When most people think of the first African American professional baseball player, they think of Jackie Robinson stepping onto first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in April 1947.

Robinson instantly became a hero in Major League Baseball (MLB), though he wasn’t the first African American to play baseball professionally.

“The reality is Black players were playing in Major League Baseball in the 1880s,” said Murray Wickett, Brock University Associate Professor of History. “The league became segregated because the owner of the Chicago White Sox refused his team the field against African American players. Because he had so much power, they made the decision to segregate the league.”

Wickett, a specialist in comparative race relations in the United States, is bringing his perspective on American history through sport to Brock students this spring in one of many courses offering a unique spin on the sports industry.

In his course HIST 1P97: The History of Sports in the United States, Wickett uses sport as a mechanism for studying major changes in U.S. history, including segregation, gender discrimination, Indigenous American influences and the rise of mass sport spectatorship.

Wickett said the cult of celebrity will be a focus of the course, examining how the “worshipping of players” affects not only the business and monetization of sport, but also impacts social and cultural values.

“We’ll look at Babe Ruth, one of the first people to become not only a sports icon, but also a celebrity figure,” he said. “We’ll also talk about figures like Muhammad Ali who were perhaps better known as celebrities instead of athletes.”

The course also explores contemporary issues, notably the globalization of the National Football League (NFL).

“American football in recent times has become global institution,” Wickett said. “Now, teams are playing regular season games in Germany, Britain and Australia. How did this evolution happen from a purely ‘American’ game, and what insights can we glean from this shift?”

First-year Concurrent Teacher Education student Samantha Oestreicher, who took Wickett’s HIST 1P97 as a Humanities context credit, was inspired to pursue a minor History thanks to her positive experience with the course.

“In HIST 1P97, I loved learning about how the sports I enjoy playing and watching today came to be. This course helped me find my hidden love for history,” she said.

Especially fascinating, said Wickett, is the current wave of nationalism felt through sport in the contemporary political climate.

“Obviously, sport is incredibly important and popular in our society right now; all you have to do is you look at the recent Canada/U.S. hockey game that the entire nation was fixated on,” he said.

From understanding the nuances of recent high-level hockey games to understanding the little league soccer organization one might have played in as a youth, Kirsty Spence, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences (FAHS) Associate Dean, Teaching and Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of Sport Management, will offer a macro perspective of the Canadian sport industry.

In SPMA 1P92: Understanding Sport Industry Sectors, students will learn about and discuss how sport functions, is delivered and fits into society through the public, commercial and non-profit sectors.

By examining key players, governance and finance structures, and current trends and issues in these three industry sectors, students will gain insight into how sports are delivered and received in communities across the country.

LABR 2P90: The Labour of Sport will dive further into sport as labour and professional athletes as workers.

Cross-listed by the Departments of Labour Studies and Sport Management, the course invites students to take a critical approach to sport as work and elite athletes as workers.

By exploring the history of labour organizing and labour relations in professional sports — from athlete strikes to the role of collective bargaining — students will learn how axes of inequality, including race, gender and sexuality shape athletes’ experiences of work.

For more information or to register for a Spring/Summer course beginning Wednesday, March 5, visit brocku.ca/springsummer