Critical Sports Studies

Floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 17:30:13 +0000

Floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee Rachel Sauer Mon, 11/11/2024 - 10:30

Jared Bahir Browsh

Fifty years after the famed ‘Rumble in the Jungle,’ Muhammad Ali is remembered not only as the heavyweight champ, but as a champion of civil rights

It is hard to imagine, but coming off of his more than three-year exile from boxing, Muhammad Ali spent four years regaining his position as the top heavyweight in boxing. He lost everything by taking his stance against being drafted into the Vietnam War—not just his boxing career and his promotional business, but also derailing his budding advertising and media career.

Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky, winning the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics before turning professional as a heavyweight. A myth emerged that he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after returning to his home city as Olympic champion and was still denied service in a restaurant.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

His experiences negotiating racism and segregation as an Olympic hero would inform his outspoken approach to civil rights and make him a hero to millions across generations.

Ali won his first 20 professional matches—and became heavyweight champion—at age 22, defending the championship across nine challenges before he was stripped of his championship and exiled from the sport in 1966. He appealed his draft reclassification, which happened in spite of his dyslexia and his position as a conscientious objector. Other athletes who were draft-eligible were placed with National Guard units or protected by their teams, as in the NFL, so it was particularly curious that the most popular athlete in the country was reclassified and drafted.

Conscientious objector

After winning the heavyweight championship against Sonny Liston in 1964, the boxer then known as Cassius Clay changed his name first to Cassius X and then to Muhammad Ali. He had befriended Malcolm X and joined the Nation of Islam, but did not reveal his conversion until he was secure in his boxing career after winning the championship. He fell out with Malcolm X after the civil rights leader left the Nation following revelation that leader Elijah Muhammad had children out of wedlock; Malcolm assumed Ali would support him, but Ali remained loyal to the Nation.

In 1966, Ali founded Main Bout Inc. to promote his fights and oversee the closed-circuit broadcasting of his fights. The Nation of Islam held many of the shares in Main Bout Inc., including through Ali’s manager, Jabir Herbert Muhammad, third son of the Nation’s leader; other shareholders included football legend Jim Brown. To help forge relationships, boxing promoter Bob Arum was included and after the company folded due to Ali’s arrest, Arum and Muhammad went on to found Top Rank Boxing.

Ali’s religious conversion and his perspective that America should not be involved in the Vietnam War led to his refusal to be inducted. He was arrested and convicted of breaking Selective Service laws, and he continued to protest the war as he appealed. His conviction was overturned in June 1971, although he returned to boxing in late 1970 as sentiment against him softened and boxing commissions granted Ali licenses to fight again. He fought three matches before the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, including the first loss of his career against Joe Frazier.

As Frazier and Ali worked toward a rematch, a young boxer rose up the ranks after winning the heavyweight gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. George Foreman entered the fight against Joe Frazier at 37-0, emerging as champion and disrupting the planned rematch between Frazier and Ali. Ali also lost his second match, this time against Ken Norton, but after Foreman beat Norton, Don King signed contracts with both Ali and Foreman for a superfight promising each boxer a $5 million purse.

Defending world champion George Foreman goes down in the eighth round during his Oct. 30, 1974, bout against Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire. (Photo: Richard Drew/Associated Press)

King did not have the money on hand, and the huge monetary promise to both boxers led other promoters to avoid working with King to organize the event. King, who had been released from jail in 1972 after being convicted of second-degree murder, forged a relationship with Ali after promoting a charity fight, but was unable to come to agreement with any venue in the United States to stage the fight. As a result, he looked at other countries to stage it. Fred Weymar, who was an advisor to Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, convinced Seko that funding and staging the fight would help garner support for his regime, an effort known today as sportwashing. King also pulled in funding from Risnelia Investment, the Hemdale Film Corp. and Video Techniques Inc., with Hemdale and Video Techniques Inc. as official co-promoters. Color commentators included Brown, Frazier and journalist David Frost.

Rumble in the Jungle

Promoted as the Rumble in the Jungle, the fight was an incredible spectacle, even by today’s sporting standards. Originally scheduled for Sept. 25, 1974 (it would have been broadcast Sept. 24 in the United States due to the time difference), it was pushed back to Oct. 30 due to a cut Foreman got while sparring. A three-day music festival called Zaire 74 took place between Sept. 22-24, originally scheduled to precede the match, which included James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, The Spinners and Celia Cruz alongside more than a dozen African artists.

Although Ali arrived in Zaire as a 4-1 betting underdog, he was the overwhelming favorite of the Zairean/Congolese people. Foreman arrived in Zaire with his German shepherd, which was the dog breed used by the Belgian occupying forces against the Congolese people, further cementing his status as the villain. Foreman and Ali were polar opposites, with Ali seen by many as unpatriotic in America, but a hero in Africa. Foreman, on the other hand, represented Cold War nationalism after beating Soviet Jonas Čepulis in the 1968 Olympic gold medal match, leading to the famous image of the very large Foreman waving a tiny American flag after his victory in Mexico.

Fans chanted "Ali boma ye," or “Ali kill him,” throughout his visit and the fight. Although the event itself did not go as planned—King assumed hundreds of high-profile boxing fans would travel to Zaire, but only a few dozen ended up making trip—the fight is seen as one of the greatest. The match earned more than $100 million from closed-circuit broadcasts in U.S. theaters and other broadcasts rights globally, leading to an estimated audience of more than 500 million people worldwide.

The legendary status of the fight was cemented by Ali’s upset win against the younger and stronger Foreman. Ali and his trainers understood that he would be unable to outpunch Foreman, so they relied on Ali’s skill and speed. By the second, round Ali was leaning against the ropes, avoiding and absorbing blows with his arms and body, which did not earn Foreman points with the judges since they were not clear blows against Ali. Eventually, Foreman exhausted himself and Ali took advantage, knocking out the future grill entrepreneur in the eighth round.

In one of the most famous photos of Muhammad Ali ever taken, the boxer stands over Sonny Liston during a May 1965 bout in Lewiston, Maine. (Photo: John Rooney/Associated Press)

Approaching retirement

In his next bout, Ali fought Chuck Wepner and was knocked down in the ninth round, at least partially due to a light training schedule. Ali still won, and the fight would inspire Sylvester Stallone to write Rocky, with the character Apollo Creed based on Muhammad Ali.

Ali retained the heavyweight title for more than three years, a run that included the Thrilla in Manila, the third match in the trilogy between Ali and Frazier that saw the champion employ the “rope-a-dope” again, as both fighters struggled in the heat of Quezon City, near the Philippine capital of Manila. Ali lost to Leon Spinks in February 1978 on a split decision, before beating Spinks in their rematch seven months later.

Ali sent his letter of retirement to the World Boxing Association before returning to the ring to face his former sparring partner Larry Holmes for the vacant World Boxing Commission title, reportedly taking the fight partially due to money issues. Before the fight, he was ordered to undergo examination at the Mayo Clinic because there was a concern as to whether he was fit to return to the ring—he had begun to display symptoms of what would be diagnosed as Parkinson's syndrome in 1984.

The fight was so one-sided that Holmes reportedly voiced concern to the referee, who refused to stop the match. Holmes went on to win after Ali’s long-time trainer finally stepped in to stop the fight. Stallone attended the fight in Las Vegas and compared it to “an autopsy on a man who's still alive.” Ali fought one more time before ultimately retiring.

As time went on, Ali struggled with the impact that Parkinson’s had on his health—a condition related to taking an estimated 200,000 hits over his amateur and professional boxing career. He continued to make public appearances, including his inspiring lighting of the Olympic torch in the 1996 Atlanta Games. He continues to be a revered sports and civil rights legend, considered the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

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Fifty years after the famed ‘Rumble in the Jungle,’ Muhammad Ali is remembered not only as the heavyweight champ, but as a champion of civil rights.

