Football: The Real American Pastime

The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents
Football: The Real American Pastime

with Professor Joel Wolfe

Monday, March 3, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. ET

Online via Zoom

Gridiron football has much more closely reflected key trends in American history than baseball, even as the latter has for more than a century presented itself as our “National Pastime.”  From its earliest days in the mid to late nineteenth century through the present, football has reflected key trends in the nation. This is most obvious is in the race relations where football followed regional variations rather than embracing a broad segregationist policy as Major League Baseball (MLB) had. While Jackie Robinson could not play MLB until 1947, he lettered in four sports at UCLA, including football. In 1904, Matthew Bullock (Dartmouth class of 1904), whose parents had been born into slavery, was the head football coach at Massachusetts Agricultural College, the predecessor to UMass Amherst. Football’s close connections to all levels of government from the nineteenth century to the present is another example of how the game is quintessentially American.

Joel Wolfe is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has published three books on modern Brazil, but developed an interest in the History of Sport when he served as a College Magister at Rice University in Houston, TX.  He teaches both the History of Baseball and American Gridiron Football, along with classes on modern Latin America and Brazil. Before teaching at Rice, Wolfe was a tenured associate professor at Williams College. This talk is based on his forthcoming book, The American Game: Baseball and the Nation.

_________

Ticket information:

Admission is $10 for OLLI at BCC and Berkshire Museum members, and $15 for the general public.

Admission is free for students, staff and faculty from Berkshire Community College, MCLA, Simon's Rock, and Williams; youth 17 and under, and those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP, or ConnectorCare cards.

Pre-registration is required. Register safely and securely online or call 413.236.2190 (M-F 9am-4pm) to register by phone with a credit card.