Sport

Anyone who wishes to learn the sport of fencing will find the basic elements necessary to begin in Foil, Saber, and Epee Fencing. The already accomplished fencer will find the answers to methodology and strategies by which to overcome one's opponent in tournament play. The coach and teacher is herein presented with lesson plans by which to chart a student's progress. The administrator is advised of the safety factors and range of liability to consider while incorporating fencing into a sports program.

Three eminent coaches, each with a wide range of international...

From the 1930s to the 1980s, the capital of weightlifting in America was York, Pennsylvania, the home of the York Barbell Company. Bob Hoffman, the founder of York Barbell, propagated an ideology of success for Americans seeking physical improvement. Often called the "Father of World Weightlifting," Hoffman was a pioneer in marketing barbells and health foods. He popularized weight training and inaugurated a golden age of American weightlifting. Muscletown USA--part biography, part business history, and part sports history--chronicles how Hoffman made York the mecca of manly...

What is a Nittany Lion? The most frequently asked question about Penn State University is answered definitively for the first time in this beautifully illustrated book. Penn State librarians Jackie Esposito and Steven Herb have devoted hundreds of hours of research to uncover the fascinating and colorful history behind the beloved Penn State icon.

Elements of the tale include the tragic legend of Indian Princess Nita-nee, for whom the majestic mountain in Central Pennsylvania is named; the story of the Original Nittany Lion, the elusive mountain lion that once roamed the hills of...

Although many people know Williamsport, Pennsylvania, as the "birthplace of Little League Baseball," it is a city with a rich professional baseball tradition. Since the earliest days of the Pennsylvania State Association in the nineteenth century, professional minor league baseball has flourished in Williamsport, and over the years hundreds of players and managers have passed through historic Bowman Field on their way to the major leagues, including Jim Bunning, Ferguson Jenkins, and Nolan Ryan. Gateway to the Majors is a comprehensive history of professional minor league baseball...

Everything seemed to be going the Phillies' way. Up by 6 1/2 games with just 12 left to play in the 1964 season, they appeared to have clinched their first pennant in more than a decade. Outfielder Johnny Callison narrowly missed being the National League MVP. Third baseman Richie Allen was Rookie of the Year. But the "Fightin' Phils" didn't make it to the postseason--they lost 10 straight and finished a game behind the St. Louis Cardinals. Besides engineering the greatest collapse of any team in major league baseball history, the '64 Phillies had another, more important distinction: they...

The story of deer management in Pennsylvania is as complex as it is controversial. From the disappearance of deer in Pennsylvania forests at the beginning of the twentieth century to the population explosion that occurred in the latter half of the century, the balance between herd size and a healthy forest has long been a difficult one. In Deer Wars, Bob Frye examines this controversy and the effect that herd management has had on all of the citizens of Pennsylvania; farmers managing deer invasions and property rights, hunters dealing with changing herd densities and ever-complex...

In 1998, Milton Friedman's statement drew national attention to Rutgers 1000, a campaign in which students, faculty, and alumni were resisting the takeover of their university by commercialized Division I-A athletics. Subsequently, the movement received extensive coverage in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sports Illustrated, and other publications.

Today, "big-time" college athletics remains a hotly debated issue at Rutgers. Why did an old eastern university that had long competed against such...

In an international arena where the utility of military force may be declining, statesmen are inclined to search for alternative means of pursuing national policy. The manipulation of international sport is one such means. This book examines the 1980 United States boycott of the Olympic Games in order to assess the desirability and effectiveness of using international sport as a political instrument. Derick L. Hulme, Jr. reveals the pitfalls as well as the opportunities of such diplomacy by using the 1980 Olympic boycott as a framework. Concluding that the boycott was both a success and a...

Very few people are aware that women were active in baseball in the United States as early as 1866. In this volume, Gai Berlage reports the histories of the umpires, players, owners, and sportswriters as well as the teams. Professional and amateur teams are covered as well as hard and softball.

In 1974, when the Supreme Court forced Little League to change its charter and permit girls to play baseball on boys' teams, feminists cheered, heralding the decision as a significant victory. How short their memories were Had investigators only looked to baseball history, they would...

NCAA boxing represented a brief, but colorful, chapter in the history of intercollegiate athletics, and it played an important part in the lives of persons making substantial contributions to American society. This story of NCAA boxing is told from the perspectives of former national champions and coaches. One hundred-fifty-six men won 199 NCAA championships. Perspectives of 72 of them and 13 prominent coaches are presented in this book.

