Jan. 1 – Jan. 14, 2023
Welcome to issue four hundred and five of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Australia and New Zealand aim for game-changing Women’s World Cup (The Guardian)
2. Orlando Magic’s Mo Bamba is giving back to Africa through basketball (Andscape)
3. Fab Five: The MEAC’s Female Directors of Athletics (MEAC Sports)
4. Spain’s beautiful, unpredictable Copa del Rey deserves our love (ESPN)
5. Roberto Clemente impact is still felt 50 years after his tragic death (Andscape)
6. Cut by the NBA, He Found Fame in Communist Poland (Sports History Weekly)
7. Forget the World Cup: The Darts Are the Ultimate Sporting Event (Vice)
8. Joe Burrow, Blake Griffin, Others Purchase First of Five Farms (Front Office Sports)
9. The sports world is still built for men. This elite runner wants to change that (NPR)
10. Damar Hamlin’s toy drive: What’s the plan for the $8.6M? (AP)


10+
First Annual Sport and Human Rights Reading List (Center for Sport and Human Rights)
https://www.sporthumanrights.org/library/first-annual-sport-and-human-rights-reading-list/
The Life That Came After Was the Miracle for Franco Harris (Culture in Sports)
https://cultureinsports.com/the-life-that-came-after-was-the-miracle-for-franco-harris/
JSC and sportanddev launch guidebook on sport for sustainable development (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/jsc-and-sportanddev-launch-guidebook-sport-sustainable-development
Sport Together Fund Selects Its First Grant Recipients (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/articles/sport-together-fund-selects-its-first-grant-recipients/
From the sand to the stars – Laureus Challenge 2022 (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/news/sand-to-the-stars-2022


We present again our “Featured Video” offering(s). With the explosion of video content out there highlighting the good in sport, we want to showcase such content for your enjoyment and learning. This will be an ongoing effort. And now we add podcasts!

Remembering Brazil legend Pele (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=35184969
Meechie Walker’s enduring impact on Michigan football (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=35349023
Why Roberto Clemente’s 21 has become a sacred number across baseball (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=35347882
Pelé Honorary Degree – Hofstra University (Hofstra University)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsS-dRPj_2U&t=6s


Introduction
I first want to promote a new podcast by a friend and industry leader, Erika Mueller Chen. Follow this link to learn more about the Inspira Podcast | With Erika Mueller Chen. https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspira-podcast/

As we finished 2022 and moved into 2023, the sports world was hit with 2 major events: one was the passing of perhaps the most famous athlete in the past 100 years, football/soccer star Pele at 82 years old, and the near-passing of a not as famous person but no less important, 24-year old NFL player Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills. The major news cycle captured both and analyzed them from multiple angles.

The loss of Pele was covered all over the world, consistent with his status as maybe the greatest player ever in the world’s most popular sport. For more than 50 years after he retired, he continued to hold the world’s attention with his travels around the world, his support of Brazilian and global soccer, and his interactions with other sport and non-sport newsmakers. His passing, while sad, came after the world had had the opportunity to recognize and applaud his greatness and his impact on “the beautiful game.” At Sports Doing Good, we recognize in this issue the greatness of this man with an extra 10 stories dedicated to him, his life, and his global impact.

Damar Hamlin, someone I had never heard of before that Monday night football game in early January, is a current top-flight athlete. And while obviously not maintaining a global presence like Pele, he certainly has a cohort of fans, especially those who follow his team, the Buffalo Bills. But what captivated the country’s attention on Jan. 2 and afterwards was the shock of what happened to him, where and when it happened, and the opportunity for a collective pause to recognize and appreciate the fragility of life. No matter when it happened, the injury to Hamlin would have been newsworthy. However, his injury occurred during a nationally televised Monday night game, when no other games were played, and was between two of the league’s best teams. Those circumstances put the story front and center, not just in the sports world, but in general society.

In two short weeks, Hamlin has gone from having to be resuscitated twice to being discharged from the hospital and being able to visit his teammates before their playoff game. His story, thankfully, will continue and we wish him the very best.