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In a bout called "Rumble in the Jungle," Muhammad Ali, left, and George Foreman, right, fight on Oct. 30, 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

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In a bout called Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammad Ali, left, and George Foreman, right, fight on Oct. 30, 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Remembering the player behind ‘Fernandomania’

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 18:44:00 +0000

Remembering the player behind ‘Fernandomania’ Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/24/2024 - 12:44

Jared Bahir Browsh

Fernando Valenzuela, who died Tuesday, was more than just the first Mexican superstar in Major League Baseball; he helped soothe longstanding resentments in a displaced community

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Wednesday that Fernando Valenzuela passed away late Tuesday night at the age of 63. The legendary pitcher debuted late in the 1980 season as a 19-year-old, but it would not be until his first full season when the rookie would initiate “Fernandomania,” fascinating not only Dodgers and baseball fans, but people throughout the United States and Latin America.

Valenzuela helped the Dodgers beat the Yankees to win the World Series in 1981, the last time the two teams met. At a time when the Dodgers struggled to soothe their relationship with Mexican American fans, Valenzuela was not only the balm, but also initiated a wave of players from Mexico that continues today.

The Dodgers’ relationship with the large Chicanx community in Los Angeles had long been fraught after the building of Dodger Stadium. Following passage of the Federal Housing Act in 1949, then-Mayor Norris Poulson chose Chavez Ravine, a shallow canyon in Los Angeles, as the location to build 10,000 housing units, promising the Mexican American community living there that they would have their first choice of housing.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

Yet after most of the neighborhood was razed, the project was delayed, and when the Dodgers decided to move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the area was chosen to build the new Dodger Stadium. The broken promises led to decades of resentment between the team and the Mexican American community in the city, as the remaining residents were forced out of the neighborhood.

Selling out stadiums

Valenzuela was scouted by several teams, but when legendary Cuban-American scout Mike Brito went to evaluate him in Silao, Mexico, he convinced the Dodgers to buy out Valenzuela’s contract in the summer of 1979, just beating out the Yankees. He worked his way up from the minor leagues, debuting with the Dodgers in September 1980 after learning what became his signature pitch, the screwball, which breaks the opposite direction of a curveball or slider.

He spent the final month of the season as a reliever, helping the team contend for the West Division before they lost to the Houston Astros in a one-game playoff.

The following season, the 20-year-old Valenzuela was tapped to be the Dodgers’ opening-day starter after pitcher Jerry Reuss was injured the day before the game. This set off Fernandomania, as he went 8-0 with five shutouts and an earned run average of 0.50. The 1981 season was cut short due to a strike in June, but when the season resumed in August, Valenzuela helped the team win the World Series, becoming the first pitcher to win both the National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in the same season.

Valenzuela sold out stadiums both at home and away, becoming a phenomenon only a few years after first signing to the Mexican league from his small, rural hometown in Sonora. An international Horatio Alger story, Valenzuela’s rise is one of the most unbelievable in modern sports history.

Valenzuela spoke very little English and struggled to communicate with many of his teammates; however, team manager Tommy Lasorda spent time in the Caribbean winter leagues and helped Valenzuela’s transition to the major leagues, while Mike Scioscia learned enough Spanish to become the young pitcher’s personal catcher. Valenzuela would go on to make six straight All-Star games before shoulder issues related to overuse and the strain of throwing the screwball derailed his career. He ultimately played 17 seasons and threw a no-hitter for the Dodgers in 1990, but his legacy goes far beyond his phenomenal rise.

The first Mexican superstar

Walter O’Malley had owned at least a minority stake in the Dodgers since 1944, accumulating a larger stake in the team and eventually becoming its president in 1950. He was part of the ownership group that signed Jackie Robinson and led the move to Los Angeles in 1958. O’Malley was tired of the Brooklyn Dodgers living in the Yankees’ shadow—their Ebbets Field had less than half the capacity of Yankee Stadium (32,000 vs. 67,000) and the Dodgers lost six of the seven World Series matchups with the Yankees in the 1940s and 1950s. O’Malley saw a business opportunity in moving to the West Coast and building his own stadium in spite of the displacement of the Mexican American community there.

Fernando Valenzuela, known for his signature 'screwball' pitch, winds up during the Dodgers' April 8, 1986, home opener. (Photo: Tony Barnard/Los Angeles Times)

Much like Robinson brought Black fans to the Dodgers, and baseball more generally, O’Malley sought a Mexican player to draw Latine fans who refused to watch the Dodgers not only because of resentment over the displacement, but also because the Dodgers were seen as a team for the white community in Los Angeles. Walter O’Malley died a month after the organization signed Valenzuela, so he never saw the impact of the first Mexican superstar in baseball.

Though famous, Valenzuela still faced many of the same issues other Mexican immigrants faced coming to America. The language barrier led to isolation early in his career, and after his historic rookie season, he was threatened with deportation as he held out for a new contract in 1982, since he was in the United States on a work visa. It was said that Ronald Reagan pushed for immigration reform partly due to meeting Valenzuela in 1981.

Despite the disappointment of being cut by the Dodgers during 1991 spring training, Valenzuela maintained his legendary status with the team, becoming their color commentator in 2003 and having his number, 34, retired in 2023.

His jersey is still one of the most popular, with Valenzuela jerseys seen throughout Dodgers stadium 34 years after he threw his last pitch for the team. In spite of his status as the greatest player from Mexico to play in the Major Leagues, he has not been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, although many artifacts from Fernandomania sit in the museum in Cooperstown.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

Top image: Fernando Valenzuela pitches a two-hit, 4-0 victory over the Montreal Expos at Dodger Stadium May 21, 1986. (Photo: Marsha Traeger/Los Angeles Times)

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Fernando Valenzuela, who died Tuesday, was more than just the first Mexican superstar in Major League Baseball; he helped soothe longstanding resentments in a displaced community.

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Balancing opportunity and exploitation as the NBA forges new ground in Africa

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 18:19:39 +0000

Balancing opportunity and exploitation as the NBA forges new ground in Africa Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/22/2024 - 12:19

Jared Bahir Browsh

The recent death of Dikembe Mutombo and the start of the NBA regular season today highlight the fraught realities of building a talent pipeline between lower-income countries and the NBA

On Sept. 30, Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo passed away after a two-year battle with brain cancer. As a young NBA fan, I looked at Mutombo as someone both figuratively and literally larger than life.

Even as a fan of the Philadelphia 76ers, one of my favorite basketball memories was when Mutombo helped lead the Denver Nuggets to an upset of the No. 1-seed Seattle Supersonics, which featured an iconic highlight of Mutombo holding the final rebound as he celebrated on the ground. I later had the joy of watching him as a Sixer when the team made a run to the NBA Finals in 2001.

Mutombo’s legend went beyond his size, with an incredible backstory that might seem too unbelievable for a Hollywood script. He enrolled in Georgetown University on a USAID academic scholarship at 21, originally intending to pursue a career in medicine. But after being recruited to play basketball, and knowing very little English, he majored in linguistics and diplomacy, earning internships with U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui and the World Bank.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

My sister attended Georgetown, and Mutombo stories were common—with his intelligence, gregarious nature and success on the court making him a legend at the university. He was drafted by the Nuggets on the day after his 25th birthday and played 18 years with several teams, including the Houston Rockets, where he was a mentor to another international player, Yao Ming.

During his playing career, Mutombo began participating in humanitarian work, started his own foundation to support his native Congo and served as the first youth emissary for the United Nations Development Program. He also began working with Basketball without Borders, a program started by the NBA to encourage friendship and tolerance through basketball camps run globally.

The program was first introduced in 2001 in the Balkan states after the Yugoslav Wars, before entering Africa in 2003. It has become a pipeline for future all-stars like Pascal Siakam and Joel Embiid to earn college scholarships and be drafted into the NBA.

In 2023, the NBA had a record 125 international players on team rosters, with 19 of those players from African nations. The last six MVP awards have been won by three international players, two of whom, Embiid (Cameroon) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece to Nigerian parents) have deep ties to Africa. Mutombo followed Hakeem Olajuwon (drafted from Nigeria in 1984) and Manute Bol (drafted from Sudan in 1985) as a part of the first wave of African players to enter the NBA. There was a dramatic increase of international players entering the NBA that began with the fall of the Soviet Union and accelerated after the success of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team.

Still-rare success

The success of players like Olajuwon, Mutombo and Embiid is still fairly rare in spite of the internationalization of basketball. Of the 125 international players on rosters last year, 72% were from Canada or Europe, representative of the strong basketball pipeline within the Global North and evidence of the developmental resources maintained by these Western nations with strong youth programs and professional leagues.

