Kirk Bowman Suggests Atlanta is the United States’ Emerging Soccer Hub
Historically, soccer has struggled to capture the attention of American sports fans, who predominantly favor football, basketball, and baseball. That trend is rapidly changing, however, with soccer witnessing a surge in interest and participation nationwide.
At the forefront of this transformation is Atlanta. Our city has, indeed, embraced soccer with open arms and is redefining its identity as the hub of the sport in the United States.
Olympics Continue Athletic Compensation Conversation, Georgia Tech's Mary McDonald Says
Olympians compete for national pride, glory, and, for the first time, prize money.
Announced by World Athletics in April, a $2.4 million pot will be split among the 48 track and field gold medal winners at the upcoming games — $50,000 for each athlete or team — marking the first time an international sport federation will award prize money at the Olympic Games. The move is a continued departure from the amateurism model implemented by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, in 1896.
Mary McDonald, professor and Homer C. Rice Chair in Sports and Society, explains that governments provided various levels of financial support to athletes throughout the 20th century, although undisclosed compensation from sponsors gave rise to “shamateurism” as the International Olympic Committee upheld its traditional policy. She says allowing professional athletes to compete in the Games in 1992 and the commercialization of the global event led to this compensation model.
The Sound of Sports Has Largely Gone Unstudied — Until Now
From labored breathing to squeaky shoes and rowdy crowds, the soundtracks to our favorite sporting events contain much more than just music.
A new project in the Sports, Society, and Technology Program (SST) in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts — Sound, Sport, and the Digital — asks how the unique sounds of sports shape their place in our society.
"We want this project to show how sounds reflect cultural norms and power imbalances within sports," said SST-affiliated scholar Matt Ventresca, the lead researcher on the project. For example, complaints about Serena Williams’ audible grunts during tennis matches exposed gender and race stereotypes within the sport, he explained.
Jud Ready Shares How the Paris Olympic Track Is Designed to Break Records
Every millisecond will matter when the world's best athletes gather in Paris for the Summer Olympics, and track and field athletes will compete on a surface designed to produce record-breaking performances.
Mondo athletic tracks have been underneath the feet of Olympians since 1972. In that time, 300 records were broken on surfaces designed and constructed in Alba, Italy, including 15 at the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Jud Ready, a principal research engineer in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, says the evolution of the company’s technology has also contributed to producing faster tracks.
"They're able to alter the rubber track's energy return mechanism by changing the shape of the particulate and the compressibility of it," Ready said. "Longevity is less of a concern for the Paris track, so they can tune it to emphasize speed."
Jud Ready Discusses the Engineering of Georgia Tech's Fast Pool
Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center, originally built for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, remains one of the world's fastest pools. Its design, featuring a 3-meter depth, bottom return jets, and an oversized gutter system, minimizes wave interference, ensuring optimal conditions for competitive swimming. Jud Ready, an adjunct professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering who teaches a class about the materials and engineering concepts of sports, highlights these engineering marvels that contribute to the pool's speed. The venue continues to host major events, including the upcoming NCAA Division I national championships.
Long-time School Supporter Homer C. Rice ‘Transformed’ School of History and Sociology
Celebrated Georgia Tech Athletic Director Homer C. Rice passed away in June 2024 at 97, but he leaves an enduring legacy at Georgia Tech, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, and the School of History and Sociology.
Mary McDonald Explores the WNBA and the Gender Wage Gap
The 2024 women's basketball NCAA tournament championship game boasted more viewers than the men's final for the first time in history. Yet, NCAA star Caitlin Clark will earn an average of only $84,000 a year as the number one WNBA draft pick this summer. In contrast, the number one pick in last year's NBA draft, Victor Wembanyama, is earning about $13 million per year.
As Clark becomes a household name, she elevates a question WNBA players, fans, and advocates have asked for decades: why is there such a significant pay disparity between men's and women's basketball?
Mary McDonald, a professor of sociology and Homer C. Rice Chair of Sports and Society in the School of History and Sociology, explains how racism, sexism, cultural narratives, and under-investment all have helped perpetuate the long-standing wage gap between the NBA and WNBA. She also discusses how a confluence of changes, including Clark's star power and a new bargaining agreement in 2025, may affect it.
Johnny Smith Discusses New Book, 'Jumpman: The Meaning and Making of Michael Jordan'
A new book by sports historian Johnny Smith deconstructs what he sees as one of the most ubiquitous myths around Michael Jordan: that the basketball superstar transcended race.
Today, many Black athletes are outspoken in movements such as Black Lives Matter or kneeling during the national anthem. In contrast, Jordan spoke about being colorblind and famously quipped, "Republicans buy sneakers, too." Jordan didn't see himself as an advocate for or representative of Black America during his career, and he was criticized for that, said Smith, the Julius C. "Bud" Shaw Professor of Sports History in the School of History and Sociology.
