Like many Pacific Northwest kids, Sam Hurst, ’27, grew up a competitive player deeply embedded in local soccer culture. As a preteen in his Oregon elementary school, he ran a cost-benefit analysis of being a national host of the FIFA World Cup. Just for fun. Fast-forward a decade or so, and last year the University of Washington sophomore had a hole to fill in his schedule. He found a class called “Shut Up and Play? Sports, Politics and Media in Global Perspective”—and couldn’t sign up fast enough.