Players who emerge from outside of these pipelines are often exceptional in skills and physical attributes, overcoming a lack of developmental support. Recent evidence of the wide gap in resources was the relative success of the South Sudan men’s national team at the Paris Olympics, which challenged top teams in spite of there being no indoor basketball courts in the nation. South Sudan’s basketball federation president is Luol Deng, whose family escaped the war-torn country and settled in Great Britain before Deng enrolled at Duke for a year, becoming a two-time All-Star during his 15-year NBA career.

For every Deng, Antetokounmpo or Mutombo who make it to the NBA or other professional leagues around the world, like the English Premier League, there are thousands of others who don’t. It is a lottery that creates competition domestically among lower-income groups, including members of the African diaspora in the United States, where social mobility only seems accessible through sports and entertainment.

The now-iconic image of then-Denver Nugget Dikembe Mutombo celebrating an overtime win against the Seattle Supersonics May 7, 1994. (Photo: Bill Chan/Associated Press)

The desire to leverage sports to achieve social mobility is not new, but it has become increasingly international as domestic sports leagues continue to globalize, driven by access through digital media and growing their fan and revenue bases.

Earlier efforts to globalize were focused on wealthier nations in Europe and Asia, with the NBA and NFL holding exhibitions in countries like Germany and Japan and leveraging the rivalry with the USSR. Since the 1970s, the NFL has attempted to expand beyond the United States, eventually creating the World League of American Football that would evolve into NFL Europe, which officially launched in 1991. After NFL Europe folded in 2007, the league looked toward expanding beyond U.S. borders—self-tasked with expanding not only the NFL brand but American football in general.

The NBA, on the other hand, has focused on expanding as the top basketball league in the world, leveraging the international popularity of the sport. This growth was supported by the fall of the Iron Curtain and growth of professional basketball globally, driven both by television and the popularity of players like Michael Jordan. The NBA’s agreement with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to allow their professionals into the Olympics led to the 1992 Dream Team, which only accelerated this growth.

Big in China

Understanding of how international players can expand the game, and brand, was further evidenced by the success of Yao Ming in popularizing the NBA in China. Yao’s success also shows the geopolitical complications that can arise, considering the Chinese government’s requirement that Yao hand over half his earnings to the government, and later conflicts ignited when Daryl Morey made comments related to repression in Hong Kong.

The growth of basketball in Europe and wealthier nations like Israel has opened opportunities for American players to continue their professional basketball careers outside the United States and for top European athletes to play in the NBA. The stability of this pipeline, and the success of players like Olajuwon and Mutombo, led to Basketball without Borders. The NFL has run several international development and scouting programs since 2007, leading to the current International Player Pathway Program. Dozens of international NFL players have entered the NFL through this program, creating a strong pipeline in countries like Nigeria, and supported by Osi Umenyiora, a Nigerian-British former NFL All-Pro.

However, the high cost of entry and potential for injury has limited this growth, leading the NFL to strongly support the growth of flag football, which will make its Olympic debut in the Summer 2028 Games in Los Angeles. NFL officials have mentioned hopes that it will have the same impact as the Dream Team had for NBA basketball. In a similar vein, FIBA has also been working to leverage 3x3 basketball to expand participation and success to other nations.

Several NBA players participated in the 2017 NBA Africa Game, including then-Dallas Maverick Dirk Nowitzki, center. (Photo: U.S. Embassy South Africa)

This growth is not without complications. Along with walking a fine line between free speech, politics and growth—as evidenced by the conflict between the NBA and China during the 2019-2020 season over Daryl Morey’s tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters, as well as 2024 exhibition games between the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics in the United Arab Emirates—there are also claims of cultural and economic imperialism as leagues and their sponsorship partners leverage the sport and operate in other nations.

One of the clearest examples of this imperialism and cultural disconnect is represented in the Basketball Africa League (BAL), which is overseen by NBA Africa and FIBA. Early investors included Mutombo, with Barack Obama and Grant Hill, and corporations like Pepsi and Nike, becoming the primary investors. These corporations are looking to leverage the league to expand their brand recognition, which furthers criticism regarding exploitation of labor and resources, including water privatization by beverage companies like Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

There is clearly a disconnect between expectations and realities on the African continent, with fans unable to afford tickets, a lack of facilities and the talent drain to the NBA and European leagues. Unsurprisingly, the BAL and NBA Africa are headquartered in South Africa, in the shadow of apartheid and colonialism.

Ethically fraught global expansion

In spite of these issues, NBA Africa is reportedly valued at over $1 billion, and similar to NBA China, much of the value, and investment, is based on access to potential consumers on the continent, whose population is nearing 1.4 billion. Also, similar to NBA China, there have been issues with the relationships formed to create these subsidiaries. Leaders in nations like Rwanda, Russia and Saudi Arabia have been accused of investing in sport to distract from human rights violations and improve their reputation on the world stage.

The NBA and NFL are far from the only corporations engaging in ethically fraught global expansion; however, the long Western history of exploiting of groups of color, particularly African Americans, only exacerbates concerns regarding globalization of North American sports leagues. Programs like Basketball without Borders present themselves as philanthropic but are actually investments to help expand corporate footprints and open pipelines to talent that removes players from their communities—mirroring similar pipelines between lower-income communities in the United States and major college athletics programs.

Mutombo’s passing reminds us of the positive and negative potential of global sports: the opportunity for social mobility, philanthropy and community, and the risk of widespread exploitation.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

Top image: Men play basketball in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Photo: Rohan Reddy/Unsplash)

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The recent death of Dikembe Mutombo and the start of the NBA regular season today highlight the fraught realities of building a talent pipeline between lower-income countries and the NBA.

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Uncovering the surprising similarities between sports and politics

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 10:31:43 +0000

Uncovering the surprising similarities between sports and politics Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/10/2024 - 04:31

Jared Bahir Browsh

In just a few decades, Fox went from being ‘the fourth network’ airing The Simpsons and baseball to being a leading voice in U.S. politics

Every four years, Americans oscillate between sports and coverage of the presidential election, and outside of trash talk between competitors, many overlook the commonalities between the two.

The media corporations responsible for covering both sports and politics are the same, and as we experience increasing polarization, it’s important to highlight the direct link between the partisan media and sports media rights—which has existed for 30 years, since Fox first aired NFL football after outbidding CBS for the broadcast rights. That winning bid helped legitimize the nascent broadcast network and establish the partisan cable news environment we are familiar with today.

Fox owner Rupert Murdoch is now known for overseeing one of the largest media empires in the world, but through the early 1980s he was known as a publisher of newspapers, specifically tabloids. He inherited a news publication after his father’s death in 1952, The News in Adelaide.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

He expanded his news empire to New Zealand and the United Kingdom through the ‘50s and ‘60s. Although he became known for his ownership of tabloids, his corporation also oversaw more traditional broadsheet newspapers, including Australia’s first national newspaper, The Australian.

By the 1980s, Murdoch had set his eyes on electronic media, particularly television. He struggled to break into the British broadcast market, so he focused his energy on pay TV, buying a controlling stake in Satellite Television Limited, later renamed Sky. After being excluded from the consortium overseeing British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), he launched his own satellite-based service, circumventing British ownership laws by using the Astra satellite operating in Luxembourg.

Sky launched in 1989, 13 months before BSB’s launch in March 1990. The two competed for the rights to the FA Premier League, with Sky’s bid, nearly double that of any competitor, seen as overpaying. However, Murdoch saw sports as a “battering ram” for pay television, helping to attract viewers who might otherwise balk at spending money for scripted shows and news.

During this time, Murdoch and News Corporation set their sights on the United States, purchasing Marc Rich’s stake in 20th Century Fox after Rich became a fugitive for tax evasion and selling oil to Iran during the hostage crisis. He bought the stake from oil magnate and investor Marvin Davis, and 20th Century Fox was considering buying Metromedia, which owned broadcast stations. Davis opposed the purchase while Murdoch and executive Barry Diller pushed to expand the media reach of the troubled studio. Davis sold his stake in 20th Century Fox in 1985, incorporating Davis Petroleum in Denver the next year. Murdoch gained American citizenship, since legally he could not own a broadcast network as a foreign citizen, and in fall of 1986 the Fox Broadcasting Company launched with Diller as chairman and CEO.

