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Sports and Freedom: The Rise of Big-Time College Athletics
Contributor(s): Smith, Ronald a. (Author)

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 ISBN: 0195065824     ISBN-13: 9780195065824
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
OUR PRICE: $87.15  

Binding Type: Paperback
Published: December 1990
Qty:

Annotation: Perhaps more than any other two colleges, Harvard and Yale gave form to American intercollegiate athletics--a form that was inspired by the Oxford-Cambridge rivalry overseas, and that was imitated by colleges and universities throughout the United States. Focusing on the influence of these
prestigious eastern institutions, this fascinating study traces the origins and development of intercollegiate athletics in America from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Smith begins with an historical overview of intercollegiate athletics and details the evolution of
individual sports--crew, baseball, track and field, and especially football. Then, skillfully setting various sports events in their broader social and cultural contexts, Smith goes on to discuss many important issues that are still relevant today: student-faculty competition for institutional
athletic control; the impact of the professional coach on big-time athletics; the false concept of amateurism in college athletics; and controversies over eligibility rules. He also reveals how the debates over brutality and ethics created the need for a central organizing body, the National
Collegiate Athletic Association, which still runs college sports today. Sprinkled throughout with spicy sports anecdotes, from the Thanksgiving Day Princeton-Yale football game that drew record crowds in the 1890s to a meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt on football violence, this lively,
in-depth investigation will appeal to serious sports buffs as well as to anyone interested in American social and cultural history.

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Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Sports & Recreation | History
- Education | Physical Education
- History | United States - 20th Century
Dewey: 796.071
LCCN: 8800017855
Lexile Measure: 1530(Not Available)
Series: Sports and History
Physical Information: 0.78" H x 5.52" W x 8.66" L (0.93 lbs) 320 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 20th Century
Features: Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Perhaps more than any other two colleges, Harvard and Yale gave form to American intercollegiate athletics--a form that was inspired by the Oxford-Cambridge rivalry overseas, and that was imitated by colleges and universities throughout the United States. Focusing on the influence of these
prestigious eastern institutions, this fascinating study traces the origins and development of intercollegiate athletics in America from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Smith begins with an historical overview of intercollegiate athletics and details the evolution of
individual sports--crew, baseball, track and field, and especially football. Then, skillfully setting various sports events in their broader social and cultural contexts, Smith goes on to discuss many important issues that are still relevant today: student-faculty competition for institutional
athletic control; the impact of the professional coach on big-time athletics; the false concept of amateurism in college athletics; and controversies over eligibility rules. He also reveals how the debates over brutality and ethics created the need for a central organizing body, the National
Collegiate Athletic Association, which still runs college sports today. Sprinkled throughout with spicy sports anecdotes, from the Thanksgiving Day Princeton-Yale football game that drew record crowds in the 1890s to a meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt on football violence, this lively,
in-depth investigation will appeal to serious sports buffs as well as to anyone interested in American social and cultural history.
 
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