Sport in History

David Searle on the University Boat Race

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for the latest episode of the Sport in History Podcast as Max Portman talks to David Searle, former executive director of the University Boat ...

Formula 1 rivalry: F1 and the Media with Michael Beddoes, Raymond Boyle & Richard Haynes

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for a special edition of the Sports and Leisure History Seminar Series at Silverstone Museum as we host a discussion on the book Streamin...

Dreams and Songs to Sing: A People's History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp with Alan McDougall

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Join us on our latest episode as Max Portman interviews Alan McDougall, Lifelong Liverpool fan and Professor of History from the University of Guelph ...

Catching the Spirit? The ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Tanya Aldred (The Guardian) interviews ECB's Laura Entwistle, former international cricketer Laura MacLeod and journalist Raf Nicholson about the fort...

A most unsuitable game: Reflections on a community celebration of the women’s game in Scotland

27 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

8 Months on from the book, A Most Unsuitable Game: Celebrating Scottish Women’s Football Fifty Years After the Ban was completed and released, ...

Atlanta Tsiaoukkas on The Schoolgirl Sporting Heroines of Early Twentieth-Century Girls’ Fiction

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the earliest depictions of the schoolgirl in British girls’ fiction, she is far from the hockey stick wielding tomboys recognisable in the storie...

Alan Lau From the Frank Soo Foundation

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you were watching or were at the England Vs Wales football match last month, you may have seen a cap ceremony that saw Frank Soo, the first Asian p...

Tony Collins on Roy Francis: Rugby's forgotten black leader

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Join Max Portman as he speaks to a true legend of academic sports history in Professor Tony Collins, Emeritus Professor of History at De Montfort Univ...

Rewriting Sport and the British: A discussion on the revised edition of Richard Holt's Sport & the British

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

So many of the world’s sports have their origins in Britain. Why is this? How did sports innovate and evolve in step with social upheaval, and polit...

30 Years of Sports History at De Montfort University Roundtable

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The podcast is excited to share with you this roundtable from the 2025 British Society of Sports History Conference at Ulster University which celebra...

Matthew Brown on Sports History in South America

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features Matthew Brown, winner of the 2024 Lord Aberdare Book Prize, giving his Lord Aberdare Prize Keynote lecture, at the 2025 BSSH Con...

Tamsin Johnson on Cycling Women and Visions of Modernity & Femininity in British Visual Culture (1880-1939)

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Women falling off bicycles or crashing into men, society women assembled neatly next to a bicycle (but rarely sat upon), women cycling along telegraph...

Ben Robinson on Notts County and the "most audacious fraud in Sport"

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Join Max Portman as he speaks to Ben Robinson, an investigate journalist and series producer for the BBC about Ben's book "The Trillion Dollar Conman:...

Noemi Steuerwald on Equestrian Sport as a Symbol of Power & Exclusion in the Victorian Era

03 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, leisure is often seen as a universal right – accessible to all, regardless of background. Yet historically, access to leisure and sport was h...

Katharine Worth on nationalism in British motor racing since 1894

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Join Max Portman as he interviews Katharine Worth, PhD Student at the University of Western Australia & Collections And Research officer (which cl...

Dan Covell on Jack Langer and Yale University versus the National Collegiate Athletic Association

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Join Max Portman as he interviews Dr Dan Covell of Western New England University, Massachusetts in the United States to talk about his recently publi...

Arran Hicks on Arsenal, Wolves, and the Eastern Bloc, 1954-55

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 1945 Dynamo Moscow tour of Britain stands as a significant event in postwar sporting history. It has been studied extensively as a diplomatic even...

Raf Nicholson in Conversation with Beth Barrett-Wild and Claire Taylor on the future of Women's Cricket

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to our friends over at the Cricket Research Network, we are delighted to bring you this panel discussion chaired by historian and journalist Ra...

Emily Calcraft on Pacifism, Non-Violence and Sport in Inter-War Britain

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Whilst scholars have tended to focus on hegemonic internationalist sporting practices and their promotion of peace, this paper explores peace activist...

