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College Athletes for Hire The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA's Amateur Myth
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Allen L. Sack, Ellen J. Staurowsky
ISBN: 0-275-96191-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-96191-6
208 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 7/30/1998
List Price: $69.95 (UK Sterling Price: £48.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: Many books have been written on the evils of commercialism in college sport, and the hypocrisy of payments to athletes from alumni and other sources outside the university. Almost no attention, however, has been given to the way that the National Collegiate Athletic Association has embraced professionalism through its athletic scholarship policy. Because of this gap in the historical record, the NCAA is often cast as an embattled defender of amateurism, rather than as the architect of a nationwide money-laundering scheme.

Sack and Staurowsky show that the NCAA formally abandoned amateurism in the 1950s and passed rules in subsequent years that literally transformed scholarship athletes into university employees. In addition, by purposefully fashioning an amateur mythology to mask the reality of this employer-employee relationship, the NCAA has done a disservice to student-athletes and to higher education. A major subtheme is that women, such as those who created the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), opposed this hypocrisy, but lacked the power to sustain an alternative model. After tracing the evolution of college athletes into professional entertainers, and the harmful effects it has caused, the authors propose an alternative approach that places college sport on a firm educational foundation and defend the rights of both male and female college athletes. This is a provocative analysis for anyone interested in college sports in America and its subversion of traditional educational and amateur principles.
Table of Contents:
  • Foreword by Kent Waldrep, President, National Paralysis Foundation
    Preface
    Introduction: The Different Faces of Collegiate Sport
    Rules of the Game for Men and Women
    The Decline of the Amateur Spirit
    The NCAA Turns Professional, 1906 to 1956
    Physical Education and the Rise of Women's Collegiate Sport
    A Sport for Women Philosophy
    Athletic Scholarships and the Emergence of Corporate College Sport
    Athletic Scholarships: From Gifts to Employment Contracts
    Athletic Scholarships as Failed Academic Policy
    Athletic Scholarships for Women: The Complexities of Intercollegiate Athletic Equality
    Suggestions for Reform
    Putting the Amateur Myth to Rest
    Notes
    Further Reading
    Index
About the Author: ALLEN L. SACK is Professor of Sociology and Management at the University of New Haven. He played defensive end on Ara Parseghian's 1966 National Championship football team and was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams. In 1981-82 he was the Director of the Center for Athletes Rights and Education, and he is currently the Coordinator of the Management of Sports Industries Program at the University of New Haven.

ELLEN J. STAUROWSKY is Associate Professor of Sport Sciences at Ithaca College. As a former college athlete, coach, and athletic director, she brings a unique blend of academic credentials and practical insight to the problems facing intercollegiate athletics.
LCC Class: 796
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