Opening with Vince Lombardi's last win as coach of the Packers in Super Bowl II and closing with Joe Namath's Super Bowl III guarantee, James Nicholson delivers an original portrait of a sensational closing decade in American culture. Controversies on the field and in the ring reflected broader political and social turmoil in the late-sixties United States. With one of the most contentious presidential elections in US history, the ongoing civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War all storming in the background, Nicholson charts a course through the oddly unsettled waters of American sports in 1968: the Masters golf tournament decided by the strict enforcement of an arcane rule to the detriment of a foreign player; the winner of the Kentucky Derby disqualified for a drug violation; Muhammad Ali waiting in sports exile while he appealed a criminal conviction for draft evasion; an unorthodox rendition of the national anthem at the World Series nearly overshadowing the game it preceded; and the silent gesture at the Mexico City Olympics made by Tommie Smith and John Carlos that shocked the nation

Why I Wrote 1968: A Pivotal Moment in American Sports

Like many in my generation, I first became aware of the 1960s through the music of that era—the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, the Byrds, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix. Though their final studio album was released nearly a decade before I was born, the Beatles probably first sparked my interest in the American culture that the British band had reflected and influenced. A pair of greatest-hits collections procured at Bear’s Wax used record shop in Lexington succinctly summarized their sonic progression from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Revolution.” And the album covers depicted a physical transition from mop-topped teen idols to bearded, long-haired counterculturalists. This shorthand introduction to the Beatles’ artistic evolution gave me a starting point for a deeper understanding of broader social, cultural, and political movements when I later encountered them in history classes. My study of the Kentucky Derby had explored ways in which that event had been a cultural battleground in the late 60s, and I was curious to see to what extent other major American sporting events were similarly affected by the upheavals of the era. I found that sports and politics had deeply influenced each other, with lasting consequences for both.