The Strenuous Life

The Strenuous Life
Author: Ryan Swanson
Publisher: Diversion Publishing Corp.
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1635766117

“It seemed as if Theodore Roosevelt’s biographers had closed the book on his life story. But Ryan Swanson has uncovered an untold chapter” (Johnny Smith, coauthor of Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X). Crippling asthma, a frail build, and grossly myopic eyesight: these were the ailments that plagued Teddy Roosevelt as a child. In adulthood, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition and was told never to exert himself again. Roosevelt’s body was his weakness, the one hill he could never fully conquer—and as a result he developed what would become a lifelong obsession with athletics that he carried with him into his presidency. As President of the United States, Roosevelt boxed, practiced Ju-Jitsu, played tennis nearly every day, and frequently invited athletes and teams to the White House. It was during his administration that America saw baseball’s first ever World Series; interscholastic sports began; and schools began to place an emphasis on physical education. In addition, the NCAA formed, and the United States hosted the Olympic Games for the first time. From a prize-winning historian, this book shows how Roosevelt fought desperately (and sometimes successfully) to shape American athletics in accordance with his imperialistic view of the world. It reveals that, in one way or another, we can trace our fanaticism for fitness and sports directly back to the twenty-sixth president and his relentless pursuit of “The Strenuous Life.” “Essential reading for anyone who cares about the history of sports in America.” —Michael Kazin, author of War against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914–1918

Globetrotting

Globetrotting
Author: Damion L. Thomas
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2012-09-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0252094298

Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union deplored the treatment of African Americans by the U.S. government as proof of hypocrisy in the American promises of freedom and equality. This probing history examines government attempts to manipulate international perceptions of U.S. race relations during the Cold War by sending African American athletes abroad on goodwill tours and in international competitions as cultural ambassadors and visible symbols of American values. Damion L. Thomas follows the State Department's efforts from 1945 to 1968 to showcase prosperous African American athletes including Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, and the Harlem Globetrotters as the preeminent citizens of the African Diaspora, rather than as victims of racial oppression. With athletes in baseball, track and field, and basketball, the government relied on figures whose fame carried the desired message to countries where English was little understood. However, eventually African American athletes began to provide counter-narratives to State Department claims of American exceptionalism, most notably with Tommie Smith and John Carlos's famous black power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Exploring the geopolitical significance of racial integration in sports during the early days of the Cold War, this book looks at the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations' attempts to utilize sport to overcome hostile international responses to the violent repression of the civil rights movement in the United States. Highlighting how African American athletes responded to significant milestones in American racial justice such as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Thomas surveys the shifting political landscape during this period as African American athletes increasingly resisted being used in State Department propaganda and began to use sports to challenge continued oppression.

Care of the Young Athlete

Care of the Young Athlete
Author: Sally S. Harris
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781581103045

This best-selling resource gives you an easy-to-use, one-stop guide to all aspects of childhood sports preparation, participation, and injury treatment. The newly enhanced and updated second edition covers safety and risk-management considerations; procedural how-to's for the preparticipation physical examination; the latest treatment recommendations on proper nutrition for athletes; proven injury prevention guidelines; detailed treatments for dozens of injuries; and more. Topics have been selected to reflect the health and safety issues most likely to be encountered by primary care practitioners. Numerous color photos and illustrations bring the authoritative text to life. New in the 2nd edition New Bonus full-color symptom locator poster All-new chapters on nutrition and weight control; performance-enhancing substances; risks of injury during sports participation; acute and overuse shoulder injuries Important new findings on issues specific to the female athlete Contents include: Assessing physical and emotional readiness for athletic participation Effects of training and competition on child development Nutrition, weight loss, and performance-enhancing substances Athletic participation for physically challenged children Evaluation and treatment of both medical and musculoskeletal injuries Guidelines for returning to athletics after injury Recommendations for specialty referral

The Revolt of the Black Athlete

The Revolt of the Black Athlete
Author: Harry Edwards
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2017-05-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0252051548

The Revolt of the Black Athlete hit sport and society like an Ali combination. This Fiftieth Anniversary edition of Harry Edwards's classic of activist scholarship arrives even as a new generation engages with the issues he explored. Edwards's new introduction and afterword revisit the revolts by athletes like Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos. At the same time, he engages with the struggles of a present still rife with racism, double-standards, and economic injustice. Again relating the rebellion of black athletes to a larger spirit of revolt among black citizens, Edwards moves his story forward to our era of protests, boycotts, and the dramatic politicization of athletes by Black Lives Matter. Incisive yet ultimately hopeful, The Revolt of the Black Athlete is the still-essential study of the conflicts at the interface of sport, race, and society.

Power Play: Empowerment of the African American Student-Athlete

Power Play: Empowerment of the African American Student-Athlete
Author: Enzley Mitchell IV Ph.D.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2018-09-27
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1984545574

This book proposes two reforms to the present commercialization of NCAA Division I football and basketball and the exploitation of African American student-athletes. In this book, the author —presents detailed data about revenue generation in college sports, —presents compelling reasons on why student-athletes in the revenue sports of Division I football and basketball are exploited and why it happens most often to African American students, —provides a real funding model for fair revenue distribution and compensation for Division I student-athletes in revenue sports, —proposes real alternatives for elite student-athletes in all sports to achieve their professional goals and earn a degree without contributing to commercialization of college sports and exploitation of student-athletes, —explains how some African American students are complicit in their own exploitation and how to stop this practice, and —recommends ways that all student athletes can use their collective power and voice to implement changes.

Build a Better Athlete

Build a Better Athlete
Author: Michael Yessis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Athletes
ISBN: 9781930546783

Explores the ways all types of athletes are being trained and how they are not.

A Hard Road To Glory: A History Of The African American Athlete

A Hard Road To Glory: A History Of The African American Athlete
Author: Arthur Ashe
Publisher: Amistad
Total Pages: 544
Release: 1993-10-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781567430073

The second volume of the three-volume history described by RandR Book News under the ISBN for Volume 1 (006-6). Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Heritage

The Heritage
Author: Howard Bryant
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2018-05-08
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0807026999

Following in the footsteps of Robeson, Ali, Robinson and others, today’s Black athletes re-engage with social issues and the meaning of American patriotism Named a best book of 2018 by Library Journal It used to be that politics and sports were as separate from one another as church and state. The ballfield was an escape from the world’s worst problems, top athletes were treated like heroes, and cheering for the home team was as easy and innocent as hot dogs and beer. “No news on the sports page” was a governing principle in newsrooms. That was then. Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start, were committing a political act simply by being on the field. In fact, among all black employees in twentieth-century America, perhaps no other group had more outsized influence and power than ballplayers. The immense social responsibilities that came with the role is part of the black athletic heritage. It is a heritage built by the influence of the superstardom and radical politics of Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos through the 1960s; undermined by apolitical, corporate-friendly “transcenders of race,” O. J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods in the following decades; and reclaimed today by the likes of LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, and Carmelo Anthony. The Heritage is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Through deep research and interviews with some of sports’ best-known stars—including Kaepernick, David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber—as well as members of law enforcement and the military, Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.

New Jack Jocks

New Jack Jocks
Author: Larry Platt
Publisher: Temple University Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2010-10-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781439907306

"In this erudite and captivating book, author Larry Platt takes us on his own unique tour through American sports. Culled from a decade of writing about our games and the people who play them, Platt offers exclusive profiles of the athletes we love--and love to hate ... In these and other profiles, Platt shows that sport, more than any other nationwide pastime, is the way that we come to understand--and alter--race relations, gender, and, most profoundly, how we communicate with each other in ways often ignored by social commentators"--Inside front jacket cover