He's written about composers, about American music and about the arts.

But sports history is what tickles Alan Levy's fancy these days.

And it came about by accident.

Levy, a history professor at Slippery Rock University since 1985, stumbled upon the idea for his first sports-related book about the ever zany George Edward "Rube" Waddell by happenstance - and opportunity.

The son of one of his history department colleagues, John Craig, was fascinated by the crazy antics of Waddell.

Levy thought a good birthday present for Craig's son would be a book about Waddell. Only, there wasn't one.

"So, instead of buying him a biography of Rube Waddell for his 10th birthday, I wrote him a biography for his 11th birthday," Levy said.

It was Levy's first foray into penning a historical tale of an athlete. Since its release in 2000, he also wrote a book about the integration of professional football titled "Tackling Jim Crow: Racial Segregation and Professional Football," and is currently wrapping up a book about Joe McCarthy, the manager of the New York Yankees from 1931 to 1946.

McFarland & Company is Levy's publisher.

Levy always has been fascinated by sports, and in particular, how it is viewed in historical and cultural terms."I've been aware of the fact sports history is an existing, but not fully developed, area," Levy said.So in a roundabout way, Levy is setting out to change that.His book about Waddell, who was the biggest screwball with one of the best fastballs in the early 20th century, was well received.Of course, the subject matter was very juicy.Levy spins yarns about Waddell that would split almost any side.Waddell's tale is both zany and tragic at the same time."You name the great pitchers of his day, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Grove Alexander, Rube was their contemporary," Levy said. "For about six years, he was every bit their equal, if not better."But, as Levy's book illustrates, Waddell's perch on top of the baseball world was both precarious and fleeting.He was known to chase fire trucks, sometimes leaving the mound to do so. He was also known to play marbles with children in the parking lot of the baseball field where he was to pitch, and he was known to drink a lot and let his fiery temper rule him even more."He was a little kid who never grew up," Levy said. "Players on the opposing team would sometimes show up in the dugout with dogs, or clowns, or other things like toys and say, 'Look, Rube, look,' trying to divert his attention."Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't.Levy said one of the main draws to a person such as Waddell is the fact he was a flawed hero.One of the things Levy has found is Americans love their flawed heroes."Rube, because he was so great, but because he could have been so much greater, makes everyone think what if, what if, what if?" he said.Levy also found that the real, perfect sports heroes get lost in the shuffle."Hank Aaron was boring," Levy said. "Hank Aaron did not stay out and drink. He was in bed at 10 p.m. every night. He never made trouble on his team. Hank Aaron was a wonderful guy."But he wasn't flawed. In Levy's research, flawed is the way to go to become a hero."We like it that way," Levy said.

When Levy took on the topic of racial segregation and then the integration in professional football, he ended up tackling the story of the Jim Crow laws of the first part of the 20th century and how they affected the National Football League.Like Waddell's story, Levy found a subject in American history that had seldom been explored."When I first started working on it, the topic was virtually untouched," Levy said. "You hear about Jackie Robinson, but football integrated at just about the same time, actually one year earlier."Levy said it is not surprising the story of integration in professional football has not been explored more.In the 1940s, baseball was king."The fact that football hasn't gotten as much coverage on topics like that is understandable," Levy said. "The social impact of baseball was extraordinary. You talk to anybody who was around in the '40s - particularly anyone who is African-American - Jackie Robinson meant the world to them."

Like any historian, Levy searches out the road less traveled in his subjects."As a professional historian, you try to look for something new to say, or a new way of interpreting something," Levy said.He's done that again with his biography of Yankees' manager Joe McCarthy."There have been 20 books written about Casey Stengel, but none of Joe McCarthy," Levy said.McCarthy was the architect of the Yankee machine in the 1930s and '40s. His teams were the clubs that everyone outside of New York called the Damn Yankees."The Yankees had had great teams before, but the real Yankee dynasty, the team everyone loved to hate, the team that wiped out the league every year was McCarthy's teams."The Yankees' dominance during that period included four straight World Series titles from 1936-39. During those series, the Bronx Bombers were 16-3."That's just annihilation," Levy said. "They were just devastating."In his research he found a newspaper in Cleveland that didn't even run the Yankees' name in the standings. The paper simply ran the records of teams two through eight.Now, Levy has designs on a new book about 1960s boxer Floyd Patterson."One reason is there is no biography written about him," Levy said. "He was a great fighter. He wasn't the greatest like Ali. He was a different prism through which to look at an era like the 1960s."

Levy's hectic schedule makes it tough for him to crank out books on a Steven King-type schedule.But one thing he has found is that sport is a never-ending supply of historical gold."It's an increasingly respectable field in American history," Levy said. "Some people try to poo-poo it as popular culture. All topics in history are important if they are well articulated."