Bats, Balls, Nets & Hoops: Stories of Sports in Brooklyn is the latest in a series of educational curriculum kits from the Brooklyn Historical Society. Organized around four case studies, the kit is packed with more than 50 primary source documents from the BHS archives, including newspaper articles, photographs and oral histories of Brooklyn athletes born between the 1920s and the 1950s. Each case study comes in a separate folder with critical thinking questions and document-analysis activities to help students observe, question, analyze and interpret the material.
BHS curriculum kit are designed with a dual purpose: to help students understand the ways in which local people, places and events connect to national history and to their own lives, and to engage them in a fun, thought-provoking exploration of key themes including history, economics, government and civics.
To reserve your kit, contact BHS Education Coordinator at 718-222-4111 ext. 228 or .
Here’s a basketball-themed sample of just some of the stories of Brooklyn athletes:
1. Introduction by Deborah Schwartz, Brooklyn Historical Society President. (0:55)
2. Albert King (3:12)
Albert King was born in Fort Greene, Brooklyn in 1959. He attended Fort Hamilton High School and the University of Maryland on an athletic scholarship before being drafted to play professional basketball.
3. Albert Kingand the Nets (1:34)
Albert King played professional basketball from 1981 to1987 for the New Jersey Nets.
4. Alan Fishman (2:40) Alan Fishman was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn in 1946 and attended Erasmus Hall High School. He has worked in the banking industry for over 30 years and he is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Brooklyn Community Foundation.
5. Albert Vann (0:58)
Albert Vann was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in 1934. From 1975 to 2001, he served as a member of the New York State Assembly representing the 56th District. He is currently a New York City Council member representing the 36th District, Brooklyn.
Photo by Andrew Schwartz.
6. Mary DeSaussure Sobers (8:31) Mary DeSaussure Sobers was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in 1931. In 1945, she won a Gold medal for the 40-yard dash at a Borough -wide track meet in Madison Square Garden. She went on to found the Trail Blazers, New York City’s first track-and-field club for African American girls.
At BHS, our goal with each curriculum kit we create is to help students:
Learn to think and work like historians. Explore the rich history of Brooklyn and Connect to their community’s past and envision their place in its future.
Why Study Sports? Sports are a fundamental part of the human experience. The urge to play, to organize, to make rules, compete and push the limits of the mind and body are age-old, which makes the study of sports and athletics a compelling entry point through which to engage young people in the study of history.
Understanding considerations of leisure time, physical space and urban development are essential to any discussion about sports in Brooklyn. Stoop ball, stick ball, hand ball, basketball, skate boarding and more can all be seen as creative solutions to urban space issues. A certain Brooklyn ingenuity and fierce competitive spirit was born and bred on the streets where children made due with asphalt when there was no grass, and used their hands and feet, as well as sticks and lamp posts when there was little money for any sort of equipment.
Connections to Standards Bats, Balls, Nets and Hoops: Stories about Sports in Brooklyn connects to curriculum guidelines established by the New York City K–8 Social Studies Scope and Sequence and addresses several thematic strands identified by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), including Culture; Time, Continuity & Change; Individual Development & Identity; and Individuals, Groups & Institutions.
Bats, Balls, Nets and Hoops includes:
Primary and secondary materials from the BHS collection and other archives, including photographs, newspaper and magazine articles and oral history transcripts.
An Oral History CD to allow students to hear first-hand from people who are a part of Brooklyn’s unique history.
Critical thinking questions and document-analysis activities to help students observe, question, analyze and interpret the material.
A Teacher’s Guide, with lesson plans, historical background information, time lines, teaching ideas, guiding questions, extension activities and reproducible activity sheets.
Bats, Balls, Nets and Hoops: Stories of Sports in Brooklyn and forthcoming curriculum kit have been made possible by generous funding from Barclays Nets Community Alliance.
We began our oral history project in 2006 to collect important audio documents: primary sources about people, ideas, and events that make up the history of 21st century Brooklyn.
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Albert King was born in Fort Greene, Brooklyn in 1959. He attended Fort Hamilton High School and the University of Maryland on an athletic scholarship before being drafted to play professional basketball. 
Alan Fishman was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn in 1946 and attended Erasmus Hall High School. He has worked in the banking industry for over 30 years and he is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Brooklyn Community Foundation.
Albert Vann was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in 1934. From 1975 to 2001, he served as a member of the New York State Assembly representing the 56th District. He is currently a New York City Council member representing the 36th District, Brooklyn.
Mary DeSaussure Sobers was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in 1931. In 1945, she won a Gold medal for the 40-yard dash at a Borough -wide track meet in Madison Square Garden. She went on to found the Trail Blazers, New York City’s first track-and-field club for African American girls.
