Crescent City Sport: Stories of Courage and Change

Sports captivate us with narratives on and off the fields of play. A new exhibition at The Historic New Orleans Collection is drawn from the collection's holdings as well as over a dozen other private and institutional collections showcase 20 of these stories from New Orleans, each exploring a unique thread in our community’s history.

Crescent City Sport: Stories of Courage and Change reveals how sporting moments since the end of the American Civil War have mirrored or instigated broader social and economic change in New Orleans. Sports have played a vital role in the city’s slow—and often reluctant—progress toward inclusivity and have long been a cornerstone of the city’s tourism economy.

The exhibition spotlights, among many other stories, the epic bouts of heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan, the founding of the Sugar Bowl in the midst of the Great Depression, and the creation of the New Orleans Saints. See the original Sugar Bowl trophy, a plaster cast of Sullivan’s arm, the Saints’ 2010 Super Bowl trophy and hundreds of original photographs and ephemera such as a photograph of Louis Armstrong’s “Secret 9” baseball team from the 1930s. 

The exhibition opens at THNOC's new exhibition center (520 Royal Street) with a reception, 6:30 pm–8:30 pm, on November 22. hnoc.org.