The Handbook of College Athletics and Recreation Administration

George S. McClellan, Chris King, Donald L. Rockey

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781118234747
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Student Life

Praise for The Handbook of College Athletics and Recreation Administration

" The Handbook of College Athletics and Recreation Administration provides insiders' in-depth and firsthand perspectives on issues in the contemporary professional administration of intercollegiate athletics and recreation, as well as practical solutions to these issues. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in college athletics and campus recreation administration." — Ming Li, professor and chair, Department of Sports Administration, College of Business, Ohio University

" The Handbook of College Athletics and Recreation Administration is a useful text for undergraduate students preparing for sport management careers within postsecondary institutions. This book effectively blends historical perspectives, theoretical foundations, and practical illustrations in a relevant format that addresses key issues in intercollegiate sports and campus recreation. Of particular value is the focus on people and importance of building relationships based on integrity, trust, and mutual respect." — Tom Collins, associate professor of sport management, chair of Sport Studies and Physical Education, Chowan University

PART ONE

FOUNDATIONS

Higher education can be a complex and challenging field in which to work, and the administration of college athletics and recreation in higher education is an important role on many college campuses. The complexity, challenge, and importance, coupled with a rapidly and ever-changing environment, requires intercollegiate athletics and recreation professionals to be quick learners and adaptive managers. While theirs is a dynamic arena in which to serve, these administrators can draw from a substantial and stable foundation of history, theory, ethics, law, and governance to inform their practice. Part One focuses on these elements in that foundation.

The first two chapters provide a historical overview. In Chapter One, John Thelin traces intercollegiate athletics from its origins at Harvard to its contemporary expression in the 21st century. Drawing on historical, cultural, and sociological perspectives, he thoughtfully points out how the uniquely American model of intercollegiate athletics emerged and evolved. Donald Rockey and Robert Barcelona provide a similar overview for the history of fitness and recreation in Chapter Two. They clearly describe the origins and development of the various elements of collegiate recreation, including physical education departments, organized recreation programs, open exercise and recreation opportunities, outdoor recreation programs, and wellness education.

In Chapters Three and Four, the authors expertly take abstract constructs and demonstrate to the reader their tangible applications. Mary Howard-Hamilton and Joy Gaston Gayles discuss a variety of bodies and models of theories that inform campus recreation and intercollegiate athletics administration. Issues in campus recreation and intercollegiate ethics are addressed by Michael Buckner within the broad framework of every day ethics.

Legal principles and precedent also provide a foundational framework for the administration of college athletics and recreation. While there is no substitute for sage legal counsel, it is helpful and important for practitioners to have an understanding of the law as it relates to their work. Barbara Osborne offers a thorough and practical discussion of important relevant topics in the law in Chapter Five. Gender equity is a critically important legal topic in intercollegiate athletics and recreation, and Title IX is at the heart of the law in this area. Valerie Bonnette's work in Chapter Six highlights both the letter and spirit of Title IX while also offering useful insights on evaluating and assuring compliance.

Governance is an essential element of the organizational framework in which intercollegiate athletics and campus recreation take place at the institution as well as throughout the nation. In Chapter Seven David Ridpath and Robertha Abney provide a description of the elements of governance from faculty senates to athletics associations.

CHAPTER ONE

COLLEGE ATHLETICS

Continuity and Change Over Four Centuries

John R. Thelin

Intercollegiate athletics at American colleges and universities date back to the 19th century, and they have grown to become an integral part of American society. An “All American” refers to a student-athlete selected as one of the best collegiate players in the nation. The award does not extend to a professional athlete in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, or the National Basketball Association. Furthermore, the United States is the only nation that has relied on intercollegiate athletics as a primary source of highly talented athletes to fill Olympic teams in a wide array of sports, as well as to prepare players for professional teams in football, basketball, and baseball. These traditions and practices reinforce the distinct identity of intercollegiate athletics in our American popular culture (Michener, 1976).

This chapter offers an historical narrative of the evolution and growth of college sports as a distinctive, even peculiar, American institution. The chapter addresses four eras in college sports: its 19th-century roots within the American campus; its growth during the first several decades of the 20th century; its prosperity and problems following World War II; and its standing as a high-stakes enterprise on many campuses in the early years of the 21st century.

Origins of College Sports: 19th-Century Roots

Although college sports have a long tradition, their place in higher education was not inevitable. Early faculty resistance to campus sports was born of both religious and educational concerns. To the Protestant denominations who established colonial colleges, the notion of students playing for recreation or enjoyment was antithetical to religious doctrine that emphasized hard work. College presidents, most of whom were also ordained clergy, denounced early student sporting events as frivolous. They argued that if students wanted physical exercise, they could find it by moving rocks and clearing lands on campus (Rudolph, 1962). In addition, any activities outside the established curriculum of the classroom were suspect as not contributing to student learning if not undermining student learning.

Despite faculty objections, students organized their own teams and games with other local college teams. Recognized and sanctioned varsity sports programs were the result of a long campaign by undergraduates to have their athletic contests played between rival colleges be accepted by college administrators as legitimate programs that were part of campus life. The Harvard Athletic Association, founded in 1852, for example, is the oldest formal athletics program in the United States. Old as this is, it lags far behind the founding of Harvard College in 1636.

