities had on the physical infrastructure and cultural development of Rochester. With a goal of expanding the research on a global scale, this presentation offers insight into the expansive and groundbreaking intersection of sport studies, the digital humanities, and multicultural narratives. Alec S. Hurley is an adjunct professor at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, NY, where he teaches courses across the sport humanities. This presentation is derived from his dissertation, which he completed in the summer of 2022 from the University of Texas at Austin under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Hunt. He has published and presented internationally on sport, cultural identity, and urban community.

This episode Geoff talks to Jeremy Lonsdale about his latest work on Yorkshire cricket history, 'A Game Emerging: Yorkshire before the coming of the All England Eleven'. The book tells the story of Yorkshire cricket from c. 1750 to the 1840s and in their conversation Geoff and Jeremy discuss the way in which cricket fitted into wider societal change in the county in the 19th Century. Jeremy also discusses his forthcoming book on the MCC's tour of India in 1926/7 led by Arthur Gilligan.

In this episode Rob Colls examines the ‘Fight of the Century' - between the American John Carmel Heenan and the British boxer ‘Brighton Titch' Tom Sayers - which took place on 17th April 1860. The fight was a landmark in the history of international sport whose staging and coverage encapsulated many of the dramatic social, technological and economic changes taking place on both sides of the Atlantic in the Victorian era. Robert Colls is Professor of Cultural History at De Montfort and his latest book, This Sporting Life: Sport and Liberty in England 1760-1960 (OUP: 2020) won the prestigious Lord Aberdare Prize for the best work of sports history, awarded by the British Society of Sports History.

Eric Blakely gives a paper on Zoom about his fascinating research into the social background of the 750 or so athletes who competed for Great Britain and Ireland in the 1908 London Olympics. Eric's paper is followed by questions from the audience.

Join Conor Heffernan, Oliver Knabe and Alan McDougall as they discuss the new edited collection Football Nation: The Playing Fields of German Culture, History, and Society. Published in 2022, this collection draws from a range of different fields to discuss the socio-political and cultural importance of football in Germany across the twentieth-century. For more information see https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/DawsonFootball

This episode Geoff talks to David Woodhouse about his quadruple award-winning book, 'Who Only Cricket Know: Hutton's Men in the West Indies 1953/54'. Held at the London Library in central London it's a wide ranging discussion in which David explains why the MCC tour of that year was a key moment in the history of cricket and society more generally on both sides of the Atlantic. Inspired by CLR James's 'Beyond a Boundary' David explores the way in which the England team embodied the class tensions of post-War Britain and also the way in which racial tension and the struggle for independence was a constant presence in what was billed as a struggle for the title of world champions of cricket.

This episode is a recording of the paper given by Max Portman at the Institute of Historical Research on 14th Nov 2022. If one is to talk about the importance of sport within East London, West Ham United is always a part of the conversation. As the premier football team within the area, West Ham United are ingrained in the popular culture psyche of East London as much as pie & mash or Eastenders is and therefore deserves our focus as historians, regardless of our scope on the area. But the most important sporting event to dominate East London in our recent history is the 2012 Olympic games, held in Stratford. Whilst the games themselves were a roaring success, there were many questions regarding the legacy of the Olympic stadium, the centrepiece of the games and its future. Desperate to avoid the disasters that had befallen previous Olympic venues such as the now derelict 2004 Olympics venues in Athens, the government launched a bidding process that would decide and protect the legacy of the 2012 games. In 2013, West Ham would agree to a deal that would see them move into the stadium in 2016 and protect this legacy. However, the road to becoming the tenants of the Olympic Stadium was often contentious and controversial, with the first bidding process collapsing, the club's rental agreement for the stadium coming under heavy public scrutiny and a 2017 review highlighting the failures of the entire process. This episode highlights a 7-year journey from 2010 to 2017 of a lengthy, complicated process that saw interpersonal relationships, alleged government incompetence and multiple legal challenges become key aspects of one club's bid to take over a new stadium. It also examines the key parties involved, such as who benefitted the most from the stadium and who were the subsequent losers in this process too. Finally, it examines the legacy of the Olympic stadium both as the new home of West Ham United and as a political football for opposing sides to kick about in blaming one another for the stadium's failures. Max Portman is a final-year PhD student at the University of Chichester, with a focus on West Ham United as a nexus of communities in East London since 1981 As a West Ham fan and a budding academic, Max saw the opportunity with his thesis to utilise his passion for the club, as well as carry on the great academic work, focused on West Ham that began with Charles Korr. Today's paper will be focusing on the club's, albeit controversial journey, to becoming tenants of the Olympic Stadium.