The six original stations purchased from Metromedia were in major markets including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Fox Broadcasting Company, or FBC, was renamed Fox to leverage the media legacy of 20th Century Fox, and it officially launched on April 5, 1987.

The fourth network

Fox was considered the fourth network, if people had access to its programming at all. Network programmers purposely scheduled just below the minimum number of hours required for network status to avoid federal regulatory restrictions, including Financial Interest and Syndication Rules.

As it built its affiliate base, Fox took lessons from ABC to boost its visibility, building a young audience through its Fox Kids programming, prime-time teenage and young adult soaps like Beverly Hills 90210 and MelrosePlace and reality television, most notably COPS. However, following the precedent of BSkyB leveraging sports to accelerate growth, Fox made a bid for Monday Night Football in 1987, after ABC hesitated in renewing its contract with the NFL. Fox met the NFL’s asking price, but ABC came back and matched, due to ABC’s more extensive reach. The NFL renewed with ABC.

In November 1995, Fox obtained a partial contract for Major League Baseball. (Photo: Ryosuke Yagi/Wikimedia Commons)

At the end of the 1993 season, however, both the NFC and AFC contracts were up for renegotiation, and Fox ultimately outbid CBS for the NFC rights. As a result, Fox executives made a major push to gain affiliates with stronger broadcast signals in major markets, since the network was still using lower-quality UHF frequencies in many markets. This led to a major realignment of affiliations, with stations in markets like Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix, Detroit and Cleveland switching from CBS to Fox.

In November 1995, Fox obtained a partial contract for Major League Baseball, airing 16 Saturday games as well as the 1996 World Series. By the end of the decade, Fox would also agree to air the Cotton Bowl and NASCAR.

Taking risks

Sports and risk-taking in its entertainment programming boosted Fox’s profile, and the network entered the cable market with FX (stylized fX at launch) in 1994 as an interactive network embracing the then-emerging Internet. FX rebranded in 1997 as the network dedicated to Fox’s largest demographic, men 18-49, while also serving as a platform for its expanding sport portfolio and a place to rerun popular Fox series.

Throughout Fox’s early years, several other segments of the media were also quickly expanding. CNN had launched as the first 24-hour news network in 1980, but coverage of the Gulf War in 1990-1991 helped Fox grow into a major news source on par with other national outlets. In 1987, the Fairness Doctrine was officially repealed, leading to an explosion of conservative radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Lastly, the continued deregulation of the media—which was further formalized through the Telecommunications Act of 1996—consolidated the radio market, allowing for more nationally syndicated shows like Limbaugh’s and motivating the major media corporations to further expand, including into cable.

In 1994, NBC spun the news network America’s Talking off from CNBC; it was created by former Republican strategist Roger Ailes, who was president of the financial network at the time. Ailes left America’s Talking under controversy, after allegedly making antisemitic comments to NBC executive David Zaslav, who is now the CEO and president of Warner Bros. �鶹��Ƶy.

Fox News launched Oct. 7, 1996, and has become a significant voice in U.S. politics. (Photo: Steve Bott/Wikimedia Commons)

Ailes was hired by News Corp as founding CEO of Fox News, which launched on Oct. 7, 1996. Three months earlier, NBC had replaced America’s Talking with MSNBC, a collaboration between NBC and technology company Microsoft. MSNBC sought its approach through programming with several conservative commentators, including Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Tucker Carlson. MSNBC would not find its identity until after Microsoft divested, becoming the left-leaning alternative to Fox News and abandoning the balance it previously tried to find along the political spectrum.

Unsurprisingly, Murdoch and News Corporation took a more heavy-handed approach, paying cable companies to carry the network. Three days after Fox News launched, Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting, which owned CNN. Because of an antitrust consent decree (in which the government sues a company and the defendant agrees to stop alleged illegal conduct), Time Warner Cable was forced to carry a second news station and selected MSNBC, with News Corp claiming that this broke an agreement to carry Fox News.

Citing the fact that its U.S. headquarters were in New York, and leveraging connections, News Corp convinced Rudy Giuliani’s mayoral administration to pressure Time Warner to carry Fox News. Although Time Warner ultimately won the initial battle, Fox News won the war when Time Warner began carrying Fox News. The ordeal displayed Murdoch’s willingness to leverage his close relationships with the Republican Party to support his media empire.

This relationship is at the core of the seemingly real-life Succession episode currently playing out in Nevada, as Murdoch attempts to rewrite his trust to ensure his more conservative son Lochlan takes over Fox Corporation upon his death and maintains the network’s current place on the political spectrum. Even as the media giant sold off some of its assets in the sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney in 2019, Murdoch retained Fox’s national sports and news entities—including Fox News, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, along with its cable and broadcast networks—as he continues to leverage sports as a battering ram to protect his international media empire.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

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In just a few decades, Fox went from being ‘the fourth network’ airing The Simpsons and baseball to being a leading voice in U.S. politics.

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Does that player in the video game look familiar?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 23:31:50 +0000

Does that player in the video game look familiar? Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/26/2024 - 17:31

Jared Bahir Browsh

Fifteen years after Ed O’Bannon’s groundbreaking lawsuit, college athletes continue to benefit from greater control of their name, image and likeness

As an elder Millennial, I remember waiting each year for the announcement of the cover athlete for EA Sports’ collection of college sports video games. As CU celebrates Travis Hunter’s inclusion on this year’s cover, it’s a good time to look back at the fight for student-athlete compensation that led to the reintroduction of the NCAA College Football video game series.

On July 19, thousands of video game players fired up their consoles and, for the first time in 11 years, could build a dynasty as their favorite college football program. However, the lawsuit that led EA Sports and other video game developers to abandon development of college sports video games to avoid further lawsuits helped college athletes gain control of their name, image and likeness (NIL) and further compensation, altering the financial power structure in college sports.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor and director of the Critical Sports Studies Program in the Department of Ethnic Studies.

In 2009, Ed, O’Bannon—a former UCLA standout named Most Outstanding Player in the 1995 NCAA basketball tournament, which UCLA won—was playing EA Sports’ NCAA Basketball 09 when he noticed a starting forward on the team had his same attributes, looks and number, even though he was not named in the game. It was common for sports video games to mirror classic teams—including, in this instance, the 1995 UCLA Bruins.

Sonny Vaccaro, a legendary basketball marketer, convinced O’Bannon to file a lawsuit alongside 19 other former college basketball players, including athlete labor and civil rights advocates Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell. In 1970, Robertson, then-president of the NBA players’ association, filed an antitrust suit against the NBA to bring free agency to the NBA, while Russell led a boycott during a 1961 preseason game after several teammates were denied service in segregated Lexington, Kentucky. Both Hall of Famers were part of the boycott of the 1964 NBA All-Star Game that led to the NBA recognizing the player’s union.

Along with signing Michael Jordan to Nike, and being played by Matt Damon in the film Air, Vaccaro has long been an advocate for amateur athletes. O’Bannon was an ideal lead plaintiff given that the image in the game was undeniably him, not only matching his height, weight, shaved head and skin tone, but also his left-handedness. O’Bannon was no longer in basketball, so he didn’t risk the retribution that Robertson and Curt Flood, the legendary baseball player who challenged the Reserve clause and helped bring free agency to professional sports, both faced.

The case went to trial in June 2014, and on Aug. 8, Judge Claudia Ann Wilken of the Northern District of California ruled that withholding compensation to student athletes was a violation of antitrust laws. She cited NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, which ended the NCAA’s exclusive control of college football television rights 30 years earlier. Immediately before the trial, EA Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Company settled for $40 million, while the NCAA was ordered to pay more than $42 million before appeal—but more importantly, this set the stage for a radical change in college athlete compensation and the structure of college athletics.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2016 that NCAA rules were an unfair restraint on compensation, but amateurism was an important concept to uphold and all compensation needed to be educationally related. As O’Bannon and the other plaintiffs waited for the trial, decision and results of the NCAA appeal, a number of other current and former student athletes also filed suit. Eventually, those lawsuits were combined into a class action suit, NCAA v. Alston, with Judge Wilken ruling against the NCAA and confirming that the organization placed an unfair restraint on compensation.

