University of Oregon professor Courtney M. Cox joins the show to discuss her new book, “Double Crossover: Gender, Media, and Politics in Global Basketball.” The book “considers how Black women and non-binary athletes maneuver through the global sports-media complex.” Cox is also co-director (with Dr. Perry B. Johnson) of The Sound of Victory, a multi-platform digital humanities project located at the intersection of music, sound, and sport.

Former Vanderbilt quarterback Kurt Page, the first SEC QB to throw for 3,000 yards in a season (1983), joins us from Europe to discuss his experience as the quarterback coach for the Wroclaw Panthers in Poland and how the opportunity has expanded his horizons and changed his life.

Former Vanderbilt placekicker Rob Chura joins the show to discuss his recent trip to the US-Mexico border. A football coach, teacher, and director of Global Education at Saint Louis University High School in Missouri, Chura took a group of students to the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Mexico to work with deportees and migrants.

ESPN Senior Writer Michael Fletcher joins On The Ball to discuss his recent article on legendary sports sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards. Fletcher calls Edwards, 82, “arguably the strongest advocate for Black athletes in history.” Battling cancer, “Edwards is clear-eyed about his illness, as well as the challenges that he will one day leave behind,” Fletcher writes. “After all of his work to promote diversity, he is witnessing the federal government vilify and undermine those types of efforts. Yet, he is not discouraged. He says he believes setbacks are inevitable and can be rendered temporary by continued activism.

‘There are no final victories,’ Edwards said. ‘There's just struggle. The only two things that survive are the struggle and the people, and they are perpetual.’”

Members of the Sports Business & Analytics student organization at Vanderbilt discuss their 2nd place finish at the SABR Case Competition in Phoenix and the purpose & work of their club.

Geoff Macdonald, the former national championship-winning women’s tennis coach at Vanderbilt and the real-life “Most Interesting Man in the World,” joins the show.

Washington Post sportswriter Dave Sheinin discusses his recent three-part series, “Beautyball.” The analytics movement helped revolutionize sports. But now the all-consuming influence of those efforts is being blamed for harming the aesthetics of our games, forcing league officials to make a course correction before it’s too late.

Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, joins the show to discuss the past, present, and future of the Museum, the incredible success introducing Black baseball history to kids through a partnership with the MLB The Show video game, and the importance of the museum in today’s political climate.