Perhaps best known for his Edge of Sportscolumn and radio show, Dave Zirin is the award-winning antithesis of the mainstream sportswriter. A contributor to journals ranging from Sports Illustrated to The Progressive and The Nation, he is the author of the Muhammad Ali Handbook, What's My Name, Fool: Sports and Resistance in the United States and Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports.


His new volume, A People's History of Sports in the United States, was published last month as part of historian Howard Zinn's People's History series for New Press. In 320 pages, Zirin places sports in the socio political and cultural contexts where they belong, tracing the most courageous and ignominious sports episodes in U.S. history calling out villains who disguised themselves as sports heroes, while rescuing from obscurity many athletes whose moral courage merited glory but too often came at the cost of public condemnation, and analyzing trends such as the rise of what Zirin describes as "muscular Christianity."


At the Wisconsin Book Festival, Zirin is scheduled to discuss A People's History of Sports in the United States during an appearance with Madison poet Matthew Guenette at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, in the Overture Center's Promenade Hall. In anticipation of his appearance here, Zirin called time-out to participate in a wide-ranging email interview in which he addresses the ideals and shortcomings of his beat, identifies a handful of sports journalists who have risen above the profession to distinguish themselves, outlines his vision for sports in the 21st century and nominates five athletes to the inaugural induction class for the Dave Zirin Sports Hall of Fame.
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