Tag Archives: games/sports

Ty Cobb

He was a nasty and irredeemably racist piece of work, but he was also one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the game.

For that reason, Mark’s Text Terminal offers, with some trepidation, this reading on Ty Cobb and its accompanying worksheet for vocabulary building and comprehension.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

The Weekly Text, March 15, 2019, Women’s History Month 2019 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Soccer Legend Mia Hamm

Continuing with posts in observation of Women’s History Month 2019, here is a reading on soccer legend Mia Hamm with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is high interest material, especially for girls and young women involved in sports, particularly, obviously, soccer.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Muhammad Ali on His Career in Sports

“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand, I beat people up.”

Muhammad Ali

Quoted in N.Y. Times, 6 April 1977

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Jack Johnson

(originally John Arthur) (1878-1946) U.S. heavyweight boxing champion, the first black to hold the title. Born in Galveston, Texas, his career was marked from the beginning by racial discrimination. He won the national heavyweight crown in 1908 by knocking out Tommy Burns and kept it until 1915, when he was knocked out in Havana by Jess Willard in 26 rounds. After he became champion, a cry for a ‘Great White Hope’ to defeat him produced numerous opponents. He was excoriated by the press for twice marrying white women. In 1912 he was convicted of violating the Mann Act for transporting his fiancée across state lines. He fled to Canada and then to Europe, continuing to fight as a fugitive before surrendering in 1920 to serve a one-year sentence. He died in a car crash. He won 80 of his 114 bouts.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

Muhammad Ali on Refusing the Draft During the Vietnam War

[Refusing to be drafted to fight in the Vietnam War;] “I ain’t got no quarrel with the Viet Cong.”

Muhammad Ali

Press conference, Miami, Florida, February, 1966

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Love Game

Scratch * Duck * Love * Nil

“Sport makes much use of the concept of zero, loading it with a multitude of names. There is scratch in golf, coined from ‘scratching out’ any trace on a score card. In cricket, a batsman who gets zero scores a duck–the slang for a bird that lays an egg, the shape of a zero. And that is the origin, too, of the word ‘love’ in tennis, corrupted from the English trying to copy the French for egg–oeuf. Football, meanwhile, favours the Latin nil, from nihil–nothing.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

Wayne Gretzky

At the beginning of another work week (for me, one of the odder pleasures of getting older is no longer dreading Monday mornings), here is a reading on Wayne Gretzky and the comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. I’ve been producing quite a few new readings and worksheets, particularly high interest stuff, so they’ll be showing up here from time to time.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Joe Montana

Here is a relatively high-interest reading on quarterback Joe Montana and a reading comprehension worksheet to accompany it.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

The 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship

Here is a reading on the 1966 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship with its attending comprehension worksheet. This is a story of ending an injustice in American collegiate sports, and the undermining of racial prejudice. As such, I suspect that for the right students, this material would be of compelling high interest; in most of the classrooms I’ve overseen as a teacher, I taught a lot of such students, so I have used these documents heavily.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Wee Willie Keeler on Where to Hit the Ball

“Hit ’em where they ain’t.”

William Henry “Wee Willie” Keeler (U.S. baseball player, 1872-1923)

Quoted in Brooklyn Eagle, 29 July 1901

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.