This episode Geoff talks to Dr Rich Parry about his latest book, Swallows and Hawk, which tells the history of South Africa through the medium of MCC cricket tours . Beginning at the end of the nineteenth century Rich tells us how cricket and the development of colonial capitalism went hand in hand throughout the twentieth century on the continent of Africa and how cricket was complicit with, even implicated in the development of the racist state of white majority rule under the apartheid system. There's also talk of the pioneering women's tour of 1961-62 as well as lots of cricket chat, culminating in a discussion of the D'Oliveria Affair.

Join Conor Heffernan and David Patrick as they discuss David's upcoming co-edited book with Ian Phimister, A Boxing Legacy: The Life and Works of Writer and Cartoonist Ted Carroll (Rowman, 2023). Ted Carroll was one of the greatest American artists and sportswriters of the twentieth century, most notably as a boxing cartoonist and journalist. As a Black man working in an era when boxing was one of the few outlets where Black athletes could achieve wealth, success, and recognition, Carroll's commentary on the sport provides a profound perspective on race and the history of boxing. Link available at : https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538164808/A-Boxing-Legacy-The-Life-and-Works-of-Writer-and-Cartoonist-Ted-Carroll

The Accidental Sports Historian Ramachandra Guha is a historian and biographer based in Bengaluru. For many years, Ramachandra Guha wrote scholarly, heavily footnoted, academic books and papers which dealt with subjects other than sport, while moonlighting during the weekends as a writer of popular, anecdotal, articles on Indian cricket and cricketers. The serendipitous discovery that India's first great slow bowler, Palwankar Baloo, played a modest role in a political controversy that took place long after he retired from the game, encouraged Guha to bring his profession and passion together. The outcome was his book A Corner of a Foreign Field, a social history of cricket in India. Guha discusses the methodological lessons he learnt while researching the book, and also speaks about the future prospects for sports history. His books include a pioneering environmental history, The Unquiet Woods (University of California Press, 1989), an award-winning social history of cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field (Picador, 2002), and a widely acclaimed history of his country, India after Gandhi (Macmillan/Ecco Press, 2007). He is also the author of a two-volume biography of Mahatma Gandhi (Gandhi Before India, 2013, and Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World, 2018, both published by Knopf), and of a memoir of his life as a cricket fan, The Commonwealth of Cricket (William Collins, 2020).

Professor Richard Holt, whose critical sport on British sport history, opens the BSSH's 40th anniversary with a retrospective keynote on the development of British sport history and the areas still in need of historical attention. We are thankful to Professor Holt for a fascinating paper, which can also be found in print form online at https://www.sportinhistory.org/articles/taking-stock-british-sports-history-forty-years

Join Conor and Professor Mike Cronin for a retrospective discussion on Professor Cronin's own career in Irish sport history, the rise of sport history as a discipline in Ireland and the areas still in need of attention. Professor Mike Cronin has been the Academic Director of Boston College Ireland since 2005. He was educated at the University of Kent and Oxford University where he was awarded his D.Phil. He has published widely on various aspects of Irish history, and is a renowned scholar in the area of sport. He is a regular media commentator on aspects of Irish and sporting history. While at BC, Professor Cronin has developed a series of major public history projects based around Irish topics including the 2008-12 GAA Oral History Project, and since 2013, the major online repository and real time history project for the Irish Decade of Centenaries, Century Ireland.

Join Conor Heffernan and Paul Hawkins as they discuss Paul's new book on English football, the triumph of 1966 and England's relationship with the broader European football community.

Rob Colls is Professor Emeritus of Sports History at De Montfort University. In his Keynote speech at the BSSH Conference 2022 he talks passionately about his life as a historian of sport and his research for his award-winning book, 'This Sporting Life', which tells the story of sport in England from the 18th to the 20th Centuries.

