Baltimore Sports: Stories from Charm City

by Daniel A. Nathan (Editor)

Overview

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Baltimore is the birthplace of Francis Scott Key’s “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the incomparable Babe Ruth, and the gold medalist Michael Phelps. It’s a one-of-a-kind town with singular stories, well-publicized challenges, and also a rich sporting history. Baltimore Sports: Stories from Charm City chronicles the many ways that sports are an integral part of Baltimore’s history and identity and part of what makes the city unique, interesting, and, for some people, loveable.

Wide ranging and eclectic, the essays included here cover not only the Orioles and the Ravens, but also lesser-known Baltimore athletes and teams. Toots Barger, known as the “Queen of the Duckpins,” makes an appearance. So do the Dunbar Poets, considered by some to be the greatest high-school basketball team ever.

Bringing together the work of both historians and journalists, including Michael Olesker, former Baltimore Sun columnist, and Rafael Alvarez, who was named Baltimore’s Best Writer by Baltimore Magazine in 2014, Baltimore Sports illuminates Charm City through this fascinating exploration of its teams, fans, and athletes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610755917
Publisher:	University of Arkansas Press
Publication date:	08/01/2016
Series:	Sport, Culture, and Society
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	315
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Daniel A. Nathan is professor of American studies at Skidmore College. He is the author of Saying It’s So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal and editor of Rooting for the Home Team: Sport, Community, and Identity.

Table of Contents

Contents Series Editor’s Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Till Death Do Us Part: The Grand Tour of Baltimore’s Graveyard Greats / David Zang 2. Jockeying for Position: The Preakness Stakes, Pimlico, and Baltimore / Ari de Wilde 3. Black Knights and Engineers: The City-Poly Football Rivalry / Dean Bartoli Smith and Ted Patterson 4. “For a White Boy’s Chance in the World”: Joe Gans, Baltimore’s Forgotten Fighter / William Gildea 5. On the Courts of Druid Hill: Lucy Diggs Slowe and the Rise of Organized Black Tennis / Amira Rose Davis 6. Sweat Equity: Physical Education at The Bryn Mawr School for Girls / Elizabeth M. Nix 7. “More Than a Century of Champions”: Johns Hopkins University Lacrosse / Neil A. Grauer 8. The Bears of Baltimore: Morgan State University Intercollegiate Athletics / Jerry Bembry 9. The Team That Made Baltimore Proud: The Baltimore Bullets and the 1947–1948 Championship Season / Chris Elzey 10. Toots Barger: Queen of Duckpins / Stacy Karten 11. “The Best Ambassador Baltimore Ever Had”: Art Donovan and the Colts / Michael Olesker 12. Sam Lacy and John Steadman: Empathy and a Conscience on the Sports Pages / Dennis Gildea 13. Baltimore’s Bard of Baseball: Jim Bready Remembers the O’s of Old / Rafael Alvarez 14. Black Sport and Baltimore: Spats, the Judge, and the Pearl / James Coates, Hannah Doban, and Nevon Kipperman 15. Orange and Black Forever: How a New Yorker Fell in Love with Earl Weaver’s Baltimore Orioles / Lee Lowenfish 16. A Missed Opportunity: Baltimore’s Failed Stadium Project, 1969–1974 / Richard Hardesty 17. The Greatest High School Basketball Team Ever: The Dunbar Poets, 1981–1982 and 1982–1983 / Chad Carlson 18. Baltimore Baseball Icons: The Babe, Mr. Oriole, the Iron Man, and the Forgotten Day / Daniel A. Nathan 19. The Ravens’ Flight to Normalcy: How Winning Restored Baltimore’s Football Culture / Charles Kupfer 20. A Phelpsian Triptych: Mountain, Machine, and Man / Dean Bartoli Smith Notes Contributors Index

Editorial Reviews

A magnificent collection of essays that documents the achievements, disappointments, failures, and triumphs of Baltimore sports at different moments in the city’s history.”

—Sport in American History, December 2016

“With nearly two dozen scholars, sportswriters, and journalists (many with personal ties to the Baltimore area) covering sports from horse racing, football, and tennis to lacrosse, basketball, and swimming, as well as figures such as Orioles manager Earl Weaver and pugilist Joe Gans, Baltimore Sports emerges as one of the most ambitious volumes yet in Arkansas’ Sport, Culture, and Society series. … Baltimore Sports is more than stories about athletes and stadiums; the essays, whether elegiac, redemptive, or vindictive, intersect with labor history, urban planning, gender studies, race relations, sports writing, and personal memory, making the work equal to (if not broader than) the series’ aforementioned volumes. With such range, this collection will appeal to both academic and popular audiences”
—Journal of Sport History, Spring 2018

From the Publisher