Fields of play : sport, race, and memory in the Steel City / Robert T. Hayashi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hayashi, Robert T., 1963- author.

Series:

Regional Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Athletes--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh--History.

Athletes.

Blue collar workers--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh--History.

Blue collar workers.

Capitalism--Social aspects.

Capitalism.

Racism--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.

Racism.

Sports--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh--History.

Sports.

White supremacy movements--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.

White supremacy movements.

Pittsburgh (Pa.)--Social conditions.

Pittsburgh (Pa.).

Pittsburgh (Pa.)--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (291 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Americans love sports, from neighborhood pickup basketball to the National Football League, and everything in between. While no city better demonstrates the connection between athletic games and community than Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the common association of the city's professional sports teams with its blue-collar industrial past illustrates a white nostalgic perspective that excludes the voices of many who labored in the mines and mills and played on local fields. In this original and lyrical history, Robert T. Hayashi addresses this gap by uncovering and sharing overlooked tales of the region's less famous athletes: Chinese baseball players, Black women hunters, Jewish summer campers, and coalminer soccer stars.These athletes created separate spaces of play while demanding equal access to the region's opportunities on and off the field.Weaving together personal narrative with accounts from media, popular culture, legal cases, and archival sources,Fields of Play details how powerful individuals and organizations used recreation to promote their interests and shape public memory. Combining this rigorous archival research with a poet's voice, Hayashi vividly portrays how coal towns, settlement houses, municipal swimming pools, state game lands, stadia, and the city's landmark rivers were all sites of struggle over inclusion and the meaning of play in the Steel City"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

From nations you know not

Race, labor, and play in Western Pennsylvania

Corner kicks and coal

Soccer, community, and recalling a coal mining past

Poached trout

Fishing and hunting in Penn's Woods

Basketballs, bunk beds, and bridges

The Irene Kaufmann settlement house and its neighbors

Terrible towels in the sixty-minute men

The Pittsburgh Steelers and remembering a black (and Yellow) past.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Hayashi, Robert Fields of Play

ISBN:

9780822989998

0822989999

OCLC:

1396061557