Ball Tales: A Study of Baseball, Basketball and Football Fiction of the 1930s through 1960s Book

Nolan argued that sports pulp fiction is a largely ignored and underresearched field in pop cultural scholarship. Collectors even undervalue fiction less than romance novels, mostly only looking at the novels for their cover art. Nolan looks mostly at sports pulp fiction of the first half of the 20th century to the 1960s, with brief looks at sports comics and early films. Sports pulp fiction was mostly aimed at youth, though branched out at fiction aimed at adults, particularly in mysteries, drama, and romance. Some of the longer running series were the Chip Hilton books, by hall of fame basketball coach Claire Bee, and Bronc Burnett, both of which chronicled multiple sport athletes who excelled at all they played. The Blue Sox universe, which ran from 1947-64, was in a fictional universe of a pro team and the characters who make up the squad, totally 50 different unique characters. Nolan noted that drama in sports movies disappeared from 1942-1970, as sports switched to romance and comedy movies.

Key Themes and Concepts
-The character of Frank Merriwell was a dominant fictional character on the Yale baseball team, but also excelled at basketball and football. He more or less disappeared by the 1940s with brief cameos in years after.
-Pulp sports fiction popular in chronicling college football and baseball, in a time when most boys did not finish high school.
-Pulp sports fiction was began declining after World War II and was dead by the mid 1960s.
-Almost all sports fiction characters were white.
-There was a small amount of sports fiction aimed at young girls, particularly the Girls of Central High.
-Sports fiction was dominant as entertainment until the rise of television and specialization of sports.