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History of Ice Skating

The practice of ice skating is common in many countries around the world. It usually takes place on man-made ice rinks nowadays, although “cold” countries like Sweden and Canada, for example, keep the tradition of skating on frozen rivers and lakes very much alive. Archeological findings suggest that it had been around for thousands of years – whether as a recreational activity or as a means of transportation – before it spawned various types of competitive sports in the modern age.

Early Ice Skating

The most primitive form of ice skating (dating back to ancient times and probably originating in Europe) involved skates made out of bones to slide over frozen bodies of water. Early skates were very basic in concept and consisted of a flat surface that skaters used to glide on ice. It is believed that the Dutch brought the significant advancement of integrating blades to the skates as early as the 13th century.

Ice Skating

Once the blades had been invented, ice skates would not undergo any more major changes. The only notable one came much later and consisted of attaching the blades to the soles of dedicated shoes. These are the modern skates as we know them, whose primary characteristics are increased balance and sturdiness.

Figure Skating

Figure skating, the sport’s most artistic and perhaps most popular form, elegantly combines dancing, gymnastics and skating. It has been around for hundreds of years in a very rudimentary and austere form, probably due to the fact that ice skating had for a long time been reserved strictly for Europe’s wealthy elites. In the mid-19th century, Jackson Haines (an American from New York) revolutionized the art by adding to it a variety of bold and energetic moves.

Haines’s style turned him into a phenomenon and helped him win the U.S. championships before moving to Europe. It was in Vienna, Austria, that his new form of figure skating really caught on and was later developed into a full-blown sport with a complex set of rules. Figure skating then made its way back to America as a truly international sport and became more institutionalized. It is today governed by an international federation and is a very demanding sport; in fact, most Olympic skaters have been skating for most of their lives.

Amateur Status in Figure Skating

Amateur status used to bear a lot of significance in the world of figure skating. Until 1995, competitive (Olympic) ice skating was a strictly amateur discipline with no financial compensation. As a result, many Olympic skaters decided to cut their careers short in order to join the more lucrative entertainment industry, which prompted the international federation to amend the rules and allow figure skaters to earn money. Figure skating is a prominent fixture in the Winter Olympics and remains very popular in the entertainment world as well.

History of Ice Skating

Other disciplines entered the Winter Olympics, such as speed skating and short-track speed skating (which take place in an oval-shaped rink and for which athletes use much longer skates), and of course ice hockey, which is a very popular sport in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and North America.

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History of Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan, led a tumultuous but inspiring life before her assassination at a political rally. Elected Prime Minister in 1988, Bhutto became the first woman leader of an Islamic country. Ousted from her post under accusations of corruption, Bhutto went into self-imposed exile in Dubai and London. Benazir Bhutto believed in democracy and wanted it rebuilt in Pakistan. She fought for it until her death in 2007.

Early Life

Born into the prominent Bhutto family on June 21, 1953, her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, served two terms as Prime Minister of Pakistan. She left for college at age 16 to attend Radcliffe College at Harvard University. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts at Radcliffe in comparative government. She later studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford. Elected President of the Oxford Union in 1976, she became the first Asian woman to hold the prestigious title. Bhutto received a second degree from Oxford in 1977. Later that year she returned to Pakistan.

Benazir Bhutto

Father’s Execution

Days after Bhutto arrived in Pakistan, then-Army General Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq removed her father from office following a military coup in 1977. The military of Ul-Haq took over power and imprisoned her father, whom the military executed in 1979. Arrested and detained several times herself, Bhutto left for London when she was allowed to leave Pakistan in 1984.

Bhutto made a home in London. While she lived there, she stayed actively involved in a covert operation with her two brothers to resist the military dictatorship in Pakistan. When her brother Shanawaz died under suspicious conditions in 1985, she returned to Pakistan for his burial. After being arrested and released again during her stay, she returned to London.

Her Term as Prime Minister

When martial law ended in Pakistan in 1986, Bhutto returned to Pakistan. Many people demonstrated against Zia-Ul-Haq at the time, and she used her popularity with the public to demand his resignation. She then ran for the position of Prime Minister in 1988. Elected to the position that year at age 35, she took over the reins of her father’s party, the Pakistani People’s Party (PPP).

After serving two years of her term, then-President Ghulam Ishaq Khan forced her out of office under charges of corruption, although Bhutto never received a trial based on said charges. She launched a large-scale campaign against corruption and was elected Prime Minister again in 1993. Then-president Farooq Leghari removed her over alleged corruption scandals. Bhutto protested her innocence and maintained that the documents were falsified.

Benazir Bhutto Old

Bhutto stayed the next eight years in Dubai and London.  After Pervez Musharraf became president, she returned to Pakistan.

