Powerful Moments in Sports

The Battle of the Sexes. Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics. The passage of Title IX. Some moments in sports, whether they take place on a tennis court or in a courtroom, transcend the event itself. Some have helped America live out its creed that all men are created equal. Others have pushed the nation toward a goal of gender equality. Others have changed individual sports to such a degree that they have transformed society. Powerful Moments in Sports: The Most Significant Sporting Events in American History is about more than a single player, team, or game. It is about how the event affected the sport, the country, and sometimes the world. Martin Gitlin includes such impactful moments as Jackie Robinson integrating Major League Baseball, Gertrude Ederle becoming the first female to swim the English ChannelΓÇöand shattering the times of five men who had also accomplished the featΓÇöand the US hockey team defeating the vaunted Soviets at the 1980 Olympics. The twenty events featured in this book not only inspired a nation, they also had profound social, political, and cultural importance. Spanning across multiple decades, Powerful Moments in Sports reveals the tremendous impact athletes have had on AmericaΓÇöand the worldΓÇöover the years. Covering football, baseball, hockey, basketball, track and field, boxing, and more, sports fans, historians, and those interested in the impact of sports on culture and society will find this book fascinating and enlightening.