Described as the sports equivalent of The Awl,[4] the site was launched in December 2011 by several members of the basketball blog FreeDarko, including Bethlehem Shoals and Eric Freeman, and features other writers such as David Roth, Eric Nusbaum, Tom Scharpling, Tim Marchman and Lang Whitaker.

[3] The site's approach to long-form sports writing instantly drew comparisons to Grantland,[3][6] the ESPN-funded website that had been launched by Bill Simmons the year before.

Instead, The Classical will be a running, wide-ranging conversation between us and our readers about baseball, basketball, soccer, football and fighting, and about things that aren't sports, too.

The name of the site is in reference to the first track of the 1982 album Hex Enduction Hour, by the English post-punk band The Fall.

[1] Pete Beatty, one of the site's founders, said the name was appropriate since "it is probably fair to describe The Classical as post-punk sports journalism.