Colin Yates on Sport and "Art as a Message"

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Join Max Portman as he interviews artist Colin Yates on sport and "art as a message", discussing how Colin's career and major projects have highlight...

Peter Mason on Sir Clyde Walcott

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Join Podcast host & editor Max Portman as he interviews Peter Mason, Journalist with the Guardian Newspaper & author of several books on music...

The treatment of sports injuries in the Republic of Ireland, 1950-2010: A History

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This paper examines the provision of sports injury treatment in the Republic of Ireland during the period from 1950 until 2010. By the late 1960s, tal...

Matt McDowell on Surfing & Modernity in the North of Scotland

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New podcast host and Editor Max Portman talks to Dr Matthew L McDowell about Dr McDowell's new book 'Surfing and modernity in the North of Scotland', ...

Abhinava Srivastava on Enacting ‘speed’ as Samman (honour): Fast bowling and sporting masculinity in Contemporary India

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this seminar paper, the enabling potential of ‘speed’ is theorized to study how bowling fast on cricket field has increasingly allowed a sectio...

Michael Crawley on Myth, Reality and the Articulation of Sport and Society in Ethiopian Running

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Taking inspiration from Derek Birley's 'The Willow Wand,' this talk begins by exploring some of the myths surrounding Ethiopian running. Michael Crawl...

Alex Jackson on “Goals and their meaning”: The meaning of one wartime game. Or: Stoke 16 Blackburn Rovers 0

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How can we understand the meaning of wartime football? This talk tries to tackle a small part of this question by exploring the history and contempora...

David Horspool at Chalke History Festival

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our Friends over at the History of Jackson have been kind enough to share this short podcast interview with David Horspool with the Sport in History P...

Seth Tannenbaum on The Historical Marginalization of Black Fans at Major League Baseball Games

11 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While the decline in Black American baseball players has received lots of scholarly attention in the last three decades, scholars have not spent as mu...

‘Don’t worry!’: Sam Oldfield on The rise of netball and international governance 1926-1963

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the twentieth century women’s rights to compete in sport at international level started to be realised, with major tournaments and compet...

How cricketers navigate class connotations of traditional cricket kit relating to identity & place

30 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This emerging, ongoing research project delves into the historical influence of class distinctions on cricket in Greater Manchester, focusing on grass...

Michael Connolly on Brother Walfrid and the foundation of Celtic Football Club

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Michael Connolly is currently lecturing in Sport Management at the University of Stirling, placed within the Faculty of Health Science and Sport.Hi...

Cricket Research Network 2024 Round Table

10 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a recording of a Roundtable discussion during the first Cricket Research Network conference, held at the Museum of Welsh Cricket in Ca...

Dave Day and Female Teachers of PE in Interwar Britain

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

'For those who like the life nothing could be better’: The Games Mistress in Interwar BritainDuring the Edwardian period the ‘sporting girl’ was...

Max Ferrer on Global Barça and Consumable Catalan Culture

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the decades surrounding the turn of the twenty-first century, few brands across the globe gained more recognition than that of FC Barcelona. During...

Clem Seecharan in conversation with David Woodhouse

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Clem Seecharan, the distinguished historian of Guyana and Caribbean cricket, talks to David Woodhouse at a special event to celebrate his being given ...

Matt Taylor on Barbara Buttrick

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Barbara Buttrick and the History of Women’s Boxing in BritainThis paper explores the life and career of Barbara Buttrick but also the way in which h...

Roy Thompson on Football and Emotion

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

‘I've been with them longer than my wife.’ Searching for emotional clues in published fan culture. The highs and lows of following Lincoln City 19...

Souvik Naha and Postcolonial Cricket

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Souvik Naha gives a paper on the relationship between cricket, nationalism and postcolonial identities in 20th century India.What cricket...

