Ethnic Studies

Healing Indigenous communities from the ground up

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 23:46:02 +0000

Healing Indigenous communities from the ground up Rachel Sauer Mon, 06/23/2025 - 17:46

Sarah Kuta

Mushroom mycelium can clean up the soil. Can it also help Indigenous people reconnect to the land? ��ɫ��Ƶ researcher Natalie Avalos aims to find out

Fungi are powerful and versatile organisms. They’re being used in a variety of beneficial ways, from degrading hard-to-recycle plastics and purifying contaminated water to developing new medicines and restoring forests after wildfires.

Now an innovative project from the ��ɫ��Ƶ will explore fungi’s ability to remediate urban soil and, in the process, reconnect Indigenous families to the land.

The project is being led by Natalie Avalos, a ��ɫ��Ƶ assistant professor of ethnic studies and core faculty member of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies (CNAIS). She’s working in partnership with Carissa Garcia, a Denver-based writer, educator and combat veteran with Picuris Pueblo heritage.

��ɫ��Ƶ researcher Natalie Avalos, an assistant professor of ethnic studies, is leading a project to explore fungi’s ability to remediate urban soil and, in the process, reconnect Indigenous families to the land.

With grant funding from CNAIS, the duo plans to use mushroom mycelium to clean up the soil at various locations in Denver and Commerce City. They hope to inoculate small farm plots and garden beds on properties that are owned or rented by Indigenous people.

Soil remediation will allow Indigenous families to grow their own foods and medicines and may even lead to the revitalization of ancient crops. But, beyond that, Avalos and Garcia hope their land-based healing project will help Indigenous people restore and strengthen their sacred relationship with the land.

“We talk about decolonization as land repatriation, or the return of Indigenous lands to Indigenous people,” says Avalos. “But this is a form of rematriation, thinking about land as mother and returning to this relationship where you are tending to the health and well-being of the mother so that she can better attend to your health and well-being in return. Restoring that symbiotic relationship is profoundly impactful for families.”

The power of fungi

Mycelium is the name for the network of dense, fibrous, root-like threads that make up the body of a fungus. It’s typically hidden underground, often out of sight and out of mind until it produces mushrooms, which grow above the soil and help fungi reproduce.

In the wilderness, mycelium acts as nature’s clean-up crew. It plays a vital role in decomposition, breaking down dead plants and returning essential nutrients to the soil.

But researchers have also come to realize that mycelium can be a powerful ally for combating pollution. The process, known as “mycoremediation,” harnesses fungi’s natural abilities to remove or break down harmful contaminants in the soil. Scientists are using fungi to clean up everything from heavy metals and pesticides to petrochemicals and other hazardous substances.

Avalos and Garcia want to use mycelium to create healthy and resilient soil for Indigenous families, including some that live in heavily polluted areas on Colorado’s Front Range. They plan to take detailed measurements before, during and after inoculation, to see how the mycelium affects the soil, as well as the plants that will eventually grow in it. Based on these initial results, they hope to expand their mycoremediation work to other Indigenous farms and gardens—and, possibly, even to tribal lands.

They also want to use the soil remediation project to create hands-on educational opportunities for Indigenous communities, particularly Indigenous youth.

Garcia will spearhead the soil remediation work, which is slated to begin later this year. Then, after the mycelium works its magic, Avalos will investigate how the project is affecting Indigenous people.

“I’ll start collecting some oral histories, some ethnographic testaments about what this means to them,” says Avalos. “How is this confirming their relationship to land? How is it speaking to or shaping their religious life, their sense of identity, their Indigeneity? How is it that having restored soil is supporting their health and wellness and contributing to human flourishing?”

“We talk about decolonization as land repatriation, or the return of Indigenous lands to Indigenous people. But this is a form of rematriation, thinking about land as mother and returning to this relationship where you are tending to the health and well-being of the mother so that she can better attend to your health and well-being in return. Restoring that symbiotic relationship is profoundly impactful for families.”

Sovereignty and self-determination

Avalos is also curious to learn how soil remediation might contribute to sovereignty and self-determination for Indigenous people, especially those living in cities. Today, roughly 70% of American Indians and Alaska Natives live in urban areas—but this population is often overlooked.

“How is it that Native people can act as stewards of land, even though they often have less control over that land?” Avalos says. “They may be renters, they may be living in very polluted areas. But just to have that little bit of agency.”

Denver sits on the ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, the Cheyenne, the Ute and other tribes. But, today, the city is home to Indigenous people with a wide array of tribal backgrounds. This diversity largely stems from a federal program that pushed Native Americans away from reservations and into urban areas in the 1950s and ‘60s, as part of the government’s broader attempts to force Indigenous people to assimilate. Denver was one of nine relocation sites located across the country.

“For folks living in cities that have been impacted by displacement and disconnection, I want to document, how are they reconnecting? How are they re-Indigenizing?” Avalos says.

As the world grapples with pressing environmental issues, many Indigenous people are now looking to their sacred ways of life for answers. Long displaced from their lands and separated from their traditional cultural practices, they’re returning to ancestral medicines, deepening their relationships with all living creatures and opening themselves up to the knowledge that’s embedded in the land.

Avalos and Garcia hope their soil remediation project might play a small role in that broader work.

“We can’t count on the treaties, we can’t count on our federal leadership or even our state leadership to really protect us and protect land,” says Garcia. “My generation is looking at a grim future. We’re at a place where many of us are asking, how do we embody the Indigeneity and our sacred ways of knowing and being, and mesh that with an Indigenous futurism that will heal the planet and our people?”

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Mushroom mycelium can clean up the soil. Can it also help Indigenous people reconnect to the land? ��ɫ��Ƶ researcher Natalie Avalos aims to find out.

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Top image: mycelium growing on a log (Photo: iStock)

Soccer joins the club

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 20:31:24 +0000

Soccer joins the club Rachel Sauer Mon, 06/23/2025 - 14:31

Jared Bahir Browsh

The FIFA Club World Cup, being held through July at venues across the United States, highlights international collaboration and concerns that soccer schedules are too packed

On June 14, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Club World Cup kicked off with Inter Miami CF taking on Al Ahly in Miami, Florida. Although the Club World Cup was established in 2000, interruptions and changes in format led FIFA to completely reimagine the tournament as a format that mimics FIFA’s premier tournament, the World Cup.

The Club World Cup serves as an appetizer for next year’s World Cup, being held in North America, which pits national soccer federations in the largest single sport event in the world.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

There have been a number of club tournaments run by FIFA and continental and inter-continental confederations, several of which were established in the 1960s, including the FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the Champions Cup overseen by the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). Unlike the World Cup or other tournaments between international federations, these tournaments offer professional clubs from leagues around the world the opportunity to compete against each other.

In 1958, Brazilian Sport Confederation head João Havelange, who later went on to be the longest-tenured president of FIFA (1974-1998), suggested organizing a regular intercontinental cup between top European and South American clubs. There had been a few other attempts to establish international club cups, one of the earliest being Copa Aldao, a tournament between Argentine and Uruguayan clubs that started in 1913.

Copa Aldao was abolished in 1955 after competing national team and club schedules made it difficult to schedule the tournament, an issue that continues to affect national, continental and international club and federation tournaments today. These conflicts have included efforts by the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) to establish a continental club tournament, which resulted in the South American Championship of Champions in 1948 and Copa de Campeones de América, now known as CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores, in 1960.

Five years earlier, in 1955, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) began the European Champion Clubs' Cup (now the Champions League) a year after UEFA was established. The Tournoi de Paris, first hosted by the club Racing Paris in 1957, featured clubs from UEFA and CONMEBOL in a friendly tournament and prompted the creation of the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in 1960 between the champions of CONMEBOL Libertadores and the UEFA Champions League.

These tournaments were part of a larger effort to organize and expand international soccer in the 1950s and 1960s. Before this effort, the only international soccer confederation in existence was CONMEBOL, organized in 1913, with the North American Football Confederation (NAFC) and Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Fútbol (CCCF) in Central America coming only after the first World Cup, in 1930.

Growing confederation

FIFA spent most of the first half of the 20th century trying to organize international soccer. The nations of the British associations boycotted World Cup play as FIFA included the Central Powers as they reorganized in 1919 after World War I. The British associations rejoined the next decade, but left again in 1928 over disputes related to payments to players and the maintenance of traditional ideas of amateurism. The 1942 and 1946 editions of the World Cup were cancelled due to World War II, but as the premier international soccer tournament grew, so did the need to further organize international soccer. They came to an agreement in 1950, helping the World Cup to grow and emerge from the shadow of the Olympic soccer tournament.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Confederation of African Football (CAF), CONCACAF (a merging of NAFC and CCCF) and Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) joined UEFA and CONMEBOL to establish the current continental confederations. CAF, AFC and CONCACAF all founded their own Champions Leagues in the 1950s and 1960s, which were contested between top professional clubs in each confederation.