Return to Pakistan

Bhutto returned in 2007 to gather support to run against Musharraf. She met with several national leaders and expressed her interest in running for Prime Minister again and restoring democracy in Pakistan. She had a great desire to save Pakistan from Muslim extremist such as the Taliban and al Quaida. Suicide bombers killed more than 100 of her supporters when she arrived in Pakistan.

Assassination

While she campaigned against Pres. Musharraf, Benazir received many death threats and attempts on her life. On Dec. 27 2007, she attended a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, to honor her, where thousands rallied to show their support for her in the upcoming election. Suicide bombers and gunmen assassinated Bhutto as she left the rally. Twenty other people died during the bombing and gunfire that occurred.

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History of Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons is an American football team that is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The team is a member of the NFC South, a division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The team joined the NFL in 1965 and has been a member for more than 45 years. The team is known for its compiled record of 275-400-6 as well as division championships in 1980, 1998 and 2004. The Falcons have made only one appearance in the Super Bowl, which was in 1999.

Atlanta Falcons: A Brief History

When the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was built, the city thought it was the time to pursue a spot on the professional football scene. Coincidentally, the NFL was looking to expand its fan base in the South and to get a franchise there as well. The Atlanta Falcons were conceived on June 30, 1965, and Rankin M. Smith, Sr., who was then an executive vice president of Life Insurance Company of Georgia, was granted ownership by then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. Smith reportedly paid $8.5 million for the exclusive rights and ownership of the team. Julia Elliot, a high school teacher from Griffin, Georgia, suggested the name Falcons in a contest held in 1965. Tommy Nobis, a linebacker from the University of Texas was drafted in the first draft of 1966 and became the first ever Falcon.

Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Falcons in the NFL

The Atlanta Falcons’ first NFL season was 1966. They lost nine games that season before finally winning its first franchise game against the New York Giants, 27-16. The team won its first ever home victory against the St. Louis Cardinals. By the end of the 1960s the Atlanta Falcons had secured only 12 wins. The team participated in its first ever Monday Night Football game in Atlanta in the 1970 season but didn’t secure its first win until the 1971 season. The Falcons entered their first playoff series in 1978 and won the Wild Card playoffs, where they played against the Eagles but then lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Playoffs. The team finished 12-4 in 1980 but again lost in the Divisional Playoffs to the Cowboys. The 1982 season was cut short because of a strike, but the Falcons made it to the playoffs where they lost to the Minnesota Vikings. Coach Leeman Bennett was subsequently fired because of the loss. The Atlanta Falcons did not make it to another playoff game until 1991 when they lost to the Washington Redskins in the Divisional Playoffs. The nickname “Dirty Bird Falcons” was then coined for the team.

Atlanta Falcons

The 1998 season proved to be the team’s greatest season to date, with quarterback Chris Chandler and running back Jamal Anderson leading the team to one victory after another. The Falcons won 40-10 over the New England Patriots, breaking 22 consecutive losses. The Atlanta Falcons finished with a 14-2 regular season and the NFC West Division Championship. The team beat the Vikings at Minnesota in the NFC Championship game on Jan. 18, 1999, with a score of 30-27 in overtime; however, the Falcons lost to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII.

Among all major American football team, the Atlanta Falcons held the most number of seasons without consecutive wins.  The streak was broken in season in 2009 when they defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-10 in the final game, which improved their record 9-7.

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History of Volleyball

Volleyball is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of six players on a court with a net between them and a ball which is punched across the net, the objective being to score points against the opposing team by grounding the ball. Each team is allowed only three contacts with the ball before it must be returned to the other side. The center net had a height of 6 foot 6 inches, although in children’s games this is often lowered to just above their head height.

In 1895, a YMCA Physical education instructor by the name of William Morgan who created a game called Mintonette for older members of his YMCA who found other games a little to energetic and needed a game of skill rather than strength to help keep them fit. Morgan was a friend of James Naismith, who featured prominently in the history of basketball, but thought Naismith’s game would cause injuries for middle aged men whereas having a net slightly above their heads didn’t require much jumping.

Volleyball

Morgan’s original name for the game was Mintonette which was chosen as a nod to Badminton, a game that was influential in setting the first rules for Volleyball, although the name didn’t really catch on. A spectator at a demonstration game Alfred Halstead, another YMCA director observed that there was a lot of volleying happening on court, and shortly after the name Volley Ball was chosen, eventually being contracted to Volleyball.

The first official rules of Volleyball were published in 1897 by the Athletic League of the YMCA of North America. Volleyball caught on quickly after the rules were published and in the same year Spalding made a custom ball with a rubber bladder inside a basketball, which over the next few years was redesigned, so that its weight was settled on between 8 and 10 ounces and the circumference determined to be 26 inches. Volleyball quickly spread around other YMCAs and various colleges in the US, and by 1905 was being played in Cuba, in Japan in 1908, and in China and the Philippines by 1910.

