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On January 1, 1926, Alabama upset the University of Washington, 20–19, in the Rose Bowl. The game has been assigned a high degree of significance, both athletically and culturally. This paper employs both quantitative and qualitative methods in exploring how newspapers interpreted the 1926 Rose Bowl from a regional and national perspective. The sample comprises newspapers from the state, the region, and the nation for the week before and the week after the game. The quantitative method of framing is used in a descriptive content analysis, to analyze the frames employed by sportswriters in their coverage. Then the Burkeanbased concept of symbolic boasting is used to analyze how media outlets used the team's performance to fashion a strong common identity for the rebuilding South. The content analysis describes differences in frame from the Birmingham News , an Alabama newspaper, compared to newspapers in Seattle, Chicago, or Los Angeles. The qualitative rhetorical analysis revealed elements of symbolic boasting as a means of strengthening regional identity, throughout the South after the game.

This paper presents an analysis of sports sections in eight metropolitan newspapers over six decades, from 1956 until 2006. Results demonstrated that newspapers devoted more space to sports, although a slight decrease (perhaps due to increased popularity of the Internet) was noted in 2006. Newspapers also used more locally written articles on their section front. Spectator sports coverage increased over the period, at the expense of participant sports.

Sports broadcasts feature celebrities and athletes, to attract viewers. But this practice was prevalent even in the early print-dominated days of sports journalism. This paper reviews articles written by sports-related and celebrity non-journalists and published in three newspapers concerning the 1924 and 1932 World Series. The paper demonstrates that this practice was widespread, in print form, during the 1924 Series. By 1932, relating to economic realities as much as newspaper policy, it was much less popular.