1960 – 1969
The sixties were the age of youth, as
70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults. The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life. No longer content to be images of the generation ahead of them, young people wanted change. The changes affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment. Many of the revolutionary ideas which began in the sixties are continuing to evolve today.
The purpose of this web and library guide is to help the user gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1960s. In a very small way, this is a bibliographic essay. While there is no way we can link to everything, we have attempted to find areas of special interest and to select information that we hold dear today – movies we watch, songs we sing, events that move us, people we admire.
To see the whole picture, we encourage users to browse all the way through this page and then visit the suggested links for more information on the decade. We feel the best way to immerse oneself in a topic is to use both Internet and the library. The real depth of information is best read in books. More photographs, more information, more depth. Then, there is information that will be found only on the Internet; a journal from someone, photographs like those on our pages. If you can add a valuable site or information to this page, we invite you to write. Thanks for the visit. ENJOY!
ART & ARCHITECTURE: Library of Congress browsing areas are: N-NX
Architecture in the sixties was undergoing a refinement of Modernism and a move to an even more streamlined contemporary look. Tall buildings or skyscrapers created a distinctly American structural type. Architects such as Philip Johnson, and John Burgee, of Johnson & Burgee (Kline Biological Tower), are some of the architects who designed office buildings which helped create a different look for the skylines of large cities. Architects used light and space, for example the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei , to create buildings which were adapted for the activities which took place in them. The influence of space and futuristic design was apparent in some public buildings like the NASA complex at Houston, Texas . Eero Saarinen created the Memorial Arch in St. Louis, Missouri in 1965. Walter Gropius designed the Pan Am Building (now called the Met Life Building) in 1963 with Pietro Belluschi and Emery Rothe & Sons. Louis I. Kahn in his Kimbell Art Museum of Ft. Worth and other buildings brought a feeling of austerity to American architecture. Robert Venturi wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966 and called for a change in the reductive simplicity of Modernism, beginning a protest in the late 60’s. Perhaps one of the most well known and influential architects whose career began to rise in the sixties is I. M. Pei . Peter Eisenman and Frank O. Gehry are architects who have become world famous for their distinctive designs and who began making names for themselves during this time. Designers like Herman Miller left their mark on furnishings. Sleek contemporary styles like those by Verner Panton have translated well into future decades of furniture.
As in the fifties, art in America of the sixties was influenced by the desire to move into the modern age or future which the space age seemed to forecast. Major works by Alexander Calder (mobiles and sculpture) or Helen Frankenthaler (non-representational art) showed a desire to escape from details to interpret. Artists wanted to inspire the viewer to leap into the unknown and experience art in their own way. A new artist who appeared was Andy Warhol, a leading name in pop art. Other forms evolving during this time were assemblage art, op art (or optical art) (ex. Vasarely ), or kinetic abstraction (ex. Marcel Duchamp ), environmental art (ex. Robert Smithson ), and pop art , (ex. David Hockney ).
BOOKS ON ART AND ARCHITECTURE:
- N 6490 .L792 Visual Arts in the Twentieth Century History of art in the 20th Century which includes all art forms and architecture. Set up chronologically by decade.
- N 6512.5 .P6 P63 Pop Art A Critical History Nicely covers this form of art and the artists
- N 6512.5 .M63 F56 Art Since 1940 strategies of being Chapters 9 and 10 cover the sixties. Chapter 11 gives info on the transition to the seventies
- N 6537 .W28 A4 America of the Sixties Books like this one go into great depth on the career of a single artist and his work.
BOOKS & LITERATURE
Literature also reflected what was happening in the political arenas and social issues of America in the sixties. A book which described some of the turmoil of race relations as they affected people in America, Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a small southern town and social distinctions between races. Writing about race and gender, women of color like Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou and Margaret Walker Alexander helped create new insights on feminism as it developed in America. Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar), and Mary McCarthy (The Group) spoke of women in roles outside those of the happy wife and mother of the fifties. Women like Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique , and Gloria Steinem , led the way for many women. Disillusionment with the system was the theme of books like Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Marshall McLuhan, author of books on communications and the scope of the “global village,” popularized his belief that mass communications were a driving force in the development of modern society in works like The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media . The Peter Principle, by Laurence Peter, came to epitomize incompetence. In 1963, Maurice Sendak published Where the Wild Things Are, about a boy named Max who must face some of his childhood fears. This controversial book with its illustrations, also by Sendak, won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 and has become a classic in children’s literature.