Another important breakthrough in the early acceptance of intercollegiate athletics came from England, where legend has it that the Duke of Wellington praised the role of school boys playing the game of rugby, exclaiming, “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.” Thereafter, playing fields were seen as important preparing grounds for future political and military leaders. Sport competitions between institutions served as tests of the preparation of these leaders. American colleges in the late 19th century relied on the English model of sports and schools to make the case that playing football had educational value for building character and transmitting values (Smith, 1988).

College sports were one of the few activities that were truly intercollegiate, as distinguished from intramural. Starting with boat racing (eventually known as crew and rowing), the two oldest American colleges—Harvard and Yale—entered into spirited regattas that attracted the enthusiastic alumni and students as spectators along the river banks of New England. It also ushered in professionalism and commercialism, as wealthy alumni provided cash incentives to publicize and glorify the competition. Crew was first and foremost but soon was joined by baseball, track and field, rugby, and eventually the rudiments of what we now know as American football (Smith, 1988).

Early 20th Century

The early 20th century saw important developments in intercollegiate athletics. The emergence of football as the major college sport was particularly important. This section discusses football's new prominence, its growth and the consequences of that growth, and the impact it had on the growth of other college sports. It also addresses the nexus between the Olympic movement and college student-athletes.

Football's Rise

By 1880 intercollegiate sports were dominated by what has been called the rise of football (Rudolph, 1962). Originally, the teams were run by and for students. They collected athletics fees from fellow students and arranged for playing fields, practice facilities, and scheduling games against student teams at other colleges. Each season the student who was elected team captain was responsible for organizing practices as well as strategy and decisions during a game. When spectator demand for seating at football games surpassed the size of the campus playing fields, the student teams relocated to large football stadia in such major cities as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cleveland. Large crowds for games involving Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Pennsylvania finally helped college football gain revenues from ticket sales (Rudolph, 1962). Later, college football was elevated to a nondenominational religious experience, as pre-game ceremonies included a member of the clergy leading the spectators in prayer (Michener, 1976).

Media Coverage and Popular Interest

College sports also worked into the popular media during this era. Newspapers competed for paying readers. Front page coverage of college football games meant that a new generation of Americans learned how to “read football” according to the new vocabulary of sportswriters (Oriard, 1993). Newspapers devoted coverage for weeks prior to a big game. When printing technology allowed photographs, college football players were featured prominently.

Emergence of the Coach

Changes in media promoted the rise of the great college coach as a national figure. Notre Dame spearheaded this movement, as their successful coach, Knute Rockne, supplemented his on-field coaching duties with endorsements of commercial products, a radio show, a newspaper column, and a lucrative contract as a motivational speaker for the Studebaker Automobile Company whose main factory was nearby in South Bend (Thelin, 1994). Once again there were neither precedents nor restrictions on these enterprises (Smith, 2001).

By 1900 powerful college football teams underwent a change. Control of teams and the game shifted from student players to a new figure—the highly paid coach. At Harvard, for example, in the early 1900s a famous football coach was paid $5,000 per year—second in salary only to the university president and several times more than the highest paid professor earned (Smith, 1988). At the young University of Chicago, founded in 1892, the ambitious president hired a former Yale football star to serve both as football coach and a new position called “athletic director.” The coach–athletic director was given tenure as a professor yet was allowed to bypass usual academic budgeting procedures by submitting his financial requests directly to the board of trustees. The University of Chicago Athletics Department became the model of empire building within a campus, as the football coach who also was athletics director was overseer for all sports. The athletics director charged faculty and staff fees to use “his” tennis courts. He developed a recruiting network with high schools across the state by hosting the annual state track and field championships at the University of Chicago stadium. Above all, he successfully courted the industrialists and merchants of the city to be donors and season ticket holders as the university football team came to be the toast of the town (Lester, 1995).

Nationwide and Regional Expansion

College football went from news to publicity with the appearance of Walter Camp's annual selection of the All-American collegiate football squad. Camp, a Yale grad and former football player, used his base in New York City to write a syndicated column, endorse products, and control the All American selection process. Since most of the American population lived on the East Coast, concentrated in the larger cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., college football awards had a strong regional bias. In the 1890s and well into the early 1900s Yale was the undisputed long-time football dynamo, followed by Princeton, Harvard, and Pennsylvania. Gradually, the teams from the Midwest at such universities as Chicago and Michigan gained a strong regional following and, grudgingly, some national recognition. The influence of the oldest universities was displayed in the convergence of standardizing football rules and the boom in constructing large football stadia. A number of coaches haggled over the size of the official college football field, some urging it to be a checker board rather than a gridiron. The discussions were moot when in 1904 Harvard built and opened its magnificent Soldiers’ Field, a horseshoe shaped stadium whose borders made the Harvard football field narrow. By default, this determined the nationwide dimensions and shape of all college football fields.

An important trend in making intercollegiate sports truly All American was th...