Urawa Red Diamonds fans cheer during a June 17, 2025, group stage match at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup against Club Atletico River Plate at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington. (Photo: SounderBruce/Wikimedia Commons)

Half of the teams in the Club World Cup qualified automatically through the confederation’s club Champions Leagues or the Copa Libertadores. In the case of Inter Miami, which is the host, the team qualified by winning the Supporters’ Shield, or the MLS regular-season championship, in 2024. This decision was controversial given that the L.A. Galaxy won the MLS Cup in 2024; FIFA President Gianni Infantino admitted that Miami’s soccer culture and the presence of Lionel Messi partially motivated Inter Miami’s inclusion.

The other half of the qualifying teams were selected based on their rankings in their respective confederations. LAFC won a play-in game against Club América after Club León was disqualified due to shared ownership with fellow Liga MX team Pachuca. Out of the 32 teams in the Club World Cup, 20 are from either UEFA or CONMEBOL, with Europeans teams guaranteed 14 spots in the tournament.

Infantino knew that for this tournament to be successful and grow in popularity, he needed to financially incentivize the top teams in the top confederations to play in the Club World Cup. There is a staggered prize money framework for qualification, with top European teams such as Manchester City earning more than $38 million USD for making the tournament based on sporting and commercial criteria, whereas qualifying OFC teams were awarded $3.58 million.

Busy schedules

The confederations oversee both intra-nation club tournaments and contests between national teams within the confederation. However, despite general oversight by FIFA, there are still conflicting schedules and growing complaints about the increasing number of soccer competitions and the struggle to balance club schedules with national team obligations.

The FIFA Club World Cup exemplifies one of the issues with the ever-expanding soccer schedule: direct conflict between club and inter-nation tournaments. The United States is hosting the FIFA Club World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup at the same time. Most of the matches for the Club World Cup will be held east of the Mississippi, and the Gold Cup matches are being played in the Midwest and West Coast, with no shared venues and the Los Angeles area the only location to host matches for both events.

Several teams had to choose between the two competitions, and with the U.S. Men’s National Team automatically qualified for the 2026 World Cup as one of the hosts, and the larger payout of the FIFA Club World Cup, players like Timothy Weah, Weston McKinnie and Giovanni Reyna have decided to compete on behalf of their professional clubs rather than their national team.

The Club World Cup also comes on the heels of the UEFA Nations League Finals June 8. Players like Nuno Mendes, who helped lead Portugal to the Nations League championship, will have to quickly pivot to play with Paris Saint-Germain a week later for the Club World Cup. The international club soccer schedule runs from late summer through early spring, meaning players like Mendes are forced to play multiple tournaments during what is supposed to be their offseason.

Egyptian soccer star Taher Mohamed plays for Al Ahly SC in the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup. (Photo: Fars Media Corporation/Wikimedia Commons)

A number of players have expressed concern over being overworked, with some even calling for a strike for FIFA and for club leagues to reduce the schedule; some players are being pushed to participate in more than a match a week on average.

Several players and managers have said they see the Club World Cup as a money grab by FIFA, expanding the competition schedule to encroach upon the club offseason. The MLS plays a spring-to-fall schedule, so the North American league will be forced to suspend play during the Club World Cup. But the three MLS teams—the Seattle Sounders FC, Inter Miami and LAFC—do see it as a way to compete with top professional clubs and may adjust their schedules before the next Club World Cup to fall in line with the rest of the world.

FIFA scandals

FIFA has long faced a number of scandals and bribery charges, including with partner International Sport and Leisure, which handled marketing and media rights for the soccer organization but folded in 2001 with debts of more than $200 million. This led to the cancellation of the Club World Cup that year. The organization was subsequently investigated by authorities in Switzerland and charged with fraud. Later, as a part of the 2015 FIFA corruption scandal investigation, several sports marketing executives and officials with continental football bodies were found to have bribed FIFA officials including Havelange.

The 2015 scandal was also centered on bribery and collusion related to sports marketing and media rights; the FBI and IRS uncovered impropriety among executives of CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, several marketing firms and even Nike, which was found to have spent $40 million on bribes to become the exclusive apparel company for the Brazil national team. In spite of CONCACAF’s involvement, and a year delay in the bid process due to the scandal, the combined North America bid still won the 2026 World Cup.

Although no impropriety has been alleged around the 2025 Club World Cup, FIFA is still accused of participating in a money grab, with greed overshadowing team concerns and player health. The pace of top-level soccer also has increased over the last quarter century, with more running and pressing being partially blamed for more injuries along with the ever-growing schedule. Sponsors also have been hesitant to become involved over questions related to viewership, attendance and return on investment for the revamped tournament.

To combat concerns and attract top clubs and players, FIFA has offered a $1 billion prize pool, with top-qualifying teams like Manchester City able to earn up to $125 million if they win the tournament. The amount a team like Real Madrid could earn would be on par with the prize money for making the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, but some of that money is offset by costs including early signings or transfers to boost talent before the tournament.

Each win and draw from the group stage through the final will earn teams money, but there are also questions of where that money will go. Many players in the MLS clubs are currently petitioning the league, which owns all the clubs, for a prize-money share. The Club World Cup is not specifically mentioned in the collective bargaining agreement with the MLS Players Association, and caps on tournament compensation shares could lead to a disproportionate windfall for the league—with players getting what they see as a share below international standards if any of the league’s teams make a run. Seattle Sounders players wore T-shirts with the message “Club World Cup Ca$h Grab” before their June 1 match, and several players have posted criticisms campaigning with the #FairShareNow hashtag.

Another shadow over the Club World Cup is international and domestic tensions related to the Trump administration. Travel bans have created concern among players, while social media posts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which were later deleted, hinted at the agency showing up at the first match in Miami and possibly using the soccer tournament to target undocumented immigrants. Some have blamed potential ICE presence at games for lower than expected attendance at early matches.

These concerns will fade if the tournament ends up being a success, and some of that will depend on the competition itself, which organizers hope will increase fan interest. Ultimately, seeing this many top clubs will be a fan draw, but the question is whether casual fans will be interested in the tournament in the same way as next year’s World Cup—ideally snowballing toward the 2029 edition and forcing sponsors, and possibly players, to warm up to yet another major tournament in an already crowded soccer schedule.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

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The FIFA Club World Cup, being held through July at venues across the United States, highlights international collaboration and concerns that soccer schedules are too packed.

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Top image: English soccer club Chelsea celebrate after winning the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup. (Photo: Fars Media Corporation/Wikimedia Commons)

Pitching perfection

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 20:58:56 +0000

Pitching perfection Rachel Sauer Mon, 06/09/2025 - 14:58

Jared Bahir Browsh

145 years after Lee Richmond threw the first perfect game in Major League Baseball, pitchers still pursue one of baseball’s ultimate achievements

Perfect (adj.): flawless, being entirely without fault or defect

The word “perfect” is not typically associated with team sports. In bowling, you can have a perfect game of all strikes, or in gymnastics we have seen perfect scores by legendary gymnasts including Nadia Comăneci and Mary Lou Retton. However, there are so many variables in team sports it is hard to define “perfection.”

One exception is baseball, in which a pitcher can step on the mound and if, after none of 27 batters reach base by a hit, walk or error, he is considered perfect.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

The National League is in the midst of its 150th season, and in those years there have been 24 recognized perfect games, the first thrown 145 years ago by Worcester pitcher Lee Richmond on June 12, 1880. The feat was repeated by John Montgomery Ward of the Providence Grays five days later, which remains the shortest time between perfect games in Major League history. It would be 24 years before a third perfect game occurred in 1904, a year after the World Series was first played between the National League and American League, which had been formed in 1901.

When Richmond and Ward threw their perfect games, baseball looked much different. Pitchers were required to throw underhand 45 feet from the plate and batters could request the height of the pitch, with umpires determining whether the pitch was “unfair” and batters getting up to seven balls before walking, reduced from nine before 1880.

In 1893, pitching moved toward its modern form as the pitchers were required to throw from a slab 60 feet, 6 inches away from home plate, the current distance between pitchers and home plate. Still, it would take another 11 years for the next perfect game to be thrown, as young pitchers had to be trained on the standardized distance and throwing motion.

As the calendar turned to the 20th century, the American League was established as a “major league” in 1901 before Major League Baseball was created through the National Agreement in 1903. In the season following the first World Series in 1903, a pitcher for the defending champion Boston Americans (who changed their name to the Red Sox in 1908) threw the first perfect game in the World Series era against the Philadelphia Athletics. The pitcher, Cy Young, is considered the father of modern pitching, and in 1956 Major League Baseball began awarding the top pitcher in baseball the Cy Young Award before expanding it to the best pitcher in each league in 1967.

