[50 years ago this week, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met in Manila for their third and final professional boxing bout. So this week on the blog I’ve stepped into the ring with posts on a handful of contexts for that significant sports story, leading up to this tribute to one of our best sports scholars!]
I’ve written about Lou Moore a few times already in this space, including his now-defunct but really excellent The Professor and the Pugilist blog. But I wanted to pay tribute to him at the end of this week’s blog series for three specific reasons:
1) His book I Fight For a Living: Boxing and the Battle for Black Manhood, 1880-1915 (2017), which is the best scholarly work about boxing and American history I’ve encountered;
2) His next book We Will Win the Day: The Civil Rights Movement, the Black Athlete, and the Quest for Equality (2017), which provides a vital context for Muhammad Ali’s activisms;
3) And the really excellent Story Maps that he shares on his website, which include ones on the Jack Johnson riots and Muhammad Ali and the Black press.
There’s just no better voice on the histories of sports, race, and America than Lou!
Next series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Sports studiers you’d share?
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