Almost from its inception in 1932, coaches and other supporters concentrated on the physical and psychological welfare of participants. They took...

This is a splendid oral history of a time between World War I and World War II when Jewish athletes were the dominant ethnic group in professional boxing in the United States. The author draws on his own personal experience in New York City's fight arenas, and incorporates interviews with more than thirty former boxers, trainers, managers, promoters, and boxing judges to report on this overlooked aspect of sports history. Bodner explores the stories of the Jewish boxers both inside and outside the ring, and also examines their lives as they left the ring to pursue their careers which...

In this follow-up to "Balls and Strikes: The Money Game in Professional Baseball" (Praeger, 1990), Jennings examines the state of professional baseball's labor relations during a nearly 25 year period, focusing on the background and the outcome of the 1994 baseball strike. Jennings concludes by suggesting ways to improve future labor relations in the sport.

While the entire professional sports industry generates less revenue than sales of Fruit of the Loom underwear, a lengthy strike in professional baseball assures a national notoriety far beyond its economic impact. When the 1994...

Throughout the period of legally supported segregation in the United States, practices of racial discrimination, touching every sector of American life, prevented African Americans from participating formally in professional sports. Jim Crow policies remained in place in baseball, football, and basketball until a few years before the Supreme Court struck down the separate but equal doctrine in 1954. By the late 1950s, the African American presence was felt in major sports. But this was not the case in professional golf, which continued to maintain segregation policies perpetuating the...

Since the first edition of this text, sport management programs have grown tremendously. This thoroughly revised and updated edition offers a superb analysis of various sport organizations, with special emphasis on the policies which steer college athletic programs and professional sport franchises. The analysis includes a consideration of the issue(s) and problem(s) as well as the history and critique of the policies.

The first part of the book deals with personnel policies related to college athletics, including mainstreaming Division I atheletes, recruiting and its violations,...

After being questioned by a parent about how sports affects children, Griffin examined the impact of sports on children and reflected upon his own experiences with sports. What effect does sports have on work habits, social skills, confidence, independence, and aspirations? Does a sports experience provide the foundation for achievement in school and later life? Is competition good or harmful? What about the effects of sports involvement on girls? What are the characteristics of good athletes? How can parents help their children be successful in sports?

Griffin shares with...

Many books have been written on the evils of commercialism in college sport, and the hypocrisy of payments to athletes from alumni and other sources outside the university. Almost no attention, however, has been given to the way that the National Collegiate Athletic Association has embraced professionalism through its athletic scholarship policy. Because of this gap in the historical record, the NCAA is often cast as an embattled defender of amateurism, rather than as the architect of a nationwide money-laundering scheme.

Sack and Staurowsky show that the NCAA formally...

Operating behind a veil of amateurism, the NCAA and collegiate athletic departments oversee big business sports programs. These entities generate revenues comparable to professional sports, practice and play in facilities that rival those found in professional sports, and pay their top coaches salaries comparable to the salaries paid to coaches of professional sports teams. Athletes are courted with lavish stadiums, training facilities, and locker rooms. Customers are wooed with branded apparel, videos, logos, and advertisements. Business interests are captured with stadium billboards,...

Martial arts, once restricted to a few specific locations and practiced by small groups of devotees, have truly spread throughout the world. The plethora of tae kwando and karate dojos in U.S. shopping malls attests to the popularity of various kinds of martial arts in this country. Though generally perceived and advertised as means of self-defense, body sculpting, and self-discipline, martial arts are actually social tools that respond to altered physical, social, and psychological environments. This book examines how practitioners have responded to stimuli such as feminism, globalism,...

Few realize that some sports were integrated, or even dominated by blacks, before becoming dominated by whites, for example, horse racing, golf, hockey, and tennis. This book provides a lens through which to view the historical context and specific circumstances of African Americans' presence in various sports. The author asks why sport has at times challenged the status quo with regard to race and civil rights, and at other times reinforced it. To that end, he analyzes various sports and asks why and when has each sport responded differently.

Wigginton asks how did blacks break the...

Despite its status as one of the oldest and most enduringly popular sports in history, wrestling has been pushed to the background of the current American sports scene. Most people today would have a hard time even considering wrestling (with some of its modern theatrics) in the same terms as track and field or boxing. But until the 1920s, wrestling stood as a legitimate professional sport in this country, and a widely practiced amateur one as well. Its past respectability may not have endured, but the advent of cable television in the 1980s offered the sport a renewed opportunity to play...