Overview

This text chronicles the history of intercollegiate athletics from 1910 to 1990, from the early, glory days of Knute Rockne and the ""Gipper"" to the modern era of big budgets, powerful coaches and pampered players. The author describes how sports programmes - although seldom accorded official mention with teaching and research in the university mission statement - have become central to university life. As administrators search for proper balance between athletics and academics, this ""peculiar institution"" grows increasingly powerful and controversial. The book examines the 1929 Carnegie Foundation Report, the formation of major athletic conferences, the national college basketball scandals after World War II, the dissolution of the Pacific Coast Conference in the 1950s and the Knight Foundation Report of 1991. The author finds disturbing patterns for today's college presidents, faculty and students. Providing historical background, this text should inform current policy discussions about the proper place of intercollegiate athletics in the American University.

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9780801855047

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Reviews

An important historical analysis of college sport placed in the broader setting of American higher education. Thelin provides a helpful, even if dispiriting, perspective for not only thinking about current problems plaguing college sport but also for understanding why college sport has survived and why university leadership and the sports establishment have resisted major reform efforts. --'Academe'

Author Information

John R. Thelin is professor of history of higher education and philanthropy at Indiana University. A former Chancellor Professor at the College of William and Mary, he is the author of Higher Education and Its Useful Past and co-author, with Lawrence L. Wiseman, of The Old College Try: Balancing Academics and Athletics in Higher Education. His research for this book was funded by a grant from the Spencer Foundation.

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