Jeremy Lonsdale and MCC in India 1926-27

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Geoff talks to cricket historian Jeremy Lonsdale about the MCC tour to India in 1926-27. The tour, led by Arthur Gilligan, was a pivotal ...

Heather Dichter and Sport and Soft Power

27 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features the keynote presentation at the 2023 BSSH Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University. Dr Heather Dichter gives a wide rang...

Thomas Campbell - The Miners' Strike and 80s Football Violence

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'The enemy within' football hooliganism and the miners' strike' During the 1980s Margaret Thatcher’s government attempted to reduce the economic pow...

Turlough O'Riordan, Terry Clavin and Carol Osborne on Irish Sporting Lives

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join Conor Heffernan as he interviews Turlough O'Riordan and Terry Clavin, co-editors of the wonderful 2022 collection Irish Sporting Lives. We are al...

Roger Domeneghetti and sport in the 80s

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roger Domeneghetti is Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Northumbria University while maintaining a career as a freelance journalist where he has worked...

Conor Heffernan on US Women's Weightlifting in the 80s

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Conor Heffernan on US Women's Weightlifting in the 80s by British Society of Sports HistoryThia podcast is a British Society of Sports History (BSSH) ...

Ben Duncan-Jones on Boxing

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The geographies and finances of bare-knuckle prize-fighting in Britain, 1860-1880From the mid-nineteenth century bare-knuckle prize-fighting in Britai...

Andy Carter - Victorians and sport in the classical world

19 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Andy Carter - Victorians and sport in the classical world by British Society of Sports HistoryThia podcast is a British Society of Sports History (BSS...

Katie Holmes on Women's Running

05 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features a paper given by Katie Holmes at the IHR on women's running.Until October 1975, women in the UK did not compete in marathons, no...

Dr. Michael Connolly on Brother Walfrid

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brother Walfrid (Andrew Kerins) is best known for founding Celtic F.C. in 1888. While his name is known well within the club's history, biographical d...

Alec Hurley - Sport and microhistory in Rochester, NY

19 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features a paper given by Alec Hurley at the British Society of Sport History's Sport & Leisure History seminar at the Institute of Histo...

Jeremy Lonsdale

12 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Geoff talks to Jeremy Lonsdale about his latest work on Yorkshire cricket history, 'A Game Emerging: Yorkshire before the coming of the A...

Rob Colls and the Fight of the Century

05 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Rob Colls examines the ‘Fight of the Century’ - between the American John Carmel Heenan and the British boxer ‘Brighton Titch’...

Eric Blakely on the 1908 Olympics

22 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Blakely gives a paper on Zoom about his fascinating research into the social background of the 750 or so athletes who competed for Great Britain ...

Oliver Knabe and Alan McDougall on Football Nation

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join Conor Heffernan, Oliver Knabe and Alan McDougall as they discuss the new edited collection Football Nation: The Playing Fields of German Culture,...

David Woodhouse - Cricket in the West Indies in 1953:54

20 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Geoff talks to David Woodhouse about his quadruple award-winning book, 'Who Only Cricket Know: Hutton's Men in the West Indies 1953/54'.H...

Max Portman on West Ham and the Olympic Stadium

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a recording of the paper given by Max Portman at the Institute of Historical Research on 14th Nov 2022.If one is to talk about the imp...

Rich Parry - Swallows and Hawk

06 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Geoff talks to Dr Rich Parry about his latest book, Swallows and Hawk, which tells the history of South Africa through the medium of MCC...

David Patrick on Ted Carroll, Boxing Journalist Extraorindaire

05 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join Conor Heffernan and David Patrick as they discuss David's upcoming co-edited book with Ian Phimister, A Boxing Legacy: The Life and Works of Wri...

Ram Guha Keynote at BSSH Conference '22 - The Accidental Sports Historian

09 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Accidental Sports HistorianRamachandra Guha is a historian and biographer based in Bengaluru. For many years, Ramachandra Guha wrote scholarly, he...

