MacCambridge, Michael. The Big Time: How the 1970s Transformed Sports in America. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2023. Pp. 496. $26.49 Hardcover and ebook.
Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski
It is important to point out at the beginning that The Big Time is not marketed as an academic book. In fact, it does not aspire or pretend to be one. But, at heart, that is exactly what it is. Thoroughly researched and packed with information, it is a treat for every American sports historian who wants to discover, explore or just reminisce about the transformative 1970s. Simultaneously, The Big Time is written in a manner which makes it very digestible––as close to a page-turner as any historical sports book can be––with MacCambridge connecting various events into a captivating narrative.
Opening with the 45 million Americans tuning in to watch “The Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, MacCambridge takes the reader through the ups and downs of the decade, putting prominent sporting events into cultural and social context. With that, he takes the aura surrounding the 1970s head on, wanting to prove that, contrary to popular belief, it was not just a bridge between the 1960s and the 1980s, but a time of great transformation, both when it came to sports and America in general. Case in point, the tennis match which birthed a whole generation of female athletes who, inspired by the event at an early age, made women’s sports what it is today.
By all accounts, the 1970s were the decade of the athlete, a time when sports became a vital part of American life and athletes became heroes, role models that children and teenagers looked up to, regardless of what their chosen profession would be once they entered adulthood. This finally applied to Black kids, whose chances of participation in the major leagues grew exponentially after 1946, when there were no African Americans playing professional baseball, basketball and football. In 1971, Black athletes constituted one-fourth of all baseball, one-third of all football and half of all basketball professionals. The same year, an all-Black team took the baseball field for the first time during a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals.
A decade of firsts, the 1970s also saw the first female sportswriter enter an all-male pro locker room; Jane Gross did that in 1975, when working the beat with the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets. The same year, the biggest soccer star in the sports’ history, Pele, came to play in New York for the Cosmos, an event that resonates with Lionel Messi’s current tenure in Miami. To be honest though, none of the historical developments of the decade could equal the introduction of Title IX, which the author also covers extensively. The whole book is an awesome read, fun and informative. Big Time is an impressive undertaking by an established author.
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