Before World War II, there were only three perfect games thrown, and none in the regular season, including Charlie Robertson’s 1922 perfect game for the Chicago White Sox. More than 40 years later, Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game in 1964 for the Philadelphia Phillies. In between, Yankee Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956 against the Brooklyn Dodgers, beating a team that included the first Cy Young award winner, Don Newcombe.

Two more perfect games capped off the 1960s: Sandy Koufax for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965 and Catfish Hunter for the Oakland Athletics in 1968. Hunter’s perfect game occurred in the midst of what became known as the year of the pitcher, one of the most dominant years of pitching in baseball history, when pitchers dominated with a league ERA of 2.98 (4.07 in 2024) and an average of 6.8 total runs scored per game (8.8 in 2024).

As a result of this domination, MLB lowered the pitching mound and tightened the strike zone to make it more difficult on pitchers. A higher mound allows more force as pitchers step down into the pitch, while a tighter strike zone makes it easier for hitters to take balls, induce walks and wait for better pitches. Much like the rule changes in the late 19th century, the leaders of professional baseball were concerned about the lack of hits contributing to reduced interest from fans. Sports are entertainment businesses that often adjust rules to encourage more offense and create more engaging experiences.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (here pitching a July 2015 game against the New York Yankees) saw his 2014 perfect-game bid halted by an error. (Photo: Arturo Pardavila/Wikimedia Commons)

MLB wasn’t the only league to make changes to encourage more scoring: The NBA introduced the 24-second clock in 1954 after several seasons of boring, low-offense—and thus low-scoring—games, including a 19-18 game between the Fort Wayne Pistons and Minneapolis Lakers in 1950. College football legalized the forward pass in 1905 to encourage a faster pace of play and reduce head-on collisions, and the NHL reduced allowable goalie pad size in 2018 to encourage more goal scoring, the same year the NBA shifted rules again to limit the amount of contact defensive players can make and quicken the pace of play.

Rule changes = fewer perfect games

The lowered mound in 1969 is just one example of these rule changes that increase offense and make it harder for pitchers to achieve a perfect game. Similarly, in 1920, MLB made it illegal for pitchers to scuff the ball or use foreign substances that could affect how it moves in the air; the ball was also switched out at the first sign of wear, which allowed batters to see the ball more easily and made it more difficult for pitchers to manipulate its movement. These changes contributed to only one perfect game between 1920 and the 1956 World Series.

After the mound was lowered, there would not be another perfect game until 1981, meaning there were no perfect games in the 1970s. But in this time another rule was introduced that created another obstacle to a perfect game: the designated hitter in the American League in 1973. Historically, pitchers have been below-average hitters and often considered an easy out, so eliminating their presence in the lineup allowed for another skilled hitter to challenge perfection. The National League adopted the designated hitter in 2022.

Along with rule changes, strategy has also shifted significantly on the mound and in the batter’s box. Pitchers are pitching harder and throwing more breaking balls, which wear on the arm and lead to fewer complete games. In 1921 there were 1,827 complete games out of 3,553 total, meaning pitchers completed more than half the games they started. In 1968, out of 3,250 started games, 897 were completed (27.6%), while in 2024, of the 4,828 games started, only 28 were completed by the same pitcher (.58%). The desire to protect topline pitchers, and the increased reliance on talented relievers, has led to shorter outings for starters.

The changes in throwing style have led to a rise in strikeouts, which is a shift from the past when pitchers aimed more for contact and shorter at-bats. In 1988, there were about 5.6 strikeouts per nine innings pitched; in 2024 that number jumped to 8.6 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. This has also led to longer at-bats, raising pitch counts; in 1988, there were 136.2 total pitches per game and 3.59 per at-bat. In 2024, there were 146 pitches per game, or 3.88 pitches per at-bat.

In 1991, MLB formalized the definition of a perfect game to include only those games in which the pitcher throws at least nine innings without a batter reaching base, completes the game and wins the game. After that ruling, several games, including Harvey Haddix’s performance in 1959 when he pitched 12 perfect innings before losing in the 13th, was removed as a perfect game from the record books.

Walk, strikeout or home run

Batters have also contributed to this rise as they take more pitches and embrace the “three true outcomes”: walk, strikeout or home run. For a long time, walks were undervalued until analytics proliferated the game, popularizing a player evaluation strategy utilized by teams like the Oakland A’s and described in Michael Lewis’s 2003 book, Moneyball. The book follows the 2002 A’s as they won 103 games with a $44 million payroll—matching the win total of the Yankees, who had a payroll of more than $125 million. With more batters willing to take pitches—and walks—pitchers are forced to throw more.

Since 2012, the only perfect game was thrown by Domingo Germán (here pitching a 2019 game against the Baltimore Orioles) in 2023. (Photo: Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons)

Also encouraging this protection of pitchers is the expansion of the playoffs and MLB introducing the five-game league championship series in 1969. This happened after each league added two teams, expanding professional baseball from 20 to 24 teams and with each league split into two divisions. Previously, the team with the best record in each league won the pennant and met in the World Series.

Baseball expanded its playoffs to four teams in each league in 1995, five teams in each league in 2012 and six teams in each league in 2022. This placed less emphasis on the regular season, and managers became more protective of pitchers to ensure their availability for the playoffs, leading to shorter outings. In fact, the only two times pitchers have been pulled from a perfect game have been in the last decade: in 2016 because of a blister and in 2022 when L.A. Dodger Clayton Kershaw was removed after seven innings. Dave Roberts, the manager of the current defending champion Dodgers, was the manager for both of those games.

Although the ebbs and flows of perfect games may be attributable to changes in rules, strategy and season format, there are a number of other variables beyond any pitcher’s control. Weather conditions can dramatically alter the path to perfection. The ball travels farther during warmer months, leading to more home runs. Only five of the 24 total perfect games occurred in July or August. Lower humidity and altitude also affect the ball, as it travels farther when the air density is lower, which is why the Colorado Rockies began to place balls in a humidor to combat the high rates of home runs being hit at Coors field. Rain or wetter conditions can make it harder for a pitcher to grip the ball, and in the summer, sweat can have the same effect.

With all of these factors, there is also a significant amount of luck in achieving a perfect game. There have been 326 no-hit games pitched in Major League history, with Nolan Ryan throwing seven of those, but with no perfect games in his career. Unlike a perfect game in bowling, perfection in baseball relies on other humans, including the pitcher’s defense. Nine perfect games have been made imperfect by errors—notably, a perfect-game attempt by Jonathan Sanchez in 2009 and, most recently, Clayton Kershaw’s bid in 2014. Human error is not reserved to fielders, as umpire Jim Joyce erroneously called the 27th batter safe, ending Armando Gallaraga’s perfect game attempt on June 2, 2010. Gallaraga completed his one-hitter, or “28-out perfect game” on the following at-bat.

This luck is also exemplified when we see a run of perfect games. Sanchez and Gallaraga’s flirtation with perfection occurred between 2009-2012, when there were six perfect games, with three occurring in 2012 alone (Sanchez’s and Gallaraga’s bids occurred fewer than two weeks after another perfect game). The first perfect game of 2012 was thrown by Phillip Humber, who started 51 total games in his career and finished 2012 with an ERA of 6.44, showing how just one good day can lead to baseball immortality.

Since 2012, the only perfect game was thrown by Domingo Germán in 2023. Germán has started seven games since his own perfect day with the Yankees.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

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145 years after Lee Richmond threw the first perfect game in Major League Baseball, pitchers still pursue one of baseball’s ultimate achievements.

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Top image: Cy Young pitching (Photo: Library of Congress)

How Wheaties became ‘the breakfast of champions’

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 21 May 2025 20:03:14 +0000

How Wheaties became ‘the breakfast of champions’ Rachel Sauer Wed, 05/21/2025 - 14:03

Jared Bahir Browsh

Recently featured in Marvel blockbuster The Thunderbolts*—and with the Thunderbolts featured on a tie-in box—Wheaties has been the go-to champion breakfast for 100 years and counting

The cereal that would become Wheaties was accidentally invented in 1921 when a clinician for the Washburn Crosby Company spilled wheat bran onto a hot stove. After several dozen attempts to fortify the cereal to withstand shipping, Washburn's Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes were released in November 1924. An employee contest led to the name Wheaties—beating out other options like Nutties—and within a few years, promotion of the new cereal was revolutionizing product advertising.

On Christmas Eve 1926, Wheaties was featured in the first prerecorded jingle on Minneapolis radio station WCCO (named for Washburn-Crosby Company). “Have You Tried Wheaties” was sung to the tune of “Jazz Baby.”

