Editors’ Note

At the 2024 North American Society for Sport History annual conference in Denver, Colorado, historian Gary Osmond presented a fascinating, creative paper on the sensory turn, which examines the role human senses have played in the past. More specifically, Osmond discussed smell as it has related to the sporting past. Many people in the audience found Osmond's remarks stimulating, which got me thinking: the Journal of Sport History could do a forum on this subject. There were many possibilities, so many sporting smells to consider, from fresh-cut grass to chlorine to sweat-drenched shin guards, among many others. I talked with Osmond about the idea, and he was enthusiastic about it. Working together, we invited several scholars from different parts of the world, who have done different kinds of work, and asked them to read Osmond's paper, to reflect on his ideas, and to apply them to one specific smell and its relationship to sport. Our contributors were told that their essays could “be personal reflections, put in historical and cultural contexts. Smell is obviously deeply personal and subjective, while at the same time being historically specific and culturally constructed and meaningful.” We think the results are, well, pungent and provocative, part of what we hope is an ongoing conversation.—D. A. N.