In 2019, California passed the first state law that permitted athletes to be compensated for NIL; the NCAA began allowing such compensation in 2021, although laws related to NIL still vary by state.

Ed O'Bannon as a UCLA player (left) and in video game likeness in EA Sports' NCAA Basketball 09. (Photos: Al Bello/Getty Images, left, and EA Sports, right)

In 2021, the Alston case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, whose majority decision stated that blocking compensation beyond educational benefits was an antitrust violation, ultimately ending the O’Bannon case seven years after Wilken’s original decision. Wilken also heard the recent case House v. NCAA, in which the defendants—including the power conferences ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac 12—agreed to a settlement allowing revenue sharing between schools, conferences and student athletes. The House case also ended scholarship limits, instead instituting roster caps and potentially opening up to nearly 800 more scholarships for Division-I schools.

Several cases are still undecided, including the Dartmouth College Basketball players’ lawsuit, Johnson v. NCAA, which is another effort for college athletes to be recognized as employees of the school, which is supported by the National Labor Relations Board. There is another lawsuit that was filed by former University of Kansas guard Mario Chalmers and other former players immediately after the House settlement. Chalmers and his co-claimants allege that the NCAA and media partners utilize the images of former athletes without permission to market college sports and March Madness.

No single lawsuit can untangle the web of NCAA control that schools and athletes have been challenging for nearly half a century. It is also important to note much of this has been driven by the growth of media money, first through television rights and now branding and expanded access through digital media, which includes video games, streaming and social media platforms.

The NCAA still remains one of the most influential sporting organizations in the world, as evidenced by the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, in which hundreds of athletes earned medals in Paris after training at NCAA-affiliated universities. As these successful athletes bring attention—and money—to their schools, they deserve a fair share of the revenue. It is important not to forget Ed O’Bannon’s role in facilitating a more equitable compensation system for student-athletes.

Top image: The cover of EA Sports' College Football 25, featuring Travis Hunter in the center. (Photo: EA Sports)

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Fifteen years after Ed O’Bannon’s groundbreaking lawsuit, college athletes continue to benefit from greater control of their name, image and likeness.

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Carrying a torch for country and sports

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 15:19:49 +0000

Carrying a torch for country and sports Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/25/2024 - 09:19

Rachel Sauer

As the 2024 Olympics begin in Paris, CU Boulder scholar Jared Bahir Browsh considers how nationalism can inform and influence the games

During the long jump medal ceremony of the 1906 Olympics in Athens, Greece, second-place finisher Peter O’Connor, an Irish athlete unhappy with having to accept his medal under the flag of Great Britain, climbed the 20-foot flagpole and waved a large green flag proclaiming “Erin Go Bragh (Ireland Forever).” Two of his Irish teammates stood at the base of the flagpole to fend off members of the Greek military.

O’Connor’s flag waving was seen not just as a political protest in support of Irish Home Rule, but a statement of nationalism.

Since the Olympic Games were revived in 1896—and perhaps even in the ancient games when male athletes from various city-states competed—the Olympics have been touted, per the Olympic Charter, as placing “sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”

“Sports can be a symbol and a surrogate for what’s happening politically, socially and economically in a country and between one country and another," says Jared Bahir Browsh, a CU Boulder assistant teaching professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and incoming director of the Critical Sports Studies program.

However, when the 2024 Olympic Games open in Paris Friday, they are just as likely to be noteworthy for national anthems and national flags, for fans’ faces painted in homage to their countries and for national rivalries that can range from good-natured to tense and geopolitically fraught.

“At the international level of the Olympics, it can be really difficult to separate sports from nationalism,” says Jared Bahir Browsh, a �鶹��Ƶ assistant teaching professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and incoming director of the Critical Sports Studies program. “Sports can be a symbol and a surrogate for what’s happening politically, socially and economically in a country and between one country and another.

“So, any time we have these big, international events—the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, the Cricket World Cup—you can see these interactions between nations, and see these issues bubbling up, in a way that might not happen on the floor of the United Nations.”

Modern Olympic origins

Despite what author George Orwell declared about international sporting competitions—that they are “war minus the shooting”—when Baron Pierre de Coubertin proposed reviving the ancient Olympic Games, he is generally credited with proposing them in good, if myopic and culturally appropriating, faith.

“Wars break out because nations misunderstand each other,” de Coubertin said. “We shall not have peace until the prejudices that now separate the different races are outlived. To attain this end, what better means is there than to bring the youth of all countries periodically together for amicable trials of muscular strength and agility?”

However, Browsh says, the notion that all are equal on the playing fields of sport ignores centuries of economic disparities and social inequity between nations. “The infrastructure and systems that countries have to train athletes vary widely. High-income nations a lot of times are who you see represented on the medal stand because they’re able to spend huge amounts of money on getting their athletes there.

“So, that might reinforce this capitalist idea that wealthy nations are somehow more deserving of gold medals, which perpetuates inequity and the narrative of dominance.”

The Olympics also, perhaps inevitably, are shaped by world events happening at the time the games take place, Browsh adds, citing the infamous “Blood in the Water” water polo match between Hungary and the USSR at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. The match happened a few weeks after Soviet forces violently quashed the Hungarian Revolution, and from the starting whistle it devolved into punching and kicking before referees halted the match early and named Hungary the winner.

And since the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Taiwan—officially known as the Republic of China—has competed as Chinese Taipei as a result of the Nagoya Resolution and International Olympic Committee concessions to the People’s Republic of China.

Thinking about the Olympics

The Olympic rings illuminated in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (Photo: Stéphane Kempinaire/Paris 2024)

The Paris Olympics are happening at an interesting and fraught time around the world, Browsh says, with nationalism continuing to grow not just in the United States, but throughout Europe, Central and South America, Asia and Africa.

“In a way, we might see sports as helping define who we are as a nation,” Browsh says. “We might see our athletes as symbols of our national strength, and when they’re successful, that might get translated into a sense of rightness or even superiority.”

While a 2017 study by the Norwegian School of Sport Science found that educational attainment and income correlate with levels of sports nationalism—in general, the higher both are, the lower the sense of sports nationalism—the Olympic Games are unique “because suddenly, as a spectator, you’re really invested in a sport that you may never even think about the rest of the time,” Browsh says. “For these 16 days, you’re watching this sport and really cheering for your country.”

In a 2016 essay for Foreign Policy, scholar David Clay Large observed of the Olympics, “In part, it’s the beauty of supreme athleticism and the sizzle of carefully choreographed spectacle. But, more fundamentally, it’s the games’ capacity to dip repeatedly into a deep well of communal passion harbored by competitors and spectators alike. Whatever the organizational inadequacies and logistical screw-ups, these purported celebrations of one-world togetherness succeed because they indulge precisely what they claim to transcend: the world’s basest instinct for tribalism.”

However, Browsh says, “these are going to be incredible games. I’ll be watching and celebrating these athletes.”

Perhaps more than any other international athletic competition, the Olympics have given rise to incandescent moments of achievement and perseverance, to athletes transcending their various nations’ politics and coming together in genuine fellowship, to fans at home pausing their desire to beat the commies and happily cheering for the athletes from another country.

As spectators, Browsh says, whether it’s a matter of compartmentalizing concerns about corruption in the IOC or fears of toxic nationalism or negotiating how to celebrate athletes’ hard work while not unquestioningly accepting nation building, “love of sport is a factor in that negotiation. We ignore some of the corruptions of the media, for example, to enjoy our favorite TV show. We negotiate these spaces in order to get some joy out of life.

“Like with a lot of things, I think there needs to be a level of criticality when we consider the Olympics. I’m not saying we should stop watching or stop enjoying them—that’s not something I’d ever want to do—but I am saying we should think about them and how we can do them better.”

Top image: Robert Laberge/Getty Images

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As the 2024 Olympics begin in Paris, CU Boulder scholar Jared Bahir Browsh considers how nationalism can inform and influence the games.

