Sport Heritage Research Articles

Sport, heritage, and tourism

The relationship between sport, heritage, and tourism is strong, and the breadth and depth of research that explores this relationship is significant. This collection adds to the heritage sport tourism literature by considering several new perspectives. In particular, authors have examined sport heritage as a vehicle for understanding and memorializing conflict, as a tool for both celebrating achievement and marginalizing people, as a field of dissonance that often does not conform to tourism promotion and marketing, as a topic that generates, commends, commodifies, and (sometimes) discards “living” heritage, and as a means for discovering, or imagining, genealogical roots. Ultimately, sport heritage illuminates many of the issues, challenges, and debates in heritage and heritage tourism more broadly, while also demonstrating that, through its constant making remaking, sport heritage rarely fossilizes.

A Canterbury tale: imaginative genealogies and existential heritage tourism at the St. Lawrence Ground

At its most innate, heritage is biological, and perceptions of our own origins can drive many heritage journeys. However, like many heritage excursions, genealogical travel can also fuse objective fact with imagination in the search for meaning and identity. This paper explores a genealogical journey to a cricket ground in Kent, where the search for a family member's past seamlessly merged with broader heritage constructions. Through this journey, it was found that heritage could be seen as a series of dualities; a mixture of collective and individual, objective and imaginative, and tangible and existential. Furthermore, it considers that heritage sport tourism – a topic broadly concerned with extrinsic, tangible heritage such as sports sites, sports museums, and sporting artifacts, can also be viewed through a more existential lens.

Heritage sport tourism in Canada

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the opportunities and challenges of heritage sport tourism by examining (1) the Arctic Winter Games and (2) the Canadian Football League as heritage sport tourism attractions in Canada. A review of the heritage sport tourism literature provides the context for this assessment. Key opportunities were found in (1) the manifestation of sport as a meaningful form of culture; (2) sport's impact on collective identity and by extension – destination image and (3) unique connections of sport heritage to place that can be positioned for competitive advantage. The central challenges include those associated with (1) processes of globalization and (2) the fragmented nature of the heritage sport tourism industry.

Uniting sport and heritage: An evaluation of the Our Sporting Life exhibition programme

The year 2012 provided an opportunity to celebrate sporting history during the year when London staged that most historical of international sporting events, the Olympic Games. However, the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) made no reference to sporting history within official documentation, and there was no mention of sport in the Cultural Olympiad programme. This paper aims to understand the role of the Sports Heritage Network in exploring England's sporting heritage, despite being excluded from the official planning of the London 2012 Olympic Games. This affiliation of museums and archives with an interest in England's sporting past recognised the potential of the 2012 Olympic Games and established a community exhibition programme, Our Sporting Life, which aligned with LOCOG's aims and objectives. This paper evaluates the outputs and outcomes of Our Sporting Life and aims to understand why it was not supported financially or integrated into the official Cultural Olympiad programme. The data collection for Our Sporting Life is analysed and critiqued, and the impact of the programme is considered using the Generic Learning Outcomes and the Generic Social Outcomes frameworks. Our Sporting Life delivered over a hundred exhibitions and reached over one million people, with outcomes that included increasing knowledge and understanding, and strengthening public life. It provides an off-the-shelf methodology for future major sporting events and, as such, its omission from the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad can be regarded a lost opportunity.

Hvordan går det med idrætten, kulturarven og visionen om et idrætsmuseum?

How’s it with sport and cultural heritage and the vision of a sports museum?The question in the headline is not simple to answer. In many ways it is a sad but also a strange story with many paradoxes. Since the mid-1980s there have been many initiatives to make research, collect and register materiel and disseminate knowledge about the social role and meanings of sports. Several initiatives around a sports museum have been taken, but nothing has happened. The initiatives have met many good intentions but until now no finansiel support at all. The article will through three case studies illustrate the first initiatives since the mid -1980s in order to reflect the status concerning the preservation of sport heritage, creating a sports museum and historical research about sports.

