Other History Commons^™

Metta, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Maybe I missed the memo. Perhaps I wasn’t paying close enough attention. Or somehow it wasn’t big enough news in London. Whatever the case may be, I was a startled when I read recently that someone named Metta World Peace was playing basketball in the NBA for the Los Angeles Lakers. I remember World B. Free of the NBA and He Hate Me of the XFL, but Metta World Peace was a new one.

The Triumph Of The Passenger Ship - An Exhibition Of The Norman H. Morse Ocean Liner Collection, Osher Map Library

Osher Map Library Exhibition Catalogs

Triumph of the Passenger Ship: Highlights from the Norman H. Morse Ocean Liner Collection, 1870-2010.

May 15, 2012 to August 23, 2012

The experience of life aboard the great vessels that plied the Atlantic, from the introduction of steam to the rise of air travel, is presented through this selection of materials from the Morse Collection of ocean liner ephemera.

Summitt, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

From across the nation, from the world of basketball and the world of sport, the reaction to Pat Summitt relinquishing her position as head basketball coach at the University of Tennessee has been overwhelming in praise, admiration, and volume. Those who played for Summitt talked of the tremendous impact that she had on their lives, praising her as a coach and human being, often referring to her as a mother-figure. Those who knew her in other capacities talked about her strength in the face of adversity. This quality distinguished Pat Summitt throughout her career and not just in the past …

Marchmad, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

For the past six weeks if you were around anything even vaguely connected with college sport, you were subjected to repeated references to “March Madness.” The only phrase that even remotely approaches “March Madness” in frequency of use is “student athlete.” If you prefer hyperbole over hypocrisy then, no doubt, you prefer “March Madness” over “student athlete.”

Bounties, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The shocking news out of the NFL this past week was that football is a violent game and that violence is encouraged by coaches. I suspect most American boys learned this basic truth about football when they were six or seven years old.

Braun, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

From the time the story was leaked in early December, I had a feeling that Ryan Braun was going to be the first player to successfully appeal a positive drug test. I based this on two notions. First, someone sometime was going to be the victim of a false positive or some breach in the security of the urine sample. Second, I had a difficult time believing that someone of Braun’s obvious talent and public image, who did not exhibit a huge jump in his offensive numbers, was taking performance enhancing drugs. In most of the power categories (doubles, triples, …

Bcs, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The Alabama Crimson Tide football team is now officially the BCS National Field Goal Champion. This was achieved despite the fact that the Tide did score a touchdown in the waning moments of the game and then watched their kicker miss the extra point. The Alabama coach, Nick Saban, must have been quite proud of this achievement, as it obliterated the loss to LSU in the Field Goal contest of November to determine which team was number one in the nation at that point in the season.

Reflection, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

As I prepare to leave England and return to Florida and as the end of the year approaches, I have thought about writing an end of the year summary piece. Thinking about that I decided that what I only would reflect upon the last six or seven weeks of this year, weeks that have turned out to be most remarkable in content and emblematic of the past year.

Thanksgiving, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

(As with all American traditions if it happened once or twice it is one. Therefore I present my traditional Thanksgiving piece) The History of Thanksgiving and of Football both go back into the Middle Ages, and so it may not be so strange that the two would become intertwined in modern America.

Al Davis, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the past weekend news came of the death of Al Davis at the age of 82. It did not make the nightly news in France or the newspapers that I saw. It was not until returning to England on Monday that I, really by chance, stumbled across the news of Davis’ death. I can say I was surprised and somewhat taken aback by the possibility that I might have missed the death of such an important figure in the history of sport in America, particularly the history of the National Football League.

Baseball's Night, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It was approximately 12:45 a.m. in London when Mark Teixeira’s bases loaded blast reached the seats in The Can, and the Yankees added four runs to the one they were gifted in the first inning. It was 5-0. David Price had very little, and I turned off my computer and went to bed. At the time the Braves were 1-1 with Philadelphia, the Red Sox and O’s were scoreless and that seemed not to matter at that point. The Cardinals and Astros had not yet begun.

Penn State, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The world of intercollegiate athletics, particularly the world of elite football and basketball programs, is a world unto itself. It has a connection to reality analogous to that of Disney World, and is shrouded in a veil of secrecy rivaling that of the CIA. Those who run these programs live in a paranoid environment that sustains a bunker mentality, while at the same time is invested with a sense that the rules, of any world beyond their offices, do not apply to them. They are vigilant in maintaining their splendid isolation in a vacuum of privilege.

College Football, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Staged events are seldom convincing and often offensive. About two weeks ago the President of THE Ohio State University, Gordon Gee decided to stage a public apology for his comments several weeks earlier in which he used the Little Sisters of the Poor as a punch line for criticism of scheduling by lesser football teams than his group of tainted national champions.

London, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

As some of you know I am now in London where I will spend the fall semester teaching at the Florida State University London Centre. I am not certain how this will affect my general view of the American sports scene, but I can tell you that the riots of this week have affected my ability to concentrate on sport and the issues that have arisen over the past two weeks.

Nfl, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Today was Day 129 of America Held Hostage. No, the Ayatollah Komenhi and his band of fanatical hostage takers have not returned. This is not the ABC television news mantra that was featured during the Iranian Hostage crisis and spawned “Nightline” and made a celebrity out of Ted Koppel. This was something far more significant.