EDI Rep on the BSSH Exec Dr Amanda Callan-Spenn hosts a round table discussion of the issues around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the world of sports history with a panel of academics at various stages of their careers at the BSSH 2022 Conference at De Montfort University. On the panel:- Dr Paul Campbell (University of Leicester) Dr Lydia Furse (De Montfort University/Twickenham Rugby Museum) Prof Malcolm Maclean (University of Gibraltar) Dr Rafaelle Nicholson (Bournemouth University)

Join Conor Heffernan and Dr. Alexander Jackson as they discuss Dr. Jackson's new book, Football's Great War: Association Football on the English Home Front, 1914–1918. Learn how English football survived without professional football, the players who played on regardless, illicit payments and so much more. Dr. Jackson's new book is available to buy from Amazon, Pen & Sword and other major bookstores. https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Footballs-Great-War-Hardback/p/20383

South African cricket writer Rich Parry talks to India's leading cricket historian Ram Guha about his life in the game and the state of cricket in India and the world today.

Join Conor Heffernan and Martin Johnes as they discuss the development of Welsh sport history, Martin's own career trajectory as well as some speculations on the field's future.

Another podcast to celebrate the BSSH 40th anniversary this year. Today Katie Taylor chats with Dr Neil Carter from the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University.

This special podcast episode is part of a series celebrating the British Society of Sports History's 40th Anniversary. Throughout this series we will be talking to a variety of our members. From those who have been there since the beginning, those that have played important roles in the society, and those who have led changes. Today we are joined by Dr Carol Osborne and Dr Fiona Skillen. Carol is an independent researcher and a part-time researcher developer working at the University of Huddersfield. Fiona is a Senior Lecturer in History at Glasgow Caledonian University.

This episode Katie Talks to Max Portman about the history of West Ham Football Club in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Max is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chichester and his current title is: How West Ham United operates as a nexus of communities since 1981?

This episode features a paper given by Jon Hughes at the BSSH's seminar series at the Institute of Historical Research. Jon's paper,'We met the most serious opposition in the Ministry of Propaganda': Borders, Limits, and Summits in the German-British mountain film Der Berg ruft / The Challenge (1938)' is a fascinating look at how Anglo-German film-making took place during the increasingly fraught period of the 1930s. Read more in Jon's description below ... In this paper I will present a reassessment of a mountaineering film released in parallel German and English-language versions at a politically fraught historical moment: Der Berg ruft, directed by Luis Trenker in 1938, and The Challenge, co-directed by Trenker and Milton Rosmer, also in 1938. By exploring their framing of a story revolving around contested borders and summits, I will reflect on their status as transnational examples of the Bergfilm (mountain film) genre. Drawing on recent archival research, I will argue that they both reflect and challenge the ideological and cultural investment in mountaineering in Germany and Britain; in particular I will consider whether Trenker's later claim to have struggled with Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda is credible. I will conclude by exploring the circumstances that allowed this co-operative production - the making of the British film, which received support from the British Alpine club and was produced for Alexander Korda's London Film by the German emigré Günther Stapenhorst from a screenplay by the Hungarian-Jewish author Emeric Pressburger, reveals the extensive and powerful networks that connected both mountaineering and the film industry in Britain and Germany in the 1930s. Dr Jon Hughes is reader in German and Cultural Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Arthur Hopcraft's much-celebrated The Football Man (1968) comprised chapters based on interviews with representative ‘football men' of the 1960s – ‘The Player', ‘The Manager', ‘The Referee' etc. But though there is a brief chapter on ‘Football and the Press', the ever-present match reporter receives little attention. Bryan Stanley Johnson (1933-73) is best remembered for his experimental writing, especially The Unfortunates (1969), an essentially autobiographical novel comprising a collection of unbound chapters in a box, which reflects on a day in the life of a football reporter and the random memories and thoughts that it prompts. Johnson's football journalism for the Observer in the mid-1960s supplies the main focus here. As a writer preoccupied with writing ‘truthfully', he could not always resolve the tensions relating to this often highly-stylised form of journalism. Yet there was a sense in which a football match – a series of unpredictable events occurring within a time-regulated framework, provided him with a unique opportunity. For most people, most of the time, sport is a mediated experience. The text of The Unfortunates alongside Johnson's reports, as drafted and as they appeared in print a few hours later, allows access to this process of mediation. Johnson helps us to understand how a match report, a primary source that historians of sport often take for granted, was created. Dilwyn Porter is Emeritus Professor of Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University and also Visiting Professor in Modern British History at Newman University, Birmingham.

