NASSH and the Evolution of Sport History in North America

Abstract:This essay examines the evolution of sport history, once a disdained subject among scholars, into a vital and respectable topic of inquiry, focusing on the North American Society for Sport History's (NASSH) fifty-year effort to achieve that status. Until the 1970s, historians neglected sport history, considering it unworthy of their attention because it was a frivolous topic that did not foster valuable knowledge or explain vital historical issues and because physical educators produced insignificant monographs on sport. NASSH was established in 1973 to promote a community of sport historians from across disciplines and generate intellectually sound scholarship. It contributed to this goal through annual conferences, support for the Journal of Sport History, supporting junior scholars, and awarding prizes for major scholarly achievements. It soon attracted young men and women trained in physical education/kinesiology or history departments and also experienced scholars drawn by sporting subjects who wrote important monographs.