World Cup, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Do you believe in miracles? Since it was first used by Al Michaels on the ABC telecast during the final seconds of the U.S.–Soviet Hockey game at the 1980 Olympics, this line has been quoted countless times by American sports fans. Watching the totally unexpected play or the remarkable outcome to some game, fans have often turned to this phrase to express their wonder.

The History Of Baccarat, Theodore Whiting

Occasional Papers

The true origins of modern Baccarat are probably lost to history. The first time the game Baccarat (spelled Baccara) was mentioned in print by a contemporary observer was in the early 19th century. The written record that would document the origins and evolution of the game is, unfortunately, incomplete. However, a close examination of the available material reveals some interesting facts surrounding the history of Baccarat, including a much earlier date for its arrival in the United States, that validates its continuing study.

Excesses Of The Super Bowl, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

From its modest beginnings in 1966 at the AFL-NFL Championship Game in Los Angeles down to Super Bowl XLIV, it has become increasingly apparent that Super Sunday has grown exponentially and in the process has become a bloated monster. Over the past quarter century or more Super Sunday has illustrated the ability of a sporting event to offer a distorted and exaggerated version of social reality and social values in America and the Super Bowl has done this on a grand, glorious, and obscene scale.

Athletes In Confessional Mode, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

What is it about the media, and by implication, the public, that we seem to require a public confessional from our fallen heroes and icons? As I watched some of the Mark McGwire interview with Bob Costas I wondered if it had started with McGwire looking at the floor and saying, "Forgive me Bobby, for I have sinned." I trust it did not, even though it might have added to the ambiance.

A December To Remember, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It has been a December to remember. As the month comes to a close with a remarkable flurry of headline sports stories, its clear that this one month was not only one for the memory bank, but that it may have been the most fitting way to end a year that has certified the decade as the Naughty Naughties. What seemed like an awkward tag at the beginning of the new century has become a most appropriate signature phrase as this decade comes to its ignominious close.

Bobby Bowden Departs, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

When is the right time to leave? Some wait too long, others leave too soon. Some go out on top. Some tarnish their legacy before letting go.

End The Nfl Blackout!, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the past week there has been some comment on the NFL television blackout policy that prohibits the televising of home games in the home market unless there has been a sellout 72 hours in advance of kickoff. Some, including Richard Sandomir of the New York Times, have suggested that in this time of economic crisis, when it appears that the number of sellouts of NFL games will be dropping, that Commissioner Goodell should end or suspend the blackout policy. This is a reasonable sentiment, although one might question if offering more blood and circuses offers a viable solution to …

The Water Torture Of Baseball's Steroid Leaks, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

When I was a young boy I remember using the term "Chinese water torture" for any activity that seemed long, torturous, and pointless. I have been reminded of this repeatedly over the last few years as slowly, usually one by one, the names of those baseball players who tested positive for some sort of performance enhancing drugs have become public. Anonymous and confidential drug testing that was conducted for Major League baseball and the MLB Players Association in 2003 to determine the extent of a drug problem in baseball has turned out to be not so confidential.

An Amazing Open, And An Obscenity In Arlington, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

If you watched The Open from Turnberry this weekend there were two surprises: Tiger Woods didn’t make the cut and Tom Watson nearly won the tournament. It became obvious that Tiger wasn’t playing his A-game when in the middle of his second round he played himself out of the tournament. Woods was one under par after seven holes and then went bogey, bogey, double bogey, par, bogey, double bogey. He was hitting shots that any weekend duffer could relate to as he topped the ball, mishit the ball several times, and explored all of the varieties of the rough. It …

Fabulous Finals At Wimbledon, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It’s been a week now since the finals were played at Wimbledon. On the women’s side the Williams sisters once again demonstrated to their opponents just how difficult it will be to win a tournament during which both of them are playing their normal game. On the men’s side Roger Federer entered the history books by winning his 15th Grand Slam event. As always Wimbledon offered a level of play that was memorable, and laid down new bench marks for high quality play and then reset the argumentative territory for the title “best Wimbledon match of all-time,” or at the …

More Corruption In College Sports, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The story began with this line: The NCAA placed Alabama's football program and 15 other of the school's athletic teams on three years' probation for major violations due to misuse of free textbooks.

A Wild Weekend In Sports, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It was one of those weekends of sports gluttony, especially if you were fixated on a television set, intent on catching every bit of drama you could find. And indeed there was much to find. Hockey, basketball, tennis, golf, NASCAR, baseball, horse racing, and who knows how much else if you have access to the worldwide network of sports channels available from every corner of the universe. As for me, this weekend was extraordinarily full of sport as I was a bit under the weather and looking for escape from the realities of physical irritation.

The Death Of Nick Adenhart, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

For all us fans the opening of the baseball season is one of the first signs of spring. The teams have ended training in Arizona and Florida and are now ready for the long grind of the regular season. April is full of optimism and hope. It is the time of renewal, a time to begin again as an equal in the standings. Reality will set in eventually for all but the very best, hopes will fade, champions will be crowned, and then the following spring it will begin again.

Dick's Fantasy Sports: Ncaa, Yankee Stadium, And The Cubs, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the past few weeks I have heard and read a lot of very interesting things coming out of SportsWorld.

Time For The Us To Get Serious In The Wbc, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

In case you haven't heard, and apparently many in the United States have not, Japan is the World Champion of Baseball for the second time running. No, they did not win the World Series, they won the World Baseball Classic, and for the second time in as many tries the United States did not make it to the finals. If this were basketball the outcry in the United States would be deafening. In fact, there is no outcry.