In 1900, the rules of the game were adjusted to remove the innings that had been defined by Morgan, the number of points to win a match was increased to 21 points, and the net was raised to 7 feet 6 inches. In 1912, Volleyball’s rules were once again updated to face the realities of the game, which is that players were getting younger and faster, so the court size was increased to 60 feet by 35 feet, the ball weight standardized at 7 to 9 ounces and the number of players set at just 6 per team on court at any time.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association joined forces with the YMCA in 1916 to further refine the rules of the game, and then again in 1920, by which time Volleyball was truly established as a college game although not professional. the first national YMCA Volleyball championship were held in New York, but non-YMCA teams weren’t invited, a situation not remedied until 1928 and the creation of the United States Volleyball Association (USVBA). The USVBA was acepted by the YMCA and NCAA as their new umbrella organization and the first national men’s tournament was held in the same year.

volleyball

Whilst Volleyball was a popular game it struggled to develop a league of teams that would compete in regular competitions with most games being played within very local leagues. The 1930s saw the first beach game being played, and in 1934 recognition of referees who would adjudicate championship and inter college games. The USVBA was finally recognized by all Volleyball associations as having jurisdiction over the rules of the game, a turning point that spurred more interest and better funding for the game, and quickly growing to the fifth most popular form of recreation in the US.

Internationally, the end of World War 2 resulted in Volleyball receiving recognition as a global sport and the formation of the Federation Internationale de Volley Ball (FIVB) in 1947 along with the first World Championship games in 1949 held in Prague, the capital city of Czechoslovakia, and won by the Soviet Union. The US didn’t win a World Championship game until 1986 in Paris, France. Volleyball was played at international level in the Americas for the first time in 1955 a the Pan American Games, and a the Olympics in 1964.

Beach Volleyball was formally recognized as a new medium of the game in the 1960s with the creation of the California Beach Volleyball Association (CBVA), a game that is similar to regular volleyball except that teams are reduced to just two players each. Beach versions of the regular six person team sport are also played though these tend to be of a more social nature than a competitive sport.

Beach Volleyball

Despite the different rules and more professional nature of some Beach Volleyball leagues, the sport is still administered at international level by the FIVB, and in the US by a grouping of the USAV (formerly the USVBA), the Women’s Professional Volleyball Association (WPVA), and the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP). Beach Volleyball and Surf Rescue competitions in many parts of the world are often held at the same time with many competitors involved in both activities.

College Volleyball competitions held by the NCAA were given a major funding boost in the late 1960s and starting the first true mens championships in 1970 won by UCLA, whilst the NCAA women’s Volleyball championship didn’t start until 1981, won by Southern California. From their college roots many women have continued playing Volleyball resulting in a professional women’s league the WPVA being formed in 1986 to protect the women’s game from being overwhelmed by men’s professional volleyball.

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History of Tennis

Strong hits, powerful strokes, explosive returns, and smooth serves – these are the moves that make tennis a very engaging game. Wimbledon, Australia Open, and the French Open are three of the famous courts where the top seeds meet each other to compete for the honor of being Number One. The prize money is just the icing on the cake, so to speak, making tennis a high stakes game in terms of money and of reputation. Along with golf, tennis is considered a sport played by the rich and famous, and Society’s elite. The reasons for this kind of perception of tennis are probably entwined with its history.

Medieval Tennis

In medieval times, it was called “real tennis,” which was a copycat of other ball games such as pelota, palla, fives, and handball. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the game was originally called “Jeu de Paumme,” or the game of the palm. However, the players would often begin the game shouting “Tenez!” which meant, “Play!” and soon the game came to be called “royal tennis” or “real tennis.”

Tennis

The Monks’ Favorite Game

It was a surprise to learn, however, that its origins were religious. Based on the construction and appearance of early courts, tennis may have been played by monks in cloistered monasteries to pass the time and for exercise.

At first, uncovered and unprotected palms were used to hit the ball. However, too many accidents and injuries resulted from the practice that players later played with leather gloves. Yet, the injuries remained constant because the early balls used were made of wood. Therefore, instead of gloves, the players began playing with wooden racquets with handles for effective hitting and serving of the ball. In the 16th century, the game was played in an enclosed area instead of the outdoors as what the earlier players were wont to do. By this time, the rules have been established. From the monastery, tennis spread in popularity to the royal courts.

Tennis

The Favorite Sport of Kings

Medieval French royalty developed the game of tennis. During Henri II’s reign, the first known book about tennis was written by a priest. Two royals have died from tennis related complications – Louis X of a severe chill after playing and Charles VIII after being struck with a ball. These did not stop the royal players from continuing to push for the growth of Tennis as a game. King Charles IX created the first pro tennis tour and established the three levels: apprentice, associate, and master.

