Most people think of three major sporting events from the 1960s when asked to name three major ones; most people will quickly think of Green Bay Packers beating Kansas City Chiefs in the first Super Bowl as being enough. Yet there were numerous other sporting events which thrilled and surprised fans, including California college basketball dynasties, historic home runs set records in World Series, and groundbreaking high jumpers who revolutionized track-and-field sports.
In the United States, this decade saw many major, racially motivated social changes, such as Rosa Parks’ bust accident, Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream,” and John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Additionally, women athletes gained greater access to intercollegiate sports competition such as softball, hockey, volleyball, golf, tennis and archery for competitive play.
Miles Coverdale, who earned both his undergraduate degree in English at Bowdoin College and an MBA at Columbia University, has written an outstanding, scholarly work entitled The 1960s in Sports. His knowledge and love for sports combined with his ability to place the many significant events of that decade into context makes this book an indispensable source for those studying American history.
As well as covering each year’s top sports events, this book presents profiles of iconic 1960s athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston (boxing); Pete Maravich, Jim Brown and “Broadway Joe Namath (football); Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Bill Mazeroski (baseball); Al Oerter and Bikila Abebe (track-and-field); Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer (golf); Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe and Bill Russell (ice Hockey); John Wooden and Wilt Chamberlain (college basketball).
Coverdale concludes his book by exploring one of the more controversial events where sports did not stop when it should have–President Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963. As with other tragedies in the past, however, the National Football League chose to play its full schedule on Sunday despite an entire country mourning its president.”
The 1960s in Sports is an essential read for anyone passionate about American history or sporting events, particularly sports fans. Rich Macales of Los Angeles has written this outstanding work that is sure to become an indispensable text in American studies classes with an interest in sports as a subject matter.