If you think others would like to receive the newsletter, please feel free to forward it on or have them contact us directly at sab@sportsdoinggood.com. (If you do not want to receive the newsletter anymore you can use the Unsubscribe button at the end of the email).

So, enjoy. And have a good week.

Australia and New Zealand aim for game-changing Women’s World Cup (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/04/australia-new-zealand-game-changing-womens-world-cup-2023

Orlando Magic’s Mo Bamba is giving back to Africa through basketball (Andscape)
https://andscape.com/features/orlando-magics-mo-bamba-is-giving-back-to-africa-through-basketball/

Fab Five: The MEAC’s Female Directors of Athletics (MEAC Sports)
https://meacsports.com/news/2022/12/28/general-fab-five-the-meacs-female-directors-of-athletics.aspx

Spain’s beautiful, unpredictable Copa del Rey deserves our love (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/spanish-copa-del-rey/story/4843303/spains-beautiful-unpredictable-copa-del-rey-deserves-our-love

Roberto Clemente impact is still felt 50 years after his tragic death (Andscape)
https://andscape.com/features/roberto-clemente-impact-is-still-felt-50-years-after-his-tragic-death/

Cut by the NBA, He Found Fame in Communist Poland (Sports History Weekly)
http://www.sportshistoryweekly.com/stories/polish-basketball-league-kent-washington-lublin-ks-start-southampton-college,1128

Forget the World Cup: The Darts Are the Ultimate Sporting Event (Vice)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vk33/world

Joe Burrow, Blake Griffin, Others Purchase First of Five Farms (Front Office Sports)
https://frontofficesports.com/joe-burrow-blake-griffin-others-purchase-first-of-five-farms/

The sports world is still built for men. This elite runner wants to change that (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/01/10/1147816860/sports-world-still-built-for-men-elite-runner-wants-to-change-that

Damar Hamlin’s toy drive: What’s the plan for the $8.6M? (AP)
https://apnews.com/article/buffalo-bills-nfl-sports-damar-hamlin-fae1a8983657be78c931731a30648ac1


PELE
Pelé, a Name That Became Shorthand for Perfection (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/sports/soccer/pele-dies.html

When Pele ruled soccer in the US with the New York Cosmos (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-espn-fc-united/story/4840315/when-pele-ruled-soccer-in-the-us-with-new-york-cosmos

The teammates who helped make Pele great, from Garrincha with Brazil to Santos ‘Dream Attack’ (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/brazil-bra/story/4840402/peles-top-teammates-from-garrincha-with-brazil-to-santos-dream-attack

Tributes Pour In as Brazil Prepares to Bid Pelé Farewell (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/sports/soccer/pele-funeral-reaction.html

Pelé remembered for transcending soccer around world (NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/pele-remembered-transcending-soccer-world-rcna63749

Pele’s Brazil heroics helped turn the World Cup into a global phenomenon (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/brazil-bra/story/4840404/peles-brazil-heroics-cemented-the-world-cup-as-a-global-celebration

Sporting world pays tribute to Pelé “The Eternal King” (Olympics.com)
https://olympics.com/en/news/sporting-world-pays-tribute-pele-footballs-eternal-king

‘Genius,’ ‘King,’ ‘God’: Brazil gave Pele many names, and he lived up to them all (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/brazil-bra/story/4843347/genius-king-god-brazil-gave-pele-many-names-and-he-lived-up-to-them-all

Pelé was the epitome of Black grace in soccer (Andscape)
https://andscape.com/features/pele-was-the-epitome-of-black-grace-in-soccer/

Pelé, the Global Face of Soccer, Dies at 82 (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/sports/soccer/pele-dead.html


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Our goal is to have Sports Doing Good be a portal housing original content and excerpts from and links to the increasing number of articles, websites, video, and other media that showcase the good in sports and society. We aim to celebrate those concepts, activities, events, and individuals by highlighting them for a wider audience. Much of the news today, whether sports- related or not, is incredibly negative and increasingly polarizing, biased, and quite annoying. We are trying to refocus some of the discussion on the good, with a focus on sports.

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Sarbjit “Sab” Singh
sab@sportsdoinggood.com
516-287-7141
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