Tag: history

Your Lesser Footy AM open thread: How soccer helped end apartheid in South Africa

Wakezilla -
136

The featured image is of the Orlando Pirates and the Kaiser Chiefs, two bitter enemies in the South African Premier league who are playing this morning. The Soweto Derby is one of the most legendary and insanely violent matches in the world. There has been multiple times where these two

Historical Badasses: Naresuan the Great

The Maestro -
22

Think of the craziest fight you've ever been in. Bare knuckles? Sure. Sticks? Probably as a kid, I guess. Baseball bats? If you're unlucky. Knives and guns? Man, I really hope not. Elephants? Probably not. However, if you're a 16th-century king of Thailand, not only is there an elephant present, but two of

Historical Badasses: Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck

The Maestro -
15

I've done a lot of reading on the First World War as of late; one of the more recent discoveries from my Wikipedia rabbit-holes is that there was, as it turns out, a pretty significant amount of fighting between the Germans and the British in Africa starting in 1914. With

Historical Badasses: Klondike Joe Boyle

The Maestro -
9

As a Canadian, I spent a lot of time learning about the Gold Rush in middle school history class; as a sports fan, I read about the early days of professional hockey as a young child. Little did I know that one of the men responsible for bringing one of

Historical Badasses: Diogenes of Sinope

The Maestro -
18

It takes a very special kind of person to live their entire life without giving a single shit about anything at all - being a cynic can end up being extremely hard work indeed. Many of us know this first-hand. As the online home of some of the most cynical

Historical Badasses: Harald Wartooth

The Maestro -
6

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Peter Freuchen, Danish explorer, author, and political activist; this week, we're featuring one of the men whose legends perhaps inspired Freuchen to be the incredible man he turned out to be. This week's badass may or may not have actually existed,

Historical Badasses: Khutulun

The Maestro -
10

Who's the greatest wrestler in history? Hulk Hogan? Ric Flair? The Iron Sheik? You'd think that it'd be a difficult question to answer, what with accounting for style preferences and attitudes and all, but as it turns out, it's actually very east to figure it out: it's Khutulun. And it's

Historical Badasses: Drukpa Kunley

The Maestro -
28

When we think of religions based around sex, I think it's safe to say that most of us probably gravitate immediately to the Branch Davidians of Waco and/or perhaps a few hardline Mormon citizens of Utah; no matter what you think of, though, chances are that it's likely a creepy

Historical Badasses: Thomas Fitzpatrick

The Maestro -
9

We've all done some stupid shit when drinking; dancing, fights, arguments, hook-ups, whatever can be done, humanity has done it many, many times over. But there are very, very few people who can claim to have drunkenly committed grand theft airplane and lived to tell the tale... not just once,