Brown baseball with brown text on a white background

The well-known sport, softball, began in 1887 when Yale and Harvard alumni gathered in Chicago, Illinois, at the Farragut Boat Club. The alumni were waiting for the results of the Yale versus Harvard football game on Thanksgiving. Legend has it that when Yale won, a Yale grad “playfully threw” a boxing glove at a Harvard grad and the Harvard grad swung the glove with a stick. George Hancock, a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, called out, “Play ball!” and, so, softball began. The Farragut Boat Club created rules for the game not long after and news of the game leaked to others in Chicago, eventually becoming known throughout the Midwest. Walter Hankason coined the term softball in 1926 during a National Recreation Congress meeting.

In Chicago, there are currently two versions of the game of softball, both with different size balls, taken from different iterations of this original game. Primarily, softball is played with a 12-inch diameter ball, but the variation using the 16-inch diameter ball is still played today.

White text on a blue background with an illustration of two people playing basketball

Samford University, formerly Howard College until 1965 is apart of the Southern Conference and is recognized as a division one school by the NCAA. During the school's formative years, their sports program was dominated and led by their basketball program. This is especially true during World War II when basketball was Howard's only intercollegiate sport. Their athletic teams are known as the Samford Bulldogs and the phase "sock it to em bulldogs" has long been a rallying cry used by their fans during games. 

Red and blue text on a white background with a soccer ball

In the 1979 season, the Division I North American Soccer League (NASL) dubbed soccer "the sport of the 80s" to challenge other sports in the US and to bring attention to the growing popularity of the sport. However, after the Chicago Sting won the championship in 1981, the number of teams in the league dropped from 21 to 14. By the time they won again in 1984, the NASL only had two teams left that were interested in playing for the 1985 season. The Division I NASL disbanded. The present-day Division II NASL was founded in 2009, and plans to expand to 12 teams in the US and Canada for the 2016 season.

Black and white text in Japanese on a yellow background. A figure of a child wearing a blue shirt, pink shorts, and green shoes kicking a passed soccer ball.

This button, which reads in Japanese "Monthly Junior Sports First Anniversary Commemoration" on the top and "'86 Waku Waku Milkland" on the bottom, celebrates the one year anniversary of a kids' sports club at a Milkland location in 1986. Milklands were a series of farms and ranches across Japan that were popular in the 1980s as tourist attractions and event locations where families could eat freshly grown fruits and vegetables, pet animals, and experience life on a farm. Usually set by scenic views by rivers or mountains, Milklands can still be visited today and are usually destinations for families with small kids.

Black text on a red background with a soccer ball. At the top of the soccer ball are blue and white stripes, and white stars.

“Soccer it to me” is a play on the slogan “sock it to me”. “Sock it to me” connotates a readiness and excitement to get into something in a manner that invites a challenge. It was popularized by black musicians of the soul and jazz music scenes of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit Respect, the phrase is repeated by background singers to emphasize alacrity for long-overdue societal recognition and r-e-s-p-e-c-t. It also became a catch phrase on the television program, Laugh In, when characters were ready to hear the next joke or story. In 1972, The Jimmy Castor Bunch used the phrase to invite sexual advances in their song Troglodyte.

Here, the flip of sock to soccer is used to relay enthusiasm for the sport of soccer in a competitive and celebratory way, as accentuated by the lines of emphasis and the stars surrounding the ball.

A white background with blue text. In the center is a red gear with a blue, white, and red racing truck on top of it

Machinists Union Racing was co-sponsored by Schaefer’s Beer from 1981-1988. Josele Garza and Roger Mears are the most notable drivers from this time period. In 1989, the union, along with Shaefer's Beer, sponsored Joe Ruttman for a NASCAR Winston Cup. 

Blue and red text on a white background

"PIP" stands for "Postal Instant Press". In 1963, Bill and Bonnie LeVine founded Postal Press, which was changed into a "while you wait" print center. In 1965, the first Postal Instant Press (PIP) opened, and by 1968, the business expanded to three PIP locations, marking the first franchise in the printing industry. In 1994, the International Franchise Association (IFA) created the Bonnie LeVine Award in memory of the co-founder to honor her achievements in franchising, and to recognizer her as a role model for women in the industry (Postal Instant Press, 2015). With over 400 locations, PIP provides a variety of services, including brand creation, website design, marketing, printing, and mailing. 

A white background featuring a gold Golden Gate Bridge and light blue water underneath wherein lies gold text. Underneath is light blue text and a gold volleyball for the O in Pioneers

The San Francisco Pioneers were a professional basketball team in the Women's Professional Basketball League. The league played for 3 seasons between 1978 and 1981. WBL is considered to be the first professional women's basketball league in the United States. There were 8 teams in operation for the first season, Chicago Hustle, Dayton Rockettes, Houston Angels, Iowa Cornets, Milwaukee Does, Minnesota Fillies, New Jersey Gems, and New York Stars. The San Francisco Pioneers joined hte league in 1979, along with 4 other teams.

The league was disbanded in 1981 following the US lead ban on the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow. It was the hope of Bill Byrne, the league founder, that the Olympics would showcase the league's stars and gain popularity. The boycott prevented these plans and due to poor attendance it was decided to end the WBL in 1981.

White background with a navy blue stripe and maroon stripe underneath. NFL logo is on the top, under that is a blue helmet with an orange D facing another blue helmet with Giants written on it. In the navy blue stripe are four white lines on each side of a rose with white text and above that the names of the teams in white. In the maroon stripe is white text

Super Bowl XXI was held on January 25th, 1987 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The game was between the NFC Champions, the New York Giants and the AFC Champions, the Denver Broncos. Denver was lead by Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway and the Giants were lead by Super Bowl XXI MVP winner Phil Simms. 

The Broncos held the lead in the first half 10-9, the smallest margin in Super Bowl History. Their momentum ended though when New York sacked Elway in the end zone, causing a 2 point safety to be awarded. The Giants turned that momentum into a winning streak, scoring 30 points in the second half to win 39-20.

White text with a blue outline on a a white background with a blue outline of a bulldog

Rocky, the bulldog featured on this button, is the mascot of Western Illinois University (WIU), founded in 1899. Rocky is the costumed mascot at all of the WIU sporting events, but the university also has an actual live bulldog as their mascot too, named Colonel Rock. 

WIU has a variety of sports teams, such as football, basketball, cross country, swimming, and soccer. Their colors are purple and gold, and their nickname is the Leathernecks.