Latest News

Tom Fabian, ECR Research Grant recipient, details his work into folk wrestling and how this interest led to a BSSH backed research trip to Austin, Texas.

Victoria Hornagold shares her radio series and research into the history of fashion, gender and class at Wimbledon. This project was funded by the BSSH Postgraduate research grant.  

In September 1972, the 'Irish Champions' Jeyes went on a four-match tour of France to play against Stade de Reims. This tour was a landmark moment for women’s football in Ireland. 1972, was just one year after UEFA had recognised women's football and ten years before they organised the first official competition for women. The BSSH funded a reunion for the team on 11 August 2022 so that they could share their memories of the tour and ensure that their story is documented. Their story gives us a better understanding of the wider development of women’s football during that period.

The 2022 BSSH Conference has come and gone, thankfully without a hitch. It would be remiss not to begin by thanking Martin Polley, Heather Dichter, Matt Taylor, Neil Carter and a small army of undergraduate, master and PhD students for creating a wonderful conference. We began liaising with the DMU team in late 2021 and I'm still in awe of their attention to detail, consideration and drive for creating the best possible conference. As our near eighty attendees will attest, their efforts paid off and then some.

Find out who won the Richard Cox and Sporting Inequities prizes this year!

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2022 Lord Aberdare Literary Prize is Dr Heather Dichter for Bidding for the 1968 Olympic Games: International Sport’s Cold War Battle with NATO (University of Massachusetts Press).

The full text of the keynote speech given by Emeritus Professor Richard Holt at the 2022 BSSH Conference in Leicester.

Press release announcing the winner of the 2022 Howard Milton Award for Cricket Scholarship.

Would you like to join the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation Heritage Advisory Group?

The Call for Papers for Researching and Writing Irish Sporting Lives: A Workshop & Symposium hosted by the University of Ulster (11-12 November 2022) is now live - find out more here.

Dr Verity Postlethwaite reflects on the research visit to the University of Stirling that we helped to fund.

CESH has released a call for papers at its 2022 conference, to be held in Bucharest.

We are delighted to announce Su-Sam Tham of the University of York as this year's winner.

Check out the programme here.

Dr Katie Taylor reflects on the research visit to Washington DC that we helped to fund.

Our research grants support scholars with original research. Here, Alec Hurley (University of Texas at Austin) reflects on the work and research experience we helped to facilitate.

We are delighted to announce the new Sport and Leisure History Seminar programme for the 2021 autumn term. Four seminars will take place between October and December.

The BSSH is committed to supporting the work of postgraduate and early career researchers. This new prize (first award in August 2022) aims to provide an outlet for the exciting work that BSSH members are carrying out. 

The Sport in History Best Article Award for 2020-21 was presented to Rafaelle Nicholson (Bournemouth University) and Matthew Taylor (DMU) for their article 'Women, sport and the people’s war in Britain, 1939–45'.