Graham Jewell

Graham Jewell

When I think of why I love history, I invariably think of sports as well. That’s because my love for history is always connected to my relationship with my dad. My dad was a history major in college who taught history for 15 years. My love of history starts with him. Whenever we were in the car we were either listening to sports radio, a history lecture on tape, or Elvis. Our favorite team was the Cowboys. With Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, and Deion Sanders, and company, I rarely saw them lose growing up. Emmitt Smith has always been my favorite player, and this picture is him making history and setting the most career rushing yards in the NFL. One of my favorite things to learn about historically is the clubs in European soccer. Learning about the history of a club like FC Barcelona teaches you so much about the history of a region. Without being a fan of Barcelona, I would have never known about Franco and the suppression of Catalan culture and the Catalan language. Barcelona’s stadium, the Camp Nou, was the only place where Catalan heritage could be freely expressed. Even then, Franco’s soldiers would sometimes turn up in the Barcelona locker rooms before games to make sure that Franco’s club, Real Madrid, would be the victor. But, the crowd of 100,000 would still be able to chant in Catalan and cheer on their team. It may seem odd, but in my mind my love of history cannot be separated with my love and sports and my relationship with my dad.

Ronald Martinez

Ronald Martinez, Photographer, "Emmitt Smith", Getty Images, accessed October 29, 2014, http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/img/photos/2012/03/31/b6/99/emmittfade_168440a.jpg.

2002-10-27

Graham Jewell

Still Image

Photograph