126 episodes

The Sport in History Podcast brings you the latest in cutting edge research with interviews and talks with leading sports historians and up and coming researchers into Sports History. The podcast is a British Society of Sports History production from the UK's leading scholarly society for the history of sport. Click through to our website for further information on our events and to find out how to join the Society.

Sport in History Podcast British Society of Sports History

    • Sports
    • 5.0 • 1 Rating

The Sport in History Podcast brings you the latest in cutting edge research with interviews and talks with leading sports historians and up and coming researchers into Sports History. The podcast is a British Society of Sports History production from the UK's leading scholarly society for the history of sport. Click through to our website for further information on our events and to find out how to join the Society.

    Michael Connolly on Brother Walfrid and the foundation of Celtic Football Club

    Michael Connolly on Brother Walfrid and the foundation of Celtic Football Club

    Dr Michael Connolly is currently lecturing in Sport Management at the University of Stirling, placed within the Faculty of Health Science and Sport.

    His research is centred within the Sport division and over the past five academic years he has worked towards producing the world's first biography of Brother Walfrid - most recognised as the prime founder of Celtic Football Club in Glasgow in 1887/88. Michael's thesis is titled "Faith, Community and Football: The Life of Brother Walfrid" and draws on fresh primary source material uncovered through rigorous archival work in Scotland, Ireland, England and France.

    The research project reached completion on the 1st November 2022,with the thesis published as a book titled Walfrid: A Life of Faith, Community and Football by Argyll Publishing.

    • 54 min
    Cricket Research Network 2024 Round Table

    Cricket Research Network 2024 Round Table

    This episode is a recording of a Roundtable discussion during the first Cricket Research Network conference, held at the Museum of Welsh Cricket in Cardiff on 23 February 2024. The discussion was Chaired by Professor Dominic Malcolm (Loughborough University) and the participants (in the order in which they appear on the recording) were:
    Michael Collins, Associate Professor Modern History, UCL and member of the Independent Commission on Equity in Cricket (ICEC)
    Raf Nicholson, Senior Lecturer, Bournemouth University and Chair of the Cricket Research Network
    Mark Frost, Development Manager, Cricket Wales and Glamorgan Cricket
    Kate Aldridge, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, England and Wales Cricket Board

    The theme of the conference was ‘Cricket in a post-ICEC World: Where do we go from here?’ and the Roundtable discussion was framed around three central questions: what had been achieved since the publication of the ICEC report, what were the priority areas for future development, and how could the Cricket Research Network contribute to the important work of reducing, and ultimately eliminating, structural and institutional racism, sexism and class-based discrimination in the game.

    • 1 hr 3 min
    Dave Day and Female Teachers of PE in Interwar Britain

    Dave Day and Female Teachers of PE in Interwar Britain

    'For those who like the life nothing could be better’: The Games Mistress in Interwar Britain

    During the Edwardian period the ‘sporting girl’ was increasingly being framed as modern and aspirational. Intensive exercise programmes had been introduced at many British girls’ schools and the physical education colleges were graduating substantial numbers of women gymnastics and games teachers, the demand for whom increased rapidly with an expansion in the playing of team sports. Some headmistresses placed greater importance upon the character of her games mistress than any other member of staff, because the games mistress interacted with girls in their more spontaneous and unguarded moments; ‘hers was the exceptional opportunity of helping them to play in a manner to show not merely proficiency in games, but character as well’. This connection to pupils was reflected in the literature that referred to ‘what a ripping games mistress they’d got’, and to recollections of everyone having had a ‘crack’ on the games mistress in their schooldays.


    Most of these women have left little trace in the historical record, but that should not dissuade the historian from making the effort to uncover their life courses. Combining evidence from a broad spectrum of key primary sources, including newspapers, the 1911 and 1921 censuses, college records, literature, girls’ annuals, specialist periodicals, photographs, local and family histories, and the 1939 National Register, this paper illuminates some of the biographies and experiences of the women who led the development of sport and physical activity for girls both inside and outside the school environment, at national and at regional level. These narratives may lack evidence in parts, but they provide enough material to give us a picture of the lives of those involved and allow us to interrogate some of the stereotypes that have been assigned to the figure of the Inter War games mistress.