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

Washburn-Crosby merged with three other mills and was renamed General Mills in 1928. After General Mills debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in November of 1928, the company increased advertising for Wheaties and released the jingle nationwide.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Wheaties established what would become a long association with sports when the cereal was featured on a billboard in the stadium for the Minneapolis Millers and was the main advertiser for the minor league baseball team’s broadcasts on the now General Mills-owned WCCO. Knox Reeves, a Minnesota advertising executive, created a mock-up for a billboard in the Millers’ stadium featuring a box of the cereal with the tagline “The Breakfast of Champions.”

Throughout the 1930s, the cereal continued to expand its reach nationally, sponsoring sporting and cultural events on more than 100 radio stations. Wheaties’ closest association was with baseball, and in 1934 Yankees legend Lou Gehrig became the first athlete featured on a box of Wheaties, a tradition that continues today.

The honor of appearing on a Wheaties box was not exclusive to athletes, or men; aviator Elinor Smith was featured on the box in 1934. The following year, groundbreaking athlete Babe Didrikson, who won three medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, appeared on the box. After his record-breaking four gold medal performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens was the first African American to appear on the box.

In 1937, Wheaties held a contest for the top play-by-play announcer in the country. The winner was a sports broadcaster from Des Moines, Iowa, who recreated Chicago Cubs games through transcribed telegraphs. The broadcaster won a trip to the Cubs Spring Training in California, and while there, it was recommended that he take part in a screen test for Warner Bros. Ronald Reagan began a film career that led to pursuing a career in politics, becoming the governor of California and the 40th President of the United States.

The breakfast of champions in the world of tomorrow

Wheaties continued to set milestones in advertising when NBC featured the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds in the first televised baseball game on August 29, 1939. The broadcast was a part of the World’s Fair taking place in Queens in 1939 and 1940. Although the FCC did not authorize full commercial television until July 1, 1941, the commission gave special permission for live commercials during the game that was available to the 500 television set owners in New York City. Hall of Fame broadcaster Red Barber poured Wheaties and milk or cream into a bowl, announcing, "Now that's the breakfast of champions."

In 1986, Walter Payton was the first African American featured on the front of a Wheaties box. (Photo: General Mills)

By the 1940s, Wheaties had cemented its association with sports, even earning a mention in the song “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” produced by Les Brown and his orchestra in the midst of DiMaggio’s record-breaking 56-game hitting streak. As television took off after World War II, advertising costs rose, leading Wheaties to pull back from its focus on sponsorships, instead using testimonials in commercial spots to advertise the cereal—an approach that was less expensive than sponsorship, but also less effective in promoting the brand.

As Wheaties declined in visibility, General Mills turned its attention to children’s programming, a strategy that helped Cheerios become one of the top cereals after General Mills rebranded “Cheerioats” following Quaker Oats claiming ownership of the word “oats.”

This was not Wheaties’ first foray into entertainment programming; it had previously sponsored radio programs like “Jack Armstrong: All-American Boy.” Jack Armstrong was the first character to appear on a Wheaties box, in 1933, preceding Lou Gehrig by a year. He was created by General Mills’ Vice President Samuel Chester Gale to sell Wheaties. Gale went on to create Betty Crocker and lead the Advertising Council from 1950 to 1951.

General Mills even featured a mascot, Champy the Lion, created by puppeteer Bil Baird and voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who also voiced another cereal spokes-feline, Tony the Tiger. Its sponsorships of children’s television shows like The Mickey Mouse Club backfired as adults began to avoid cereals associated with children, and children’s increased cereal consumption did not offset the loss of older consumers.

By the late 1950s, General Mills reinitiated Wheaties’ relationship with sports, hiring Olympic pole vaulter Bob Richards as its first spokesperson. Before Richards, athletes appeared on the back of the Wheaties box, but the Olympian was the first to appear on the front of the box in 1958, and athletes have remained on the front ever since.

As a part of his contract, Richards led the Wheaties Sports Federation that promoted physical fitness, Olympic sports and athletic education and published instructional books. They also advertised through sporting events again as one of the first brands to sponsor pregame and postgame shows.

Honored on the orange box

Similar to the cover of the magazine Sports Illustrated or the video game series Madden, an athlete—or, recently, superheroes—being chosen to appear on a Wheaties box represented mainstream stardom. Mary Lou Retton’s iconic 1984 box was the first time a female medal winner appeared on the front, and two years later Walter Payton was the first African American to be featured on the front of the box. By the end of the 1980s, fans could pay to have a Wheaties box made with their picture.

In 1987, the Minnesota Twins were the first team to appear on a Wheaties box in 1987 after the team, from the same city in which Wheaties was created, won the World Series. In 1992, to celebrate the Chicago Bulls’ back-to-back championships, Wheaties produced a red and black box, the first time it broke with the iconic orange color. Bulls legend Michael Jordan was signed as a spokesperson for the cereal in 1988, appearing on the box a record 19 times, followed by Tiger Woods with 14 appearances.

In recent decades, the cereal industry has seen a dramatic decline, and Wheaties has not been immune to this downturn. With many more breakfast options, and the younger generations consuming less milk, cereal now occupies less space in the breakfast pantry. In spite of the public’s turn away from cereal toward healthier options, Wheaties remains an iconic brand, evidenced by its partnership with the blockbuster film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

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Recently featured in Marvel blockbuster The Thunderbolts*—and with the Thunderbolts featured on a tie-in box—Wheaties has been the go-to champion breakfast for 100 years and counting.

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How Asian American became a racial grouping

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 20 May 2025 23:21:45 +0000

How Asian American became a racial grouping Rachel Sauer Tue, 05/20/2025 - 17:21

Jennifer Ho

And why many with Asian roots don’t identify with the term these days

For the first time, in 1990, May was officially designated as a month honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. Though the current U.S. administration recently withdrew federal recognition, the month continues to be celebrated by a wide array of people from diverse cultural backgrounds.

People from the Pacific Islands have their own distinct histories and issues, delineated in part by a specific geography. Yet when we refer to the even broader category of Asian Americans, a concept with a deep yet often unknown history, who exactly are we referring to?

There are nearly 25 million people of Asian descent who live in the United States, but the term Asian American remains shrouded by cultural misunderstanding and contested as a term among Asians themselves.

Jennifer Ho is a professor of Asian American studies in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies and director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts.

As a professor of Asian American studies, I believe it is important to understand how the label came into being.

A long history of Asian people in America

The arrival of people from Asia to the U.S. long predates the country’s founding in 1776.

After visits to modern-day America that began in the late 16th century, Filipino sailors formed – as early as 1763 – what is believed to be the first Asian settlement in St. Malo, Louisiana.

But it wasn’t until the 1849 California Gold Rush that Asian immigration to the U.S.—from China—began on a mass scale. That was bolstered in the 1860s by Chinese laborers recruited to build the western portion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Starting toward the end of the 19th century, Japanese immigration steadily picked up, so that by 1910 the U.S. Census records a similar number for both communities – just over 70,000. Likewise, a small number of South Asian immigrants began arriving in the early 1900s.

An exclusionary backlash

Yet after coming to the U.S. in search of economic and political opportunities, Asian laborers in America were met by a surge of white nativist hostility and violence. That reaction was codified in civil society groups and government laws, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.

By 1924, federal law had expanded into a virtual ban on all Asian immigration, and through the first half of the 20th century, a multitude of anti-Asian laws targeted areas including naturalization, marriage and housing, among others.

From the start, people from Asian countries in the U.S. were generally identified broadly with identifiers such as “Oriental,” a common term at the time mostly for those from China, Japan and Korea.

As more Asians came to the U.S, other terms were used to denigrate and demean these new immigrants, whose physical appearance, language and cultural norms were distinctly different from their Euro-American neighbors.

‘Asian American’ and the birth of a movement

Chinese railroad workers (left to right) Wong Fook, Lee Chao and Ging Cui with a parade float in Ogden, Utah, during a 1919 parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. (Photo: San Francisco Public Library)

The desire to claim America was one of the drivers for activists in the 1960s to create the concept of Asian American that we know today.

The movement began in the charged political context of anti-Vietnam War protests and the Civil Rights Movement for Black equality. Students of Asian heritage at San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley were organizing for the establishment of ethnic studies classes, specifically those that centered on the histories of Asians in the U.S.

Rejecting the term “oriental” as too limiting and exotic, since oriental literally means “from the East,” the student activists wanted a term of empowerment that would include the Filipino, Chinese, Korean and Japanese students at the heart of this organizing. Graduate students Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka came up with “Asian American” as a way to bring activists under one radical organizing umbrella, forming the Asian American Political Alliance in 1968.

