AMH 3931-4538

Sport and American Culture/ Fall 2007

T, 5-6 (11:45-1:40/ TR 6 (12:50-1:40) Flint 111

Professor Jack E. Davis Ofc. Flint 235

davisjac@ufl.edu 392-0271, ext. 251

Ofc. Hrs.: T, 2-3/R, 2-4 pm

This course explores the place of sport in American society and culture from the time of European settlement to the present. It uses sport, in its institutional and recreational forms, to illuminate broader historical themes: urban and community life, economic development, social relationships, social mobility, and popular and cultural processes.

C Expanding one’s knowledge of the history of sport and its place in the larger American experience.

C Introducing the student to scholarship in sport history.

C Promoting critical thinking about the dynamics of race, gender, and class in American society.

C Advancing the student’s experience in the reading, researching, and writing tasks of the historian.

C Improving the student’s cognitive and communication skills.

Class participation 10%

Oral history/autobiography review 15%

Research paper (including Writing-Mechanics exercise) 25%

Mid-term paper 25%

Final paper 25%

Course Texts: (Available at Goerings Book Store, 1717 NW 1^st Ave)

H. G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream (Da Capo Press, 2000) DO NOT BUY THE COMPANION VERSION TO THE MOVIE

Darcy Frey, The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Games (Mariner Books, 2004)

Elliot J. Gorn, The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America (Cornell University Press, 1989)

Elliot J. Gorn and Warren Goldstein, A Brief History of American Sports (University of Illinois Press, 2004)

Mary Lou LeCompte, Cowgirls of the Rodeo: Pioneer Professional Athletes (University of Illinois Press, 1999)

Steven A. Reiss, City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports (University of Illinois Press, 1991)

Murray Sperber, Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports is Crippling Undergraduate Education (Owl Books, 2001)

Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (OUP, 1997)

Week I (Aug 23): Course introduction

Week II (Aug 28 & 30): Early American Sports

Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, chapter 1

Week III (Sept 4 & 6): City Sports and the Rise of Urban Society

Film: The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

Reading: Riess, 1-168

WRITING-MECHANICS EXERCISE DUE (download from my web site)

Week IV (Sept 11 & 13): Religion and Physical Culture in Victorian Society

Film: Chariots of Fire

Reading: Riess, 171-228; Gorn and Goldstein, chapter 2

 Week V (Sept 18 & 20): The American Way: The Development of Youth Sports, Intercollegiate Sports, and Organized Sports

Reading: continued from last week

Week VI (Sept 25 & 27): The American Tough

Film: On the Water Front

Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, 98-113, 138-49.

Week VII (Oct 2 & 4): The Last Blood Sport

Film: Raging Bull

Reading: Gorn, The Manly Art, all.

Week VIII (Oct 9 & 11): The Idea of the American Sports Hero and Heroine

Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, 183-96

Week IX (Oct 16 & 18): America’s Game: The Early Years of Baseball

Film: Baseball (excerpts)

Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, 209-220; begin reading Tygiel

Week X (Oct 23 & 25): America’s Game and the American Dilemma

Reading: Tygiel, all; Jack E. Davis, "Baseball’s Reluctant Challenge: Desegregating Major League Spring Training Sites, 1961-1964," in Patrick B. Miller, The Sporting World of the Modern South, 200-218 (on reserve).

Mid-Term Paper Due

Week XI (Oct 30 & Nov 1): Women and American Sports

Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, 197-208; LeCompte, all.

Week XII (Nov 6 & 8): Gridiron Culture and Local Values

Reading: Bissinger, all

Week XIII (Nov 13 & 15): Sports Dreams and College Business

Reading: **Sperber, part I, and chapters 16-21 (completed)** New assignment: Lecompte, all.**

Autobiography/Oral History Review Due

Week XIV (Nov 20 & Thanksgiving Holiday): Sports and Big Business

Film: Hoop Dreams (1^st half)

Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, 222-249.

Week XV (Nov 27 & 29):Round Ball, Magic Ball

Film: Hoop Dreams (second half)

Reading: Frey, all.

Research Paper Due

Week XVI (Dec 4): The Last Hurray

All written work for the course must be typed or computer generated and in 12-point double-spaced print. Your work must also be presented in third-person language.

Writing-Mechanics Exercise should be downloaded from my web. Circle the correct answer and bring to class on due date.

Autobiography or Oral History Review requires that you read an autobiography of a sports figure or someone intimately associated with sports or read an oral history or oral histories of such a person (see UF's Samuel Proctor Oral History Project for possible sources). Then write a 5-page paper discussing that individual and his or her importance to the study of the history of sports in American society and culture. If you use an autobiography, you should look for newspaper and magazine reviews of the book (see the Book Review Digest) to see how it was received by the public. Such reviews will also give you a sense of the importance of the book's publication and its subject. Whether you use an autobiography or oral histories, you will want to draw information from other sources--a biography or other books and newspaper sources--to tell your story about this person.

Mid-term and Final Papers will represent responses to a list of essay questions provided on my web site at least one week prior to the due date of the assignment. The questions will be drawn from the assigned readings and the course lectures, and you will be expected to use the course readings and your class notes as sources to answer the questions. Each answer must be presented in essay format, using formal, academic language and style (i.e., complete sentences, tightly constructed paragraphs, no colloquialisms). Do not, in other words, provide answers in lists or bullets. Those exams that address each question in a rigorous and organized manner are more likely to earn a decent grade. These grades will be dependent in part on your compliance with the rules in the "Writing Mechanics" exercise.

Research Paper represents a work of original work that draws on both secondary- and primary-source materials and deals with a subject in American sport history. The work should include end notes or foot notes and a bibliography and should follow the Chicago Manual of Style required for the history discipline. The paper should be no less than and not many more than 10 pages in length. Those papers that deal with broader issues of the American experience beyond just sport will be graded more favorably. In other words, a paper that concentrates solely on sports trivia or a great player or team without addressing the larger historical context will be regarded as less suitable.

Keep in mind that your written assignments must represent original work. You cannot copy the words, phrases, arguments, ideas, and conclusions of someone else or of another source (including Internet sources) without giving proper credit to the person or source by using quotation marks and a foot note. Do not cobble together paragraphs or passages of separate texts and then try to claim that you have done original and legitimate work. You must write with your own ideas and in your own words. If you copy the words of someone else without putting those words in quotation marks, REGARDLESS OF CITING THE SOURCE, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism is theft, and it is academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is grounds for an automatic failing grade in the course, a grade that is final and that cannot be made up. If you have any questions about how you are citing or using sources, come to me for the answers. Please also review the university’s honesty policy at: {http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academic.htm}. {http://

Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor during the semester if you have any individual concerns or issues that need to be discussed. Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office { http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/}. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide that documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation.

Keep in mind that the undergraduate- and graduate-student members of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society at the University of Florida publish an academic journal each spring. In the fall, the journal editors will be sending out a call for submissions (articles and book reviews) to the journal.