The marginalisation of Paralympic heritage

The impact of the Paralympic Games and disability sport upon the lives of people with disabilities and the perceptions of non-disabled society regarding people with disabilities has been immense. Yet examples of this disability sport and Paralympic heritage are all but invisible amongst the wider area of sports heritage. This paper will attempt to outline some of the possible reasons why this might be the case and cite some examples of how this apparent marginalisation of Paralympic heritage might be overcome as we move forward beyond the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Mapping America's Sporting Landscape: A Case Study of Three Statues

This article examines three sport statues in the United States: Pat Tillman, National Football League player and American soldier; Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 1968 Olympians; and Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at the 1960 Olympic Games. Each statue was analysed in material culture terms as a hegemonic representative of the dominant types of sport statue found in the USA and in terms of their role in American cultural sporting memory, heritage construction and myth-making. Key themes include their forms and functions, their processes of construction, the selection of the artist and the multiple readings of the statue by the public.

On home ground? Twickenham Stadium Tours and the construction of sport heritage

Constructions of home are powerful from both heritage and tourism perspectives, as ‘home’ suggests a certain type of heritage precedence while also providing a competitive tourism advantage over rival locations. Sport tourism sites also disseminate notions of home as part of their narrative, both to create and solidify particular heritage claims as well as to enhance the tourism potential of a location. Home narratives are used, in particular, during stadium tours, where tourists go ‘behind the scenes’ at a famous sports venue. Tour narratives at Twickenham Stadium were examined in this study. At Twickenham, it was found that the stadium was represented as ‘home’ during tours in three different ways: as the literal home of the English National Rugby team; as the spiritual home of the sport of rugby; and as the home of particular notions of English identity. These representations were created as a means of claiming cultural propriety, particularly with regard to the sport and its heritage, as well as in recognition of the venue's role as an international tourism destination. However, the employment of home narratives, which espouse notions of stability and continuity, also mask wider heritage and tourism anxieties, in particular competition from rival sites.

The Curious Mystery of the Cotswold ‘Olimpick’ Games: Did Shakespeare Know Dover … and Does it Matter?

The first half of this article looks at the period 1612 to 1642, when Robert Dover reinvented the existing Cotswold Games as annual ‘Olimpick’ celebrations of sport and, to an extent, culture. The second section reviews subsequent published editions of the Annalia Dubrensia, a collection of poems written in celebration of the games and first published by Dover in 1636. Examining the changing meaning of the Annalia as a text is intended to critique simplistic notions that place our sporting and literary heritage as part of the ‘Merrie England’ industry, particularly in the context of the so-called Cultural Olympiad in the approach to 2012.

Sports heritage and the re‐imaged city: the National Football Museum, Preston

Sport is increasingly a part of the regeneration strategies of British cities and there is an increasing connection between sport and culture within these strategies. It is perhaps surprising, therefore, that there is only one clear example where sports heritage (in the form of a sports museum) has been a significant part of a city’s regeneration initiative, the National Football Museum in Preston. This paper considers the development of this Museum as a case study of sports heritage in urban cultural regeneration. It examines the cultural position of sports heritage and sports museums in the UK, including earlier proposals to establish a national football museum; the development of the National Football Museum in the context of the wider regeneration of Deepdale Stadium; the early struggles of the Museum due to a lack of funding support and their resolution; the economic and social impact the Museum has had in the city; and the unfulfilled potential for further regeneration presented by the Museum.

Contested Terrain: Gustave Courbet's Hunting Scenes

Unlike the decorative and propagandist royal commissions and the paintings of fantastic Oriental hunts that flourished in mid-nineteenth-century France, Gustave Courbet's hunting imagery became a vehicle for self-inquiry and the reinvention of history painting. Courbet's writings and his revision of the genre engage in dialogue with the notions of hunting as a native heritage and masculine sport and the established tropes of the noble stag and the melancholy artist. The psychological intensity, ethical dilemma, and social struggles embedded in the hunting scenes resonate with themes central to the contemporaneous discourses on natural history and animal rights.