A contested term

Today, the Asian American label has moved beyond its activist roots. The term might literally refer to anyone who traces their lineage from the whole of the Asian continent. This could include people from South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka to parts of West Asia like Syria, Lebanon or Iran.

Yet not all people who identify as Asian actually use the words Asian American, since it is a term that flattens ethnic specificity and lumps together people with as disparate of backgrounds as Hmong or Bangladeshi, for example.

A 2023 Pew Research Center survey of self-identified Asian adults living in the U.S. revealed that only 16% of people polled said they identified as “Asian American,” with a majority—52%—preferring ethnic Asian labels, either alone or in tandem with “American.”

Moreover, unlike the student activists who worked together through their shared Asian American identity, the majority of people of Asian descent living in the U.S. came after the 1965 Immigration Act was passed, which ended all prior anti-Asian immigration laws. This, combined with a subsequent wave of Asian immigration from parts of Asia not represented in the past—including Vietnam, Taiwan and Pakistan—means that most Asian Americans alive today are either immigrants or one generation removed from immigrants.

As a largely immigrant and recently Americanized group, many Asians therefore may not relate to the struggles of an earlier history of Asians in the U.S. That may contribute to why many don’t connect with the term “Asian American.” Korean immigrants, for instance, may not see their history connected with third-generation Japanese Americans, particularly when considering their homelands have been in conflict for decades.

For some, Asian American is too broad a term to capture the complexity of Asian-heritage Americans.

Indeed, Asian Americans come from over 30 countries with different languages, diverse cultures, and histories that have often been in conflict with other Asian nations. Within such a broad grouping as “Asian American,” a wide range of political, socioeconomic, religious and other differences emerge that greatly complicate this racial label.

Even though the term remains contested, many Asians still see value in the concept. Much like the activists who first created the label in the 1960s, many believe it signifies a sense of solidarity and community among people who—despite their many differences—have been treated like outsiders to the American experience, regardless of how American their roots are.

Jennifer Ho is a professor of Asian American studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the ��ɫ��Ƶ.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

And why many with Asian roots don’t identify with the term these days.

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Top image: Children performing a traditional Korean dance to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. (Photo: Viorel Florescu/AP)

��ɫ��Ƶ scholars recognized for innovation in PhD research

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 05 May 2025 15:23:14 +0000

��ɫ��Ƶ scholars recognized for innovation in PhD research Rachel Sauer Mon, 05/05/2025 - 09:23

Patrick Das and Julia Shizuyo Popham have won 2025 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships

Two ��ɫ��Ƶ PhD students have won 2025 Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Dissertation Innovation Fellowships.

Patrick Das, a PhD student in the Department of Linguistics, and Julia Shizuyo Popham, who is pursuing her PhD in the Department of Ethnic Studies, are among 45 PhD students from across the country who are being recognized for their innovative approaches to their dissertation research in the humanities or social sciences.

��ɫ��Ƶ PhD students Patrick Das (left) and Julia Shizuyo Popham (right) recently won 2025 Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Innovation Fellowships.

The fellowships, made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, recognize doctoral students “who show promise of leading their fields in important new directions,” according to the ACLS. “The fellowships are designed to intervene at the formative stage of dissertation development, before writing is advanced, and provide time and support for emerging scholars’ innovative approaches to dissertation research—practical, trans- or interdisciplinary, collaborative, critical or methodological.

“The program seeks to expand the range of research methodologies, formats and areas of inquiry traditionally considered suitable for the dissertation, with a particular focus on supporting scholars who can build a more diverse, inclusive and equitable academy.”

Das and Shizuyo Popham will receive an award of up to $52,000, consisting of a $42,000 stipend; up to $8,000 for project-related research, training, professional development and travel; and a $2,000 stipend to support external mentorship that offers new perspectives on their projects and expands their advising network.

Das is researching how geography and multilingualism shape language change in Tikhir, an endangered language of eastern Nagaland, India, near the border with Myanmar. Through spatial analysis, the project maps patterns of interaction between Tikhir and neighboring indigenous languages. Das’ findings offer new insights into how small languages evolve within complex multilingual ecologies.

Shizuyo Popham’s project, titled “Uneasy Intimacies,” interprets Japanese artist and migrant Fukunosuke Kusumi’s collection of visual art within contexts of racial disposability in the American West. By tracing Kusumi’s art through pre-World War II exclusion in Washington, interim detainment in California, indefinite incarceration in Colorado and afterlives of loss and healing, her work examines how seemingly innocuous images reveal marginalized histories, in which dispossessed subjects construct agency and even freedom via the very systems built to keep them down.

“ACLS is proud to support these fellows, who are poised to conduct groundbreaking dissertation research and broaden the audience for humanistic scholarship,” said Alison Chang, ACLS program officer in U.S. Programs. “Their innovative projects not only produce new avenues of knowledge but also inspire the evolution of doctoral education across the humanities and social sciences.”

“This fellowship will enable me to spend sustained time working with the Tikhir community to document their language on their terms,” Das said. “It supports a collaborative approach that values local knowledge and multilingual experience. By combining spatial methods with community insights, we can better understand how small languages like Tikhir are changing today.”

Shizuyo Popham noted that last week, the ACLS joined the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association in filing a lawsuit to reverse devastating attacks on the National Endowment for the Humanities. “So, beyond the fellowship itself, I’m proud to be joining a community that is courageously fighting for intellectual freedom,” she said.

“I’m also deeply grateful to have an entire year to focus on my dissertation, which is largely about a history intertwined with mass detentions and deportations today. I’ve been studying Japanese American wartime incarceration for half a decade now, and never for me has this history felt so urgent. In these times of increasing terror, I am reminded of why the humanities matter and that to critically think and write is a freedom we must fight for every day.”

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Patrick Das and Julia Shizuyo Popham have won 2025 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships.

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Initiative gives students a voice with hip-hop

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 15:39:27 +0000

Initiative gives students a voice with hip-hop Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/10/2025 - 09:39

Cody DeBos

Founded by a collaborative including ��ɫ��Ƶ scholars, the Lyripeutics Storytelling Project aims to empower Black and Brown youth through the medium of hip-hop

A Manual High School student sits behind a microphone, headphones on. Their world outside—which sometimes holds uncertainty, systemic barriers and institutional indifference but also encompasses the rich musical and cultural heritage of Denver’s Five Points neighborhood—fades away for a moment as a beat drops. As the student leans in, the cadence of hip-hop becomes an outlet to speak their truth.

For many Black and Brown youth in the greater Denver area, the Lyripeutics Storytelling Project is more than a way to express their creativity. It’s survival.

That’s why the artists and educators behind the project are battling to keep the space alive.

Shawn O'Neal (left), an assistant teaching professor of ethnic studies, and Kalonji Nzinga (right), an assistant professor of education, are co-directors of Lyripeutics.

“We’re trying to provide these platforms of learning that we think Black and Brown students in particular really resonate with,” says Kalonji Nzinga, a ��ɫ��Ƶ assistant professor of education and Lyripeutics co-director. “In a way, we’re just building upon the history of creating learning environments based in a cultural reference point, based in our ways of knowing.”

Through storytelling and music production, young people in the Lyripeutics program gain an opportunity to share stories of their unique cultural wealth. But while the program has been a source of empowerment for many, it also faces funding struggles and systemic resistance.

What is Lyripeutics?

Founded by a collective of ��ɫ��Ƶ scholars, artists, educators and community organizers, Lyripeutics’ mission is to empower Black and Brown youth through a medium many connect with—hip-hop. The program is embedded in schools in the greater Denver area and aims to offer alternative learning environments for students who find themselves overlooked in traditional education systems.

“We don’t all learn the same, yet we have this system of education that’s been around for hundreds of years and is really geared for only one very particular type of student,” says Shawn O’Neal, an assistant teaching professor in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies and Lyripeutics’ founding member and co-director.

“It’s just not working for us. For many students. It hasn’t worked,” he adds.

Rather than using the traditional education system’s philosophy of rigid structure and standardization, the Lyripeutics program operates through collaboration and an evolving process in which students, teachers and artists co-create learning spaces.

“A typical day can look quite different depending on whether we have a producer leading the session or a lecturer on hip-hop history, or an actual MC helping create space for youth to do storytelling,” O’Neal says.

Students can also create and produce their own music in the state-of-the-art hip-hop studio adjacent to the Manual High School library in Denver.

“We collaborate with other hip-hop artists across the Denver area to develop the programming and to do the instruction,” Nzinga says.

At its heart, the program is about creative expression.

“We’re even working with students on exercises like field recordings of their environments and recording their neighborhoods and creating tracks and experiences out of those,” O’Neal adds.

