THE MYTH OF THE AMATEUR

A journey through the history of money in collegiate athletics.

Today, when we think of an egregious violation of college athletic rules, we might imagine an assistant basketball coach handing a sack of cash to a star recruit’s parents. Earlier in the history of college sports, however, it took much less to create a scandal—e.g., hiring a professional coach or offering athletic scholarships. Examining the history of such scholarships, Smith takes us back to the turn of the 20th century and a collegiate sports landscape ruled by Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. (Yes, a lot has changed). The guiding philosophical conflict was fascinating: to play sport for the sake of sport and the nobility of the competition, like the English universities Cambridge and Oxford? Or to embrace the American credo of winning at all costs in the name of such elusive concepts as freedom and equality? Few will be surprised by which side won that argument. The author shows us how we arrived here. In 1889, a pivotal year, a Princeton football recruit, writes Smith, “was offered a scholarship and was told another scholarship was available ‘for any particular friend that you might have.’ ” In 1948, the NCAA passed the Sanity Code, “the first NCAA attempt to limit athletic scholarships and control athlete recruiting.” The author combs through the subsequent decades, when scholarships became a foregone conclusion and real cheating (coaches paying parents) became more of a concern. The prose is rather dry and academic, and Smith has a tendency to digress. However, the research reveals a mind that has been exploring this subject for a long time. By the time he gets to more contemporary matters, such as college athletes’ battle to be compensated for use of their likenesses, the author has covered an impressive stretch of time and topics.

A long, winding road of sport and money supported by thorough research.