AMH 4612-1883
Sport and American Culture/ Fall 2013
T, 4 (10:40-11:30)/ R, 4-5 (10:40-12:35) Flint 105
Professor Jack E. Davis Ofc.
davisjac@ufl.edu 273-3398
Ofc. Hrs.: T, 11:30-12:30 pm/R, 1-3 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.
Course Objectives:
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.
Course Requirements:
Class participation 10%
Oral history/autobiography review 15%
Research paper (including Writing-Mechanics exercise) 25%
Mid-term paper 25%
Final paper 25%
Course Grading Scale (see UF grading scale at end of syllabus):
A+ =100
A =95
A- =90
B+ =88
B =85
B- =80
C+ =77
C =75
C- =70
D =65
Assignments not completed earn a 0
Plagiarized assignment (see plagiarism section below) earn a 0
Assignments not turned in before or by stated due date will not be accepted. All assignments must be made available in hard copy. Emailed assignments cannot be accepted.
Course Texts: (Available at Goerings Book Store, 1717 NW 1st Ave)
Bryan Mealer, Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football’s Forgotten Town (Three
Rivers Press, 2013).
Darcy Frey, The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Games (Mariner Books, 2004)
Elliot J. Gorn, The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in
Elliot J. Gorn and Warren
Goldstein, A Brief History of American Sports (
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 Bog-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 22): Course introduction
Week II (Aug 27 (no class on Tuesday) & 29): Early American Sports
Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, chapter 1, cont. (begin reading Riess)
Week III (Sept 3 & 5): City Sports and the Rise of Urban Society
WRITING-MECHANICS EXERCISE DUE (download from my web site)
Week IV (Sept 10 & 12): Religion and Physical Culture in Victorian Society
Film: Chariots of Fire
Week V (Sept 17 & 19): The American Way: The Development of Youth Sports, Intercollegiate Sports, and Organized Sports
Week VI (Sept 24 & 26): The American Tough
Film: On the Water Front
Week VII (Oct 1 & 3): The Last Blood Sport
Film: Raging Bull
Week VIII (Oct 8 & 10): The Idea of the American Sports Hero and Heroine
Week IX (Oct 15 & 17): America’s Game: The Early Years of Baseball
Film: Baseball (excerpts)
Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, 209-220; begin reading Tygiel
Week X (Oct 22 & 24): 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 29 & 31): Women and American Sports
Reading: Gorn and Goldstein, 197-208; LeCompte, all; Dave Zirin, “Danica’s Overexposure,” The Progressive (July 2008): 20 (access at Dave Zirin’s blog <http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/15367>.
Week XII (Nov 5 & 7): Gridiron Culture and Local Values
Reading: Mealer, all
Week XIII (Nov 12 & 14): Sports Dreams and College Business
Week XIV (Nov 19
& 21): Sports and Big Business
Film: Hoop Dreams (1st half)
Week XV (Nov 29 & Thanksgiving Holiday):Round Ball, Magic Ball
Film: Hoop Dreams (second half)
Research Paper Due
Week XVI (Dec 3): The Last Hurray
(Final
Essay Due.)
Course Requirements
Descriptions:
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. All assignments must be turned in on the due date to receive full-credit consideration.
Course Attendance is required. A missed class will result in a deduction from your class participation grade. An absence is considered excused if there is an acceptable reason according to UF policy (http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog/policies/regulationattendance.html). Examples of acceptable reasons are medical illness, religious holidays, military obligation, and the twelve-day rule. It is the student’s responsibility to notify the instructor of an excused absence and to provide documentation of an acceptable reason. Otherwise, the absence will be considered unexcused and will result in a quiz grade of zero if a quiz is administered when the student is absent. Whenever possible, the instructor should be notified prior to the absence. When this is not possible (e.g., due to unexpected emergency or illness), the instructor should be notified as soon as possible.
Writing-Mechanics Exercise should be downloaded from my web. Circle the correct answer and bring to class on due date.
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
Other Business:
Plagiarism:
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://
Classroom Assistance:
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.
UF Grading Scale
Please note UF’s new grading scale with the addition of minuses.
A = 4.0
A- = 3.67
B+ = 3.33
B = 3.0
B- = 2.67
C+ = 2.33
C = 2.0
C- = 1.67
D+ = 1.33
D = 1.0
D- = 0.67
E = 0.0
E1 = 0.0 Stopped attending or participating prior to end of class
I (incomplete) = 0.0
Note: A grade of C− is not a qualifying grade for
major, minor, Gen Ed, or College Basic distribution credit. For further
information on UF's Grading Policy, see:
http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog/policies/regulationgrades.html
http://www.isis.ufl.edu/minusgrades.html
Course Evaluation:
Students are expected to provide
feedback on the quality of instruction in this course. These
evaluations are conducted online at https://evaluations.ufl.edu. Evaluations are typically open
during the last two or three weeks of
the semester, but students will be given specific times when
they are open. Summary results of
these assessments are available to students at https://
evaluations.ufl.edu/results.
Alpata: A Journal of History
Keep in mind that the undergraduate- and graduate-student
members of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society at the