The Sixties Project
BOOKS: Library of Congress browsing areas include: PS – American Literature; Z – Books and Libraries
- E173.A793 Annals of America Vol 18 contains essays by the important writers of the time, including excerpts from books listed above.
- REF Z1003.2. C66 1993 American Literacy 4-6 page essays on 50 books that define the American culture, includes eight books from this decade.
- REF Z1219.C96 1905 (annual) Book Review Digest Indexes and abstracts book reviews. Use it to find books written during the period and their reviews
Children’s Book Award Winners of the 60’s
Newbery Award Winners – Began in 1922 (awarded to the most distinguished children’s book of the previous year)
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
1964: It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Neville
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander
Caldecott Award Winners – Began in 1938 (awarded to the most distinguished children’s picture book of the previous year)
1961: Baboushka and the Three Kings, illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov; text: Ruth Robbins
1962: Once a Mouse, retold and illustrated by Marcia Brown
1963: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
1964: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
1965: May I Bring a Friend? illustrated by Beni Montresor; text: Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
1966: Always Room for One More, illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian; text: Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. [Leclair Alger]
1967: Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness
1968: Drummer Hoff, illustrated by Ed Emberley; text: adapted by Barbara Emberley
1969: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, illustrated by Uri Shulevitz; text: retold by Arthur Ransome
During the sixties, college campuses became centers of debate and scenes of protest more than ever before. Great numbers (statistics) of young adults, baby boomers, reaching military draft age (selective service) and not yet voting age (minimum voting age did not become 18 until 1971), caused a struggle which played out on many campuses as the country became more involved (timeline) in the Vietnam War. The generation gap became a growing phenomenon.
In 1966, James S. Coleman, commissioned by the government, published Equality of Educational Opportunity, a landmark study that led the way to forced integration and busing in the 1970s.
Problems in secondary schools, discovered in the fifties, were being addressed in books such as James B. Conant’s The American High School Today. A return to the teaching of basic thinking skills was seen to be part of the solution. In grade schools across the nation, phonics made a come back as reading specialists try to fix what went wrong in American education in the fifties.
The picture to the right shows the first teacher allowed to teach pregnant (and showing) in Clear Creek School District. It was the end of 1968.
- Gender inequality and growth/paper from the WorldBank
- REF E173.A793 Annals of America Vol. 18 has a chapter from Equality of Educational Opportunity and several articles about student unrest.
- REF E174.D52 Dictionary of American History This multi-volume set has a very good entry under “Education”. Volume 2
- LA 11.L8 Our Western Educational Heritage The final long chapter contains history of American educational system.
- LA 216.C73 American Education : The Metropolitan Experience 1876-1980 History of education. Other titles by Lawrence A. Cremin may be helpful.
- REF LA217.2 .V36 Public Schooling in America Brief information about all the landmarks of education.
FADS & FASHION
Youth predominated the culture of the 1960’s. The post World War II Baby Boom had created 70 million teenagers for the sixties, and these youth swayed the fashion, the fads and the politics of the decade. California surfers took to skateboards as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread across the country. Barbie dolls, introduced by Mattel in 1959, became a huge success in the sixties, so much so that rival toy manufacturer Hasbro came up with G. I. Joe, 12 inches tall and the first action figure for boys. Another doll, the troll or Dammit doll (named for it’s creator, Thomas Dam) was a good luck symbol for all ages. Slot cars overtook toy trains in popularity.
