BOOK NOTES

Ethnic sports encyclopedia chronicles pros and amatuers

"Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States," George B. Kirsch, et al., editors. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000. 530 pp. $157.95 (hardcover).

This book offers a well-rounded and informative look at ethnic groups in sports, including the Ukrainian American experience, with a brief outline by Metodij Boretsky, detailing its early beginnings to the sports climate at the time of the book's publication.

Along with other notables in the book, sportsmen of Ukrainian descent such as Chuck Bednarik, Bronko Nagurski, Mike Ditka and Zenon Snylyk are highlighted and each outline offers readers a glimpse of their lives and their contributions to sports.

An entire section dedicated to soccer describes the rise of ethnic sports clubs like the Ukrainian Nationals of Philadelphia and relates the Ukrainian experience to that of other ethnic groups, such as the Greeks, Hispanics and Scots. Also in this section it is pointed out how few foreign-born Americans made a splash as players on the college sports scene, but many did as coaches, among them Walter Chyzowycz, who coached at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science and at Wake Forest University.

The section also commends foreign-born, and second- and third-generation immigrant parents for encouraging their children to play sports, resulting in higher quality talent on American soccer teams and offering an opportunity for a college education to many immigrant families.

Readers can obtain copies of this book by contacting the publisher at: Greenwood Heinemann, P.O. Box 6926, Portsmouth, NH 03802-6926; telephone, 800-225-5800; fax, 603-431-2214; or via www.greenwood.com or www.amazon.com.

The author of the encyclopedia's chapter on "Ukrainian Sport in the United States", Mr. Boretsky is press coordinator for the Regional Ukrainian Olympic Committee of Philadelphia. He has published extensively on the Ukrainian American community and Ukrainian sports.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 13, 2006, No. 33, Vol. LXXIV

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