Monday 5 July 2027 – Friday 9 July 2027

St Mark’s College, North Adelaide

ASSH biennially hosts a National Conference called Sporting Traditions

Sporting Traditions XXVI Conference 2027 is being organised by the ASSH South Australian Chapter and presentations held at St Mark’s College, North Adelaide.

Proposed Conference Program:

  • Monday 5 July 2027 – President’s Reception from 6pm
  • Tuesday 6 July 2027 – Friday 9 July 2027 – Keynote Addresses and Paper Presentations
  • Conference Dinner & ASSH AGM – to be determined

THEME: ANNIVERSARIES AND COMMUNITIES

Anniversaries are a time for celebration and reflection, on what has been achieved, what might have been done better, and what might be improved. ASSH is celebrating 50 years of sports history conferences since that inaugurated by Richard Cashman and Michael McKernan at the University of New South Wales in 1977. It is also time when major sports and sporting bodies are achieving significant anniversaries (or near anniversaries):

  • 150 years: 1877 – Test cricket, Wimbledon, SA Football Association, Victorian Football Association; 1876 – sculler Edward Trickett becoming Australia’s first world champion, South Adelaide FC; 1878 – SA tennis, Norwood FC, King’s Cup rowing.
  • 100 years: 1927 – third of South Sydney’s seven wins out of eight rugby league premierships; 1926 –golf-course architect Alister MacKenzie’s Australian visit.
  • 50 years: 1977 – Martina Navratilova’s first Wimbledon triumph; John Cahill’s first of 10 SANFL premierships; drawn VFL grand final.

These are just a few ideas which sprang to mind and have a local bias. One of these topics has already been turned into a book and others will be commemorated as major events, exhibitions and books. The dates and sports are not intended to be restrictive but simply to act as starting points for thinking about possible papers.

Communities go way beyond geographical communities although they include town, suburban, regional, city-based, state and national loyalties.

  • ASSH is a sports history community as are others like BSSH and NASSH.
  • An ASSH chapter is a sporting community.
  • The Olympics and individual sports – soccer, cricket, Australian football, golf, rugby  and their clubs and associations have historical offshoots, and some sports (cricket, soccer, baseball etc.) have their own statistician’s groups.
  • At various times sports have been organised on class, age, physical abilities, works-based, religious and gender lines.
  • Some sporting communities operate from afar – supporter groups in other cities – while others tour following their teams (Barmy Army), and major events are promoted to attract tourist dollars.
  • There are sporting heritage groups, Halls of Fame, museums and libraries – one of the grandest being the Melbourne Cricket Club library.
  • Sports writers and media presenters form their own subgroups and a website like the Footy Almanac caters for a wide variety of creative literary writing, mainly on sport.

Sports used to simply involve players and honorary administrators but as games became professional they engaged the interest of the professions: physical education, sports science, medicine, psychology, law, sociology and even philosophers

Papers are not restricted to these themes.

Call for papers and Registration Fees made available in January 2027. Accomodation options to be listed in January 2027.

Further information contact: sportshistoryaustralia@gmail.com