Beginnings of Modern Tennis

The love of tennis in England began with the Henrys, especially Henry the Eighth who was rumored to have been playing tennis when he had his second wife, Ann Boleyn, arrested and executed. By the time James I was king, there were already 14 courts existing in London.

tennis-2

The development of modern tennis, however, began with two military men, Majors Harry Gem and Walter Clopton Wingfield, who combined elements of rackets, Pelota and croquet, and based the game on Real Tennis.

Based on his friend’s suggestion, Wingfield called the game “lawn tennis.” He patented the game in 1874, and published an 18-page rulebook on “Sphairistike or Lawn Ten-nis,” which used modern terms such as Deuce and Love. Wingfield borrowed a lot from the French in creating the terms for the scoring of modern tennis.

Based on Wikipedia’s entry on the history of tennis, we learned that:

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History of Baseball

Baseball is a sport played internationally but mostly in the US and Canada between two teams of nine players over nine innings. At any one time one team will be on field with one of the players designated pitcher while the remainder field, and the opposing team rotates a player to bat. Baseball is similar to other bat and ball sports such as cricket, but differs in having four bases the hitter needs to negotiate before scoring unless a home run is hit.

Despite the US dominance in Baseball, the game was not in fact invented in North America, and owes it origins to medieval games that also developed into cricket, the bat and ball game that is generally more popular outside North America, Japan, and Cuba, and a small number of other countries. Medieval bat and ball games from England are the most likely parent of modern baseball, although games played in Russia (Lapta) and Romania (Oina) during the 14th century that were similar to all of the English variants suggests that games played with a bat and ball may have collectively originated earlier in history, perhaps as early as Celtic times.

Baseball History

English medieval bat and ball games included Stoolball, rounders, dog and cat, and perhaps cricket as well. Stoolball seems to predate all of the other bat and ball games being mentioned in texts around 1070 and was played by milkmaids using a milkstool as the wicket, with a ball thrown and the batter being required to hit the ball with their hand or a small bat to prevent it hitting the stool. The amount of physical activity was limited to throwing and hitting and was unlikely to have required a great deal of space so could be played in small courtyards.

Many historians believe stoolball may have been adopted by men in medieval towns and villages and become the precursor to cricket since by the 1500s running between the wickets was an integral part of scoring runs, but curiously the ball was thrown on the full in the same style as modern baseball. Rounders, a game primarily played in Ireland today also originated in England, but is more similar to modern baseball than Stoolball.

In Rounders two opposing teams field and bat similarly to baseball, and the hitter needs to pass four bases before scoring a point for his team. The modern version of rounders sees the ball thrower bowl underhand to a batsmen who must bat one handed and is required to run whether he hits or misses the ball, but in older times before rules were written each locality was free to create its own rules, some of whom are believed to have come very close to modern baseball.

Baseball

In the US, a game known as Town Ball, which appears to have been brought to the Americas by English and Irish immigrants, was very similar to rounders, but every region in which it was played had their own rules. Town Ball is known to have been played as long ago as the 1740s, but perhaps earlier, and in some parts of the US was known as base, base ball, ball, or round ball. The name base ball has long been considered to have been coined in the US, even to the extent of Albert Spalding, the founder of the Spalding Sports Equipment inventing a history that included a man by the name of Abner Doubleday supposedly the game independently of its true origins in England.

The earliest known reference to baseball comes from 1791, from a bylaw of the Pittsfield town hall barring the playing of baseball within 80 yards of the town meeting house. But the first recorded rules of the game of Baseball come from 1845 when Alexander Cartwright, a New York firefighter gathered together a group of men and created the Knickerbocker Club and at the same time formulating a set of rules to administer the club and adjudicate play. Their first game under Cartwright’s rules (also known as the Knickerbocker Rules) took place at Elysian Fields on June 18th 1846 against the New York Nine. Despite having written the rules, the Knickerbocker Club lost the game 23-1.

Enthusiasm for Baseball at club level and amongst spectators was responsible for several new clubs forming during the following years, so much that in 1858 it was possible to bring 25 clubs together and create the National Association of Base Ball Players. In 1869 the very first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings started a national recruitment drive followed by a tour of the East Coast and winning all but 6 matches. The NABPP, and its successor the National Association were less successful at encouraging growth in teams and competitive play, so in 1876 the National League was formed which continues to this day.

Originally the National League was made up of 12 professional teams, but declining ticket sales forced the league to downsize to 8 teams in 1900, a decision the minor Western League had been waiting for so that they could quickly expand into cities dropped by the National League. The expanded Western League renamed itself the American League, leading to competition between the two leagues and a World Series competition held every year between the winning team of the National League against the winning team of the American League.

Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth

The differences between the two major leagues are very small, both operating under essentially the same rules with the exception of the designated hitter rule adopted by the American League in 1973 allowing teams to nominate a player who bats in the place of the pitcher allowing pitchers to concentrate their training on throwing and hitters to concentrate on batting. The National League by contrast does not endorse this rule and requires all pitchers do their own batting. There has been some speculation the rule has contributed to the overall wins by American League teams in the World Series Championships.

In the history of baseball some great players have inspired fans and players alike and have become celebrities from their humble beginnings, many of them transcending sport and gaining immortality in songs, movies, even in politics. Players like Babe Ruth, Joe Di Maggio, Lou Gehrig, or Mickey Mantle lending their names. Sadly a number of America’s best players were never allowed to play the major leagues due to color. The lack of integration in Baseball between the 1870s and late 1940s meant that many great players were restricted to playing in negro leagues that whilst popular, meant these players could never be compared directly with their white counterparts.

Baseball started to integrate from 1945, many club owners and major league executives were not in good conscience able to continue to deny black players their chance in the majors after the contribution African-Americans made to the war effort. Some of America’s greatest players Joshua Gibson (the black Babe Ruth), Cool Papa Bell, Buck Leonard, Martin Dihigo, Judy Johnson, players who made it in the negro leagues were never able to play the major leagues. In the late 1960s a movement began to have these players recognized by the Baseball Hall of Fame, an event that finally occurred in 1971 with the induction of Satchel Paige.

In the 1990s Major League Baseball was hit with a players strike in 1994, and the Steroids scandals of the 1990s and early millennium years. Declining ticket sales and audience cynicism resulting from the big money of the league that often seems to work against minor league players being called up have had their impact forcing the MLB to tighten up anti drug policies and go into damage control to protect the spirit of the game. Their efforts upto 2006, including the consolidation of media management into a single corporation, and in 2000 the Commissioners Blue Ribbon Panel report on revenue and payroll differences between clubs finally showed signs of paying off with attendance numbers higher than the previous high in 1993.

Successful changes to the structure of major league baseball and club finances have been credited with several minor clubs in the MLB winning the World Series in recent years, including the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001), Anaheim Angels (2002), florida Marlins (2003), and the Chicago White Sox (2005).

Chicago White Sox

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History of Serena Williams

Serena Williams is a female American tennis player, the sister of Venus Williams, and also a top ranked player who has been ranked number one in the world several times, and holds the record for holding all four grand slam titles consecutively. Serena Williams has represented the US at the Olympic Games, and is one of the world’s highest earning sport celebrities. Ms Williams is a long time philanthropist, having established a school in Kenya, and offering her support to breast cancer clinics. She is considered a positive role model in the world of sport.

Serena Williams playing tennis in pink dress

Serena Jameka Williams was born in Saginaw Michigan on the 26th September 1981, to Richard and Brandy Williams. She is the youngest of five girls and while still an infant moved with her family to Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles in California. The family never felt safe living in Compton and Serena’s father was determined his two youngest daughters would have the chance for a better life so started teaching them tennis at a very young age in the public tennis courts around Compton.

Serena started playing tennis at the age of four, her parents home schooled Serena and coached her in tennis, the family having bought numerous books and videos on coaching and playing tennis. At the age of four and a half Serena competed in her first competition, by all accounts winning 46 from 49 junior United States Tennis Association (USTA) tournaments and being ranked number one in the under ten age group nationally in 1990. In 1991 Serena’s parents withdrew her and Venus from competitive tennis to concentrate on their school studies and give the sisters a grounding outside of competitive tennis.

Around the same time Richard Williams asked Rick Macci, a well known tennis coach from Florida to travel to California to see his daughters playing. Macci had previously coached Mary Pierce and Jennifer Capriati, and immediately suggested the family move to Florida so Serena and Venus could attend his tennis academy. By this time Serena and Venus had earned enough in endorsements to allow the family to buy a home in Palm Beach Garden close to Macci’s academy.

From 1991 till 1995 Serena Williams undertook intensive training with Macci, developing her style of play and learning about game strategy. In 1995 the Williams family parted ways from Rick Macci with Richard Williams taking on responsibility for the continuing coaching of both Serena, and her sister Venus. In the same year Serena turned pro and played her first professional game at the age of 14 in the Bell Challenge, Quebec City.

Turning pro at 14, two years younger than the WTA allowed for professional players meant that Serena was only able to play in non-WTA events, yet despite lack of contact with other WTA players Serena became known once again for being a formidable player. In 1997, shortly after her 16th birthday, Serena joined the WTA pro tour. Her first major wins came at the Ameritech Cup in Chicago where Serena beat seventh ranked Mary Pierce in the second round, followed by fourth ranked Monica Seles in the quarterfinals, and finally falling to Lyndsey Davenport in the semis.