BSSH Anniversary Keynote: Professor Richard Holt and the Development of British Sport History

02 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Richard Holt, whose critical sport on British sport history, opens the BSSH's 40th anniversary with a retrospective keynote on the developme...

BSSH 40th Anniversary Podcast: Mike Cronin and Irish Sport History

25 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join Conor and Professor Mike Cronin for a retrospective discussion on Professor Cronin's own career in Irish sport history, the rise of sport history...

Paul Hawkins, English Isolation and the 1966 World Cup

18 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join Conor Heffernan and Paul Hawkins as they discuss Paul's new book on English football, the triumph of 1966 and England's relationship with the bro...

Rob Colls Keynote BSSH Conference '22

11 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rob Colls is Professor Emeritus of Sports History at De Montfort University.In his Keynote speech at the BSSH Conference 2022 he talks passionately ab...

Round Table on EDI BSSH Conf '22

04 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

EDI Rep on the BSSH Exec Dr Amanda Callan-Spenn hosts a round table discussion of the issues around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the world of ...

Football on the Home Front with Dr. Alexander Jackson

27 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join Conor Heffernan and Dr. Alexander Jackson as they discuss Dr. Jackson's new book, Football's Great War: Association Football on the English Home ...

Rich Parry and Ram Guha

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

South African cricket writer Rich Parry talks to India's leading cricket historian Ram Guha about his life in the game and the state of cricket in Ind...

BSSH 40th Anniversary Special with Dr. Martin Johnes

13 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join Conor Heffernan and Martin Johnes as they discuss the development of Welsh sport history, Martin's own career trajectory as well as some speculat...

BSSH 40th Anniversary Special with Dr Neil Carter

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Another podcast to celebrate the BSSH 40th anniversary this year. Today Katie Taylor chats with Dr Neil Carter from the International Centre for Sport...

BSSH 40th Anniversary Special with Dr Fiona Skillen and Dr Carol Osborne

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This special podcast episode is part of a series celebrating the British Society of Sports History’s 40th Anniversary. Throughout this series we wil...

Max Portman

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Katie Talks to Max Portman about the history of West Ham Football Club in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries.Max is a do...

Jon Hughes on Anglo-German Mountaineering Films

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features a paper given by Jon Hughes at the BSSH's seminar series at the Institute of Historical Research. Jon's paper,'We met the most s...

Dil Porter on BS Johnson and Sports Journalism

13 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Arthur Hopcraft’s much-celebrated The Football Man (1968) comprised chapters based on interviews with representative ‘football men’ of the 1960s...

Duncan Stone on English Cricket

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Geoff talks to Dr Duncan Stone about the history of English cricket. Duncan's new book, 'Different Class', examines how cricket in Englan...

Barbara Horley and UK Speedway

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“I have had two thrills today. One racing at Newmarket this afternoon. The other here at speedway. And this is by far the greater”. Why did speedw...

Aaron Ó Maonaigh and Sport During the Irish Civil War

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron Ó Maonaigh is an independent scholar and post-primary teacher in South Dubllin, Ireland.Today's interview focuses on Aaron's latest article in ...

John Fisher on Cricketer Richard Cheslyn

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

John Fisher retired from the University of Newcastle in 2004 (from the Department of Economics, since defunct). He has written and published extensive...

Jorge Tovar Football During the Coronavirus and the Fairness of VAR

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jorge Tovar is an associate professor at the Economics Department in Los Andes University (Bogota - Colombia). He holds a Ph.D. in economics from UC B...

Heather Dichter Cold War and the Berlin Wall

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode it's Heather Dichter's paper at the BSSH/IHR Sport & Leisure seminar series from December 2021.The appearance of the Berlin Wall on the m...

Malcolm Maclean and the Haka

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Malcolm MacLean of University of Queensland/DMU/University of Gibraltar gives a paper on rugby in Aoteoroa/New Zealand and the multiple m...

Rich Parry

21 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's the turbulent history of cricket and society in South Africa in this episode of the Sport in History Podcast brought to you by the British Societ...

