20-plus films and TV shows about activism in sports

The very act of participating in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as a Black American was controversial, risky — and heroic. Owens emerged from the Games with four gold medals and as one of the greatest sports heroes in American history. His story has been told many times, notably in the Emmy-winning TV movie “The Jesse Owens Story,” veteran sports journalist Jeremy Schaap’s book “Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics” and the recent film “Race.”

The Dodgers legend is known for his courage and self-control in becoming the first Black major leaguer, but he was also an activist off the field, who often decried American racism and helped organize (with Martin Luther King Jr. and others) the 1958 Youth March for Integrated Schools.

Ali is perhaps the most famous athlete whose career was inexorably intertwined with political protest. One of the greatest boxers of all time, Cassius Clay converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali in the 1960s, then cited his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War in his refusal to be drafted. He was prosecuted for draft evasion and stripped of his titles, though the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971. He lost four prime boxing years during the court fight but managed to become champion again and an icon who transcends not only his sport, but sports in general.

One of the most enduring images of athletes making a sociopolitical statement has to be gold and bronze medal winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos throwing up their fists in the Black Power salute from the medal stand at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Smith and Carlos hoped to bring attention to social injustices, including Black poverty, and to remember those brought to America in bondage. The HBO documentary “Fists of Freedom: The Story of the ’68 Olympic Games” (1999) and the BBC doc “Black Power Salute” (2008) cover the event. There’s also an Australian documentary (“Salute”), concerning the third man on the stand, silver medalist Peter Norman, who was punished by his government for his support of the gesture.

As recent events have shown, activism extends to athletes’ role as workers. In the case of St. Louis Cardinals all-star center fielder Curt Flood, it was about upending the labor status quo in Major League Baseball. After the 1969 season, he challenged the “reserve clause” that kept players under their original team’s control even beyond the lives of their initial contracts. In refusing a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies, he engaged in a losing court fight that would eventually usher in the era of free agency, at the cost of his own career. The 2011 HBO documentary “The Curious Case of Curt Flood” tells the tale.

In 1969, the University of Wyoming was a football powerhouse. When the undefeated team was preparing to play its rivals at Brigham Young University, its 14 Black players sought to address certain racial issues concerning BYU, including what they reported as racist slurs and cheap shots the previous time the teams met. They went to the coach’s office to ask whether they could wear black armbands during the game and were met by a surprising response. The story is told in an ESPN documentary short, “The Black 14.”

For years after Title IX was passed, protecting women from educational discrimination (including in access to sporting facilities), the Yale women’s crew team still didn’t have designated showers and lockers. They had to wait up to half an hour, wet from practice, for their male counterparts to shower and change in the men’s facilities, then ride a bus together so the women could clean up at their dorms. After their appeals went unheeded, the women showed up for an appointment with the administration determined to get their attention. Captain (and eventual Olympian) Chris Ernst read a statement that began, “These are the bodies Yale is exploiting …” as the 19 women stripped nude to reveal “T-I-T-L-E-I-X” painted on their bare skin in Yale blue. The AP and New York Times covered the protest, and in the face of the negative publicity, changes were made. Olympic rower Mary Mazzio made a 1999 documentary about the brouhaha called “A Hero for Daisy” — Ernst being the hero and Daisy being Mazzio’s daughter. As reported in the Yale Daily News, Daisy eventually enrolled at Yale — and joined the crew team.

Best known as one half of perhaps the most dominant sibling pair in the history of sports, the seven-time Grand Slam winner always came alive on Wimbledon’s clipped grass — in more ways than one. As depicted in Ava DuVernay’s superb documentary “Venus Vs.,” Williams followed in the footsteps of Billie Jean King to lobby the iconic English tennis tournament, as well as its clay-court counterpart, the French Open, to offer equal prize money to men and women.

It’s apparently too soon for a documentary on former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose silent protest against police treatment of Black Americans — kneeling during the national anthem — apparently cost him a promising career. He’s only 32, and his story is still being written. Though he hasn’t had an NFL contract in three seasons, his name still comes up when QB vacancies open in the league.

The NBA superstar has been active in his community and politically outspoken for years. Showtime’s three-part docuseries “Shut Up and Dribble” is a direct response to Ingraham’s bizarre and disrespectful notion that basketball players should set aside their political views to deliver uncomplicated entertainment.