Bigger Than The Game: The Secret Game

Any story that involves punching holes in the Jim Crow laws of the 1950's and 60's will always get my attention. Any story that involves sports and punching holes in the Jim Crow laws of the 1950's and 60's will doubly get my attention. The story of the famed "Secret Game' between the then North Carolina School for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University) and the Duke Medical School basketball teams caught my eye earlier today when researching some things for my classes. I knew right away this was something I wanted to learn more about and put here for all our faithful followers.

Bigger Than The Game: Cool Runnings

Happy Birthday Bob!

In honor of Robert Nesta Marley’s birthday and the opening ceremonies for the Sochi Olympics tonight (in the US), I thought I might post a brief history of Jamaica’s sole contribution to world of arctic sports. Bobsledding. If you are a certain age, you are likely familiar with John Candy coaching to Doug E. Doug, Leon, and Rawle D. Lewis to Olympic…..defeat, but the team’s history has been marked by reasonable success.

The team was initially founded by American businessmen George Fitch  (now mayor of Warrenton, Virginia) and William Maloney. Originally interested in Jamaica's push-cart culture, the two recognized that the nation’s sprinters would serve valuable speed in the bobsled’s push starts. The 1988 team finished dead last at the Calgary games, but gained attention as the game's underdogs story.

Bigger Than The Game: On The Horse That Was Too Small

The Story of Seabiscuit

In the midst of the Great Depression, sports became more than just sports. Fans escaped the drudgery of their daily lives by plopping down a few cents to watch their home team for a few hours forgetting the worries on the other side of the stands. Attendance at sporting events doubled and sometimes even tripled in the midst of the Depression as fans not only got away from their problems, but also got to see some most memorable sporting moments in history. More than baseball, football, or basketball, sports readily bet on were the most popular. Horseracing, along with Boxing, entered into its Golden Age because of its speed, danger and betting appeal. Lured by the thought of quick money or a lucky break, people flocked to the big tracks such as Churchill Downs, Pimlico, and Santa Anita. Aside from the cathedrals, fans could find smaller tracks and open field to bet on the “Sport of Kings.”

Bigger Than The Game: And Forrest Was There

Forrest Gump remains one of my all time favorite movies. Many of the historical events Gump was a part of are easy enough to pin-point. The one event that has long baffled me was his trip to China on the “All-American Ping-Pong Team.” Little did I know, the U.S Table Tennis team actually helped to pave the way for better U.S./Chinese relations at the height of the Cold War.

"In the land of China, people don't ever go to church"
but the did play some serious ping-pong

Long seen as one of the best ways to spread diplomacy throughout the world, table tennis had gain popularity impart from its development by British expatriates on over-seas assignment. The game took hold in China during the early 1900’s thanks to English involvement in the opium trade. It has been said that forces in the Chinese Civil War were so fond of the game that truces were set up so that the opposing sides could pit their best players against each other.

Bigger Than The Game: Maradona's Goals

Often in sports, there comes a game that has deeper significance that just a sporting contest between two teams. It happens often that national pride, religious strife and geopolitical connotations are wrapped up and rolled out on the field of play. These events have transcended time and become not only great sporting events but great historical events. One such game took place in the 1986 FIFA World Cup between Argentina and Great Britain.