Tuesdays with Susan

Abstract

The indelible 1993 film, Rudy, about a working-class man from the deindustrializing U.S. Midwest, serves as a backdrop for our discussion of Susan Birrell's lasting legacy in sport studies and sport history. As two of Dr. Birrell's former teaching assistants at the University of Iowa, who attended lectures and screenings for an undergraduate Sport and Film class every Tuesday evening throughout numerous semesters, we focus our gaze on one of her most underappreciated analytical and methodological interventions: intertextuality. We expand on our memories and discuss how we, as instructors, would have our students engage with intertextuality, using Rudy and the current texts of “Rudy II,” a 2019 Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial, and “Robbie,” a 2020 Saturday Night Live skit. These sources, when analyzed together, reveal the reproduction of white, middle-class values in sport film. Therefore, critical cultural perspectives and intertextual approaches to sport film, what we describe as a “Birrellian” legacy, continue to matter as ways for students and scholars to interrogate and engage in broader social and political discourses.