COSTUMES / FASHION
The 1960’s began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men’s casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. By mid-decade, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were revealing legs, bodywear was revealing curves, and women’s hair was either very short or long and lanky. Men’s hair became longer and wider, with beards and moustaches. Men’s wear had a renaissance. Bright colors, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue. By the end of the decade, ties, when worn, were up to 5″ wide, patterned even when worn with stripes. Women wore peasant skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing was popular, featuring bell bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts. Clothing was as likely to be purchased at surplus stores as boutiques. Blacks of both genders wore their hair in an afro.
- Costumer’s Manifesto | Links to world wide of fashion . Good ones.
- Baby Boomers Headquarters | a site on the decade. Includes an interesting quiz on happenings from 1960-1969.
- The Sixties Project | the Viet Nam generation
- Badfads | Descriptions of the styles of the sixties
- Hairstyle history gallery | Online costume and hair gallery
- Sixties City | Culture, music, history. A little of everything.
BOOKS on art
- REF E169.1.P19 Panati’s Parade of Fads, Follies and Manias Arranged by decade, includes fads, dance crazes, radio,
TV, popular books and songs.
- E 169.1.R7755 Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America Important essays analyzing mass culture in American history.
- GT 596.L64 Radical Rags: Fashion of the Sixties An in-depth look at the fashion of the sixties. Great photos
BOOKS on fashion
- REF D840.P27 Day By Day: The Sixties Two volumes on the sixties give a closer look at current events during this turbulent decade
- REF E169.12 .A418 Dictionary of Twentieth Century Culture: American Culture After World War II Encyclopedic listings of prominent people and trends
- GT605.H35 Common Threads: A Parade of American Clothing Includes an overview of the 20th century, then chapters on contributors to changes in fashion. If you only see one book, this is the one. It has photographs of people in turn of the century dress styles from the suffragettes to the businesslike attire of women & workman’s factory attire to those in the ‘oldest profession’.
HISTORIC EVENTS AND TECHNOLOGY
The Civil Rights movement made great changes in society in the 1960’s. The movement began peacefully, with Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael leading sit-ins and peaceful protests, joined by whites, particularly Jews. Malcolm X preached about Black Nationalism. After his assassination, the Black Panthers were formed to continue his mission. In 1965, the Watts riots broke out in Los Angeles. The term “blacks” became socially acceptable, replacing “Negroes.”
The number of Hispanic Americans tripled during the decade and became recognized as an oppressed minority. Cesar Chavez organized Hispanics in the United Farm Workers Association. American Indians, facing unemployment rates of 50% and a life expectancy only two-thirds that of whites, began to assert themselves in the courts and in violent protests.
The Presidential Commission of the Status of Women (1963) presented disturbing facts about women’s place in our society. Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray and Gloria Steinem, (National Organization for Women) questioned the unequal treatment of women, gave birth to Women’s Lib, and disclosed the “glass ceiling.” The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to include gender. The birth control pill became widely available and abortion for cause was legalized in Colorado in 1967. In 1967, both abortion and artificial insemination became legal in some states.
The Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 1962, that prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional. As the 1960’s progressed, many young people turned from mainstream Protestant religions to mystic eastern religions such as Transcendental Meditation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) or Zen Buddhism. Respect for authority declined among the youth, and crime rates soared to nine times the rate of the 1950’s. Marijuana use soared. Well known Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary encouraged the use of LSD as a mind-opening drug. The hippie movement endorsed drugs, rock music, mystic religions and sexual freedom. They opposed violence. The Woodstock Festival at which 400,000 young people gathered in a spirit of love and sharing, represents the pinnacle of the hippie movement. Many hippies moved to Haight Ashbury in San Francisco, East Village in New York City, or lived in communes.
When Fidel Castro, soon after overtaking Cuba, declared that he was a communist, the United States broke off diplomatic relations. Castro seized American property. The CIA attacked Cuba in an ill-fated mission at the Bay of Pigs. In 1962, a spy plane identified long range missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy readied troops to invade Cuba, and the Soviet Union prepared to fire at US cities if we made a move.
