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 and I love sports! I find the sports stories from the past to the present that CELEBRATE the Awesomeness of American Sports.
Gold Medal
Business Side of Sports
Women’s hockey made history this year when a major TV network, NBC Sports, broadcasted their games for the first time ever. Unfortunately, the teams had to cancel postseason play due to COVID concerns.
Overtime Elite will be starting a men’s basketball league that will compete for college athletes. High school kids as young as 16 can play in this league for a minimum of $100,000 per year. They get health & disability insurance; they will also have $100,000 set aside for college if they don’t play professionally.
Did you know that there is a professional cricket league being created in the USA? When my husband and I visited Barbados several years ago, we saw cricket games around the island. I was fascinated by it but I could never quite grasp the rules. Now that it has a greater following in the USA, I hope to learn more about this sport. Major league cricket will be played beginning in 2022 with a long term goal of becoming a full member of the International Cricket Council by 2030.
The sport of disc golf has an athlete that just signed a $10 million contract! Read about it HERE.
One silver lining for me this past year has been the opportunity to attend virtual events that I never would have been able to attend in a normal year. I was invited to an event from Mark Moyer’s Win Again Academy. I got to listen to former Olympian beach volleyballer Holly McPeak and former World Cup soccer champion Brandi Chastain! BOTH of them spoke to me directly! Yes, I was totally fangirling! What a thrill it was for me! Win Again Academy helps former athletes transition to the business world. Normal people like us can listen to them speak on these virtual events and then network with them and others. Go to markmoyer.com to learn more.
One person I follow on Twitter is @pradologue; he has such an interesting feed. Recently, he posted this thread about the history of Adidas Shoes. The gentleman that started Adidas was Adolf aka “Adi” Dassler. He began making sports shoes in his mother’s kitchen in 1920. As his business took off, he used the 1936 Olympics as a marketing tool. Jesse Owens wore his shoes and won 4 gold medals. Today, Adidas has $32 billion in sales and 448 million pairs of shoes are sold each year!
Silver Medal
Sports roundup
“Hurdlers are sprinters with attitudes,” Grant Holloway told track’s international governing body, World Athletics, after his world record. “Our event is sexier than just a regular fast sprint because we have barriers in our way.” Watch this race! Unbelievable time!
Ohio State’s Tyler Johnson won the 400m at the Big Ten Indoor Championships with the fastest time in the USA: 45.07!
Sometimes we historians come across some exciting letters, journal entries, or artifacts that change our understanding of the past. In this case, it was a photo discovery by Program Analyst Richard Schneider of the National Archives. He came across this picture of African-American football players at West Point Academy. The picture was from the 1920’s, but West Point did not have a Black football player until the 1966 team. As he did more research, he discovered that the players were Buffalo Soldiers. They were at West Point teaching cadets horsemanship!
Thank you to Ryan Isaac for posting this cool map about the birthplaces of major league players. Ryan has his own baseball newsletter you should read called “Warning Track Power.” Sign up here: https://warningtrackpower.substack.com/
He worked baseball operations in the Major Leagues and gives some cool insights into the game today. Follow him on Twitter @RyanLIsaac for more baseball musings.
Look for NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers on Jeopardy! April 5. He will host for 10 shows. Jeopardy! is having guest hosts until Alex Trebek’s replacement is named (he passed away last November). Rodgers also donated $1 million to businesses impacted by COVID in his hometown area of Chico, California.
Tennessee Titan Derrick Henry also made a kind donation by giving money to a Nashville fireman who lost his home to a fire earlier this year.
Houston athletes also made donations after last month’s Winter Storm hit Texas. Read about them HERE - they include Houston Rocket John Wall, Deshaun Watson and Astros’ Carlos Correa.
We have synchronized swimming, synchronized gymnastics and even synchronized walking (if you missed my newsletter that showed this cool event check it out HERE). Let’s add synchronized skiing to the list.
Twenty-one year old Jasmine Harrison became the youngest woman to row solo across an ocean and broke the world record doing it: 70 days, 3 hours, 48 minutes. I’m exhausted just thinking about that. If you have been on the rowing machine at the gym, you know what I mean! She completed the Whisky Atlantic Challenge by rowing from the Canary Islands to the island of Antigua in the Caribbean. Along the way, she encountered dolphins (who followed her for several hours), a striped blue marlin and a blue whale. She was even thrown out of her boat twice by rogue waves.
Bronze Medal
Social Media
I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan! Michael Irvin was one of my favorite players - “The Playmaker!” I love his Twitter account. He posts about his family, his job on NFL Network and many witty quips! His Twitter handle is: @michaelirvin88
Olympic History 101
As we prepare to cheer on our Team USA athletes this summer, I will provide some Olympic History in each newsletter that will get us more excited for the Games:
George Poage was the first Black American to win an Olympic medal, despite civil rights leaders urging him to boycott. Competing in the 1904 Olympic games in St. Louis, he won bronze medals in the 200m hurdles and 400m hurdles.
“In high school, Poage had been salutatorian of his class and the third Black student to graduate from La Crosse High along the Wisconsin-Minnesota border. At the University of Wisconsin, Poage became the first Black athlete to win a race in the Big Ten Conference track championships and he graduated with a degree in history.”
Thank you for reading my newsletter. I would love to hear from you; what was your favorite story from this issue? Email me at HistoryBeene@gmail.com
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blog: awesomeamericanhistory.com