The IISOH has a mission - collect every book in the world on every sport. One of the oldest sports known to have been a competitive activity is running. In the USA we call it "TRACK" and bundle it with field activities such as javelin throwing and shot put, thus we have "TRACK & FIELD." But the rest of the world, due to British influence from the old British Empire, knows this sport as "ATHLETICS."



We seek everything on this topic -- in every language -- in order to develop the most comprehensive collection in the world. So do not throw out your books or old magazine collection, donate it to the IISOH. We want books, magazines and journals, pamphlets, brochures, etc. If you were an athlete in school then you might have something in your collection that would be happier in our collection. Try to get your Track coach to donate his collection to the IISOH. Certainly encourage coaches who are retiring to give us their entire collection.


Various aspects of Track & Field can be considered among the oldest sports in mankind's history. Javelins or spears have been used as weapons in warfare for thousands of years by different civilizations, while running was the first and only event in the earliest Olympic Games in Greece sometime between the ninth century BCE and 776 BCE. Of course you knew that the Olympic Games were that old - right? They did not "start" in 776 BCE because they were much older. Hippias of Elis was the first ancient Greek writer to try to figure out the origins of the Greek Games and the best he could do was find the name of a winner of the "stade" race. It was known that there were Olympic Games before this winner, but no records existed so Coroebus of Elis (Koroibos) was made famous forever when Hippias wrote how he was the "first recorded winner" in the ancient Olympic Games. Hippias then wrote a history of the winners and established his version of a calendar giving the first recorded winner the honor of being the first "Olympiad" winner. The date that was established a thousand years later corresponds to 776 BCE. Hippias simply called it the "first Olympiad" (there was no "BCE back then of course).



In today's Modern Olympic Games the Track & Field events are officially called Athletics) and they are the focal point of most fans and athletes, the sport for which the stadiums are built. It is a sport that almost every nation in the world competes. Equipment is minor -- the ancient Greeks ran naked. The Ethiopian athlete, Abebe Bikila, won the Marathon race at the 1960 Rome Olympics while running the race in his bare feet. Some of modern sport's greatest moments have come from the achievements of the athletes in Track & Field.

You have probably heard of these great athletes:
Jim Thorpe,

Jesse Owens, Emil Zatopek,

Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell from the film Chariots of Fire about the 1924 Olympic Games.


Track and Field/Athletics continues to be one of the most important sports in the world today. The wide variety of events that are included in this sport are quick to come to mind - running events of all distances but the 100 meters is probably the most famous. Then there are all the others... the 400 and 800 meter races, hurdles, the 1500 meter race, 5,000 and 10,000 meter races and - of course - the Marathon race. And just a reminder for the younger generation, the "Marathon" race was created in 1896 for the first Modern Olympic Games to commemorate an event from the Persian invasions of ancient Greece. There was no "Marathon" race in the ancient Olympic Games, the Panathenaic Games or any other games. The Marathon race is a modern invention.



The other part of "Track & Field" are the field events: javelin throw, shot put and hammer throw. You probably have not practices these too often. But you may have done the jumps! There is the running long jump, the hop, step and skip jump, the high jump and the pole vault. So many activities! So many books to collect! Send us your collection!


For more details about the endowment program, please click here