Tony Collins (historian) explained

Tony Collins
Birth Date:	1961
Birth Place:	Hull, England
Occupation:	Historian
Language:	English
Nationality:	British
Education:	Holderness Academy, Warwick University
Subject:	Sports history (esp. rugby football), Social history (esp. class)

Tony Collins is a British social historian specialising in the history of sport.^{[1] [2]} He is emeritus professor of history at De Montfort University,^[3] a Research Fellow at the Institute of Sports Humanities,^[4] and in 2018 was a visiting professor at Beijing Sports University. He has written several award-winning books on the history of sport, is the host of the ‘Rugby Reloaded’ history podcast,^[5] and is a regular contributor to television and radio programmes.^[6]

Career

In 1999, his first book Rugby’s Great Split, based on his 1996 PhD thesis, won the Aberdare Prize for Sports History Book of the Year. He has also won the Aberdare Prize for Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain (2007), A Social History of English Rugby Union (2010) and The Oval World: A Global History of Rugby (2016).^[7] A Social History of English Rugby Union was also a winner of the 2015 'World in Union Book Award' for the best academic book on rugby union.^[8]

In addition to the social history of rugby league and rugby union, he has also written about the global rise of sport in books such as Sport in Capitalist Society (2013) and How Football Began: How the World’s Football Codes Were Born (2018).

In 2018, he launched the history podcast Rugby Reloaded which looks at the history of rugby and the other football codes around the world.^[9] In 2020, he was made a member of the Rugby Football League’s Roll of Honour in recognition of his work as a historian of the sport.^[10]

He has appeared and worked as a consultant on many television and radio programmes, including BBC Radio Four’s Sport and the British series,^[11] the History Channel’s Football: A Brief History By Alfie Allen,^[12] BBC Wales’ The Rugby Codebreakers,^[13] the 2019 New Zealand TV series The Story of Rugby,^[14] and 2020’s Shane Williams: Rugby Concussion and Me.^[15]

He has also been a board or committee member of a number of public organisations including Rugby League Cares,^[16] the World Rugby Museum, Hull Kingston Rovers’ Community Trust,^[17] the historians’ panel of the National Football Museum's English Football Hall of Fame, and the Yorkshire and Humber region of the Heritage Lottery Fund.^[18] He was chairperson of the British Society for Sports History from 2001 to 2002 and the editor of the academic journal Sport in History from 2001 to 2007.^[19]

Bibliography

Monographs

• Raising the Red Flag: Marxism, Labourism, and the Roots of British Communism, 1884–1921 (2022), Brill
• Rugby League: A People's History (2020), Scratching Shed
• How Football Began: A Global History of How the World's Football Codes Were Born (2018), Routledge,
• The Oval World: A Global History of Rugby (2015), Bloomsbury,
• Sport in Capitalist Society (2013), Routledge,
• A Social History of English Rugby Union (2009), Routledge, ^[20]
• Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain (2006), Routledge, ^[21]
• Rugby's Great Split (2nd Revised Edition) (2006), Routledge, ^[22]
• Mud, Sweat and Beers: A Cultural History of Sport and Alcohol (written with Wray Vamplew) (2002), Berg, ^[23]
• Rugby's Great Split (1998), Frank Cass, ^[24]

Essay Collections

• Who Framed William Webb Ellis? (and other puzzles in rugby history) (2022), Scratching Shed
• 1895 And All That (2009), Scratching Shed Publishing, ^[25]

Edited books

• The Rugby World in the Professional Era (edited with John Nauright) (2017) Routledge,
• Sport as History: Essays in Honour of Wray Vamplew (2010), Routledge,
• Encyclopedia of traditional British rural sports (edited with John Martin and Wray Vamplew) (2005), Routledge, ^[26]
• The Glory of their Times: crossing the colour line in rugby league (edited with Phil Melling) (2004), Vertical,

Lectures

• ’Ahr Waggy’ : Harold Wagstaff and the making of Anglo-Australian rugby league culture (2003), 5th Annual Tom Brock Lecture, ^[27]

External links

• tonycollins.org, personal website of Tony Collins
• rugbyreloaded.com, a blog about rugby football written by Tony Collins
• 1895 & all that .... the Past, Present & Future of Rugby., lecture delivered by Tony Collins, 29 August 2007.

Notes and References

1. News: Sports Book of the Week: A Social History of English Rugby Union, by Tony Collins. Redfern. Simon. 5 April 2009. The Independent. 24 April 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20090410012018/http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/sports-book-of-the-week-a-social-history-of-english-rugby-union-by-tony-collins-1662856.html. dead. 10 April 2009.
2. A Social History of English Rugby Union. Harris. John. 11 June 2009. Times Higher Education. 24 April 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20120902085931/http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=406962&c=1. live. 2 September 2012.
3. Web site: Meet The Historians . De Montfort University . 30 December 2020.
4. Web site: Tony Collins . Institute of Sports Humanities . University of Buckingham . 30 December 2020.
5. http://www.rugbyreloaded.com/ Rugby Reloaded
6. Web site: About . Rugby Reloaded . 30 December 2020.
7. Web site: Lord Aberdare Literary Prize . www.sportinhistory.org . British Society of Sports History . 30 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191222201416/https://www.sportinhistory.org/categories/20191024 . 22 December 2019 . dead.
8. Web site: A Social History of English Rugby Union . www.routledge.com . Routledge . 30 December 2020.
9. Web site: Rugby Reloaded . Soundcloud . 30 December 2020.
10. Web site: RFL Roll of Honour . rugby-league.com . Rugby Football League . 30 December 2020.
11. Web site: Sport and the British . www.bbc.co.uk . BBC . 30 December 2020.
12. Web site: Football: A Brief History . www.history.co.uk . Sky . 30 December 2020.
13. Web site: The Rugby Codebreakers . www.bbc.co.uk . BBC . 30 December 2020.
14. Web site: The Story of Rugby . www.inmotion.dhl . DHL . 30 December 2020.
15. Web site: Shane Williams: Rugby, Concussion & Me . www.bbc.co.uk . BBC.
16. News: George Hotel's Rugby League Heritage Centre memorabilia to go on tour . 30 December 2020 . Huddersfield Examiner . 23 September 2014.
17. Web site: Hull KR Community Trust . www.company-information.service.gov.uk/ . Companies House . 30 December 2020.
18. Web site: Minutes . www.heritagefund.org.uk . Heritage Lottery Fund . 30 December 2020 . 8 June 2017.
19. Web site: Editorial Board . Taylor & Francis Online . British Society of Sports History . 30 December 2020.
20. Web site: A social history of English Rugby Union / Tony Collins.. British Library. 23 April 2010.
21. Web site: Rugby League in twentieth century Britain : a social and cultural history / Tony Collins. British Library. 23 April 2010.
22. Web site: Rugby's great split : class, culture and the origins of rugby league football / Tony Collins.. British Library. 23 April 2010.
23. Web site: Mud, sweat and beers : a cultural history of sport and alcohol / Tony Collins and Wray Vamplew.. British Library. 23 April 2010.
24. Web site: Rugby's great split : class, culture and the origins of Rugby League football / Tony Collins.. British Library. 23 April 2010.
25. Web site: Christmas books: sport. Richards. Huw. 12 December 2009. The Gear. The Guardian. 23 April 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20140904222242/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/dec/12/christmas-books-sport-roundup. live. 4 September 2014.
26. Web site: Encyclopedia of traditional British rural sports / edited by Tony Collins, John Martin, and Wray Vamplew.. British Library. 23 April 2010.
27. Web site: 'Ahr Waggy' : Harold Wagstaff and the making of Anglo-Australian rugby league culture / Tony Collins.. British Library. 23 April 2010.