Intercollegiate Sports: Education Vs. Entertainment SEAN KELLY EDU657: HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR: DR. STEFANIE LASSITER FEBRUARY 28, 2014

With Justice for Some: Intercollegiate sports exclusions During the early 20th century, intercollegiate athletics gained a great deal of popularity, exemplifying the "collegiate ideal" (Thelin, 2011, p. 177). This ideal was unfortunately not created with a progressive frame of mind as a great number of talented athletes were denied entry to the post- secondary athletics association which would grow into the National Collegiate Athletic Association or simply NCAA.

Overcoming Racially Biased Legislation In 1875, the United States Supreme Court upheld the landmark decision made in the Plessy Vs. Ferguson case; by the end of the 19 th century, American universities would graduate the first African American Ph.Ds. In the dawning of the 20 th century, African Americans athletes were playing in the Rose Bowl and on All American teams. Acceptance would not come easily for many more decades in post-secondary athletics.

The Johnny Bright Incident In 1951, Drake University played Oklahoma A & M in football; Johnny Bright was one of the first African American quarterbacks to play on an integrated team after Jackie Robinson had broken the so-called color barrier in professional baseball. While Bright was considered by many to be one of the most talented players in the collegiate circles; the young athlete was unable to defend himself as noted by Lane Demas (2010), after Bright delivered the ball to his running back, while “Bright stood behind the play and watched, OAMC lineman Wilbanks Smith ran up and landed a forearm blow directly to Bright’s face” (p. 61). This came after some threats of physical violence prior to the game in what could only be described as one of the most deplorable acts of hatred in a simple game of football. The photograph below shows Johnny Bright (# 43) being deliberately attacked after the football was handed off to another player. Bright suffered a broken jaw as a result.

Advent of Television When integration had fully set into the mindset of the college athletes; the attention turned to the new and exciting medium of televised broadcasts of intercollegiate football games. As Michael Oriard (2001) points out, while professional football was on board with the television audiences the NCAA would hold out until the 1960s before they would “give up the battle and embrace television belatedly as the guarantor of its own financial well-being” (p. 366). Televised broadcasts of weekend football would become the main flow of income for many colleges.

University of Minnesota Graduation Rates for student athletes. Males and Females Sport GSR Fed Rate Baseball Basketball CC/Track Football 75 51

21 st Century Edu-tainment In the dawning of the 21 st century, post-secondary athletics provides the bulk of monetary expenditures on expenses such as stadium costs and scholarship funds; however, with extended television, radio, and internet coverage, institutions across the country are paid vast sums of money to provide training for the next big professional athlete.

Images Retrieved from:  images.businessweek.com  soudogsports.net  W.E.B. Du Bois. c N.A.A.C.P. Records, Library of Congress  searchingforakilismith.com  media/public/rates/index.htm l media/public/rates/index.htm l drhiphop85.com

References DEMAS, L. (2010) INTEGRATING THE GRIDIRON : BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS AND AMERICAN COLLEGE FOOTBALL. RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS. RETRIEVED FROM EBRARY DATABASE. ORIARD, M. (2001). KING FOOTBALL : SPORT AND SPECTACLE IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO AND NEWSREELS, MOVIES AND MAGAZINES, THE WEEKLY AND THE DAILY PRESS. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS THELIN, J. R. (2011). A HISTORY OF AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION (2ND ED.). BALTIMORE: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS.