Angela Stanford named US captain of Solheim Cup for the 2026 matches in the Netherlands
Angela Stanford was introduced Thursday as the next U.S. captain of the Solheim Cup, leading a young core of Americans who are coming off a victory and will try to win the cup overseas for the first time in more than a decade.
Stanford was on the last American team that won away from home, in 2015 in Germany when Juli Inkster was at the helm. She was an assistant on the last three teams, including what she calls a 'massive' victory in Virginia last September .
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Newsweek
43 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Christian Roots of the NBA—From Naismith to This Year's 79th NBA Finals
Faith and sports go hand in hand. Quarterbacks quote Bible verses in interviews, and today's top NBA players, from Golden State Warrior star Stephen Curry (verses of scripture adorn his sneakers) to Indiana Pacers sensation Tyrese Halliburton (he cites church as "a big part of my success and my sanity"), count themselves among the 62 percent of Americans who call ourselves Christians. As sports fans nationwide watch the drama of the 79thth NBA Finals unfold, it's worth telling the story of basketball's Christian roots. Indeed, Christianity was the driving force behind the game's origin story. "I want to take you back to the first game of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891," Paul Putz, author of The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports, told Our American Stories. "Eighteen grown men, most in their mid-20s, walked into the gym at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School, where they were students. There were two peach baskets tacked to banisters on opposite sides of the gym, 10 feet off the ground. There was a soccer ball, too, and 13 rules for a new game their instructor, James Naismith, explained to them." Putz described that first game: "They divided into two teams of nine: No dribbling, no jump shots, no dunking. Instead, they passed the soccer ball back and forth, trying to keep it away from their opponents while angling for a chance to throw it into the basket." The inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith, stands in a field carrying a ball and a basket. The inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith, stands in a field carrying a ball and a basket. There was no template for what a shot might look like, Putz explained. As the players positioned the ball at the top of their heads to toss it toward the basket, a defender would swoop in and grab it away. "If you've ever tried to coach second-graders, it was probably a scene like that—except with big players and beards," Putz said. When the game ended, just one person made a shot. The final score: 1 to 0. To the students—and Naismith—it was a success. The students loved the challenge and possibilities of the game. Naismith loved those things, too. But he loved what the game represented, and why he was at the YMCA Training School in the first place. On his application, he was asked to describe the role for which he was training, and wrote: "To win men for the Master through the gym." Naismith's idea was simple but revolutionary: He believed sports could shape Christian character in ways mere study could not. So who was this man who created one of America's great homegrown sports? "He grew up in rural Canada," Putz said. "His parents died of illness when he was 9, and his uncle, a deeply religious man, took him in. When Naismith was 15, he dropped out of school, working as a lumberjack, but returned to high school at the age of 20 and entered college with the goal of becoming a minister." Most Christians in Naismith's day viewed sports as, at best, a distraction; others saw sports as a tool of the devil. "But Naismith was coming of age during the rise of a new movement called 'Muscular Christianity,'" Putz said. "It pushed back against the dualism that separated the spiritual and physical," Putz explained. "The body itself had sacred value, they believed, and human beings should be understood holistically—mind, body and soul intertwined." For Naismith, this idea came home in an epiphany playing football as a seminary student. During a game, a teammate lost his temper and let out a stream of curse words. During a break, he turned to Naismith and said sheepishly, "I beg your pardon, I forgot you were there." Naismith never spoke out against profanity, but his teammate felt compelled to apologize because, in Naismith's words, "I played the game with all my might yet held myself under control." His teammate was responding to Naismith's character on and off the field. Soon after that encounter, Naismith heard about the YMCA Training School in Springfield, a new college dedicated to connecting physical activity and Christian formation. And away he went to America to invent the game we know and love. "Naismith believed strongly in individual expression, and wanted basketball players to have space to create," Putz explained. "He celebrated inventive moves—like the dribble and the hook shot—and expressed awe as players pushed the limits of what was possible." But Naismith also understood that with freedom came constraints. "Basketball is personal combat without personal contact," Naismith would often say. Players can move anywhere at any time, and get close to their opponents, but can't overpower them physically, Putz explained. The only way to make the game work is consistently applying the rules. Which is why Naismith's favorite role wasn't player or coach but referee. Naismith would become a pioneer on more than one front. In the 1930s, while a professor at the University of Kansas, a young African American student named John McLendon enrolled, Putz explained. "He wanted to join the basketball team—but Kansas didn't allow Black players." Naismith took the young man under his wing, and McLendon would later become one of the most important basketball coaches of the 20th century. Basketball was influenced by Americans of all stripes. "In 1892, Senda Berenson, a Jewish instructor at a women's college, saw basketball as a rare opportunity for women to participate in sports," Putz said. "She adapted the rules and helped make it the most important women's team sport of the 20th century." The Jewish community embraced the game early, producing many of its first stars and innovators. So did Catholics and Latter-day Saints. Basketball also crossed racial and ethnic lines. Though the YMCA was segregated, Black Americans created their own spaces—often through churches—and built thriving basketball cultures, especially in cities like New York and Washington, D.C. It didn't take long for Naismith's creation to became a pluralistic and collaborative force—a gift to the world, developed and shaped by many hands, Putz added. "One of my favorite Naismith stories comes from the 1920s," Putz concluded. "He dropped by a small-college gym in Iowa, and a pickup game was about to begin. The players needed a referee and spotted the old man in the bleachers. One ran over to ask if he'd officiate—but before Naismith could respond, another player interrupted: 'That old man? He doesn't know anything about basketball.' The players walked off to find someone else. Naismith just smiled." The fact is, basketball would not be the game we know and love today if it hadn't been for Naismith's Christian vision. "I'm sure," Naismith wrote near the end of his life, "that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place—deep in the Wisconsin woods an old barrel hoop nailed to a tree, or a weather-beaten shed on the Mexican border with a rusty iron hoop nailed to one end." Naismith's story is worth celebrating as we watch the Thunder and Pacers battle for the 79th NBA title.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
LAFC close to loan deal: Dutch winger set to turn out at Club World Cup
Javairo Dilrosun could be in action at the Club World Cup. According to VoetbalPrimeur, the latest rumours suggest Los Angeles FC have signed the Dutch forward on loan from Club America. 'Dilrosun is the first – and possibly only – signing during the special transfer window for one of the three MLS clubs participating in the World Cup,' GiveMeSport claim, with Seattle Sounders and Inter Miami keeping quiet. Advertisement 'Dilrosun will bolster Los Angeles FC's attack for the Club World Cup behind star player Denis Bouanga.' Details about the potential transfer of Dilrosun, who is under contract in Mexico until the summer of 2026, were not shared. LAFC are in a group with Chelsea, Flamengo and Espérance Sportive de Tunis at the Club World Cup. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is among the players under contract with the American team. Dilrosun was part of the youth academies of Ajax and Manchester City and eventually ended up at Hertha BSC in his career. Via Girondins de Bordeaux he moved to Feyenoord in 2022. The Rotterdammers sold Dilrosun to Club America at the beginning of 2024. In 2018, Dilrosun played one international match for the Dutch national team in the Nations League. GBeNeFN | Max Bradfield
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Can schools like St. Bonaventure and FIU thrive in college athletics without the big bucks?
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — As schools prepare to begin sharing millions with their athletes, there is no avoiding the reality that if you're not a Power Four school, you're at a disadvantage. With major conferences running the show, St. Bonaventure and Florida International don't even have a seat at the table. FIU and St. Bonaventure aren't necessarily worried about a head-to-head fight over top players with deeper-pocketed schools. The priority has become survival and finding a balance between athletics ambition and financial sustainability. Adrian Wojnarowski spoke candidly about the challenges he faced during his inaugural season as the general manager of the St. Bonaventure men's basketball team. Solidifying a recruiting class that would improve the team and embrace the school culture was not easy. After July 1, when lucrative paychecks will pretty much become mandatory for blue-chip prospects, it's not going to get any easier. With some 2,000 undergraduate students, the Bonnies are outnumbered in resources and revenue when competing even against other Atlantic 10 teams like VCU, Dayton, and Saint Louis. Wojnarowski, ESPN's former lead NBA reporter, thinks he has identified a formula for locating the ideal prospect. To him, St. Bonaventure is a landing spot for international players adjusting to a new culture and college life, transfers who may have fallen short at a high major and need development, or those looking to move up to a mid-major. He admits the school upstate New York could be a pit stop on a player's journey. 'I want them to see that our environment, our coaching staff, our small school, especially for international players coming over, what I really try to sell is your adjustment to American college life," he said at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and Affiliates Convention this week. 'I think for a lot of kids, it's easier in a school with 1,900 students than a school with 19,000. And you'll come to have two great years with us, and then you'll probably end up at schools with 19,000 or 29,000,' he said. "And so you're selling, for us, we're your first step on the way to somewhere else, or the other one to me is we're the place to come when you've got to get the basketball right.' If the plan goes awry and a recruit slips away, one thing the former NBA insider refuses to do is blame the money. 'Fundraising is hard, creating new revenue streams is hard, but the one thing that I try to stay away from with us is not saying, 'Oh, we didn't get him because they offered more money,' and using that as a crutch all the time. I really examine when we lost a player,' Wojnarowski said. 'Are we being honest with ourselves in saying that we did everything outside the economics to make our case to this person?' FIU has more than 40,000 undergraduates, but the athletic department is using a similar philosophy, pinpointing advantages and opportunities to come from the settlement instead of the negatives. Similar to St. Bonaventure, FIU doesn't expect to come close to the $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap available over the next year. For a competitive edge, unlocking new revenue streams is fundamental. 'To compete, from a revenue standpoint, you have to think outside the box of your conventional fundraising and targeting donors,' senior associate athletic director Joseph Corey said. 'That's why you're looking at concerts being held at different venues, different festivals to generate extra revenue to bring in, different revenue streams, and not just fundraising going after the same donors. You've got to go beyond that in order to be able to compete.' Being based in Miami has its perks. Proximity to celebrities is one of them. In August, FIU secured a 10-year partnership with Pitbull, the singer and rapper who coins himself 'Mr. 305.' 'We did the partnership with Pitbull – Pitbull Stadium. He's on tour, but part of the deal was that he would be collaborating with us and doing events for us from a fundraising standpoint," Corey said. "You've got to think outside the box. Especially in a city like Miami, it's about the experience too.' Schools unlocking creative revenue streams is something that can be expected. FIU competes in Conference USA alongside teams like Liberty, Louisiana Tech, UTEP, Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State. The football team went 3-5 in 2024, finishing sixth in the conference. The men's basketball team finished last with a 3-15 conference record. It's hard to sell donors on losing teams. 'Let's call it what it is, FIU's not going to be able to keep up with the Alabama's of the world, the Georgia's, Michigan, or Texas, but what can we do? We can be the best in our conference. That is our goal,' Corey said. 'Let's be the best in our conference and really compete there because once you're at the top of your conference, that means more revenue in other areas. Everyone wants to donate to a winner.'
