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 Long before professional basketball came to Utah in 1970, the state boasted an impressive record in other sports including its share of superstars: Jack Dempsey, world heavyweight boxing champion, 1919-26; Iver Lawson, international cycling champion, 1904; Alf Engen whose world ski-jumping records in the 1930s-40s prompted Sports Illustrated to remember him as “the Michael Jordan of his sport”; Ab Jenkins who set the world land-speed endurance record in 1940; and tennis player David Freed who won the U.S. Senior Singles tournament in 1954.

In team sports, the nearly forgotten Salt Lake Seagulls of 1946-47 competed against the best pro football teams in the West, while two baseball teams, the Salt Lake Deserets and their inner-city rival, the Red Stockings, played successfully in 1878-79 against the Cheyenne Reds, the Chicago White Stockings, the Denver Browns, the Nebraska Omahas, and the Rochester Hop Bitters.

Added to these, such pastimes as horse racing at the state fairgrounds, a winter ascent of Mt. Timpanogos in 1916, and angling at Fish Lake National Forest show the diversity and evolution of athletics in Utah. Like replaying the 1998 title game between the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls, these assembled tales of perseverance, skill, exuberance, and heartbreak from long ago are equally thrilling.

What were the iconic sports moments of the last century? In Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles , a team of sports aficionados climb onto their bar stools to address that never-solved but essential question. Triumphs and turning points, rivalries and record-setters ”each chapter tracks down the real story behind the epic moments and legendary careers sports fans love to debate. Topics include Abner Doubleday and the origins of baseball; the era-defining 1979 duel between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson; how Denver and Cleveland relive The Drive; the myths surrounding the Ali-Foreman Rumble in the Jungle; Billie Jean King's schooling of Bobby Riggs; the Miracle on Ice; and ESPN's conquest of the sports world. Filled with eye-opening lore and analysis, Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles is an entertaining look at what we think we know about sports.

Reversing Field invites students, professionals, and enthusiasts of sport—whether law, management and marketing, or the game itself—to explore the legal issues and regulations surrounding collegiate and professional athletics in the United States. This theoretical and methodological interrogation of sports law openly addresses race, labor, gender, and the commercialization of sports, while offering solutions to the disruptions that threaten its very foundation during an era of increased media scrutiny and consumerism. In over thirty chapters, academics, practitioners, and critics vigorously confront and debate matters such as the Arms Race, gender bias, racism, the Rooney Rule, and steroid use, offering new thought and resolution to the vexing legal issues that confront sports in the 21st century.

The sixteen original essays in this collection cover influential and famous rivalries from a variety of sports, including track and field, golf, boxing, basketball, tennis, ice skating, baseball, football, soccer, and more. The essays are diverse, but together they illustrate what is common to any rivalry: equally matched opponents that often have decidedly different backgrounds, styles, and personalities. These differences may center on race and culture, political and societal ideologies, personality, geography, or religion—a mix intensified by fans and the media. From highly publicized and emotionally charged individual competitions to bitterly fought team contests, Rivals illuminates what one-of-a-kind opponents and the passion they inspire tell us about ourselves and our society.