Download or read book The Myth of the Amateur written by Ronald A. Smith and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this in-depth look at the heated debates over paying college athletes, Ronald A. Smith starts at the beginning: the first intercollegiate athletics competition—a crew regatta between Harvard and Yale—in 1852, when both teams received an all-expenses-paid vacation from a railroad magnate. This striking opening sets Smith on the path of a story filled with paradoxes and hypocrisies that plays out on the field, in meeting rooms, and in courtrooms—and that ultimately reveals that any insistence on amateurism is invalid, because these athletes have always been paid, one way or another. From that first contest to athletes’ attempts to unionize and California’s 2019 Fair Pay to Play Act, Smith shows that, throughout the decades, undercover payments, hiring professional coaches, and breaking the NCAA’s rules on athletic scholarships have always been part of the game. He explores how the regulation of male and female student-athletes has shifted; how class, race, and gender played a role in these transitions; and how the case for amateurism evolved from a moral argument to one concerned with financially and legally protecting college sports and the NCAA. Timely and thought-provoking, The Myth of the Amateur is essential reading for college sports fans and scholars.
Download or read book The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics written by David C. Young and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book College Athletes for Hire written by Allen L. Sack and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1998-07-17 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Discredited written by Andy Thomason and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2021-08-20 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Carolina Way and the myth of amateurism
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Olympic Amateurism written by Matthew P Llewellyn and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2016-08-15 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, amateurism defined the ideals undergirding the Olympic movement. No more. Today's Games present athletes who enjoy open corporate sponsorship and unabashedly compete for lucrative commercial endorsements. Matthew P. Llewellyn and John Gleaves analyze how this astonishing transformation took place. Drawing on Olympic archives and a wealth of research across media, the authors examine how an elite--white, wealthy, often Anglo-Saxon--controlled and shaped an enormously powerful myth of amateurism. The myth assumed an air of naturalness that made it seem unassailable and, not incidentally, served those in power. Llewellyn and Gleaves trace professionalism's inroads into the Olympics from tragic figures like Jim Thorpe through the shamateur era of under-the-table cash and state-supported athletes. As they show, the increasing acceptability of professionals went hand-in-hand with the Games becoming a for-profit international spectacle. Yet the myth of amateurism's purity remained a potent force, influencing how people around the globe imagined and understood sport. Timely and vivid with details, The Rise and Fall of Olympic Amateurism is the first book-length examination of the movement's foundational ideal.
Download or read book How Baseball Happened written by Thomas W. Gilbert and published by Godine+ORM. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of baseball’s nineteenth-century origins: “a delightful look at a young nation creating a pastime that was love from the first crack of the bat” (Paul Dickson, The Wall Street Journal). You may have heard that Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented baseball. Neither did. You may have been told that a club called the Knickerbockers played the first baseball game in 1846. They didn’t. Perhaps you’ve read that baseball’s color line was first crossed by Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. Baseball’s true founders don’t have plaques in Cooperstown. They were hundreds of uncredited, ordinary people who played without gloves, facemasks, or performance incentives. Unlike today’s pro athletes, they lived full lives outside of sports. They worked, built businesses, and fought against the South in the Civil War. In this myth-busting history, Thomas W. Gilbert reveals the true beginnings of baseball. Through newspaper accounts, diaries, and other accounts, he explains how it evolved through the mid-nineteenth century into a modern sport of championships, media coverage, and famous stars—all before the first professional league was formed in 1871. Winner of the Casey Award: Best Baseball Book of the Year
Download or read book Counterfeit Amateurs written by Allen L. Sack and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2012-04-06 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a Foreword by Ara ParseghianThe debate over big-time college sports, never far from the front pages, has once again moved from simmering to hot. Congress has been investigating the tax-exempt status of the NCAA in part because of questions about how commercialized college sports contribute to educational values. Athletes are challenging the NCAA on antitrust grounds to get a bigger share of the revenue. Against this backdrop, more faculty are beginning to be concerned about what is happening at their own universities and to the educational system as a whole as rampant commercialism further invades campus life through big-time sports. A leader among faculty fighting back has been Allen Sack, a co-founder of the Drake Group whose writings and public appearances, including work as an expert witness, have gained him wide recognition as an outspoken advocate for athletic reform. This book brings together in a compelling way both his personal story of life as a highly recruited athlete out of high school and a football player at Notre Dame under legendary coach Ara Parseghian and his fight, since then, as a scholar-activist against what he calls the &“academic capitalism&” of the system under current NCAA rules. Sack distinguishes his own position, as an advocate of athletes&’ rights, from the reformist stance of NCAA President Myles Brand, who believes that commercialized sport and education can peacefully coexist, and the &“intellectual elitist&” position of people like William Dowling, who would like to see big-time college sports kicked off campus altogether. It is a battle with high stakes for all concerned, not least the athletes whose exploitation by the system has been the motivating force for Sack&’s own campaign, now stretching over several decades.
