Fair Game?

Tackling Politics in Sport

John Leonard

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785312335
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Sports have their own controversies: fights over tactics, disputes over refereeing calls, the specter of drugs and cheats. Then there are those with dark political overtones. Foul! Tackling Politics and Sport takes a look at controversial moments when sport and politics have collided during the past century, some tragic, others plain sinister, a few bizarre; all the subject of hot dispute. Ranging from the infamous Berlin Olympics, hijacked by Hitler and the Nazis, the tragedy of Munich, and the Cold War boycotts, to the curious case of the Gaelic Athletic Association throwing out Irish President Douglas Hyde. It shows how sport can be cynically manipulated by some of the most unsavoury of characters in world history; and how ultimately athletes and the fans end up losers.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Author
• Introduction: Strutting the World Stage
• Hitler’s Olympics: Berlin 1936
• England’s Football Shame: The Nazi Salute
• The Black Power Salute
• Cricket and Apartheid: The D’Oliveira Affair
• Rugby: An Afrikaans Religion?
• Nelson Mandela and the Rugby World Cup
• The Football War
• World Cup Final 1954: ‘The Miracle of Bern’
• Melbourne 1956: ‘Blood in the Water’
• Black September: Munich 1972
• The Miracle On Ice
• Cold War Boycotts
• Zola Budd: The Barefoot Runner
• Jackie Robinson: Breaking Baseball’s Colour Barrier
• Fight of the Century: Joe Louis v Max Schmeling
• A Gaelic Game and the Garrison Game
• The Strange Tale of the GAA and President Hyde
• Defying Terrorist Threats: ‘At Least We Turned Up’
• Bodyline
• The Brazil World Cup 2014
• Select Bibliography
• Photographs