Awesome American Sports
A Celebration of the Awesome people, events and stories of sports in the United States from the Past to the Present
Welcome to this biweekly newsletter, written by me, Corye Perez Beene, Ph.D. I am a United States History Professor with a focus on sports history. I am a certified “sports nut.” I find the sports stories from the past to the present that celebrate the Awesomeness of American Sports.
Thank you for your support! I am so appreciative of YOU being here 😃
Follow me on Twitter: @HistoryBeene or LinkedIn: coryebeene
Do you need any help doing research, editing, proofreading or writing? I would love to help you! Lets talk: historybeene@gmail.com
Gold Medal
◯◯◯◯◯The Olympics start in less than 2 weeks! Here is the FULL SCHEDULE so you can find the sports you want to watch. Good luck to all of the athletes!
◯◯◯◯◯ Here is a list of Track and Field athletes that I personally know who will be competing. I had several of these athletes take my History courses when they all attended South Plains College (SPC) in Texas. My husband Chris Beene and University of Alabama Coach Blaine Wiley coached them at SPC. Can you help me cheer them on?
Team USA:
*Fred Kerley - Men's 100m and 4x100m relay pool
*Vernon Norwood - Men's 4x400m relay pool
*Sally Kipyego - Women's Marathon
*Jessica Ramsey - Women's Shot Put
Team Trinidad & Tobago:
*Jereem Richards - Men's 200m
*Sparkle McKnight - Women's 400m hurdles
Team Jamaica:
*Natoya Goule - Women's 800m
Team Canada:
*Natassha McDonald - Women's 400m and 4x400m relay pool
⚾️ The Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be held this Tuesday July 13. The game has been played since 1933 and this year, there is a monumental first: a player was selected as a pitcher AND as a hitter! Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels is that guy; he also currently leads the league in home runs (33).
⚽️ Look for the Mewis sisters on the USA Women’s Olympic soccer team. Sam and Kristie will be the first sisters to play together for Team USA at a senior-level championship.
⚽️ In other Team USA Women’s soccer news, Carli Lloyd will be the oldest player the U.S. women's national team has ever sent to the Olympics: aged 39. This will be her 4th Olympic games!
♚Do you play chess? It is such a difficult game. A 12 year old from New Jersey became the youngest person ever to earn the grandmaster title: Abhimanyu Mishra.
⚾️ Congratulations to the Mississippi State Bulldogs men’s baseball team for winning their first NCAA College Baseball Championship. Their title is the FIRST in any team varsity sport at Mississippi State.
🏀 Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, has another remarkable stat: scoring 9,000 points! That is a heck of alot of baskets!
Silver Medal
🏌🏼♀️ 🎾 The Korda siblings are all professional athletes. Jess (aged 27) and Nelly (aged 22) are pro golfers and their brother Sebastian (aged 20) plays pro tennis. Their parents Petr and Regina played professional tennis for the Czech Republic. They emigrated to the United States in 2008 and now the siblings play for Team USA.
💰 Now that the NCAA has given the green light for athletes to profit off their NIL (Name, Image & Likeness), the whole sports scene is about to change. How are athletes going to make money? Here are a few ways: READ THIS
⚽️ A Mia Hamm rookie card sold for $34,440 at auction last month. It is the most expensive female sports card ever sold! The soccer star was on the U.S. Women’s National Team from 1987-2004 and led them to two World Cup wins and two Olympic gold medals Here is the card:
⚾️ This Babe Ruth card just sold for $4.2 million!
Bronze Medal
⚾️As you know, I love finding great acts of sportsmanship. In March of this year, 14 year old Weston “Wammer” Mazey had a collision on the baseball field which fractured his skull, gave him broken bones in his face, and more severely, a traumatic brain injury. You can read his story and his comeback HERE. At his first at bat from this ordeal, the other team stopped the game to shake his hand and congratulate him for all of the hard work he put in to make it back onto the baseball field.
⚾️ Yogi Berra was honored with a postage stamp last month. The New York Yankees great won three American League MVP awards, was an 18-time MLB All-Star and played in the World Series in 14 of his 18 seasons.
📻 On July 2, 1921, the FIRST million dollar boxing match was held in Jersey City, New Jersey. Jack Dempsey defeated Georges Carpentier. It was also a historic day because it was the first sports event broadcasted on the radio. An estimated 200,000 people listened to Dempsey defeat Carpentier in the 4th round.
Thank you to Kendall Baker, author of Axios Sports, for bringing this fabulous story to my attention. Axios Sports is THE sports newsletter to get if you are a sports nut like me!
🐬 How are dolphins so smart? This dolphin tries to do cartwheels after watching a young girl do them: watch the video HERE
Do you need any help doing research, editing, proofreading or writing? I would love to help you! Lets talk: historybeene@gmail.com
Thank you for reading! Are you looking for a speaker for your next event or conference? Email me at historybeene@gmail.com
Check out my blog where I write about the Awesome, positive and cool stories of US History: AwesomeAmericanHistory.com