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Learning lessons from historic sports-betting scandals

Anonymous — Tue, 28 May 2024 16:11:45 +0000

Learning lessons from historic sports-betting scandals Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/28/2024 - 10:11

Jared Bahir Browsh

Sports gambling creates a windfall, but raises questions of integrity, says CU Boulder researcher Jared Bahir Browsh

Sports betting is having a big moment across the United States. While gambling on sports has been legal for decades in countries such as the U.K., it wasn’t until 2018 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could legalize sports betting. Before then, sports betting had been permitted only in Nevada.

After the Supreme Court decision, the floodgates opened. Many states were happy to legalize sports gambling, enticed by the opportunity for more tax revenue. As of May 2024, sports gambling is legal in 38 states and Washington, D.C. Americans wagered nearly US$120 billion on sports in 2023 alone.

Until about 10 years ago, sports leagues in North America were apprehensive about—if not totally against—legalizing sports betting. The long history of sports gambling scandals in the U.S. led many to worry that legalizing sports betting would tarnish their sports’ credibility and image. The NCAA was one of many governing bodies that objected to legalizing sports gambling nationwide.

Jared Bahir Browsh, a CU Boulder assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies, argues that the suddenness of states adopting sports betting has led to a windfall of profit for gambling companies and tax revenue for the states, but it may also endanger the integrity of sports.

But now that the Supreme Court has blessed it, sports leagues have embraced gambling, forming partnerships with brands like Caesars Entertainment. The sportsbooks and platforms have integrity monitors to track potential inconsistencies. Still, a number of scandals involving athletes and the people around them have emerged since the Supreme Court ruling.

As a professor of critical sports studies, I teach students about the history of sports betting scandals. And I think they offer lessons for the present day.

Disgruntled players and pay disputes lead to temptation

The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 helped to further organize baseball, leading to the creation of the position of commissioner of baseball, which was first assumed by former judge and known racist Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Along with maintaining the color line, arguably his most notable action was banning, for life, the players on the Chicago White Sox involved in the fixing of the 1919 World Series.

Early professional baseball regulations explicitly banned gambling, but the money was too tempting for many players to ignore—and that included members of the 1919 White Sox. The players hated the team’s owner, Charles Comiskey, and felt that they were underpaid. But they were unable to change teams due to the reserve clause in their contracts, which gave owners exclusive rights to their players in perpetuity.

A faction of the team agreed to throw the World Series. Those players were ultimately indicted by a grand jury and went to trial. They were acquitted of criminal charges, but Landis suspended all of the players connected to the fix—including superstar “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who admitted taking money from a teammate but maintained he was innocent of game fixing.

This was the the most notable of several attempts to fix baseball games early in the 20th century, as the game grew in popularity and a number of people associated with baseball, including players, managers and even umpires, looked to cash in.

Addiction isn’t limited to substances

Athlete salaries have soared in recent decades. However, this money hasn’t shielded players and others involved in sports from the grips of gambling addiction.

There are no rules banning athletes from sitting at a blackjack table or even gambling on other sports. Numerous players have wagered millions of dollars, with some athletes building up massive debts due to addiction.

These debts can lead to such desperation that athletes decide to risk their careers. Baseball legend and admitted compulsive gambler Pete Rose continues to sit outside the Hall of Fame because he bet on baseball games.

The most substantial gambling scandal in modern sports came in the NBA during the 2000s, involving referee Tim Donaghy. He admitted to providing information on NBA games, including those he officiated, which allegedly influenced his calls. Donaghy served time in prison as a result. So it isn’t just players who get in trouble.

Unpaid student-athletes are especially vulnerable to improprieties–and harassment

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy on the court during a 2000 game between the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks. (Photo: Ronald Martinez /Allsport via Getty Images)

There have been several major point-shaving scandals in college basketball history, most famously at the City College of New York in the 1950s and at Boston College in the late 1970s—the latter of which involved Henry Hill, the subject of the blockbuster film “Goodfellas.”

The increasing use of prop, or proposition, bets, which focus on a specific outcome within a game rather than the overall result, has created a new point of vulnerability for student-athletes. While influencing an entire team is hard, history shows that individual players are more susceptible to pressure. A point guard or quarterback can slow down the game and reduce the margin of victory.

And while today’s unpaid student-athletes have the same financial incentives to cheat as earlier generations did, they face a new pressure: They’re often surrounded by gamblers on campus and on social media. Betting is pervasive not only at large universities but at smaller schools, too. According to NCAA surveys, 1 in 3 student-athletes have faced harassment from gamblers, ranging from derogatory comments to death threats.

New regulations and oversight measures could help

The sportsbooks have very little incentive to address potential violations, so it’s up to organizations that oversee sports to ensure the integrity of their games.

NCAA President Charlie Baker’s suggestion to ban prop bets is a good first step: The more individual players and gameplay are isolated, the easier it is for improprieties to occur.

Providing more guidance for players—and different types of punishments for different transgressions—could also be useful. Gambling violations that don’t affect competition outcomes should be treated differently from ones that do. The NCAA already does this by meting out lighter penalties for student-athletes who wager on other teams and sports as opposed to their own.

Providing treatment for players and others suffering from gambling addiction would be helpful as well, and there’s some evidence that open discussions of gambling addiction in European soccer have had a positive impact.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has suggested implementing federal oversight to eliminate the uncertainty of state-by-state regulations. Although scandals are still likely to occur, gambling commissions like the one in the U.K. can provide a framework for federal licensing and oversight.

The suddenness of states adopting sports betting has led to a windfall of profit for gambling companies and tax revenue for the states. But it may also endanger the integrity of sports. As policymakers mull how to address the issue, they might be wise to learn from history.

Top image: CCNY basketball players arrested for bribery in 1951. (Photo: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sports gambling creates a windfall, but raises questions of integrity, says CU Boulder researcher Jared Bahir Browsh.

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Remembering 715, a number that transcended baseball

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 14:18:35 +0000

Remembering 715, a number that transcended baseball Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/08/2024 - 08:18

Rachel Sauer

Fifty years after Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, CU Boulder scholar reflects on the legacy of an athlete who began his career in a segregated league

In the fourth inning of the Atlanta Braves’ fourth game of the 1974 Major League Baseball season, Hank Aaron approached home plate, facing Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing.

Aaron had walked on his first at-bat in the second inning, and the first pitch of his second at-bat was low—ball one. A sell-out home crowd of 53,775 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium stood, waiting for the second pitch.

Calling the game for Atlanta, Milo Hamilton said, “He’s sittin’ on 714. Here’s the pitch by Downing. Swinging. There’s a drive into left center field, that ball is gonna beeeee… outta here! It’s gone! It’s 715! There’s a new home run champion of all time and it’s Henry Aaron!”

Jared Bahir Browsh, a CU boulder assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies, notes that Hank Aaron represented greatness despite facing racism throughout his baseball career.

As the stadium roared and fireworks illuminated the night sky, Aaron rounded the bases and longtime Dodgers announcer Vin Scully noted, “What a marvelous moment for baseball, what a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia, what a marvelous moment for the country and the world! A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol, and it is a great moment for all of us and particularly for Henry Aaron!”

Fifty years ago today, Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record of 714, which Ruth set with his last career home run on May 25, 1935. For 39 years, many said it was a record that couldn’t be broken. But at age 40, and as one of the last active players who began their baseball careers in the Negro Leagues when the sport was segregated, Aaron did what for decades had seemed impossible.

In the months leading up to that April evening, Aaron received more than a million letters; he even received a “most mail” award from the U.S. Postal Service. However, a significant number of those letters weren’t expressing admiration, but hate.

In the lead-up to No. 715, Aaron faced death threats, kidnapping threats to his family and racist vitriol, and racism was a constant throughout his career. For generations of athletes that followed him, Aaron, who died in 2021, has been an example of not only persevering, but excelling, even as some still try to put asterisks by his records.

“We see that first wave of athletes like Jackie Robinson, who entered these newly desegregated leagues in their mid- to late-20s, if not older, and then the next generation of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and that’s when we can fully recognize the talent that was left behind,” says Jared Bahir Browsh, a �鶹��Ƶ assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies.