Lauren Beatty and women's golf

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Katy talks to Lauren Beatty about her PhD research into women's golf in Scotland. Women have been playing golf at club level in Scotland ...

Iain Adams on American Tug of War

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Iain Adams gives a paper on the origins and development of Tug of War comeptitions in late 19th and early 20th Century America. Tug of War took a part...

Sarah Hardstaff

24 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Katie talks to Dr Sarah Hardstaff about children's books and football fiction. Sarah was awarded her PhD in 2020 by the University of Cam...

Noah Riseman and Caroline Layt on Transgender Athletes in Australia

24 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Article Reference:Riseman, Noah. "A history of transgender women in Australian Sports, 1976–2017." Sport in History (2021): 1-28.Caroline LaytCaroli...

Ramanchandra Guha

29 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Geoff talks to the distinguished historian Ramachandra Guha, the recipient of the 2021 British Society of Sports History and Cricket Soci...

Documenting the Olympics Keynote

13 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Day 2 Keynote of Documenting the Olympics and Paralympics with Prof Martin Polley of De Montfort University talking us through a career of archiva...

Documenting the Olympics The GLAM sector 2 - Olympic archives

06 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Documenting the Olympics and Paralympics Day 2The first session of day 2 has three archivists from the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLA...

Documenting the Olympics - GLAM sector and London 2012

30 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The second session from the 2021 online conference Documenting the Olympics and Paralympics, which took place on 6th and 7th July 2021 and was organis...

Documenting the Olympics and Paralympics 1 - Researching the Games

23 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The first session from the 2021 online conference Documenting the Olympics and Paralympics, which took place on 6th and 7th July 2021 and was organise...

Alan McDougall, Bill Shankly's Retirement, Emotion, Gender and Transnationalism

16 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alan McDougall is Professor of History at the University of Guelph. He has previously published on global football history as well as football in East...

Sam Brady - Sporting Wheelchairs

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Sam Brady of Glasgow University gives a paper for the BSSH Sport & Leisure History seminar on sporting wheelchairs and adaptive technolog...

Alex Jackson and Early Football Fiction

02 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Alexander Jackson is a curator at the National Football Museum, Manchester, England. He has written for The Blizzard, Soccer History and Playing Pa...

Andy Carter, Oxbridge and Greco-Roman Ideals

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Andy Carter is currently a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University. He previously studied at Bangor University and Royal Holloway, Universit...

Ian Cooke, Documenting the Olympics & Paralympics

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This podcast Geoff talks to Ian Cooke about a free Zoom event on the 6th & 7th July 2021 with a range of speakers talking about archives and the histo...

Julien Clenet and Sport in 19th Century Dublin

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Julien Clenet is a final year PhD Student at University College Dublin. He researches the history of sport in Dublin, Ireland in the nineteenth-centur...

Geoff Swallow

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Geoff Swallow gives a paper on Swimming History for the Sport & Leisure History seminar series hosted by the British Society of Sports...

Craig Greenham and the Pete Rose betting scandal

15 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Craig Greenham talks to Conor Heffernan about his recent article on the Pete Rose betting scandal and how it was discussed by the American press.Dr. G...

Dave Smith and Huddersfield Archive

30 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Katie talks to Dave Smith about the University of Huddersfield archive. Trekkers will be excited about their Patrick Stewart collection b...

Barbara Horley on Speedway

16 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Katie talks to Barbara Horley about the Speedway's boom time from the 1930s to the 1960s.Barbara is a doctoral candidate at the International Centre f...

Margaret Roberts and Playing Pasts

02 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode Katie talks to Margaret Roberts, the editor of the online magazine Playing Pasts. The magazine publishes 2 articles per week and gets 30,...

Linda Perkins and African American Women's Physical Education

06 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Linda M. Perkins is Associate University Professor and director of Applied Gender Studies at Claremont Graduate University. She holds an interdiscipli...