This perceptive, lively study explores U.S. women's sport through historical "points of change": particular products or trends that dramatically influenced both women's participation in sport and cultural responses to women athletes. Beginning with the seemingly innocent ponytail, the subject of the Introduction, scholar Jaime Schultz challenges the reader to look at the historical and sociological significance of now-common items such as sports bras and tampons and ideas such as sex testing and competitive cheerleading. Tennis wear, tampons, and sports bras all facilitated women’s participation in physical culture, while physical educators, the aesthetic fitness movement, and Title IX encouraged women to challenge (or confront) policy, financial, and cultural obstacles. While some of these points of change increased women's physical freedom and sporting participation, they also posed challenges. Tampons encouraged menstrual shame, sex testing (a tool never used with male athletes) perpetuated narrowly-defined cultural norms of femininity, and the late-twentieth-century aesthetic fitness movement fed into an unrealistic beauty ideal. Ultimately, Schultz finds that U.S. women's sport has progressed significantly but ambivalently. Although participation in sports is no longer uncommon for girls and women, Schultz argues that these "points of change" have contributed to a complex matrix of gender differentiation that marks the female athletic body as different than--as less than--the male body, despite the advantages it may confer.

A unique new reference work, this encyclopedia presents a social, cultural, and economic history of American sports from hunting, bowling, and skating in the sixteenth century to televised professional sports and the X Games today. Nearly 400 articles examine historical and cultural aspects of leagues, teams, institutions, major competitions, the media and other related industries, as well as legal and social issues, economic factors, ethnic and racial participation, and the growth of institutions and venues. Also included are biographical entries on notable individuals—not just outstanding athletes, but owners and promoters, journalists and broadcasters, and innovators of other kinds—along with in-depth entries on the history of major and minor sports from air racing and archery to wrestling and yachting. A detailed chronology, master bibliography, and directory of institutions, organizations, and governing bodies—plus more than 100 vintage and contemporary photographs—round out the coverage.

From the pages of The New York Times come 365 unforgettable moments in sports-to relive, argue about, and enjoy, including: * June 22, 1938-Joe Louis beats Max Schmeling for the heavyweight boxing championship * May 29, 1953-Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norkay become the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest * January 12, 1969-Joe Namath promises a Super Bowl victory and delivers * August 3, 1984-Mary Lou Retton becomes the first American gymnast to win the gold medal * July 10, 1999-In front of the largest crowd to ever watch a woman's sporting event, the U.S. women's soccer team defeats China for the World Championship * August 20, 2000-Winning his third straight major and second consecutive P.G.A. Championship, Tiger Woods defeats Bob May in a three-hole playoff Every sports fan has a personal memory book, a treasury of unforgettable achievements, moments in which a game was spectacularly won (or lost) against all odds, a hero was crowned or an unspeakable human error cost an athlete a championship or a team the entire season. Sometimes it's a scandal, a rule change, or even technology that changes a sport dramatically. Sports of the Times draws from the archives of Times reporting to re-create and select the most important event of each calendar day, from any sport-horse racing to boxing, soccer to the Olympics and more. With three runners-up for each day, five-star selections of the most significant events in history and exclusive photos throughout, this book makes a wonderful gift, and is sure to start many conversations and debates.

Spanning the wide world of sports, this volume is packed with every conceivable fact that anyone would possibly want to know about nearly 300 sports, including history and practice worldwide.