Through its different book awards, ASSH acknowledges outstanding scholarship in sport history. Many of the books submitted for ASSH awards, and certainly the winners, demonstrate the value of sport in Australian society. Far from being a niche area of study, the history of sport is a highly relevant field that can inform many other areas of the past and present.

This year, nominations were received for the ASSH Book Award and the inaugural ASSH Public History Book Award. No submissions were received for the ASSH Anthology Award. This year’s awards cover books published since Sporting Traditions XXIII in Geelong.

A sub-committee was formed to evaluate nominations. The Committee comprised:

  • Chair, Douglas Booth, from Thompson Rivers University, Canada,
  • Angie Abdou, from Athabasca University, Canada,
  • Rob Hess, from Victoria University, Melbourne,
  • Jane Hunt, from Bond University, Queensland, and
  • Greg Ryan, from Lincoln University, New Zealand.

I want to publicly thank the members of the committee for their diligence in evaluating the submissions. They were thorough, efficient, timely, collegial and a pleasure to work with.

ASSH Book Award 2025

ASSH awards its 2025 Book Award to Line and Length: A History of the Geelong Cricket Club. Line and Length was written by Tony Joel and Mathew Turner and published in 2024 by Slattery Books.

Line and Length is a forensically researched, detailed and deep exploration of the Geelong Cricket Club. Joel and Turner write with energy, passion and exceptional clarity and have produced a history of a club that broadens into a social history of Geelong and its hinterland, and which includes the city and the region’s global links. Line and Length is an exemplar of a meticulous reconstructionist history in which Joel and Turner subject their sources to critical interrogation and their interpretations and conclusions to the highest standards of evaluation. The sources and historical records are especially noteworthy with respect to Joel and Turner’s extensive, and nuanced, reconstruction of cricket in the 1840s. The judges also acknowledge Slattery Books for allowing Joel and Turner to flesh out all the historical details pertaining to the Geelong Cricket Club and its predecessors.

ASSH Public History Book Award 2025

ASSH awards its inaugural Public History Book Award to Celestial Footy: The Story of Chinese Heritage Aussie Rules. Celestial Footy was written by Patrick Skene and published by Hardie Grant in 2023.

Celestial Footy is a collection of stories about Chinese Australian players in Australian Rules football. The text challenges many of the cultural stereotypes around masculinity and ethnic identity in an Australian contact sport. Skene has thoroughly researched his stories and places them in broader social and cultural contexts that raise questions about Australian notions of multiculturalism. Skene presents Celestial Footy in an accessible style that is especially appropriate for a public history.

On behalf of the Awards committee, a final hearty congratulations to the winning authors—Tony Joel, Mathew Turner and Patrick Skene—and their publishers—Slattery Books and Hardie Grant.

Emeritus Professor Douglas Booth
Chair, Honours and Award Committee
Australian Society for Sport History