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Rivals
Legendary Matchups That Made Sports History
Edited by David K. Wiggins and R. Pierre Rodgers
Unforgettable fans, teams, and
athletes
“Rivalries are the lifeblood of sport. They’re
at the heart of what competition is all about. Rivals offers
a detailed look at sixteen historic rivalries that shaped
the world of sports and still reverberate today.”
—Thomas Hauser, author of Muhammad
Ali: His Life and Times
“Better than any book I know, this dazzling collection
dramatizes the rich range of meanings embodied by modern American
sport. The focus on great rivalries, and the contrasts in
social and cultural values they come to represent, allow the
authors to illuminate many of the key factors that have shaped
Americans’ views of sport—and of themselves—over
a century of tumultuous change.”
—Pamela Grundy, author of Shattering
the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball
“Whether intensely local (Massillon vs. Canton High)
or global (USA vs. USSR in track), rivalries distill sport
to its essence: one on one, Us against Them, Good Guys vs.
Bad Guys, however fans choose to define them. These wide-ranging
essays are never dull, always illuminating, in bringing sixteen
great sporting rivalries to life.”
—Michael Oriard, author of Bowled
Over: Big-Time College Football from the Sixties to the BCs
Era
“Rivalries provide a public purpose that intensifies
the meaning of a contest and give it an emotional quality
that produces a burning urgency for participant and spectator
alike. This well-chosen and well-written volume takes us through
some of the best known rivalries on the local, national, and
international stage. This is a great book.”
—Richard C. Crepeau, author of Baseball:
America’s Diamond Mind
The sixteen original essays in this collection cover influential
and famous rivalries from a variety of sports, including track
and field, golf, boxing, basketball, tennis, ice skating,
baseball, football, soccer, and more. The essays are diverse,
but together they illustrate what is common to any rivalry:
equally matched opponents that often have decidedly different
backgrounds, styles, and personalities. These differences
may center on race and culture, political and societal ideologies,
personality, geography, or religion—a mix intensified
by fans and the media.
From highly publicized and emotionally charged individual
competitions to bitterly fought team contests, Rivals illuminates
what one-of-a-kind opponents and the passion they inspire
tell us about ourselves and our society.
David K. Wiggins
is professor and director of the School of Recreation, Health,
and Tourism at George Mason University and the editor of Out
of the Shadows: A Biographical History of African American
Athletes.
R. Pierre Rodgers
is associate professor in the School of Recreation, Health,
and Tourism at George Mason University.
May
6 x 9, 491 pages, 21 photographs, index
$29.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-55728-921-6
$75.00 (s) unjacketed cloth
ISBN 978-1-55728-920-9
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