Games Colleges Play: Scandal and Reform in Intercollegiate Athletics

by John R. Thelin

Book 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801855047
• ISBN13: 9780801855047
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A view of college athletics.

Great look into the world of college athletics that you don't see on ESPN. Gives the readers a real look at what goes on; what's really involved in the world of college sports and the "student athlete". Great reading. You think that college athletics have become more show than competition? Well, read this book and come away with what really goes on. Excellent read.

Great college sports book

The book offers a great read on the history of intercollegiate athletics. The specific stories about universities and conferences allow the reader to connect to what is current in the world of college athletics. It is gives a good story of what was going on behind the scenes. It is a good book for policies concerning college athletics.