Serena Williams playing tennis in black dress1998 was a pivotal year for Serena Williams who started the year ranked 99th in women’s tennis yet finished the year in the top 20 after bruising encounters with the top female players that saw her win doubles and mixed doubles tournaments, winning Wimbledon and the US Open mixed doubles with her playing partner Max Mirnyi, and the women’s doubles at the Grand Slam with sister Venus.

Serena played her first professional match against Venus, losing to her during the second round of the Australian Open, a match both described as challenging since Venus had always looked out for her sister, whilst Serena had always looked up to Venus. Both sisters have regularly played each other in tournaments, and observers have commented they seem to play each other without their usual zeal and enthusiasm leading to accusations outside the sport and amongst some players that Richard Williams decides in advance which of the sisters will win the match.

Serena’s first professional win in the WTA was at the 1999 Paris Indoor tournament against Amélie Mauresmo, but later that year she went on to win the 1999 US Open, beating three of the top four ranked WTA players, Monica Seles, Lyndsay Davenport, and Martina Hingis, and also becoming the first African-American to win a major Grand Slam title since Althea Gibson, another African-American player who won Wimbledon and the US Championship in 1958, and a moment Serena has described as a career highlight despite winning several majors since.

In WTA rankings Serena finished 1999 ranked 4th, but dropped to 6th in 2000, and it wasn’t until the Australian Open in 2002 that Serena Williams finally won the coveted 1st ranking, beating her sister Venus at the Australian Open who had been the previous number one, and the first time in WTA history that a player had dethroned her own sister for the rank. By 2003 Serena lost her number one to Kim Clijsters after 57 weeks at number one, a tough year for the Williams sisters after a shooting in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton that killed their older sister Yetunde.

Between 2004 and 2007 Serena Williams suffered a recurring left knee injury that kept her from playing at top form and was the cause of many frustrating losses including a drop in rank out of the top ten. The Australian Open was her only major win in 2005, whilst 2006 saw Serena withdraw from many tournaments or only enter as a wildcard entrant. Despite problems with her knee Serena did manage to reach the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Masters and the JP Morgan Chase Open, but missing out on a chance in the US Open being beaten in the fourth round.

Returning to WTA events in 2007 after taking a short break for recuperation Serena stunned the tennis world with a spectacular win in the Australian Open against Maria Sharapova before going onto win the Sony Ericsson Open against Justine Henin. 2008 saw Serena continue to do well, winning the Hopman Cup, the Bangalore Open, the Family Circle Cup, and the US Open, and returning her to number one ranking in the WTA, a position she lost by the end of the year but holding onto the number two rank.

Serena Williams in a beautiful brown dress

2009 started positively for Serena, winning the Australia Open for the fourth time, but a thigh injury forced her to withdraw from defending her crown at the Family Circle Cup, and also saw her lose the Sony Ericsson final to Victoria Azarenka, also seeing a loss in the Andalucía Tennis Experience in the first round. Despite injury, Serena Williams has consistently demonstrated a desire to get back on court, earning her awards for Most Favourite Female Sports Star (2008), WTA Player of the year (2002, 2008), Avon Foundation Celebrity Role Model Award (2003), and the Family Circle Player Who Makes a Difference Award (2004).

Related Histories:

History of Football

Football, otherwise known as American Football is a sport involving two opposing teams of players competing for territory on a football field using a ball and set play with the objective being to get the ball to the goal line of the opposing team either by scoring a running touchdown or kicking the ball over the post and between the uprights of the goal. Unlike soccer, football does not have a goal defender, instead it is more similar to Rugby and Australian Rules Football where all team members play a defensive and offensive role during the game.

Marquette 1953

Rugby, the predecessor to Football was invented in England during the 1860s although its antecedents are common to soccer and date back to at least the middle ages when groups of rival villages would compete to score a goal using filled or inflated pigs bladders that were held and run with until the player was tackled and lost control of the ball.A goal was scored when the ball was picked or carried thru to a designated point like the church doors or a post erected in the village square.

During the 1860s in England a number of public schools, universities and working mens clubs got together to form a set of rules that would allow teams from different schools or districts to play against each other. The rules that were ultimately published were the forerunner of modern soccer, but were not accepted by all teams who refused to join the new association and instead chose to create their own code known as rugby that allowed picking up the ball and tackling of opponents.

Whilst the rules of football can be traced to the English parent games, in fact American Football is also indigenous to North America and older versions of the sport were played at Princeton in the early 1800s. The game was called ballown and involved passing and punching the ball along the field and past the opposing team to score. Eventually the game became known as football but the rules changed from year to year as new students took it up.

