Description
Book SynopsisLA Sports brings together sixteen essays covering various aspects of the development and changing nature of sport in one of America’s most fascinating and famous cities. The writers cover a range of topics, including the history of car racing and ice skating, the development of sport venues, the power of the Mexican fan base in American soccer leagues, the intersecting life stories of Jackie and Mack Robinson, the importance of the Showtime Lakers, the origins of Muscle Beach and surfing, sport in Hollywood films, and more.
Trade Review“
LA Sports tells the story of a major phenomenon in one of modernity’s most spellbinding cities. Compiled by leading experts, with a refreshing blend of academic and personal approaches, this volume offers a range of insights. From soccer to figure skating, sports cars to surfing, not to mention the twin Olympics with which the city is identified worldwide, it is the perfect introduction/companion to the multifaceted reach of sport in Southern California.”—Christopher Young, University of Cambridge
“This is an important and groundbreaking collection of essays on sport in Los Angeles. Scholars from a range of disciplines engage with diverse sports across the metropolis. Themes of race, ethnicity, gender, and class underpin this timely contribution to our understanding of sport in the City of Angels.”—Chris Bolsmann, California State University, Northridge
“An impressive effort . . . highly original, deeply researched, and thoroughly engaged with the fields of urban and sporting history.”—Robert Edelman, University of California, San Diego
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- “I Love LA”: The Sporting Culture of Los Angeles
- 1. The Life Cycles of Sports Venues in Los Angeles: Sports and Local Economic Development
- 2. On Los Chorizeros, the Classic, and El Tri: Sports and Community in Mexican Los Angeles
- 3. Pitches Less Than Perfect: Notes on the Landscape of Soccer in Los Angeles
- 4. Figure Skating in Southern California: From Frontier to Epicenter
- 5. Sports Car Paradise: Racing in Los Angeles
- 6. Professional Football in the City of Angels: The Game Moves West
- 7. The 1932 Olympics: Spectacle and Growth in Interwar Los Angeles
- 8. “Never Go Back”: Pasadena Racial Politics and the Robinson Brothers
- 9. Reel Sports: Hollywood Stars at Play in LA
- 10. Behind the Curtain: Leadership, Ingenuity, and Culture in the Making of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Showtime, and the Laker Dynasty
- 11. The Golden Games: The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
- 12. Shaping the Boom: Los Angeles Surfing from George Freeth to Gidget
- 13. The Halcyon Days of Muscle Beach: An Origin Story
- 14. I Was Standing There All the While: Jim Murray and the Birth of a Sports Mecca
- 15. Vin Scully: The Voice of Los Angeles