Smith's Book Adapted Into Netflix Documentary
In September 2021, Netflix released a feature documentary, "Blood Brothers: Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali," based on Professor Johnny Smith’s book of the same title. Smith appeared in the documentary and served as a consultant on the film. “Blood Brothers” was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary.
Smith also gave several interviews about the documentary with various media outlets, including the New York Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ESPN, and NPR.
McDonald Named Georgia Tech ADVANCE Professor
In August of 2021, Professor Mary McDonald, Homer C. Rice Chair in Sports and Society, was named the ADVANCE Professor for the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech. The ADVANCE Professors represent a network of six professors across the institute who are world-class scholars and role models. These six professors work for the advancement of women and racial minorities at Georgia Tech and within the academy. Housed within Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, learn more about ADVANCE on the ADVANCE website.
Johnny Smith Co-Authors War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War
Johnny Smith, the J.C. “Bud” Shaw Professor of Sports History, and Dr. Randy Roberts (Purdue University) recently published War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War.
This book is an interwoven tale of three lives— Babe Ruth, Boston Symphony Orchestra Conductor Karl Much, and an Army officer named Charles Whittlesey—set against the backdrop of World War I, rising anti-German xenophobia, and the flu pandemic in the fall of 1918.
Mary G. McDonald Honored as a 2019 Faces of Inclusive Excellence Recipient
Professor Mary G. McDonald, the Homer C. Rice Chair of Sports and Society, was honored as a recipient of the 2019 Faces of Inclusive Excellence at Georgia Tech's 11th Annual Diversity Symposium. The award was given in further recognition of the service excellence award she recently received from the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport.
Johnny Smith talks Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X
In conjunction with the publication of his new book, Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X (written with Dr. Randy Roberts), Professor Smith made several media appearances in which he discussed the tumultuous relationship between the legendary boxer and the Muslim minister. The much anticipated follow-up to Smith's first book, The Sons of Westwood (2013), Blood Brothers sheds important new light on Ali's legacy in the aftermath of the boxer's death in June 2016.
Benjamin Flowers Publishes Book, "Sport and Architecture"
Professor Benjamin Flowers’ book Sport and Architecture was published by Routledge in 2017. This book explores the history of sports architecture and offers an analysis of the social, political and cultural contexts of several sports stadiums across the globe. Dr. Flowers is Professor in the School of Architecture and a SST Affiliated Faculty Member who also directs the Stadia Lab at Georgia Tech.
Holmes v. Atlanta Exhibit
In November of 2015, Dr. Mary McDonald and several Georgia Tech graduate students organized an exhibit displayed at the clubhouse of the Bobby Jones Golf Course in Atlanta celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the historic court case that facilitated the desegregation of public recreation facilities across the country. The exhibit, funded by the Friends of the Bobby Jones Golf Course, is called "Changing the Game" and commemorates the efforts of Alfred "Tup" Holmes, an African American golfer who challenged how access to public golf courses in 1950s Atlanta was strictly divided along racial lines. Featuring stories, photographs, and other artifacts documenting Holmes' historic Supreme Court case, the exhibit seeks to draw attention to the role of Atlanta's sport culture in the desegregation movement while preserving the history of the Bobby Jones course.
The spirit of the Supreme Court’s Holmes v. Atlanta ruling followed their landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education which overturned the legality of “separate but equal” state education laws. Holmes v. Atlanta was among the first cases to extend this precedent beyond education into other public accommodations and arguably had a more immediate impact. Fittingly, Tup and Oliver Holmes along with Charles Bell played the North Fulton golf course on December 24 and the Bobby Jones course on December 25, 1955 thus desegregating Atlanta public golf courses.
For more information, visit the Holmes v. Atlanta Exhibit website.
Media coverage of the Holmes v. Atlanta exhibit:
- New exhibit commemorates historic supreme court ruling on golf course desegregation - Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
- Atlanta desegregation began on a golf course - Atlanta Journal Constitution
- Famous course honors golfer who desergregated it - Dalton Daily Citizen
- History made on golf course - Reporter Newspapers
Kirk Bowman's Documentaries about Sport Continue to Wow Audiences
Professor Bowman, the Jon R. Wilcox Term Professor in Soccer and Global Politics, continues his work as the Co-Founder of “Rise Up and Care,” a non-profit organization that supports high-level performance training (including sports) as a means to encourage youth development in Brazil.
One of the five documentary films he helped to produce, Bad and Birdie Man (2016), screened at the 41st Atlanta International Film Festival. This film follows Sebastião’s quest to use badminton to assist the children in his community of Chacrinha, Rio de Janeiro. With love, hard work and dedication, members of the badminton team qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games. After debuting during the 2016 Rio Olympics, Professor Bowman’s five documentaries are now being shown in schools throughout Rio de Janeiro.
Dr. Bowman is Professor in Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and a SST affiliated faculty member who is currently writing a book that uses soccer to explore the theories and concepts of comparative politics.You can read more about Doctor Bowman's work with Rise Up & Care here:
Rio film events during 2016 Olympic Games higlights innovation by and for the world's poor - Georgia Tech News Center