JRN 573DE - Sports Literature (Introduction)

JRN 573 - Sports Literature
Rich Hanley, Associate Professor
Spring 2015/Introduction

Welcome!
Rich Hanley
rhanley@quinnipiac.edu
@richardhanley
http://www.facebook.com/groups/qujournalism/

Introduction - 1
● The origins of this course began with a conversation
among sports editors and ended with the following
statement:
● The most successful sportswriters understand they are
part of a literary tradition that starts with Homer and
extends through their careers.

Introduction - 2
● That’s right.
● Even in an era where 140-character tweets seem to
dominate sports coverage, sportswriting retains
appealing literary characteristics that can be traced to
the earliest works of ancient Greece.

Introduction - 3
● And most importantly, sports editors who reviewed the
class enthusiastically supported it, for good reason.
● Editors want writers who understand the literary side of
the craft to make them better, particularly when it comes
to long-form articles that audiences increasingly crave.

Introduction - 4
● We carry a broad definition of sports literature to the
course.
● We will read both factual works and fictional works and
watch two films, fictionalized works that are based on
reality.

Introduction - 5
● The importance of understanding sportswriting as a
literary craft may be the most important aspect of your
graduate program.
● And the importance of understanding the role of sports
literature in the larger context of culture will deepen
coverage of even the most routine of sporting events.

Introduction - 6
● So please do not think of this class as a chore, or a
bore, because it doesn’t involve pushing multimedia
buttons or tweeting or doing any of the other wonderful
things that technology presents.
● This class is about reading, discussing the material and
writing about it.

Introduction - 7
● The course begins with introductory material on how
writers operate to secure a sense of the process of the
literary life. That’s Week One.
● The course ends with a major paper that requires
students to critically assess a significant book in the
history of sports literature.

Introduction - 8
● In between, students will do the following through a
series of weekly assignments:
o Read. Write. Discuss.
o Repeat that sequence most weeks.

Introduction - 9
● Required texts (part 1):
• Sport and the Spirit of Play in American Fiction: Hawthorne to Faulkner by
Christopher Messenger. 1983. Paperback. This is available free as an e-
book from the Arnold Bernhard Library. Used versions are available at
attractive prices from Amazon.com.

Introduction - 10
● Required texts (part 2):
● The Only Game in Town: Sportswriting from The New Yorker by David
Remnick. 2011. Used versions are available at attractive prices from
Amazon.com.

Introduction - 11
● Required film:
• North Dallas Forty (1979). Netflix.

Introduction - 12
● In addition to the required texts and films, online articles
and other materials will be posted for each weekly
Learning Module.
● Make sure to log on to Blackboard at the start of each
week, see what is due that week and work toward
completing the work by the end of the week.

Introduction - 13
● There are 10 brief reading response papers and one
major paper due during the semester. A response paper
is simply a review of the week’s reading.
● Students must post reactions to the readings and to
comments from classmates within the board. The
minimum: 3 per week (one original, two replies)

Introduction - 14
● One final note on the discussion boards: engage with
your classmates and avoid the trap of simply posting
the minimum required figure.
● And make sure to read the Syllabus!

Introduction - 15
● Good luck!

JRN 573DE - Sports Literature (Introduction)

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