“They had absolutely incredible careers, but they also played their earliest games in the Jim Crow South, they lived through the ‘50s and ‘60s, and yet they represented some of the most visible achievement in American culture by African Americans. We kind of dilute the obstacles that they faced getting to that point, but what Hank Aaron accomplished is just as incredible today as it was 50 years ago.”

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNZl6HN5c-0]

Early obstacles

Aaron, who was one of eight children, grew up in a poor Black community in Mobile, Alabama. He loved baseball from an early age and would play for hours, recalling in a 2014 interview with CNN, "When I was growing up in Mobile, Alabama, on a little dirt street, I remember my mother about 6 or 7 o'clock in the afternoon. You could hardly see and I'd be trying to throw a baseball and she'd say, 'Come here, come here!' And I'd say, 'For what?' She said, 'Get under the bed.’”

As he and his family hid, he said, "the KKK would march by, burn a cross and go on about their business and then she would say, 'You can come out now.' Can you imagine what this would do to the average person? Here I am, a little boy, not doing anything, just catching a baseball with a friend of mine and my mother telling me, 'Go under the bed.'"

When he was 14, he decided he wanted to be a major league baseball player like Jackie Robinson, his hero and the player who integrated Major League Baseball. Aaron played for a semi-pro team while still in high school and at age 18, played for the Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro Baseball League. In 1952, he joined the Boston Braves organization on a farm team in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and played his first major league game in 1954 with the Milwaukee Braves.

Hank Aaron watches whether his second-pitch hit during his second at-bat in the April 8, 1974, game between the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers would become career home run No. 715. (Photo: Harry Harris/Associated Press)

Through his farm league experiences and as he entered the major leagues, Aaron and the few other Black athletes with whom he played were aware of the burden on their shoulders. In his autobiography, Aaron noted, “We had to clear the way for other black players. … The Braves knew, and we knew, that we not only had to play well, but if we ever lost our cool or caused an incident, it might set the whole program back five or 10 years. When the pitchers threw at us, we had to get up and swing at the next pitch. When somebody called us a n, we had to pretend as if we didn’t hear it.”

“We forget how young players like Hank Aaron and Willie Mays were when they started playing, and we expect them to be instant civil rights leaders,” Browsh says. “Both Mays and Aaron entered the league at 20 and started playing professionally as teenagers. The pressure was always there. They were constantly being held up to a magnifying glass in terms of ‘We’re waiting for you to fail, waiting to tear you down.’ Just walking that line is exhausting, let alone speaking out against racism.”

MVP-level every year

Throughout his 23-season professional career, "Hammerin' Hank" Aaron was one of the most consistent and powerful players in the major leagues. Between 1955 and 1973, he hit at least 24 home runs every season; in 15 of those seasons, he hit 30 or more. He also set records for most runs batted in, extra base hits and total bases. Though he never hit 50 home runs in a season, as some players have, “if you look at his season-by-season stats, he is the example of consistency, but his consistency was MVP-level every single year,” Browsh says.

However, because of his low-key demeanor and workman’s approach to his job, Aaron didn’t garner a lot of widespread national attention until he began approaching Ruth’s home run record in the 1973 season.

“We lose sight of how big baseball was at that time,” Browsh explains. “Baseball’s now floating around being the third most popular sport in the U.S., but it was still America’s pastime when Hank Aaron was playing. When he broke the record, it was an early season game, which normally wouldn’t have been on national television, so for that to happen shows how much the country was watching.

“(He) ended the ‘73 season at 714 and you could tell he really wanted to break the record, but he came to be fearful for his life over a record in sports. So, he was living with that, but at the same time there was a knowledge that so much Black achievement has been erased from U.S. history, but there’s no erasing being No. 1 in the most storied record in sports. He had an awareness of, ‘There’s no removing my name if I do this.’”

Approaching Ruth’s vaunted 714 not only brought Aaron an avalanche of racist vitriol, but hate for surpassing an American icon, Browsh says: “The idolization of Babe Ruth came, in part, from the fact that—much like how we look at the ‘50s and ‘60s now—there was this nostalgia that he represented a better time, a more pure time.

Hank Aaron (No. 44) celebrates with his Atlanta Braves teammates after crossing home plate following his 715th career home run. (Photo: Associated Press)

“The talent levels and knowledge of the game and the athleticism was much different when Hank Aaron was playing than when Babe Ruth was. But in many people’s minds, he was a white player who came from being an orphan, and he kind of represented this pure, white supremacy of the American dream. Meanwhile, Hank Aaron—who worked his way up through racism, playing in the segregated South where he couldn’t even eat with his teammates—somehow that wasn’t considered equal to the rise of Babe Ruth.”

‘Still he represented greatness’

In the five decades since Aaron broke Ruth’s record and closed his career with 755 total home runs, a record that stood until Barry Bonds broke it in 2007, some have tried to put asterisks by Aaron’s records—framing their arguments around Aaron playing more games and more seasons than the players whose records he broke, especially Ruth’s.

There’s also still resistance to Black athletes speaking out about social and structural inequities, “this idea of ‘you should just be happy to be here,’” Browsh says.

“The white supremacy in sports is being challenged, and we need to remember not to make the same mistakes. There are athletes reaching these incredible heights in sports—and it’s happening in athletics around the world—where we’re seeing more diverse representation and excellence in these sports and it’s not being met with welcoming arms. There’s a portion of the population that not only is uncomfortable with it, but undermine it by saying it’s affirmative action, or they’re ‘natural athletes’ so they have an unfair advantage, that their achievements are lesser because of whatever reason.”

There’s a prevalent myth that Black athletes are privileged over white athletes, Browsh says, “and all these myths are not only untrue, but they ignore how much hard work underlies these achievements.”

An important aspect of Aaron’s legacy, Browsh says, is that he excelled even when so much around him did not make it easy for him to do it. As he crossed home plate after hitting No. 715, his parents met him on the field and his mother hugged him fiercely, not letting go because, as she later mentioned in an interview, she didn’t think anyone would shoot him if she was holding on.

“We can’t imagine those kinds of burdens,” Browsh says, “and still he represented greatness.”

Top image: Hank Aaron hits home run No. 715 on April 8, 1974. (Photo: Joe Holloway Jr./Associated Press)

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Fifty years after Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, CU Boulder scholar reflects on the legacy of an athlete who began his career in a segregated league.

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Why are there no Black basketball team owners?

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 19:22:29 +0000

Why are there no Black basketball team owners? Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/02/2023 - 13:22

A century ago, a Black-owned team ruled basketball—today, no Black majority owners remain

For the first time in 20 years, the NBA began its season with no Black-owned franchises.

In fact, there’s been only one Black majority-owned team in league history.

In late 2002, the NBA awarded an expansion team, the Charlotte Bobcats, to Black Entertainment Television co-founder Bob Johnson. Four years later, former NBA star Michael Jordan bought a minority stake in the franchise, and in 2010, he bought Johnson’s stake. However, Jordan sold his majority stake in the franchise in July 2023.

Jared Bahir Browsh is a teaching assistant professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

This lack of diversity in basketball team ownership is especially disappointing considering the rich history of Black ownership in sports, which began when the top leagues in the U.S. were still segregated.

A century ago, one of the top pre-NBA professional franchises began play in Harlem thanks to the efforts of a Black business owner named Bob Douglas.

A challenge to the dominance of white sports

My students are often surprised that the history of professional team sports in the U.S. goes far beyond the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB. But the media’s focus on the “big four” leagues can cause fans to overlook the incredible accomplishments and leadership of many pioneers in athletics, including those from marginalized groups whose participation in mainstream leagues were limited or banned.

The first 50 years of professional basketball was an amalgam of regional leagues and barnstorming teams. As with baseball and football, basketball teams from this era were segregated. But white teams and Black teams would square off against one another in exhibitions as they toured the country.

On the business side, many white businessmen were profiting from – if not exploiting – this Black talent pool, arranging tournaments and competitions and taking a disproportionate cut of the earnings. But Black entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to support Black communities through sports by keeping the talent – and money – from exclusively lining the pockets of white owners.

Douglas helped found the Spartan Field Club in 1908 to support his and other Black New Yorkers’ interest in playing sports. These clubs provided facilities and organized amateur teams across a number of sports, with cricket and basketball being among the most popular.

