Sports History

Muhammad Ali’s 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta against Jerry Quarry at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium on October 26, 1970, is often relegated to the footnotes of Ali’s legacy despite its crucial role in the growth of Atlanta and the rebirth of his boxing career.

Atlanta’s Paralympic Games represent many significant benchmarks for Paralympic and disability history.

Honoring the legacy of baseball player, racial equality activist, and historic home run record breaker, Hank Aaron.

Students attend a ballet class at Norma’s Academy of Fine Arts on Campbellton Road in southwest Atlanta on November 17, 1973.

The Angel Drill Team, the championship team from the Waukean-Zion-North Chicago area, perform in Woodruff Park in 1974.

A group of children prepare for a pickup game of basketball in the Bedford Pine neighborhood in January 1971.

Portrait of a young woman with her bicycle taken by Kuhns Studio in 1895.

An unidentified woman beats the heat by taking a swan dive in 1946.

Boxer Young Stribling gets wholloped by an even younger boxer.

Atlanta’s Games included legendary athletes, intense rivalries, and exciting underdogs. We’ve collected a few of our favorites from the summer of ‘96.

On July 4, 1970, 150 runners gathered in the parking lot of Sears & Roebuck on the corner of Peachtree and Roswell Roads and ran 6.2 miles to the Central City Park finish line in the inaugural Peachtree Road Race.

In 1987, Atlanta attorney William Porter Payne founded the Georgia Amateur Athletic Foundation with a quest to win the bid for the Centennial Olympic Games for Atlanta.

Founded in October 1885, the Georgia School of Technology utilized $65,000 in state appropriations to establish a 400-acre campus on the northern edge of the city.

The oldest continually operating sports franchise in America was also the first major league sports team in the Deep South.