Library Award for Undergraduate Research

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    Cultural Chaos at Comiskey: Baseball and Disco's Intersection in 1979
    (2023-03-30) Roberts, Christopher; Keane, Katarina; History
    Disco Demolition Night was an infamous promotion at Chicago's Comiskey Park in July of 1979. In between games of a Major League Baseball doubleheader, a box of disco records was exploded in centerfield. Fans left their sears and stormed the field. They set fires and destroyed the field. 44 years later, the promotion is remembered in several different ways. Some remember at the promotion as a night as a silly promotion gone wrong, while others view it as a racist and homophobic event to combat the rise of the disco era. There is a clear disparity in how the night is remembered by baseball fans and those studying disco culture in the 1970s. My research looks to answer how Disco Demolition Night happened, how it is remembered today, and how it should be remembered. I argue that it should be viewed as a transitional moment in baseball and disco culture in 1979. Disco Demolition Night demonstrates both the modernization of professional sports, and the the widespread anti-disco sentiment in the late 70s. Viewed through different lenses, Disco Demolition Night can be a part of telling many stories about American culture in the 1970s.
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    Game Changers: Baseball Fans, Strikes, and Free Agency, 1966-1981
    (2016-02-15) Siqueira Paranhos Velloso, Carolina; Bland, Robert; Department of History
    This research paper examines the way in which the broader labor movement of 1970s America affected the game of baseball. In particular, I look at the impact that certain player gains - particularly free agency, implemented in 1976 - had on both the makeup of the game and on the baseball fans who were accustomed to the baseball status quo. Although it is widely assumed that fans profoundly altered their relationship with baseball when its players began making inconceivably high salaries with the advent of free agency, I argue that it was, in fact, a work stoppage five years later truly caused a long-lasting resentment of fans towards the players and team owners, because a strike of that magnitude directly affected the fans' ability to enjoy the national pastime.