Developing a Sport Museum: The Case of Tennis Australia and the Tennis Heritage Collection

The case study describes strategic issues surrounding the preservation and exhibition of a collection of sport heritage artefacts. The case study is factual, and outlines the issues faced by Tennis Australia (the national governing body for tennis in Australia) in its decisions to preserve, house, and exhibit a significant international collection of the sport’s heritage—the Tennis Heritage Collection. The Tennis Heritage Collection is part of the governing body’s strategic plan, and has the full support of the CEO and President. The case study is written from the perspective of an employee of Tennis Australia (Janice) who has been assigned the responsibility of developing a concept for a museum to display the collection, including choosing potential elements to be considered for inclusion in the museum, and developing a plan for the museum’s location. The fictional employee begins from a perspective of knowing very little about sport heritage, museums, or tourism strategies in which museum and sport heritage visitation are embedded. Students should find this an interesting case as it provides them with a roadmap to understand the increasingly complex practical and theoretical issues surrounding sport heritage as cities use heritage to find a point of difference in marketing their stadia, teams, and facilities. From an educational perspective, this case provides the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge regarding sport heritage and nostalgia tourism to a practical situation. The case is suitable for upper-level undergraduate or graduate level studies in sport management, sport sociology, and sport tourism.

After the Siren: Sources for Rugby League History Research in Australia

The 2008 centenary of rugby league football in Australia provides opportunities for clubs, governing bodies and cultural institutions to celebrate the sport's heritage. This article examines the major collectors of primary sources relating to rugby league in Australia, including cultural institutions, rugby league organisations and private collectors. It discusses the major categories of primary sources, including printed, manuscript and pictorial material, as well as artefacts. It also suggests sources for exploring beyond the traditional 'who beat whom' narrative that dominates many club histories.

Historical interpretations of first nations masculinity and its influence on Canada's sport heritage

The influence of Aboriginal culture on European colonists in Canadian history has been overshadowed by European influence and dominance. The French, in particular, were influenced by First Nations culture and technology, to the extent that French men began emulating First Nations traits, creating a distinct French subculture called les Canadiens. These French men began measuring themselves against their First Nation counterparts and competed with them in activities such as canoeing, snowshoeing and tobogganing, but also in team sports such as lacrosse. By taking up these behaviours First Nations, and later Canadien expressions of play provided a counter-discourse to sport as a breeding ground for proper bourgeois gentlemen which came to fruition in Victorian Canada between 1850 and 1880. Thus it is my intention to explore how this emergent sport identity came to serve as an expression not only of Canadian sport identity but of Canadian nationalism.

The American Indian integration of baseball

For many the entry of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball in 1947 marked the beginning of integration in professional baseball, but the entry of American Indians into the game during the previous half-century and the persistent racism directed toward them is not as well known. From the time that Louis Sockalexis stepped onto a Major League Baseball field in 1897, American Indians have had a presence in professional baseball. Unfortunately, it has not always been welcomed or respected, and Native athletes have faced racist stereotypes, foul epithets, and abuse from fans and players throughout their careers. The American Indian Integration of Baseball describes the experiences and contributions of American Indians as they courageously tried to make their place in America's national game during the first half of the twentieth century. Jeffrey Powers-Beck provides biographical profiles of forgotten Native players such as Elijah Pinnance, George Johnson, Louis Leroy, and Moses Yellow Horse, along with profiles of better-known athletes such as Jim Thorpe, Charles Albert Bender, and John Tortes Meyers.Combining analysis of popular-press accounts with records from boarding schools for Native youth, where baseball was used as a tool of assimilation, Powers-Beck shows how American Indians battled discrimination and racism to integrate American baseball. Jeffrey Powers-Beck is a professor of English and assistant dean of Graduate Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is the author of Writing the Flesh: The Herbert Family Dialogue. Joseph B. Oxendine is the author of American Indian Sports Heritage (Nebraska 1995).

