Whiteside uses athletics as a historical lens to view the people, culture, business, and politics of Colorado from its original American Indian occupants to the Broncos' Super Bowl victories. This unique new volume demonstrates how sports history can illuminate the business, politics, class, race, gender, mores, and values of a society. In pre-industrial Colorado, sports and games in Indian villages and early mining towns were shaped by work, community life, and even religion. As leisure time increased for many in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, sport evolved into a more popular recreational activity.The progression of the twentieth century has changed many sports from small-town pastimes into profitable businesses, as exemplified by the growth of the recreational industry and by college football's transformation from a young gentleman's game into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. "Colorado: A Sports History" is enhanced with a fine selection of historical photographs depicting Colorado sports and their participants.