Wilder Graves Penfiels - Princeton

Wilder Graves Penfiels - Princeton

At Harvard University a similar game was played on the first Monday of the academic year by freshman and sophomore students to the great enjoyment of senior students. The game was called Bloody Monday and was considered a good ice breaker for letting new students get to know each other. The name Bloody Monday was no accident, but wasn’t a free for all, there was an objective to be met, to win by scoring goals.

Soon after the rules of soccer and rugby had been agreed on in England the US entered a new period of prosperity brought about by the end of the civil war. Rutgers and Princeton independently created their own rules of play, and on the 6th November 1869 played the very first intercollegiate game of football. Princeton lost by two goals, scoring only four goals to Rutger’s six, but college football was born.

Not long after intercollegiate games became popular and in 1873 representatives from Rutgers, Princeton, Yale and Columbia met to formulate a set of rules that would be used for future intercollegiate games. They established the Intercollgeiate Football Association and adopted many of the rules used in rugby, reducing the number of players per team from twenty to fifteen and setting the length of the field to 140 yards.

Being very similar to rugby, football in the Americas had its dissenters, namely Walter Camp of Yale who wanted a shorter playing field and less players fielded down to just eleven at any one time. As a senior member of the IFA rules committee Camp was influential and not long after the first rules were drawn up Camp and Yale got their wish, the field was reduced to 110 yards and the number of players brought down to eleven.

NCAA Logo

American style football had been born and proved more popular with American players and audiences than the older rugby styled game. Colleges all over the United States adopted Camps new rules establishing American Football as the leading football code within a very short time. In 1882 Camp and the rules committee brought in the new system of three downs, a further change from rugby that allowed the team with possession of the ball to retain possession until the completion of their set play.

During the 1890s many colleges banned the game for being too rough and brutal with horrific injuries being reported and despite and enlarged rules committee representing over 60 colleges things didn’t improve much until President Roosevelt who was a keen follower of the game called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the successor to the IFA, to eliminate brutality from the game.

The forward pass rule was instituted that almost immediately eliminated the mass scrums that had been the cause of so many injuries and opened up the gam to wide running play that is the hallmark of American Football even today. The number of downs was increased to four, and the distance of play between downs increased from five yards to ten yards.

NFL Teams

So successful were the new changes to American Football that non college teams based around community athletic clubs formed and began to compete against each other, often players were paid their time, and in 1920 the National Football League (NFL) was formed. The rules of play were the same as for college football with the noted difference that players became professional and no longer had to work a separate job.

By the 1950s professional football and the NFL franchise had begun to dominate with ever increasing viewer numbers and network television broadcasting most major games. A rival association, the American Football League (AFL) started in areas not already serviced by NFL teams and quickly started to compete for the best players, viewing numbers, and network broadcasting contracts.

The merger of the AFL and NFL in 1970 into a 26 team franchise has been described as a defining moment in American Football history. A stronger league emerged and created the Super Bowl as its defining championship game, but most importantly the revenue sharing model in place has meant that every team has a chance of competing in the Super Bowl. This is in stark contrast to other codes where major teams manage to dominate their league.

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History of Soccer

The world’s most popular sport, the game of soccer, is widely considered to have been a British invention, mostly because the rules that established the game were written in England in the 1800s, yet in fact the game has been played in various styles throughout civilized history.

Old Soccer Ball

The ancient Japanese are known to have played a game similar to soccer, but perhaps also akin to American style football as far back as 1000BC. Not much is known about this game other than the ball was quite large and round, and kicked between two teams within a small field.

A later game known as cuju developed in China with a leather ball filled with hair or feathers and was a kicking game of two teams who were required to get the ball through a small hoop rather than a set of goal posts. Cuju is believed to have been played almost continuously for close to 2,000 years, dying out in the 1600s.

The Chinese version of the game became popular in Japan and Korea with some differences, and many historians believe renaissance period versions of soccer may have been influenced by Asian games, since at the time trade with the far east had begun.

Opponents of this version of the history of soccer point out that the ancient Greeks and then the Romans also played a form of football which could more accurately be described as a cross between soccer and rugby, but with a great deal more brutality involved.

Air filled balls have been known in Europe since at least 100BC and probably before then since they were the type of ball used in the Roman game of follis, which by all accounts was more similar to modern rugby than to soccer.

During the middle ages in Europe, a form of soccer was developed that in England was banned several times for being dangerous and a public nuisance, and was closely related to the Roman game of harpastum. Known as mob football the game was characterized by having no set rules and violence against other players was acceptable, although taken in good spirit by all accounts.

Greek Soccer History

Soccer hooliganism, something that is dealt with globally in today’s game, was also felt back in the 1300s and 1600s in England and the game of football was banned several times due to the noise and unruly behavior of players. Drunk players would rampage through towns and villages picking fights and breaking windows.

