this day in sports
january 15, 1967
Super Bowl I: Packers 35, Chiefs 10. Tickets went for $12, the stadium wasn’t full, and two networks broadcast it at once because nobody knew whose game it was yet.
film room // history in play
beyond the scoreboard.
american history through sports. the games were never just games.
Sports are never sealed off from the rest of the country. Money, television, law, race, protest, labor, and politics all walk onto the field with the players. We start with the games, then follow whatever they reveal about America. The class ends close to home with a Michigan sports story you choose.
make the call before the replay.
What moves American sports history fastest?
current season
unit 01 / 06
now playing
Inventing American Sport, 1860s–1900
Industrial cities build the modern game; the color line is drawn.
the schedule
- 01 Inventing American Sport, 1860s–1900 (current)
- 02 The National Stage, 1900–1945
- 03 Integration and the Cold War, 1945–1963
- 04 The Athlete Revolt, 1963–1980
- 05 The Money Game, 1980–2004
- 06 The Modern Arena, 2004–today
the daily desk.
history, but with a scoreboard.
the stat that tells a story
The entire text of Title IX fits in a tweet and never mentions sports. Thirty-seven words rebuilt who gets to play — proof that the law thread of this course is not the boring one.
the stat: 37 words
the rulebook remembers
The forward pass is legalized — not as innovation, but as triage after the deadly 1905 season. Every spiral you’ve ever seen exists because the alternative was abolition.
rule change, 1906
argue this
Sport: mirror or engine? Take today’s side using any case we’ve studied. You may not say "both" until you’ve earned it.
make the call
units
- 01 Inventing American Sport, 1860s–1900 current
Industrial cities build the modern game; the color line is drawn.
what's inside + what's inside −
- · Why factories, railroads, and city crowds created professional sports
- · Baseball becomes a business: the first leagues and the first labor fights
- · The color line: how organized sport chose segregation on purpose
- · Boxing, bicycles, and who was allowed to compete for money
- · The four threads we follow all semester: business, media, law, and who gets to play
- 02 The National Stage, 1900–1945
Jack Johnson, the Black Sox, radio, and Detroit’s own Joe Louis.
what's inside + what's inside −
- · Jack Johnson: the heavyweight title as a national controversy
- · The Black Sox scandal and the invention of the commissioner
- · Radio turns local games into national events
- · The Negro Leagues: a parallel major league built behind the color line
- · Jesse Owens in Berlin, Joe Louis vs. Schmeling, and Hank Greenberg in Detroit — sport as world politics
- 03 Integration and the Cold War, 1945–1963
Jackie Robinson, television, and the Olympics as superpower contest.
what's inside + what's inside −
- · Jackie Robinson: the plan, the pressure, and what integration actually cost
- · Who followed, who stalled — integration team by team, sport by sport
- · Television changes everything it touches, starting with the money
- · The Olympics as Cold War scoreboard: medals as foreign policy
- · The thread chart check-in: business, media, law, and access at mid-century
- 04 The Athlete Revolt, 1963–1980
Ali and Vietnam, Mexico City 1968, Curt Flood, and Title IX.
what's inside + what's inside −
- · Muhammad Ali refuses the draft — and pays for it with his prime
- · Mexico City 1968: two raised fists and the price of protest
- · Curt Flood challenges the reserve clause: "a well-paid slave is nonetheless a slave"
- · Title IX: thirty-seven words that rebuilt American sports
- · Billie Jean King and the Battle of the Sexes — spectacle with stakes
- 05 The Money Game, 1980–2004
ESPN, Jordan, steroids, and the college amateurism debate.
what's inside + what's inside −
- · ESPN: what happens when sports become a 24-hour product
- · Michael Jordan and the athlete as global brand
- · The steroid era: records, asterisks, and congressional hearings
- · College amateurism: everyone gets paid except the players
- · The Malice at the Palace — Michigan’s own case study in media, race, and blame
- 06 The Modern Arena, 2004–today
Social media, concussions, NIL, legalized betting — and your Michigan capstone.
what's inside + what's inside −
- · Athletes with their own microphones: social media ends the filtered era
- · Concussions and the CTE reckoning: what the leagues knew and when
- · NIL: the amateurism debate finally breaks open
- · The women’s sports boom and the fight over the money that follows it
- · Flint’s Claressa Shields — and your Michigan sports history capstone
everything for this class
class hub.
slides, course links, source collections, and whatever we need next.