Ryan Murtha and Lifestyle Sports

The history of sport and the military in this week’s podcast brought to you by the British Society of Sport History in association with the Institute of Historical Research with Ryan Murtha of the University of Texas at Austin. Conor talks to Ryan about his work on the Tlatelolco Massacre in the run up to the 1968 Mexico Olympics. They also talk a new trend in sports history – lifestyle sports; that is non-competitive sports that took off after World War Two like body-building and, wind-surfing and surfing. In particular they discuss the 60s frisbee boom, which took off through a combination of the rise of plastics intersecting with the developing counter-culture before moving on to the history of weight-lifting in the US and the role of Dave Willoughby in its sportification. Ryan is a PhD student at The University of Texas at Austin. A Philadelphia native, Ryan studied at Villanova University before coming to Austin for graduate school. His research focuses on twentieth-century social movements and lifestyle sports. Ryan’s writing has appeared in publications like Slate and Deadspin, and more of his writing can be found online at TalkinBoutPraxis.com or @ryanhoodie