Building confidence, one verse at a time

Through storytelling and music production, young people in the Lyripeutics program gain an opportunity to share stories of their unique cultural wealth. (Photo: iStock)

Those behind the Lyripeutics program know education isn’t just about what happens in the classroom, but what happens when students see their own voices amplified in the real world.

Recently, one group of high school students visited the ��ɫ��Ƶ campus to play original tracks on the university’s radio station.

“The folks who run the radio station were just blown away,” says O’Neal. “It was an enriching experience for everyone involved.”

“We believe that doing work related to the social context, the cultural movement that is hip-hop, allows young people to really express their story from their perspective,” adds Nzinga.

For many of the youth involved, the program is much more than an extracurricular activity; for some, it’s the first time they’ve been given tools, encouragement and a platform to tell their stories, O’Neal says.

“When we get to engage with the students, it’s normally within a place of creativity and joy. We aren’t there for a lot of the day-to-day things I know they’re going through, but we see and hear the expression of their frustrations and the various roadblocks they’re up against through their music and their performance,” O’Neal says.

Fighting to keep the mic on

For all its successes, Lyripeutics faces a current reality: Programs focused on BIPOC youth, particularly those challenging traditional educational models, are under an intense microscope.

“We are at this moment receiving so much resistance from multiple levels,” Nzinga says. “From previous and future funding situations to different regulations at the state and district level—it’s extremely frustrating.”

Despite widespread recognition of the program’s impact, Nzinga and his colleagues cite an uphill battle to secure funding. While institutions like ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Renée Crown Wellness Institute have provided crucial support, securing consistent financial backing remains a struggle.

But the pushback isn’t just about money. Nzinga and O’Neal attribute much of the resistance to a larger national trend of rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, making it harder for programs like Lyripeutics to operate freely.

“We claim we want this type of programming for students that they need, yet we have to fight tooth and nail just to get a dollar, when we see so much money funneled into things that seem to be the antithesis of community building,” O’Neal observes.

“We believe that doing work related to the social context, the cultural movement that is hip-hop, allows young people to really express their story from their perspective.”

The most devastating consequence? Students who should be at the center of the conversation lose access to much-needed programming, and their voices are silenced—sometimes literally. Despite receiving parental consent, Lyripeutics has faced institutional roadblocks when trying to bring student voices into larger discussions about the program’s success.

“We would really prefer to have those students speaking for themselves,” O’Neal says, “But we’re not even at liberty to say many of the things we want to say.”

O’Neal and Nzinga also know Lyripeutics isn’t the only program fighting this battle. It’s part of a system of community-led education that refuses to be erased.

Nzinga says, “Our program isn’t the only one facing these types of pushback.”

“A lot of times these resistance movements try to separate us. They make us feel like we’re alone in doing this work, but we aren’t,” he adds.

When asked how outsiders can support the Lyripeutics program, Nzinga and O’Neal didn’t point to a single solution. They emphasized the importance of solidarity, awareness and amplifying voices.

“I think parents and community leaders voicing their opinions about any of the positive effects our programming has had would help,” O’Neal says.

The road ahead isn’t easy. Yet, despite the challenges, Lyripeutics will be there to keep a beat playing and a mic on for its students, ensuring the next generation of storytellers and leaders will have their voices heard.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about ethnic studies? Show your support.

Founded by a collaborative including ��ɫ��Ƶ scholars, the Lyripeutics Storytelling Project aims to empower Black and Brown youth through the medium of hip-hop.

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Embracing all the joy in Mudville

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 17:16:36 +0000

Embracing all the joy in Mudville Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/03/2025 - 11:16

Jared Bahir Browsh

Even though Major League Baseball faces an uncertain future entering its 150th season, Opening Day still holds a special place in the culture and fans’ hearts

As Rockies fans make their way to Denver for the team's 33rd home opener Friday, we are reminded of the excitement and hope that accompanies every team starting the season and looking toward the World Series. Why does opening day mean so much to so many?

For many, spring and summer are marked by the cracking of bats and the camaraderie of the tailgate as fan hope is renewed and the losses of seasons past are replaced by visions of the World Series. Even as baseball faces a less-than-certain future, with viewership down and ticket prices way, way up, Opening Day remains deeply rooted in our collective memories. Why?

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

This tradition has been nearly 150 years in the making, with the first National League Opening Day occurring on April 22, 1876, in Philadelphia, with the Athletics defeating the Boston Red Caps. Since that first opener, the tradition and pageantry has only grown, with cities recognizing the day with parades and fans awakening from their winter hibernation to celebrate what has become an unofficial holiday in many cities.

One city where this tradition is strongly rooted is Cincinnati, home of the first recognized all-professional team in baseball, the Red Stockings. Manager John Joyce, who organized the original team in 1866, updated the Cincinnati franchise in 1875, and the team then joined the newly established National League (NL) in 1876.

Though beer has become a baseball tradition, in 1880 the Cincinnati Reds were kicked out of the NL for selling beer and playing on Sundays. Previous to that, William Hulbert, who had overseen the organization of the league after the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA) disbanded, took several of the financially successful teams from the NA and established the NL with a number of strict rules, including a ban on alcohol sales and a ban on Sunday games, to address the negative reputation of baseball at the time—which included drinking, gambling and debauchery. The Cincinnati franchise ignored these rules, partly as an effort to attract German immigrants to the game, and was expelled, leading the team to go bankrupt and fold.

In spite of these challenges, professional baseball continued in Cincinnati, with Opening Day growing in prominence. The Reds have played almost every opening day at home since 1876, a tradition most likely rooted in their position as one of the southernmost charter members in the NL. The newly re-established Cincinnati Reds played in the American Association before joining the NL again in 1890 with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (now Dodgers), expanding the NL to eight teams. Reds’ business manager Frank Bancroft began to intensely market Opening Day after he joined the team in 1892, establishing a tradition for not only the Queen City, but baseball as a whole, which just so happened to be the same year the NL allowed beer sales and games on Sunday.

Snow on Opening Day

An illustration of Opening Day at New York's Polo Grounds on April 29, 1886. (Illustration: Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League)

The Opening Day tradition continued to grow after the turn of the 20th century, although weather, and sometimes even the fans, did not always cooperate. After the New York Giants went down 3-0 in their Opening Day game against the Philadelphia Phillies at the historic Polo Grounds in 1907, Giants fans threw snowballs on the field—including one that hit the home plate umpire, leading him to call the game in favor of the Phillies.

Attention on Opening Day increased when baseball fan President William Howard Taft threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Washington Senators in their home opener in 1910. Twelve presidents have thrown out the ceremonial first pitch of the season, and many franchises have invited team legends and celebrities to welcome in the new season.

In 1920, the tradition of the Findlay Market Parade began in Cincinnati to celebrate Opening Day after the team won the 1919 World Series in spite of rumors that the Chicago White Sox had fixed the series—rumors that were later confirmed. Other teams built their own Opening Day traditions over time, like the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale circling the field in St. Louis.

Opening Day continued despite two world wars and the Great Depression, with a number of milestones being established by the unofficial holiday. In the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Opening Day game on April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color line in baseball, scoring the winning run against the Boston Braves. In 1974, while playing for the same Braves—who had relocated from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966—Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s home run record at 714. The following season, Frank Robinson debuted as the first African American manager in baseball history.

Major League Baseball has maintained the tradition of Opening Day, even creating a unique logo in 2001, in spite of changes in the schedule. ESPN began broadcasting “opening games” the night before the official Opening Day in 1994, further establishing the noteworthy aspects of the day. On Opening Day in 1999, the first regular-season game outside of the United States was played in Monterrey, Mexico, with the Rockies beating the San Diego Padres 8-2.

The Colorado Rockies will play their 2025 home opener Friday at Coors Field in Denver. (Photo: Visit Denver)

The first regular season to open outside of North America occurred the next year in Tokyo; however, the games between the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs were scheduled the week before the official Opening Day, establishing the precedent that these early season international opening games would not be considered Opening Day games. The 2025 Tokyo Series took place between the Dodgers and Cubs on March 18 and 19, following several exhibition games in Japan—more than a week before the officially recognized Opening Day.

Opening Day traditionally took place on a Monday through the 2011 season, when MLB split the Opening Days of its 30 teams across two days to the last Thursday and Friday of March to avoid the World Series extending into November, as it had the previous two seasons. After returning to a Monday start in 2013, the league made the change to start the season on a Thursday permanent in 2018, with all 30 teams scheduled to play on Thursday, March 29.

As Major League Baseball begins its 150th season, many questions remain regarding the future of the sport. Two teams are playing in minor league stadiums due to the pending relocation of the Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays, and MLB and ESPN will end their media rights deal following the 2025 season, after the network tried to reduce its rights payments from $550 million to $200 million.