    Dave Day is Professor of Sports History at Manchester Metropolitan University where his research interests include the historical development of coaching and training practices as well as the life courses of nineteenth and twentieth century sports coaches. A significant feature of his research has been the pioneering of biographical techniques and the use of genealogical resources and he is continuing to explore new methodologies and sources for the creation of sports history. Dave’s current research projects include exploring the transcultural transmission of coaching traditions across national borders, the gendered socialisation into sport through the medium of Victorian children’s’ periodicals, and the lives and experiences of women coaches in the first half of the twentieth century. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the European Committee for Sports History, past editor-in-chief of the Sport in History journal, and a past Chair of the British Society of Sports History.

    • 1 hr 10 min
    Max Ferrer on Global Barça and Consumable Catalan Culture

    Max Ferrer on Global Barça and Consumable Catalan Culture

    In the decades surrounding the turn of the twenty-first century, few brands across the globe gained more recognition than that of FC Barcelona. During this period, the club engaged in two mission that were seemingly at odds with one another. The first was to globalize the club’s reach and expand into international markets. The second was to retain its historic nationalist significance. This paper explores how the club negotiated the tensions between these two missions in the 1990s and 2000s, and in doing so, fostered a connection between Catalonia and international publics that had not existed before, all to the benefit of the region’s nationalist movement. After varied attempts at profiting from engaging with international audience, this eventually took the form of a brand-consumer relationship. In negotiating this expansion, club leaders and various interested actors not only turned FC Barcelona into a consumable product, but also rendered international fans as consumers. By providing a narrative account of this development, I show how nationalist institutions and symbols are not neutralized by global processes, but can adapt to and ensconce themselves in international networks all while furthering their nationalist purpose.

    Max Ferrer’s PhD research at King’s College London focuses on the intersection between nationalism and globalization in the region of Catalonia since Spain’s return to democracy in 1978. Organized around various case studies, including mass tourism, elite sport, and higher education, this dissertation examines the evolution of Catalonia’s nationalist movement, which was strengthened and defined by the global era. In doing so, it attempts to situate the role of culture in promoting an image of the region as a distinct political entity and evaluating culture’s role as a mediator between globalization and nationalism.


    Prior to his PhD research, he completed an MA at Columbia University’s European Institute, where his thesis won the Institute’s Distinction Award and led to a chapter in Routledge’s European Integration and Disintegration: Essays from the Next Generation of Europe's Thinkers.

    • 31 min
    Clem Seecharan in conversation with David Woodhouse

    Clem Seecharan in conversation with David Woodhouse

    Clem Seecharan, the distinguished historian of Guyana and Caribbean cricket, talks to David Woodhouse at a special event to celebrate his being given the Howard Milton Award for cricket scholarship.

    Clem talks about his youth growing up on Berbice in then British Guyana and the effect on him of reading the CLR James classic, 'Beyond a Boundary'. He also reflects on the great players that Guyana has produced over the years, including the recent match-winner against Australia, Shamar Joseph.

    You can access a wonderful video of Clem speaking at Moray House here https://youtu.be/ZOm5c0zpBvE?si=1V-o4MmeWp4rBhoc

    • 56 min
    Matt Taylor on Barbara Buttrick

    Matt Taylor on Barbara Buttrick

    Barbara Buttrick and the History of Women’s Boxing in Britain

    This paper explores the life and career of Barbara Buttrick but also the way in which her achievements have been remembered (and forgotten). Born near Hull in 1930, Buttrick faced discrimination and disapproval in the UK and was frequently banned and boycotted. Moving to the United States in 1952, she enjoyed greater opportunities and recognition. In 1957, she beat Phyllis Kugler in a bout in San Antonio, Texas, to become the first sanctioned women’s boxing title-holder. In retirement, Buttrick became a key figure in the foundation and development of the Women’s International Boxing Federation.

    Drawing on material from the Barbara Buttrick Collection at the National Fairground Archive in Sheffield among other sources, this paper examines three key phases in the ‘making’ and ‘remembering’ of Buttrick in relation to the history of women’s boxing in Britain. It focuses first on her boxing career in the late 1940s-1960, then examines the interweaving of Buttrick’s story into the narrative of women’s boxing at the 2012 London Olympics, before finally looking at the portrayal of Buttrick in Amanda Whittington’s 2017 play Mighty Atoms.

    Matthew Taylor is Professor of History at the ICSHC and Director of the Institute of History, DMU. He has written widely on the history of sport in Britain and beyond. His last book was Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-1945 (Routledge, 2020) and he is currently completing World of Sport: Connected and Transnational Histories, which will be published by Routledge in 2024.

    • 1 hr 4 min

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