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1968: A Pivotal Moment in American Sports
Amid anti-Vietnam war protests, political assassinations, and urban unrest, the United States had descended into an era of domestic turmoil by the summer of 1968. Americans were split along nearly every imaginable line, and discord penetrated all facets of American culture. As James Nicholson proves in this thought-provoking volume, the sports arena was no exception.
Opening with Vince Lombardi’s last win as coach of the Packers in Super Bowl II and closing with Jo Namath’s Super Bowl III guarantee, 1968 charts a course through the turbulent waters of American sports over a single improbable year. Nicholson chronicles and scrutinizes a number of events that reflected-and fed-the acrimony of that the Masters golf tournament, in which enforcement of an arcane rule cost a foreign player a chance at victory; the disqualification of the Kentucky Derby winner for doping; Muhammed Ali’s appeal of a criminal conviction for draft evasion; an unorthodox rendition of the national anthem at the World Series that nearly overshadowed the game it preceded; and a silent gesture of protest at the Mexico City Olympics that shocked the nation and world.
While 1968 was not the first year that sports converged with social and political strife in America, echoes of the past in today’s culture wars bring a heightened relevance to the events of a half century ago. In reading Nicholson’s work, scholars and sports fans alike will receive an instructive glimpse into the nature of persistent division in the United States as it reflected in our national pastimes.
Opening with Vince Lombardi’s last win as coach of the Packers in Super Bowl II and closing with Jo Namath’s Super Bowl III guarantee, 1968 charts a course through the turbulent waters of American sports over a single improbable year. Nicholson chronicles and scrutinizes a number of events that reflected-and fed-the acrimony of that the Masters golf tournament, in which enforcement of an arcane rule cost a foreign player a chance at victory; the disqualification of the Kentucky Derby winner for doping; Muhammed Ali’s appeal of a criminal conviction for draft evasion; an unorthodox rendition of the national anthem at the World Series that nearly overshadowed the game it preceded; and a silent gesture of protest at the Mexico City Olympics that shocked the nation and world.
While 1968 was not the first year that sports converged with social and political strife in America, echoes of the past in today’s culture wars bring a heightened relevance to the events of a half century ago. In reading Nicholson’s work, scholars and sports fans alike will receive an instructive glimpse into the nature of persistent division in the United States as it reflected in our national pastimes.
166 pages, Paperback
Published May 20, 2019
2 people want to read
About the author
James C. Nicholson
6 books6 followersJames C. Nicholson recently received a PhD in history from the University of Kentucky.
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May 25, 2020
Some dates resonate powerfully, and few years have entered global political or cultural consciousness in the way 1968 has, with its student and worker rebellion that nearly ended the French government, global protests, a decisive turning point in the war in Vietnam alongside that war’s most heinous massacre, a seeming change in youth culture as dissent and cultural assertion deepened and extended itself to more young people in more places, and as two young athletes staged one of the most iconic protests in recent history on an Olympic medal podium in Mexico City. There is surely much for Nicholson to traverse in this engaging review of American sport in this symbolically significant year.
Nicholson focusses on some of the key political events of the US year – the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the protests at the Democrat National Convention in Chicago, the Presidential run by George Wallace, the election itself, and the residual feelings related to the Black urban rising of 1967. These events then contextualise the sporting moments he highlights, including Muhammad Ali’s continuing battle with the US state as a side note to the differences between the sport industry’s and many athletes’ responses to the King assassination. This section highlights many of the book’s themes: the schisms characterising the USA in the late 1960s, of ‘race’, of class, of generation, and of the war in Vietnam, while also anticipating the book’s big silence – sex and gender, although he does highlight the marginalisation of women in the athlete activism around he Mexico Olympics and activism opposing the Miss America contest.