MLB continues to try to make games more attractive to younger fans by speeding up pace of play and by highlighting top stars like the L.A. Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the Mets’ Juan Soto. In spite of this transitional period for the sport, however, one thing remains constant: the hope and excitement that Opening Day inspires.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

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Even though Major League Baseball faces an uncertain future entering its 150th season, Opening Day still holds a special place in the culture and fans’ hearts.

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How March went mad … for basketball

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:12:17 +0000

How March went mad … for basketball Rachel Sauer Wed, 03/19/2025 - 11:12

Jared Bahir Browsh

The big business of the annual college basketball tournament, continuing with the second day of First Four games today, has been more than a century in the making

Every year, as the seasons shift from winter to spring, college basketball fans throughout the country prepare to watch 136 men’s and women’s basketball teams battle for their respective national championships.

Although the tournament starts with the “First Four” games for the men’s and women’s tournaments, respectively, the first two rounds that are played during the first weekend of the tournament have become an unofficial holiday marked by billions of dollars in decreased productivity as fans watch the first 48 games played in each tournament—during which teams vie to extend their seasons another week into the “Sweet 16.”

In the modern media age, this has become a tradition in our sports calendar, but it took several developments over the last half century for March to truly become mad.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

Basketball’s roots grew out of the college game, with James Naismith inventing the game in December 1891 to keep young men at the YMCA International Training School, which is now Springfield College, fit and occupied in the winter months. The game was soon introduced to women at Smith College, and by 1893 colleges and universities began forming teams—first playing against local amateur clubs before intercollegiate games began in 1894.

During this time, teams played under different rules, with some games featuring as many as nine players per side. By the turn of the 20th century, five-on-five became standard for men’s games, whereas women played six-on-six through most of the 1960s, with the last high school six-on-six tournament occurring in 1995 in Oklahoma.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was formed in 1906 as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) before taking its current name in 1910. The NCAA was formed in response to the prevalence of injuries in college football; President Theodore Roosevelt called for two conferences comprising top college football programs to address the injuries and deaths occurring in the game. The establishment of the NCAA led to a decades-long power struggle with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) for control of intercollegiate sports.

As the NCAA wrested control over football from the AAU, basketball continued to be loosely organized under the AAU, which organized the first tournament in 1898. Although the tournament did not happen annually until after World War I, the AAU did organize several tournaments for the 1904 Olympics, during which basketball debuted as a demonstration sport. There was an amateur tournament, a separate college tournament and several tournaments for high school and elementary school players.

A battle for control

The battle for control between the AAU and NCAA continued through the early 1900s, although the latter’s commitment to basketball was questionable through the 1930s. However, the NCAA did begin organizing rules committees and established its first championship, in track and field, for the 1921 season.

The first annual college basketball tournaments were organized in successive years with the NAIA tournament, organized by Naismith, starting in 1937, the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1938 and the NCAA tournament in 1939. Coincidentally, the term “March Madness” was coined by Henry V. Porter, a noted coach and inventor of basketball equipment, in reference to the Illinois high school basketball tournament the same year as the first NCAA tournament. Sports commentator Brent Musburger first used the term in reference to the men’s tournament in 1982.

The NIT, which took place at Madison Square Garden, was seen as the premiere tournament through the 1940s due to the national media presence in New York City. Temple University defeated the University of Colorado in the first NIT championship, with the Buffaloes returning to the championship and winning in 1940 over Duquesne University. Because the NIT occurred before the NCAA tournament, Colorado and Duquesne competed in both.

Clemson players celebrate a win over Arizona in the Sweet 16 round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. (Photo: TigerNet.com)

The early 1950s featured two developments that further isolated each tournament, both involving the City College of New York (CCNY). CCNY became the first team to win both tournaments in the same year, with the championships of both tournaments occurring in Madison Square Garden in 1950. This double win led the NCAA to ban teams from competing in both tournaments in the same year.

Soon after, that CCNY team was implicated in a wide-ranging point shaving scandal, which involved bribery and match fixing. The school’s presence in New York provided bettors easier access to bookies and bookies greater access to players.

The NCAA held its finals in New York all but one year between 1943 and 1950, but after the scandal the championship never returned to Madison Square Garden, even as the NIT continued to call New York City home.

A growing NCAA

The next big developments occurred in the late 1960s and 1970s as the NCAA further established its control over the basketball postseason. In 1968, UCLA and Houston played in the “Game of the Century” in front of more than 52,000 fans in the Houston Astrodome. This game was a follow-up to the previous year’s semifinal matchup between the two teams, which pitted star players Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), who was recovering from an eye injury, and Elvin Hayes. The game was nationally televised and accelerated college basketball’s transition from a regional to a national sport.

In 1970, Marquette declined an invitation to the NCAA tournament after it was placed in the Midwest Region, where games were played in Fort Worth, Texas, rather than the Mideast Region, where games were played in Dayton, Ohio—significantly closer to Marquette’s campus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1971, the NCAA declared that any team that is offered a bid to the NCAA tournament could not accept a bid to any other postseason tournament.

In 1975, after several top-ranked teams missed out on bids due to not winning their conferences, the tournament expanded from 25 teams to 32 teams to accommodate at-large bids from conferences, establishing a selection process and the anxiety of the “bubble.”

UCLA player Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), right, snags a rebound as Houston’s Elvin Hayes (44) makes a leaping rebound attempt in what was called the “Game of the Century.” (Photo: Associated Press)

Four years later, in 1979, the tournament expanded to 40 teams but conferences were still limited to two total teams in the tournament. The 1979 tournament championship pitted Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team and Larry Bird’s Indiana State team and is still the most-viewed championship in tournament history.

The tournament continued to grow in 1980, adding eight teams and removing the conference limits. At the time, the Big Ten, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Pac-10 and Southeastern Conference (SEC) were college basketball’s power conferences, with teams in the Northeast and New England playing in the amorphous Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC), which operated four regional tournaments between 1975 and 1981.

Providence coach Dave Gavitt saw an opportunity to organize a new conference with teams connected to major media markets, leveraging the growth of television through cable and syndication to form the original Big East. As the Big East began play in the fall of 1979, a small Connecticut network—the fledgling ESPN—began broadcasting nationally; soon the conference and ESPN became partners in each other's growth. As ESPN sought programming, it also began airing the early rounds of the tournament, which previously aired only locally as national broadcasters refused to pre-empt their regular programming for the early-round games.

The Big East increased college basketball’s media visibility on cable television, particularly during the week in prime time, and aided in recruiting as it became one of the top conferences in college basketball. When the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, three of the Final Four teams were from the Big East, with the eighth-seeded Villanova University defeating defending champion Georgetown University in the championship game.

Expanding tournaments

The first NCAA-sponsored women’s tournament occurred in 1982, with 32 teams facing off. Previously, the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW) had established the first tournament in 1969, when women’s games were still under six-player rules. The last CIAW tournament featured five-on-five rules before the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) took control of the tournament in 1971. Title IX, passed in 1972, accelerated the growth of women’s college sports well before the NCAA finally recognized the profitability of women’s basketball—10 years after the educational amendment was passed.

Kamilla Cardoso was named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 2024 after helping lead South Carolina to an 87-75 victory over Iowa, clinching the championship title. (Photo: Erik Drost/Wikimedia Commons)

Throughout the rest of the 1980s and 1990s, the men’s tournament remained fairly static even as the NCAA continued to evolve. After the 1984 Supreme Court decision NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, which found that the NCAA’s television plans violated antitrust laws, the NCAA was no longer able to limit how often football teams could appear on television, ultimately allowing conferences to sign their own media contracts with broadcasters and leading to a massive conference realignment that continues today. This, in turn, led to the NCAA basketball tournament becoming the most valuable media property overseen by the association.

The women’s tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, and the last men’s Final Four to take place in a basketball venue was played in 1996; subsequent events have taken place in domed football stadiums. The tournament expanded to 65 teams in 2001 to accommodate the Mountain West Conference receiving an automatic bid reintroducing play-in games to the tournament.

A century of madness

As the tournament approached the new millennium, fans were offered new ways to watch it. In 1999, DirecTV offered a premium package allowing fans to watch all the games through the satellite service, a feature previously only available in sports bars. The same year, CBS broadcast the Final Four in high definition for the first time.

In 2003, work productivity took another hit as CBS partnered with Yahoo! to stream tournament games for the first time through the latter’s platinum service. CBS launched its own March Madness OnDemand Service the following year, giving fans access to games outside of the CBS broadcast for $9.95.