This episode Geoff talks to Dr Duncan Stone about the history of English cricket. Duncan's new book, 'Different Class', examines how cricket in England has a long history of class and racial discrimination which continues to have an impact on the game today. The discussion looks at the difference in cricket culture between north and south, Duncan's own experience playing cricket growing up, and the Azeem Rafiq affair, which escalated during the final phase of writing up. You can read more about Duncan's book here ... https://repeaterbooks.com/product/different-class-the-untold-story-of-english-cricket/

“I have had two thrills today. One racing at Newmarket this afternoon. The other here at speedway. And this is by far the greater”. Why did speedway become so phenomenally popular in the late 1930s and 40s? Very little historical research has been carried out on speedway racing yet it was a sport which attracted 12.5 million attendances in Britain in 1949 and regularly attracted football-sized crowds to its league meetings. The World Speedway Championship Final at Wembley in 1938 was attended by 93,000 spectators and commentary from it was broadcast by the BBC. As the sport had only been introduced into Britain in 1928, its rate of growth was spectacular. Making use of newspapers, the speedway press and minutes of speedway's controlling authorities at the time, this paper will examine some of the reasons why speedway became so popular in the late 1930s and 40s. It will consider its coverage in the press and broadcasting media, its reputation as a family sport, its particular appeal to women and to working people, its affinity with ideas of modernity and the inherent excitement of the sport. Barbara Horley is a PhD student at ICSHC at De Montfort University

Aaron Ó Maonaigh is an independent scholar and post-primary teacher in South Dubllin, Ireland. Today's interview focuses on Aaron's latest article in Soccer and Society: ‘In the Ráth Camp, rugby or soccer would not have been tolerated by the prisoners': Irish Civil War attitudes to sport, 1922-3. Find the article at -https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14660970.2021.1988304?casa_token=FvDtYzClpdwAAAAA%3A3-FltgfMwCDyA3HlEYVdT4PVduGiv3L5wpfhh_79z2UUNk2MFHRL2g1MPi0KdEb7ulZEXOhkc_EsVw Other articles of interest include: Ó Maonaigh, Aaron. "‘Who were the Shoneens?': Irish militant nationalists and association football, 1913–1923." Soccer & Society 18.5-6 (2017): 631-647, which you can find here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14660970.2016.1230339?casa_token=bxlpWFQexF4AAAAA%3AL32qfv9rTGp9s7sTXf9dg6obfF0zzpy_9H-HMmC4hqiny0G5h6lyUmPMEcWRolrKJAlR4QmePBcIxw Aaron can be reached at: aaron.omaonaigh2@mail.dcu.ie

John Fisher retired from the University of Newcastle in 2004 (from the Department of Economics, since defunct). He has written and published extensively on aspects of English and Australian rural and veterinary history. His most recent previous article is on Richard Cheslyn's father in the Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society in 2020. Article Discussed: Fisher, John. "Cricket and social status in the early nineteenth century: the career of Richard Cheslyn 1797–1858." Sport in History (2021): 1-24. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17460263.2021.1973547

Jorge Tovar is an associate professor at the Economics Department in Los Andes University (Bogota - Colombia). He holds a Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley, specializing in International Trade and Industrial Organization. In addition, he has worked in sports economics and history for over six years, focusing on football and publishing various articles and books on the topic in recognized journals and editorial companies. Tovar, J. (2021). Soccer, World War II and coronavirus: A comparative analysis of how the sport shut down. Soccer & Society, 22(1-2), 66-74. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14660970.2020.1755270 Tovar, J., On Fairness, Justice, and VAR: Russia 2018 and France 2019 World Cups in a Historical Perspective. Springer Nature. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-84814-9

This episode it's Heather Dichter's paper at the BSSH/IHR Sport & Leisure seminar series from December 2021. The appearance of the Berlin Wall on the morning of August 13, 1961 immediately halted free travel in and out of Berlin, and it also had an immediately impact within sport. East and West German sporting relations came to a halt. More broadly, though, the travel restrictions imposed by NATO on East Germans in response to the Berlin Wall included athletes representing East German national teams. World and European championships in numerous sports felt the impact of these travel restrictions, prompting international sport federations to demand governments provide guarantees for athletes and teams to travel freely. Dr. Heather L. Dichter is an associate professor of sport management and sport history at De Montfort University and a member of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture. She has co-edited with Andrew Johns Diplomatic Games: Sport, Statecraft and International Relations since 1945 (Kentucky, 2014) and edited Soccer Diplomacy: International Relations and Football since 1914 (Kentucky, 2020), which was a finalist for the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) Anthology Award and the Telegraph Sports Book Awards Football Book of the Year (in conjunction with the Football Writers' Association). Her monograph, Bidding for the 1968 Olympic Games: International Sport's Cold War Battle with NATO, has just been published by the University of Massachusetts Press in their Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond series.