John F. Kennedy was young and charismatic, and his brief reign as president was often called Camelot. He was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. His Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson became president, and was reelected the following year. To prevent communist North Vietnam from overtaking South Vietnam, the United States sent military advisors and then soldiers. It was largely a secret war until 1965, when massive troop buildups were ordered to put an end to the conflict. The draft was accelerated and anti-war sentiment grew in the US. College students organized anti-war protests, draft dodgers fled to Canada, and there were reports of soldiers reflected the growing disrespect for authority, shooting their officers rather than follow orders. Johnson, blamed by many for the war and the racial unrest in the country, did not run for reelection in 1968. John Kennedy’s brother, Robert campaigned for the nomination for President and he, too was killed. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 and Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.
The Space Race, begun by the Soviets in 1957, was highlighted by Alan Shepard, the first American in space in 1961. In 1963, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, in Apollo XI, were the first men to walk on the moon in 1969. The surgeon general determined that smoking was a health hazard, and in 1965 required cigarette manufacturers to place warnings on all packages and in all ads. The first clone of a vertebrate, a South African tree frog, was produced in 1967. Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first artificial heart in a human, and it kept the patient alive for three days until a human heart could be transplanted.
People became more concerned with their health and their environment. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring awakened the environmental movement and the Sierra Club gained a following. Ralph Nader’s book, Unsafe at any Speed, led to the consumer movement.
|Important Historic and Cultural Events
1961 – Peace Corps created by Pres. Kennedy
1963 – Martin Luther King delivers his I have a dream speech
1963 – Pres. John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas
1963 – Lyndon Johnson becomes President of the United States
- Historical Atlas of the 20th Century | Collection of maps and stats of the 20th century
- Early Information and Technology | Pictures and essays from Library of Congress.
- Genealogy Guide | Helpful guide for locating past people, places and events.
Library of Congress browsing areas : E -F – U.S. History [ Remember, history covers all areas of the library.]
- REF E18.5.U75 Timetables of American History Include history and politics, the arts, science and technology, and other info of interest.
- REF E178.5.A48 Album of American History Vol VI and supp This is a great book to give the reader the real flavor of the decade because it is made up of photographs, captions, and brief entries.
- REF E174.D52 Dictionary of American History From very brief to multi-page signed entries on topics in American History.
- REF E169.1 A71872 1995 Day by Day : The Sixties What happened in politics, science and culture each day for the entire decade.
- REF E169.1 A471872 1995 America in the 20th Century 1960 – 1969 is covered in volume 8. Typical of Marshall Cavendish, this encyclopedic set is accessible and gives easy to use background information for this decade. Covers from art to transportation.
- REF E173.A793 The Annals of America vol. 18. Set contains essays and excepts from important writers and on important topics of the time. Most valuable for this research.
- REF Q125 .A765 Asimov’s Chronology of Science & Discovery Scientific breakthroughs by year.
FINDING PEOPLE IN BOOKS
- REF N7593 .C93 Dictionary of American Portraits Photographs or drawings of important Americans. Brief description of their contribution. Arranged by person.
- REF E176 .D563 Dictionary of American Biography Annual. Arranged by person. Up to 1 page biographical entries.
- REF E176.W64 1897-1942 v.1 Who Was Who in America Brief entries alphabetical by person.
In 1960, Elvis returned to the music scene from the US Army, joining the other white male vocalists at the top of the charts; Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Del Shannon and Frankie Avalon. America, however, was ready for a change. The Tamla Motown Record Company came on the scene, specializing in black rhythm and blues, aided in the emergence of female groups such as Gladys Knight and the Pips, Martha and the Vandellas, the Supremes, and Aretha Franklin, as well as some black men, including Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and the Temptations. Bob Dylan helped bring about a folk music revival, along with Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary. The Beach Boys began recording music that appealed to high schoolers. The Beatles, from England, burst into popularity with innovative rock music that appealed to all ages. The Righteous Brothers were a popular white duo who used African American styling to create a distinctive sound.
