Critical Conversations in Sport and Popular Culture (CCSPC)

A seminar series hosted by Sport Studies, Sheffield Hallam University

 

The Myths We Live By: Football, History and the Invention of Tradition

Professor Tony Collins, De Montfort University

 

Thursday 22 March, 5:00-6:30pm

HC.0.06, Heart of Campus, Collegiate Campus, Sheffield Hallam University

 

To book tickets (free admission) for this event, visit the ‘Sport Studies’ website (www.sportstudiesshu.com) or click here.

 

Abstract

The history of sport is a palimpsest. Meanings, interpretations and purposes are written and rewritten over that history as people seek to give a broader significance to the act of play. Details and fragments are reassembled and rearranged to create a story that meets the desires and demands of different generations, social groups and ideologies. 

This paper looks at the ways in which the history of football in its different varieties has been continually invented and reinvented. It will look at the re-emergence of the William Webb Ellis myth, the creation story of American football and in particular the invented traditions of early Sheffield football to ask why sport needs a mythology and what this tells us about the role of sport in contemporary society.

 

Professor Tony Collins, is professor of history at De Montfort University’s International Centre for Sports History & Culture. Hew is the author of numerous books and articles on the history of sport, including ‘Sport in Capitalist Society’ (2013), ‘The Oval World: A Global History of Rugby’ (2015) and the forthcoming ‘How Football Began: A History of How The World’s Football Codes Were Born’.

 

Kind regards,

 

Jack

 

 

 

—

Dr. Jack Black

Senior Lecturer in Sport Studies

Course Leader BA (Hons) Sport Studies

Academy of Sport and Physical Activity | Faculty of Health and Wellbeing | Sheffield Hallam University

A213 Collegiate Hall | Collegiate Crescent | Sheffield | S10 2BP

Email: [log in to unmask] | Telephone: 0114 225 5634 | 

Academia: https://shu.academia.edu/JackBlack | 

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jack_Black19

 

BA (Hons) Sport Studies Website: www.sportstudiesshu.com