Download or read book The Mythology of the Night Sky written by David E. Falkner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-08-28 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mythology of the Night Sky is intended primarily for amateur astronomers who would like to know the mythology behind the names of constellations and planets. It deals with the 48 constellations identified by the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy, as well as all the planets of our solar system and their moons, which are named after Roman gods. To assist practical observers the book gives the location and description of each constellation, including named stars and deep-sky objects. Readers are encouraged to observe and image the constellations for themselves, and there is a lot of practical information in this book to help them along the way. In addition to providing a detailed (and mostly Greek) mythology of the constellations and the vast soap opera that was part of the Ancient Greek pantheon, this book also addresses the planets of the Solar System, which are named after the Roman - not Greek - gods.
Download or read book A Visitor s Guide to the Ancient Olympics written by Neil Faulkner and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to the ancient Olympics features a program of events, transportation options as provided by passenger ferry and ox cart, accommodations, and dining options, all as they would have appeared in 338 BC in the spectacle's early days.
Download or read book Gambling with the Myth of the American Dream written by Aaron M. Duncan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the rise and increased acceptance of gambling in America, particularly the growth of the game of poker, as a means for examining changes to the American Dream and the risk society. Poker both critiques and reinterprets the myth of the American Dream, putting greater emphasis on the importance of luck and risk management while deemphasizing the importance of honesty and hard work. Duncan discusses the history of gambling in America, changes to the rhetoric surrounding gambling, the depiction of poker in the Wild West as portrayed in film, its recent rise in popularity on television, its current place in post-modern America on the internet, and future implications.
Download or read book The Triumph of the Amateurs written by William Lanouette and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Triumph of the Amateurs is the story of the lost world or professional rowing in America, a sport that attracted crowds of thousands, widespread betting, and ultimately corruption that foretold its doom. It centers on the colorful careers of two New York City Irish boys, the Biglin brothers John and Barney, now long forgotten save for Thomas Eakins's portraits of them in their shell. If the bestseller The Boys in the Boat portrayed the good guys of the U.S.’s 1936 Olympic crew, the Biglins, along with their colleagues and successors, were the Bad Boys in the Boat. Rascals abounded on and off the water, where rowdy fans often outdid modern soccer thugs in violence, betting was rampant—as was fixing—and spectators in the tens of thousands came out to see it all. The Triumph of the Amateurs traces the sport from its rise in the years before the Civil War on through the Gilded Age to its scandalous demise and eventual transition into a purely amateur sport. In addition, Barney Biglin’s later career as holder of sinecures offers a colorful glimpse into late 19th-century New York City political corruption. Illustrated with 40 black and white and color illustrations, including Thomas Eakins's famous paintings of the Biglin brothers rowing on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia in 1872.
Download or read book Greek and Roman Athletics written by Thomas Francis Scanlon and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pay for Play written by Ronald A. Smith and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era when college football coaches frequently command higher salaries than university presidents, many call for reform to restore the balance between amateur athletics and the educational mission of schools. This book traces attempts at college athletics reform from 1855 through the early twenty-first century while analyzing the different roles played by students, faculty, conferences, university presidents, the NCAA, legislatures, and the Supreme Court. Pay for Play: A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform also tackles critically important questions about eligibility, compensation, recruiting, sponsorship, and rules enforcement. Discussing reasons for reform--to combat corruption, to level the playing field, and to make sports more accessible to minorities and women--Ronald A. Smith candidly explains why attempts at change have often failed. Of interest to historians, athletic reformers, college administrators, NCAA officials, and sports journalists, this thoughtful book considers the difficulty in balancing the principles of amateurism with the need to draw income from sporting events.
Download or read book Amateur written by Thomas Page McBee and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction *Shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Memoir/Biography *Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize One of The Times UK’s Best Memoirs of 2018, BuzzFeed’s Best Nonfiction of 2018, Autostraddle’s Best LGBT Books of 2018, Book Riot’s Best Queer Books of 2018, and 52 Insight’s Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2018 A “no-holds-barred examination of masculinity” (BuzzFeed) and violence from award-winning author Thomas Page McBee. In this “refreshing and radical” (The Guardian) narrative, Thomas McBee, a trans man, sets out to uncover what makes a man—and what being a “good” man even means—through his experience training for and fighting in a charity boxing match at Madison Square Garden. A self-described “amateur” at masculinity, McBee embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of gender in society, examining sexism, toxic masculinity, and privilege. As he questions the limitations of gender roles and the roots of masculine aggression, he finds intimacy, hope, and even love in the experience of boxing and in his role as a man in the world. Despite personal history and cultural expectations, “Amateur is a reminder that the individual can still come forward and fight” (The A.V. Club). “Sharp and precise, open and honest,” (Women’s Review of Books), McBee’s writing asks questions “relevant to all people, trans or not” (New York Newsday). Through interviews with experts in neuroscience, sociology, and critical race theory, he constructs a deft and thoughtful examination of the role of men in contemporary society. Amateur is a graceful and uncompromising look at gender by a fearless, fiercely honest writer.
Download or read book A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths written by Stephen P. Kershaw and published by Robinson. This book was released on 2013-02-07 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book leads the reader through these vibrant stories, from the origins of the gods through to the homecomings of the Trojan heroes. All the familiar narratives are here, along with some less familiar characters and motifs. In addition to the tales, the book explains key issues arising from the narratives, and discusses the myths and their wider relevance. This long-overdue book crystallises three key areas of interest: the nature of the tales; the stories themselves; and how they have and might be interpreted. For the first time, it brings together aspects of Greek mythology only usually available in disparate forms - namely children's books and academic works. There will be much here that is interesting, surprising, and strange as well as familiar. Experts and non-experts, adults, students and schoolchildren alike will gain entertainment and insight from this fascinating and important volume.
Download or read book Digital Roots written by Gabriele Balbi and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As media environments and communication practices evolve over time, so do theoretical concepts. This book analyzes some of the most well-known and fiercely discussed concepts of the digital age from a historical perspective, showing how many of them have pre-digital roots and how they have changed and still are constantly changing in the digital era. Written by leading authors in media and communication studies, the chapters historicize 16 concepts that have become central in the digital media literature, focusing on three main areas. The first part, Technologies and Connections, historicises concepts like network, media convergence, multimedia, interactivity and artificial intelligence. The second one is related to Agency and Politics and explores global governance, datafication, fake news, echo chambers, digital media activism. The last one, Users and Practices, is finally devoted to telepresence, digital loneliness, amateurism, user generated content, fandom and authenticity. The book aims to shed light on how concepts emerge and are co-shaped, circulated, used and reappropriated in different contexts. It argues for the need for a conceptual media and communication history that will reveal new developments without concealing continuities and it demonstrates how the analogue/digital dichotomy is often a misleading one.
Download or read book The Modern Olympics written by David C. Young and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2002-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coubertin's main contribution to the founding of the modern Olympics was the zeal he brought to transforming an idea that had evolved over decades into the reality of Olympiad I and all the Olympic Games held thereafter.
