Hood professor publishes new book

By Chelsey Leydecker//

Hood professor Terry Scott recently published “Seattle Sports: Play, Identity, and Pursuit in the Emerald City,” a book highlighting the history of sports in Seattle.

The book is part of an award-winning series produced by the University of Arkansas Press, highlighting sports, culture, and society.

Scott moved to Seattle from Chicago in 2006 and noticed unique support for local sports.

“The students wore SuperSonics championship shirts, even though they were born after the championship. This sparked my interest in local sports,” Scott said. “I contacted the series editor about working with him and Seattle Sportswas born.”

The book features essays on a variety of topics, covering factors like gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity and protest within Seattle sports history.

“The book has a chapter written by Dr. Rita Liberti, for instance, about how members of the LGBTQ+ community used softball as a forum for collective action and social/political change,” Scott said.

“Together, these essays create a vivid portrait of Seattle fans, who, in supporting their teams—often in rain, sometimes in the midst of seismic activity—check the country’s implicit racial bias by rallying behind outspoken local sporting heroes,” Scott said.

Not only is the book inclusive in its topics, but seven of the 10 contributors are women.

“This is highly unusual for a book on sports,” Scott said. “It was important to me to include voices that are often overlooked.”

“Seattle Sports: Play, Identity, and Pursuit in the Emerald City” is available on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com and directly from the University of Arkansas Press.