Talking Sport or Talking Balls? Realising the Value of Sports Heritage

Sport is an integral part of British culture and an important aspect of modern life, yet it hardly seems to figure in the nation's heritage equation. Our sporting heritage is part of the wider cultural landscape; it has associations that mean a great deal to people of all ages, and it contributes strongly to the overall quality of life. So why is it not more visible on the historic environment agenda? This paper argues that sports heritage is a legitimate subject for research. It takes as its focus the results of a recent pilot study on historic sports places in Manchester and what sports heritage means to the people of that city. Understanding what sports heritage has to offer helps to identify where sport and heritage interests can work together to enhance the value of places and improve the quality of life for communities and society as a whole. Research in this area offers new opportunities to work across the social and cultural spectrum in meeting the government's objectives for regeneration, education and healthy living.

More than just Nostalgia? Exploring the heritage/sport tourism Nexus

Sport-related heritage is increasingly being recognized as a potent instigator of tourism, though it is usually incorporated within the context of nostalgia sport tourism. While sites, attractions and experiences about the sporting past often provide a venue for the sport tourist to engage with nostalgia, what has become more evident is that housing all elements related to sports-related history beneath nostalgia's roof is misleading. Heritage, on the other hand, is a broader, more encompassing term that may better represent the issues and topics that remain so fundamental to our understanding of sport-related tourism. This paper situates nostalgia sport tourism within a heritage context and finds that heritage is a more fitting categorization for this form of sport tourism. Four characterizations of sport heritage are identified: tangible immovable sport heritage, tangible movable sport heritage, intangible sport heritage, and goods and services with a sport heritage component. These categorizations do not discount the role of nostalgia in sport travel. However, the vast majority of attractions and experiences related to the sporting past reflect a more holistic purpose, to which nostalgia is but one of several components.

Olympic opportunity: realizing the value of sports heritage for tourism in the UK

This paper explores the development of sports heritage projects and initiatives in the UK and the growing realization of the value of sports heritage for tourism. Some examples of work in this field are cited before considering the opportunities presented by the 2012 London Olympics. The paper offers some preliminary ideas for sports heritage tourism projects for Britain's Cultural Olympiad and beyond and concludes with a proposal to create a British Trust for Sports Heritage.

The Vernacular in Sports History

A study of sports history is crucial not only to understanding the evolving sporting heritage of a nation, but to appreciate seemingly unrelated political processes such as nationalism, colonial culture, etc. Moreover, vernacular sources present a fundamentally different understanding of history as this paper demonstrates in its study of Bengali tracts on sport which sheds light on imperialist-nationalist politics in late colonial Bengal.

Preserving a community's sporting heritage through local government recreation planning

Fremantle City Council (FCC) is a local government authority located in Fremantle, a historically significant part of south-west Australia. One of the FCC's major functions is to plan for the future of the area, including responding to the recreation and sporting needs of the Fremantle community.The FCC completed a five-year recreation policy and strategy in December 2000, with the finished document identifying and addressing a number of themes, issues and problems about recreation and sport important to the Fremantle community. Following a process of community consultation the final document provides a pragmatic and applied approach to meeting the recreation and sporting needs of the community.A notable theme to emerge during the gathering of information centred round Fremantle's extensive sporting heritage and the strong desire for the FCC to support and enhance this legacy. Sport gave the port city its early identity, engendering community spirit and friendly but serious rivalry between it and other neighbouring communities. However, the prominence of sport in the Fremantle community has somewhat lessened in recent times due to a variety of reasons. The city is now recognised more for its cultural festivals, its artistic endeavours from both community and professional artisans, its beaches and the South Terrace cappuccino strip.Through its recreation policy and strategy, the FCC has been able to respond to the problem in a variety of ways. Initiatives identified include a sporting heritage museum, an oral history of sport to be linked closely to Fremantle's social history, continued support for the Fremantle Sporting Wall of Fame project and improvements to the FCC's current level of support for sport, particularly at the junior level.