Douglas had fallen in love with basketball after first playing in 1905, only a few years after he had immigrated to New York from St. Kitts. Despite encountering discrimination as a Black man and immigrant, he founded and played for an adult amateur basketball team within the club named the Spartan Braves. He transitioned to managing the club in 1918.

Douglas was searching for a permanent home for his team and offered to rename the Spartan Braves the Harlem Renaissance in exchange for the use of the Black-owned Renaissance Ballroom & Casino on Seventh Avenue between 137th and 138th streets. The team played its first game as the Renaissance on Nov. 3, 1923, with Douglas signing his players to full-season contracts.

Harlem’s Renaissance Ballroom & Casino was the home of the New York Rens. (Source: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Two years later, the “Rens,” as they came to be called, were declared the World Colored Basketball Champions. The squad went on to establish itself as a national powerhouse and competed in some of the first professional basketball games between white teams and Black teams. In 1925, the Rens bested the Original Celtics, a white team from Manhattan’s West Side that many viewed as the top team in the nation.

The next year, another all-Black team claiming Harlem as its home was founded. Unlike the Rens, however, the Harlem Globetrotters had no connection to the New York City neighborhood. They were based out of Illinois and had a white owner, Abe Saperstein, who sought to profit from the connection between Black Americans and the place that served as the epicenter of Black culture.

A stretch of dominance

During the 1932-33 season, the Rens won 120 of the 128 games they played, including 88 in a row. Six of the losses came at the hands of the Original Celtics, although the Rens did end up winning the season series, beating their all-white rivals eight times.

Basketball’s influence on Black culture continued to grow throughout the interwar period. During Duke Ellington concerts, basketball stars like Fats Jenkins would entertain the crowd between sets, facilitating the deep cultural connection between basketball and Black music that continues today.

By the end of the 1930s, the Rens and Globetrotters were not just looking to prove themselves as the best Black teams but also establish themselves as the best basketball teams in the nation.

In 1936, the New York Rens played a two-game series against the formidable Oshkosh All-Stars, who played out of Wisconsin. The popularity of the games led to Douglas and Oshkosh founder Lon Darling to agree to a longer series, with the Rens winning three of the five games.

Douglas agreed to extend the competition another two games to create a “world series.” Oshkosh ended up winning them both to take the series. The victories led Darling and the All-Stars to join what would become the National Basketball League, a predecessor to the NBA. The NBL signed its first Black player in 1942, five years before Jackie Robinson made his MLB debut.

As the NBL grew in popularity, the World Professional Basketball Tournament was created. In the 10 years the tournament was played, NBL teams won all but three championships, with all-Black teams claiming the other three. But only one of those teams – the Rens – had a Black owner.

War, competition and integration

The Rens struggled to maintain their dominance after the newly established Washington Bears, another all-Black team, poached a number of Ren players in 1941. The Bears were founded by legendary Black broadcaster Hal Jackson and backed by theater owner Abe Lichtman, who lured players with higher pay and a lighter schedule.

After the war, a number of NBL franchises struggled, including the Detroit Vagabond Kings, who dropped out of the league in December 1948. Since the league needed a replacement, the Rens moved to Dayton, Ohio, and finished the season with the NBL, becoming the first Black-owned team in a primarily white league.

The NBL shuttered following the season, and several teams joined the newly formed NBA, leaving the Rens behind. The NBA was segregated during its first season after the merger was completed. But in 1950, several Black players – including former Rens player Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton – integrated the league.

Nat ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton played for the New York Rens and went on to become one of the first Black players in the NBA. (Source: Bettmann/Getty Images)

As professional sports grew and continued to integrate over the course of the 20th century, all-Black teams lost much of their top talent to white-owned teams. Despite quotas that limited the number of Black players on white-owned teams, the loss of top talent led to the end of teams like the Rens.

The unique community and fan experiences fostered by these all-Black franchises was forever lost.

The Rens legacy

In 1963, the 1932-33 Rens squad was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Several individual players, along with Douglas, would enter the Hall in later years.

Today there are no Black majority owners in any of the four major North American professional leagues. There are a handful of Black Americans who are minority owners of teams – former NBA stars Dwyane Wade and Grant Hill have minority stakes in the Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks, respectively – but it isn’t clear how much influence they wield.

It’s an especially discouraging situation for the NBA. In a league that is over 70% Black, the dearth of Black owners and executives can lead to a disconnect between the players and the people running the league.

In recent years, players have clashed with owners over dress codes, discipline and political protests.

As league revenue continues to soar, and the NBA serves as an example for inclusive hiring practices, the lack of Black ownership is harder to ignore 100 years after the Rens first stepped on the court.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A century ago, a Black-owned team ruled basketball—today, no Black majority owners remain.

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Scholar probes inequity in world of sports

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 05:25:39 +0000

Scholar probes inequity in world of sports Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/31/2023 - 22:25

Orla McGrath

CU on the Weekend lecture this Saturday to discuss how scholars address a past and present of inequities and understand intersectional identities in sports

The world of sports is rife with inequity, and Nicholas Villanueva has made this a focus of his scholarly study.

Villanueva, an assistant professor of ethnic studies and director of critical sports studies at the �鶹��Ƶ, will discuss his research at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The free event is being held in the CASE Building fourth-floor auditorium, or is available remotely by Zoom. Registration for Zoom attendance is required and can be completed at this link.

Saturday’s seminar is part of the CU on the Weekend series. The event is organized by the CU Boulder Office of Outreach and Engagement.

In his talk, Villanueva will discuss inequity in sports and intersectionality within the area of critical sports studies. Intersectionality is a framework for understanding a person or group of people as being affected by a number of types of discrimination or disadvantages. It takes into account people’s overlapping identities, such as someone being a woman and also being Black, in order to understand the complexities of prejudices and privileges they face.

Nicholas Villanueva is an assistant professor of ethnic studies and director of critical sports studies at the �鶹��Ƶ.

An author of three novels and the recipient of two national book awards for his work in Latinx studies, Villanueva co-created the Critical Sports Studies Program at CU Boulder to address current social issues in sports and is researching LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports.

Villanueva said his interest in the field dates back to his childhood, when he first became aware of prejudice in sports.

“Certain sports eventually became associated with different genders, and I remember looking around and wondering why we’re always associating masculinity and femininity with these activities,” he said.

The Critical Sports Studies Program offers a certificate based in the Ethnic Studies Department, where students can take classes on historical and current social and political issues in sports.

Villanueva teaches several of those classes. He said he chose to make the program a certificate instead of a minor to allow more flexibility for students to pursue their interests in the study in a variety of departments. He added that he recognizes that not every sport or social issue falls into his area of expertise and so he is open to proposals from students on courses they may find applicable to the Critical Sports Studies certificate.

“We don’t just examine social or cultural identities on their own; we focus on the intersectionality of all of those identities when we look at sports studies,” Villanueva said, noting that the concept of intersectionality plays an important role in his upcoming lecture and in his studies generally.

Villanueva is particularly interested in analyzing traditional ideas about masculinity in sports and is working on a new manuscript on the International Gay Rodeo Association and how it started to upend the stereotype about masculinity in sports.

I want people to understand that as more BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities participate in sports—especially in powerful roles—the more the dominant societal group that holds power begins to feel threatened.”

“I’m obsessed with this idea of having people think about masculinity in sport in new ways.” Villanueva said, adding: “I want people to understand that as more BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities participate in sports—especially in powerful roles—the more the dominant societal group that holds power begins to feel threatened. This happens not just in sports, but also in every institution. Discrimination in this sense is about the dominant group feeling threatened that they are going to lose their power and control.”

The concept of critical sports studies might prompt some people to think of Colin Kaepernick or Simone Biles—athletes with large followings who made headlines for taking controversial stands. But, as always, it’s crucial to look beyond notable names and examine why Kaepernick’s story stirred the nation in the first place, Villanueva said.

He added that he is dedicated to examining frameworks and institutional issues that exist not only in sports, but everywhere in society.

CU on the Weekend lecture this Saturday to discuss how scholars address a past and present of inequities and understand intersectional identities in sports.

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