In Australia some indigenous tribes played a game of football that involved the lead player kicking a ball into the air for other team members to catch and whilst this isn’t directly related to modern soccer it can be seen that football games are not a Chinese or Greco-Roman invention, probably ball sports and games have been invented by almost every society.

Modern soccer has it’s history firmly in England with the codification of Association Football, actually the name soccer is derived from the word association. In 1848 the Cambridge rules were written that allowed some of England’s most famous schools to hold competitions under a common set of rules. These rules were partly used by the Football Association in 1863.

The codification of soccer took an interesting twist shortly afterwards, many clubs had been using their own rules and had allowed players to pick up and throw the ball, but after 1863 the rules of soccer made the sport a kicking game and in 1871 the clubs that hadn’t joined the association formed the Rugby Football Union. American and Canadian football is derived from the rules of rugby.

Eusebio playing for Benfica - Portugal

Eusebio playing for Benfica - Portugal

As professional soccer has developed leagues were formed to provide a competitive playing environment which also had the advantage of turning soccer into a spectator sport. The history of soccer as a spectator game is where most of the growth in club numbers and global players has come from.

Major soccer leagues such as those found in the UK, Germany, Italy, Brazil and other countries encouraged the formation of clubs and international squads in almost every country around the world. So popular is soccer now that the World Cup competition is regularly watched live on TV by hundreds of millions of people.

From 1900 soccer has been a represented sport at the Summer Olympic games, with teams from all around the globe competing for the title of world champion. The games of 1900 saw the England champions ‘Upton Park FC’ beat a team from France to be crowned world champions.

These days world soccer championships are played by national squads rather than the best team within a nation’s league, and over the last fifty years the FIFA World Cup has come to dominate as international soccer championship unrivaled even by the larger Olympic Games.

FIFA World Cup games often achieve record crowds and in recent history have achieved television viewing numbers in the billions over the duration of the competition. National squads that have won the FIFA World Cup include Brazil, Italy, Germany, Uruguay, England, Argentina, and France.

In 2000 the very first FIFA Club World Cup was held, an event which is gaining popularity and helping promote soccer as the most played and watched sport on the planet. Qualifying club teams compete for the chance to play the finals against another world club team.

The first FIFA Club World Cup was won by Corinthians of Brazil who beat Vasco de Gama, also of Brazil. After a rocky start to the competition because of funding concerns it is now scheduled to become an annual event, perhaps even rivaling the major regional competitions for viewing numbers.

Kids playing soccer by sunset

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History of Basketball

Basketball is quite a young sport that has taken the world by storm for it’s athleticism and accessibility, almost anyone can hang a hoop against a wall and practice alone or with a small group of friends.

Originally basketball was invented by a Canadian athletics coach, Dr James Naismith who was asked to create an activity that would keep a group of trainees instructors at the YMCA Training College active and entertained during the cold winter months. The original 13 rules of the game are still used to this day with minor modifications and additions.

James Naismith

Inspiration for the game came not from similar indigenous games found in China or Central America, but instead from a childhood game called “duck on a rock” which involved throwing a rock at another rock on top of which was an object, which could be anything, but which was called the duck.

The very first game of basketball in 1892 was played with a soccer ball and two peach baskets suspended from the walls of the YMCA gym. Slight modifications to the peach baskets were made after, but it wasn’t until ten years later that the open ended basket was designed, it had been tiring work for the umpire to retrieve the ball after every goal.

The YMCA in Springfield Massachusetts is known as the home of basketball because it was at their training school that Naismith worked, and through the YMCA that basketball spread across the USA. Naismith was also a chaplain and proponent of clean living so it’s fitting that first basketball competition between two teams was one by a YMCA team.

Basketball Basket Closeup

The ball used was redesigned in 1929 for more bounce than a soccer ball, and was also made bigger and lighter for easier handling than the soccer ball which is smaller and less bouncy. In 1949 the National Basketball Association was formed from the merger of the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America.

In the history of basketball the most famous team ever is a team that in fact doesn’t compete, instead the team, known as the Harlem Globetrotters, are a showcase team who entertain crowds with their ball handling skills and on-court antics.

Competitive basketball has been played almost since it’s invention, but it was college basketball in the middle of the 20th century that really attracted the most interest, and made it possible for pro basketball to develop into the franchise it is today, one of the highest earning games on the planet.

Moment of an old basketball game

So popular had basketball become after the second world war that the FIBA World Championship was created in 1950, originally with just 10 national teams which has now grown to 26 teams in 2009 and is expected to increase further. The first World Championship was won by Argentina, and it wasn’t until 2002 that team USA finally won the coveted trophy.

Netball and Korfball are derived from Basketball but the rules are changed making allowances for the physical capabilities of women or mixed teams.

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