There was a major change in popular music in the mid-1960’s, caused in part by the drug scene. Acid Rock, highly amplified and improvisational, and the more mellow psychedelic rock gained prominence. When the Beatles turned to acid rock, their audience narrowed to the young. Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead grew out of the counterculture in 1967. The musical phenomena of the decade was Woodstock, a three day music festival that drew 400,000 hippies and featured peace, love, and happiness…and LSD. Folk music contributed to the counterculture.
The modular synthesizer (aka moog synthesizer), developed in 1960 by Robert Moog and Donald Buchla, marked a major change in serious music. Innovative composers were already experimenting with electro-acoustic music. Now they were able to go further with John Cage’s 0’0 (Zero Silence) to be performed by anyone in anyway; Morton Subotnik’s Silver Apples of the Moon; Robert Ashley’s Wolfman. In 1967, Alvin Lucier, one of the co-founders of the Sonic Arts Union, created “Music for a Solo Performer,” in which electrodes were attached to the performer’s scalp. His alpha waves, controlled by his concentration, resonated from loudspeakers, accompanied by occasional percussion. Computers were used in music composition and sound synthesis, notably Max Mathews’ Music IV and Music V. By the end of the decade, popular music was also using synthesizers and other electronic devices.
- LyricFind | 50,000+ song lyrics. Search by keyword, artist or title.
- Radio from the 1960s | Listen to music of the sixties
- History of Rock ‘n Roll | One stop shopping for information on Rock
- REF ML200.H15 A Chronicle of American Music 1700-1995 Arranged by year, historical highlights, world cultural highlights, American art and literature, music – commercial and cultural.
- REF ML197.S634 Music Since 1900 Arranged by day, includes important premiers and musical events.
- REF ML128.S37L4 The Great American Song Thesaurus Arranged by year, summary of world and musical events, list of important songs.
- REF ML390.S983 Show Tunes 1905-1985 Features important composers. Lists their shows and the published music for each show.
THEATER, FILM, RADIO, and TELEVISION
By 1960, Broadway productions had become prohibitively expensive for adventurous offerings, and producers resorted to musicals and works proven elsewhere. It was a great decade for musicals, including Camelot, Hello Dolly, Oliver, Man of La Mancha, Hair, and Funny Girl. Even Off-Broadway was feeling the economic pinch. leading to the advent of off-off-Broadway, where innovative shows and new writers could get a start. Theater expanded outside New York City, and by 1966 for the first time, more actors were employed outside New York City than in it. The most prestigious playwright of the sixties is Edward Albee, who wrote Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Musicals that proved popular on Broadway were made into movies, including Sound of Music and My Fair Lady. After Marilyn Monroe died, Audrey Hepburn, star of My Fair Lady and Wait until Dark, was the idol of young girls. Disney offered family entertainment in 101 Dalmatians and Pinocchio. Movies became more political, commenting on the arms race as in Dr. Strangelove. Sex became more explicit, and occasionally nontraditional, as in Midnight Cowboy, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, and The Graduate. Six James Bond Movies, including Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger, combined sex and violence and were enormously popular. Previous taboos on sex, violence and language, were ignored, resulting in the need for a new film code by the MPAA.
Radio continued to be the primary means of listening to music. The major development was a change from primarily AM to FM . Radio was supplemented by American Bandstand, watched by teens from coast to coast. They not only learned the latest music, but how to dance to it. When Chubby Checker introduced the twist on the show in 1961, a new craze was born, and dancing became an individual activity. The Mashed Potato, the Swim, the Watusi, the Monkey and the Jerk followed the Twist, mimicking their namesakes. Each new dance often lasted for just a song or two before the next one came along. Eventually the names and stylized mimicry ceased and the dancers just moved however they wanted. For those who preferred watching the dancers, Go-go girls, on stages or in bird cages, danced above the crowd.
