fema - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Worst Damn Knife Thrower Nearly Kills His Assistant
This happened on some sort of Lithuanian talent show, and I very nearly broke out into a cold sweat while watching it. ...
My Life In The Locker Room: A Female Sportswriter Remembers The Dicks
Originally published June 4, 1992, in the Dallas Observer. Reprinted here with permission from the author, who has also provided an afterword about the response to her story....
Sexologists Masters And Johnson Were Cardinals Fans. Duh.
"Particularly for young people," Thomas Maier noted in a recent essay, "unaware of Masters and Johnson, it's difficult to appreciate how much has changed between the mid-'60s and today. But at the time they were becoming famous, the couples' graphs, charts and photos of human sexual response—learnin...
If Ted Kluszewski's Guns Could Speak . . .
Theodore Bernard "Big Klu" Kluszewski played in the majors for two decades, more than half of those years with the Reds. He was big — well over 6 feet and around 230 pounds, give or take — and he was strong. Like, Harmon Killebrew meets Joe Adcock by way of Josh Gibson strong. He wasn't Hall of Fame...
'Lady Skaters' And The Rough Pleasures Of Roller Derby
"It is a teeth-jarring sport for skaters who race 30 miles every night," LIFE magazine wrote of the then-young spectacle of roller derby in December 1948. The scene, LIFE noted, features "enough spills and body contact to gratify even an ice hockey fan."...
A Photog Remembers When, And Why, "Uncle Tom" Frazier Kicked Ali's Ass
Today is Muhammad Ali's 72nd birthday. Four decades ago, after three-and-a-half years away from the ring, he was half-assedly gearing up for a title fight with the reigning champ, Joe Frazier. LIFE photographer John Shearer remembers that winter well....
Faces Of The Young America League: Guts And Glory In The Rockies
Way back when, at a time when organized football for school kids was something of a rarity, LIFE's Alfred Eisenstaedt made some portraits of tough little guys playing in Colorado's Young America League in 1939. (See more Young America League photos here.)...
This Old Chinese Figure Skater Has Smooth Moves, Awesome Facial Hair
In February 1946 readers of a popular weekly magazine were introduced to exactly the sort of scene Henry Luce likely had in mind when, a decade earlier, he and poet Archibald MacLeish crafted their famous prospectus for a publication initially called "The Show-Book of the World." The still-stirring ...
At The 1960 Cotton Bowl, A Syracuse Win And A Nasty Racial Ruckus
In January 1960, an undefeated Syracuse team whipped Texas, 23-14, in the Cotton Bowl. [See rare photos from the game here.] But it wasn't especially pretty, as LIFE magazine reported in its Jan. 11, 1960, issue: ...
When Chickens Play Baseball, We All Win
"Casey Number Two, who is more temperamental than her colleagues, jumps on the playing field to peck at the first baseman, who has blocked her hit."...
75 Years Ago NFL Players Looked Like This
"Pro football is almost a different game from college football," LIFE magazine helpfully informed its readers in October 1938. In those years, the biggest pro sports in America were baseball, boxing and horse racing; professional football barely registered on most fans' radar. But pro ball was makin...
A Face Only A Hockey Puck Could Love
Once upon a time, NHL goalies played without masks. Unsurprisingly, their faces often got all fucked up. In 1966, LIFE published an article, "The Goalie Is the Goat," that not only aimed to put a human countenance on "hockey's reviled and bludgeoned fall-guys," but featured a photo of what looked li...