Seven years later, in 2010, the NCAA announced it was exploring expanding the tournament, even announcing it wanted to expand to 96 teams. At the same time, the NCAA began negotiations with several media networks on a new media deal. The association settled on expanding to 68 teams, establishing the “First Four” games in which the four lowest-ranked teams that earned automatic bids and the four lowest at-large teams facing off in play-in games. This accompanied a new combined television deal in which CBS and Turner Sports agreed to broadcast all games on CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV.

In 2021, after Texas Christian University center Sedona Prince, who at the time was playing for the University of Oregon, posted pictures on social media highlighting the disparity between the fitness facilities for the women’s tournament compared to the men’s, the NCAA conducted a gender equality review. This led to the women’s tournament expanding to 68 teams and the March Madness branding being extended to the women’s tournament. Many still feel the women’s tournament is undervalued, especially after the 2024 Women’s Championship earned higher ratings than its male counterpart.

So, every March hope springs eternal for 136 teams, but for dedicated fans, the madness has been more than a century in the making.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

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The big business of the annual college basketball tournament, continuing with the second day of First Four games today, has been more than a century in the making.

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Nationalism and diplomacy are inherent to international sporting events

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:23 +0000

Nationalism and diplomacy are inherent to international sporting events Rachel Sauer Fri, 02/21/2025 - 10:48

Jared Bahir Browsh

The International Cricket Council Champions Tournament, beginning this week, highlights how national rivalries and geopolitical tensions can meet on playing fields

Courses in the Critical Sports Studies program in the Department of Ethnic Studies often start with the Great Sports Myth, a term coined by Jay Coakley, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. The myth is that sports are inherently good, and most experiences in sports are positive and do not need to be studied critically.

In combating this myth, we examine sporting nationalism with the playing field serving as a symbolic battleground between nations. As Pakistan prepares to co-host the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Tournament beginning this week, the nation's nationalistic rivalry with India comes to the forefront and reminds us that the competition on the field is often reflective of political tensions off of it.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

India and Pakistan’s political tensions date back to the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, although ethnic and religious tensions predate the end of Britain’s colonization of the region. India has been a member of the ICC since 1926, with Pakistan joining the ICC soon after independence in 1952.

Sporting relations between the nations have faced a number of stoppages, while other countries have canceled test matches because of threats and actual violence against cricket teams, particularly in Pakistan.

The New Zealand cricket team canceled their remaining 2002 matches in Pakistan after a suicide bomb outside of their Karachi hotel, while other countries like Australia refused to tour due to similar concerns. In 2009, the Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus was fired on in Lahore during their test tour, which was scheduled after India pulled out of Pakistan following the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. As a result, Pakistan lost the opportunity to co-host the 2011 ICC World Cup; the 2025 ICC Champions Tournament is the first international cricket tournament to be hosted by Pakistan since the 1996 ICC World Cup. India's refusal to play in Pakistan led to UAE being named as a co-host for India’s matches in the tournament, exemplifying continued tensions between the nations.

Yet diplomacy has been fostered through sport as well, including the peace initiatives of former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which led to the first matches between the nations in Pakistan in 15 years in 1999 and the Friendship Cups in Canada in the 1990s and 2000s.

Colonization and sporting tensions

Colonization has been at the core of sporting tensions between dozens of nations, including Britain and members of the Commonwealth like Ireland and Australia. Ireland in particular has used international sporting events as a forum for protest against Britain—most famously at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece. After being denied the gold medal in what many felt was a biased ruling by a judge from the United States, which followed the decision to force Irish athletes to compete on behalf of the United Kingdom, track and field athlete Peter O’Connor scaled a flag pole and unfurled an Erin Go Bragh flag, a symbol of the movement for Irish home rule.

The Olympics also have long been a nexus for sporting nationalism. One of the most distinct examples of this was at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin. In spite of rising concerns over antisemitism under Hitler, the United States, led by USOC President Avery Brundage, and others agreed not to boycott the games in exchange for Nazi Germany suspending antisemitic messaging and the full enactment of the Nuremberg Laws until after the games.

Adolf Hitler saw the 1936 Summer Olympic Games as a forum to display Aryan supremacy through victory and spectacle, which included introducing the torch relay. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Hitler saw the games as a forum to display Aryan supremacy through victory and spectacle. Television was introduced at the games along with the torch relay and the opening ceremony as an ostentatious show. The entire games were a primary example of “sportwashing,” which uses sport to improve public opinion of a nation or group.

Much like the India-Pakistan rivalry, a number of other geopolitical tensions have played out on various sporting fields and courts around the world. George Orwell published “The Sporting Spirit” in December 1945, a few months after the end of World War II, warning of the use of sport to encourage hyper-nationalism. Orwell was particularly critical of the Stalin regime’s use of sport to exhibit the Soviet Union and communism’s “superiority” over capitalism after the soccer team FC Dynamo Moscow toured Britain.

In 1952, the Soviet Union participated in its first Summer Olympic Games, setting off decades of displays of Cold War sporting nationalism on both sides of the Iron Curtain, but particularly exemplified by the competition between the USSR and the United States.

The Olympics became the largest stage for nationalistic competition. Every four years, the Cold War rivalries played out on the global stage of the Summer and Winter Olympics. Some of the most famous moments in Olympic history include the controversial end of the 1972 Olympic basketball final, during which the Soviet Union beat the U.S. team by one point under questionable rule interpretations, and the 1980 Miracle on Ice in the semifinal of the ice hockey tournament, when amateur U.S. players defeated the Soviet Union.

Both events exemplified the rivalry between these superpowers. The 1972 Olympics also included the tragic terrorist attack by Black September militants, leading to the murder of 11 Israeli athletes—an example of how ethnic-nationalism, sport and violence can intersect.

Boycott and protest

Boycotting sporting events and protest actions during competition have also been responses to various forms of nationalism and political tensions. The pending boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow by the United States intensified the attention on the competition between the USSR and the United States in Lake Placid during the Winter Games that year.

Recently, hockey reemerged as a forum for nationalism as the United States and Canada faced off twice in the National Hockey League (NHL)-run 4 Nations Face-Off. The tournament was limited to NHL players, so the teams were not technically the national teams of the countries included in the tournament. It did feature four of the five countries with the largest representation in the NHL (Russia was excluded due to the invasion of Ukraine), with the league leveraging nationalistic feelings between Finland and Sweden and United States and Canada. The heightened tension between the North American teams was due, in part, to comments by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the annexation our northern neighbors. This may serve as a preview of the heightened nationalism around the 2026 Olympic men’s and women’s ice hockey tournaments, especially if Russian athletes are permitted to compete.

U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith (first place) and John Carlos (third place) raised their fists to protest U.S. segregation and racism during the medical ceremony for the 200-meter sprint at the 1968 Summer Olympics; Australian sprinter Peter Norman (second place) wore a badge for the Olympic Project for Human Rights. (Photo: Angelo Cozzi/Mondadori Publishers)

The Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries in turn boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The 1980 boycott was triggered by the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

White nationalism and racial discrimination have also been a frequent motivator for protest and boycotts. The Olympic Project for Human Rights promoted a boycott of the 1968 games in Mexico City, with several athletes—including Kareem Abdul Jabbar—deciding not to go based on continuing discrimination of Blacks in the United States, lack of African American representation on the coaching staffs of Olympic teams, Muhammad Ali’s loss of his heavyweight championship due to his refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War and apartheid policies in South Africa and Rhodesia.

Track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos did decide to compete but famously raised their fists in protest after winning gold and bronze respectively in the 200 meters.

Apartheid policies also led to the South African Olympic Committee being expelled from the IOC in 1970. Prior to South Africa’s expulsion, several other organizations had banned the nation from hosting events as far back as 1934 due to their policies forbidding non-white participants to compete. After the New Zealand rugby team toured South Africa in 1976, 29 mostly African nations boycotted the Montreal Games that same year after the IOC refused to ban New Zealand.

This put pressure on Commonwealth countries to adopt the Gleneagles Agreement to expand the sporting boycott of South Africa. Taiwan also boycotted the 1976 games the day before the Opening Ceremony after the Canadian government’s refusal to recognize their nation as the Republic of China.

Sports like cricket and football are important cultural experiences in countries like Pakistan and India, but their presence is evidence of those countries’ colonial past and of nationalism emanating from the British Empire. Most British colonies around the world adopted the sport soon after occupation, serving as historical examples of cultural imperialism.

Since international competition started in the 19th century, sports like cricket and events like the World Cup can simultaneously bring people together and promote community while also inflaming nationalistic tensions. For over 70 years, the intense cricket rivalry between India and Pakistan has done both.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Ethnic Studies.

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The International Cricket Council Champions Tournament, beginning this week, highlights how national rivalries and geopolitical tensions can meet on playing fields.

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National Bank Stadium in Karachi, Pakistan (Photo: Baseer Piracha/Wikimedia Commons)

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