Television offered the second prime time cartoon show, the Flintstones , in 1960. (The first was Rocky and his Friends in 1959.) It appealed to both children and adults and set off a trend that included Alvin & the Chipmunks , the Jetsons , and Mr. Magoo. The Andy Griffith Show was the epitome of prime time family television, and ran for most of the decade. The Beverly Hillbillies was another popular sitcom. The supernatural and science fiction blended in many of the popular shows, including Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian , I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek, the Outer Limits , and the Twilight Zone. In the late 60’s, humor was revived in a show called Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In, where many regular performers and guests became part of a show biz classic.
- Greatest Films – Plot summaries of Hollywood classics
- Movies of the 1960’s – Film trends and censorship in the 1960’s, from the University of Sydney
BOOKS Library of Congress browsing areas for theatre and drama: PN
- REF PN2189.L85 Twentieth Century Theatre. A theater buff’s bible. This book lists and describes by year premiers, productions, revivals, events, births/death/debuts in both America and Great Britain.
- REF PN1998 .A2 I48 Illustrated Who’s Who of the Cinema. Brief entries by name, including photos.
Year and Title of Film:
1964 – Dr. Strangelove or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb – a satire on the dangers of atomic weapons
1968 – The Graduate – a film showing how the generation gap affects communications
1969 – Midnight Cowboy – an example a films with a more mature theme
Three Olympic Games were held during the sixties. In 1960, the winter games were held in Squaw Valley, the summer games were held in Rome. Some of the outstanding athletes in the 1960 games were, David Jenkins, gold in figure skating and Carol Heiss, gold in figure skating. The US ice hockey team also won the gold medal in these winter olympics. In Rome during the1960 games, among the US gold medalists were: world record setting Otis Davis, 400m, and olympic record setting Glenn Davis, 400m hurdles, William Nieder, shot put, and Al Oerter, discus. Wilma Rudoph won gold in both the 100m and 200m runs. Muhammad Ali won gold as a light heavyweight boxer. The women’s 400m relay and the men’s basketball team won gold, too. In 1964, the winter games were held in Innsbruck, Austria, and the summer games were held in Tokyo. Highlights for the US team were at the summer games where medalists included world records for Bob Hayes, 100m, olympic records for Henry Carr, 200m, Billy Mills, 10,000m, Dallas Long, shot put, and Al Oerter, discus. Wyomia Tyus, 100m, and Edith McGuire, 200m, were gold medal women athletes. Once again the men’s basketball team won gold and the men’s 400m relay team set a world record. Don Schollander won two gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle swim. In 1968, the winter games were held in Grenoble France and the summer games were held in Mexico City. Figure skating champion Peggy Fleming won gold for her performance in Grenoble. In Mexico City, the men’s track and field efforts were rewarded with world records for Jim Hines, 100m, Tommie Smith, 200m, Lee Evans, 400m, and the men’s 400m relay team. Al Oerter set a third olympic record in the discus throw. Wyomia Tyus set a world record in the 100m run, and the women ‘s 400m relay team set a world record. Debbie Meyer won 3 golds for 200, 400 and 800m freestyle swimming events.
In professional sports, pitcher Sandy Koufax, National League, won the Cy Young award in baseball in 1963, 1965, and 1966. Other baseball greats included Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, and Bob Gibson. Star football players included Abner Haynes, Dallas, 1960, Jim Nance, Boston, 1966, and Joe Namath, New York Jets, 1968. Basketball greats included Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Elvin Hayes and Elgin Baylor. Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win the U.S. Tennis Championship title in 1968. Arnold Palmer dominated golf in the 1960’s. His chief rival, Jack Nicklaus, came along to begin his own great golf career.
BOOKS Library of Congress browsing area for sports is GV.
- REF GV 697 .A1P32 – Sports Stars, published by Gale Research. This 2 vol. set contains photos of the athletes.
- REF GV 704 .S663 – Sports: Complete Virtual Reference, pub. by Firefly Books, information on sports, equipment and athletes.
- REF GV 709 .I58 – International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports, pub. by Gale, female athletes from around the world.
- REF GV 741 .S768 – Sports Illustrated Sports Almanac, lists past athletes by sport.
- REF GV 741 .I58 – ESPN Sports Almanac, similar to the Sports Illustrated Almanac, lists of athletes by sport.