Some of the sporting events Nicholson accentuates are well-known: Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico Olympics, while noting lesser known aspects of that event such as Wyomia Tyus’s dedication of her relay gold medal to Smith & Carlos. Other events will resonate more with US readers than globally, such as the Detroit-Kansas City baseball World Series final in the wake of the 1967 Detroit ‘riots’. Other events resonate in compelling ways despite having faded with the years: Roberto De Vincenzo’s second placing at the Masters after an incorrect score was recorded for one hole, even though the error was wide recognised, or the allegations the Kentucky Derby winner Dancers Image was doped resulting in victory being awarded to Forward Pass, from a local major stable over the Massachusetts owned favourite.
The final major event is the rise of football linked to the success of the insurgent American League with new emphasis brought by the success of the New York Jets and Joe Namath, resulting football’s profile overshadowing baseball as the most popular national sport. Nicholson also highlights the major changes flowing on from 1968 – Curt Flood’s challenge to the reserve clause in baseball and the introduction of new teams as that sport shifted out of its eastern and mid-west base, and the return to boxing by Muhammad Ali, leading to his rehabilitation.
It’s an impressive array of events and changes Nicholson notes and anticipates – yet he fails to make a clear argument for change, as implied by ‘pivot’ in the title. Pivot usually suggests a twist or a change in direction, a point around which something turns, and although in concluding with Namath and the Nixon presidency, with Flood and the return of Ali the change of direction is implied, not explicit. Even so, this is a rich, engaging and impressive interweaving of mainly elite sport and its social context in one tumultuous year: it deserves to be widely read and should prompt further research and inquiry. It is a good example of a way to use sport to teach social, cultural and political history and should engage students well.
Nicholson focusses on some of the key political events of the US year – the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the protests at the Democrat National Convention in Chicago, the Presidential run by George Wallace, the election itself, and the residual feelings related to the Black urban rising of 1967. These events then contextualise the sporting moments he highlights, including Muhammad Ali’s continuing battle with the US state as a side note to the differences between the sport industry’s and many athletes’ responses to the King assassination. This section highlights many of the book’s themes: the schisms characterising the USA in the late 1960s, of ‘race’, of class, of generation, and of the war in Vietnam, while also anticipating the book’s big silence – sex and gender, although he does highlight the marginalisation of women in the athlete activism around he Mexico Olympics and activism opposing the Miss America contest.
Some of the sporting events Nicholson accentuates are well-known: Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico Olympics, while noting lesser known aspects of that event such as Wyomia Tyus’s dedication of her relay gold medal to Smith & Carlos. Other events will resonate more with US readers than globally, such as the Detroit-Kansas City baseball World Series final in the wake of the 1967 Detroit ‘riots’. Other events resonate in compelling ways despite having faded with the years: Roberto De Vincenzo’s second placing at the Masters after an incorrect score was recorded for one hole, even though the error was wide recognised, or the allegations the Kentucky Derby winner Dancers Image was doped resulting in victory being awarded to Forward Pass, from a local major stable over the Massachusetts owned favourite.
The final major event is the rise of football linked to the success of the insurgent American League with new emphasis brought by the success of the New York Jets and Joe Namath, resulting football’s profile overshadowing baseball as the most popular national sport. Nicholson also highlights the major changes flowing on from 1968 – Curt Flood’s challenge to the reserve clause in baseball and the introduction of new teams as that sport shifted out of its eastern and mid-west base, and the return to boxing by Muhammad Ali, leading to his rehabilitation.
It’s an impressive array of events and changes Nicholson notes and anticipates – yet he fails to make a clear argument for change, as implied by ‘pivot’ in the title. Pivot usually suggests a twist or a change in direction, a point around which something turns, and although in concluding with Namath and the Nixon presidency, with Flood and the return of Ali the change of direction is implied, not explicit. Even so, this is a rich, engaging and impressive interweaving of mainly elite sport and its social context in one tumultuous year: it deserves to be widely read and should prompt further research and inquiry. It is a good example of a way to use sport to teach social, cultural and political history and should engage students well.
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