Games Colleges Play: Scandal and Reform in Intercollegiate Athletics / Edition 1

by John R. Thelin

Overview

Featuring a new introduction by the author, the paperback edition of Games Colleges Play chronicles the history of intercollegiate athletics from 1910 to 1990.

Featuring a new introduction by the author, the paperback edition of Games Colleges Play 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. John Thelin describes how sports programs—although seldom accorded official mention with teaching and research in the university mission statement—have become central to university life. As administrators search for a proper balance between athletics and academics, Thelin observes, this peculiar institution grows increasingly powerful and controversial.

Thelin 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. He finds disturbing patterns of abuse and limited reform and explores the implications of these patterns for today's college presidents, faculty, and students.

Games Colleges Play provides historical background that will inform current policy discussions about the proper place of intercollegiate athletics within the American university.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801855047
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	11/18/1996
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.64(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John R. Thelin is the University Research Professor Emeritus of the history of higher education and public policy at the University of Kentucky. His numerous books include A History of American Higher Education and Games Colleges Play.

Table of Contents

Editor's Foreword
Preface to the 1996 Edition
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: American Higher Education's "Peculiar Institution"
Chapter 1. The Reform Canon: The 1929 Carnegie Foundation Report
Chapter 2. Responses to Reform, 1930 to 1946
Chapter 3. Regional Pride and Institutional Prestige: College Sports and the "Booster" Campus
Chapter 4. Schools for Scandal, 1946 to 1960
Chapter 5. Faculty Control and the Irony of Reform: The Pacific Coast Conference, 1946 to 1959
Chapter 6. Critics and Controversies, 1960 to 1980
Chapter 7. From Sports Page to Front Page, 1980 to 1990
Epilogue: An American Dilemma: Balancing Academics and Athletics
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial 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

A wonderfully easy read.
—Michael W. Simpson, Education Review

This book is an important addition to any canon of the field's literature.
—Jana Nidiffer, History of Education Quarterly

A welcome book on an important subject.
—American Historical Review

An important historical analysis of college sport placed in the broader setting of American higher education. Thelin provides a helpful, 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

From the Publisher

A welcome book on an important subject.

American Historical Review

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

A wonderfully easy read.

Education Review - Michael W. Simpson

This book is an important addition to any canon of the field's literature.

History of Education Quarterly - Jana Nidiffer

This book is an important addition to any canon of the field's literature.

— Jana Nidiffer

History of Education Quarterly

A wonderfully easy read.

— Michael W. Simpson

Education Review

Chronicles intercollegiate sports from 1910 to 1990, documenting their steadily increased prominence in relation to academics, the major scandals and attempts at reform over the years, and the current status of opportunities and temptations for both the colleges and the athletes. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews