The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), by Thomas Eakins, 1871. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Fund and George D. Pratt Gift, 1934.

Sports & Games

Volume III, Number 3 | summer 2010

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Preamble

Field of Dreams

By Lewis H. Lapham

Play is the making of civilization—how one plays the game more to the point than whether the game is won or lost.

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Skate Fever

By Jay Griffiths

Like most things in life, skating is best done openhearted.

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Map

Playing Grounds

On the track, in the ring, around the table, and at the target.

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c. 1300 BC | Boeotia

Ovid as Sportswriter

Hippomenes wins the trophy wife.More

1911 | San Diego

National Pastime

The manifold genius of American baseball.More

1884 | Richmond

Color Barrier

Just writing to say the blood will be on your hands.More

Charts & Graphs

Venture Capital

Historical wagers and their winners.

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George Plimpton

Color photograph of American writer Annie Dillard.

Photograph by Cliff (CC BY 2.0).

Mosaic portrait of a bearded man in red holding a book

Football causeth fighting, brawling, contention, quarrel picking, murder, homicide and great effusion of bloode, as daily experience teacheth.

—Philip Stubbes, 1583

Missing contributor image silhouette

Dutch historian Johan Huizinga.

Bacchylides & Johan Huizinga

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