Dil Porter and Amateur Football History

Sport in History Podcast

And we're back! After a break following the British Society of Sports History's virtual Conference the Sport in History podcast returns with an interview with Professor Dilwyn Porter of De Montfort University, who talks about his latest book, English Gentlemen and World Soccer: Corinthians, Amateurism and the Global Game which he has co-authored with Dr Chris Bolsmann. He talks about the Corinthians, an amateur club whose reputation has been inflated over the years to epitomise the spirit of amateurism that informed the thinking of the English middle class sporting élite in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We chat about the extent to which the club's reputation has been manipulated by club historians and also the way in which the Corinthians' overseas tours fitted into a developing sporting globalisation in the Edwardian era and beyond. There's also time to talk about Dil's work on the BSSH's own history, developing its archive in conjunction with De Montfort and anticipating the celebration of the Society's 40th anniversary in 2021 Dilwyn Porter is Professor of Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University where he teaches on their MA on Sports History and Culture as well as the International MA in the Humanities, Management and Law of Sport. He’s a former editor of the BSSH’s journal Sport in History and was recently co-opted onto the board of the BSSH and has provided the voice of experience in this difficult year. Prof Porter has published numerous works including studies of Cornish identity and sport, as well as a number of pieces on the history of amateur sport, which he has been working on for his latest publication, English Gentlemen and World Soccer: Corinthians, Amateurism and the Global Game, which he co-authored with Dr Chris Bolsmann.