ABSTRACT

How and why sports historians choose their subjects has always fascinated me. In the United Kingdom, sports historians pay more attention to football (soccer) than to rugby league, rugby union, netball or even cricket. In North America, baseball is preferred to either football (gridiron) or basketball. In New Zealand, rugby union predominates. Patterns elsewhere are less distinct but discernible: football (soccer) in Latin and South America over rugby union or polo (in which sports individual nations from the region are world competitive); cricket over squash racquets and (field) hockey in India and Pakistan.