Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / March 13, 1954, edition 1 / Page 2
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FACE TWO THS DAILY TAR HEEL SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1954 A (This is a sfartZtTisr article. Its au thor is familiar with the subject about, which he writes for Harold'W. Stoke is former president of New Hampshire and Louisiana state , universities. Pres ently he is dean of the graduate school at the University of Washington. The article appears in the iMarch issue of The Atlantic. While we do not accept his premises we find his logic unassail able: The Daily Tar Heel still opposes big-time athletics for our University and we oppose the idea, expressed in this article, that the universities should accept the role of entertaining the peo ple. Illustrations are by staff artist Stan Smith whose work also is famiL iar to those who read Tarnation. Editor.) On the morning of December 7, 1951, ' in the General Sessions Court in New York City, fourteen tall young men stood before Judge Saul S. Streit. The scene was the climax of the notorious basketball scandals in which players had been convicted of receiving bribes : from professional gamblers for throw ing basketball games in Madison Square Garden. The Judge was stern, but for the culprits he tempered justice. Jail sentences and fines were few and light. Judge Streit then looked over the heads of the defendants and hurled angry words at: the colleges and uni versities they represented. He charged that these institutions had so far for gotten their educational mission and ' had so overemphasized athletics that they themselves had made this scene in his courtroom all but inevitable. Addressing himself to the colleges, Judge Streit demanded immediate and drastic reforms. Among these were the restoration of athletic responsibilities to faculties and to the academic ad ministrative authorities; the revitali zation of the National Collegiate At hletic Association; the establishment of an amateur code and of a capable, well financed policing authority. The Judge's Puzzle While there Was some dismay (if little surprise) in university circles at the basketball scandals, there was genuine puzzlement about the judge's suggestions for reform. The point that had escaped him was that all his pro posals had been tried for years uni formly without success. If Judge Streit and the countless educators who have tackled this problem had asked them selves why Bradley University, Ken tucky, New York University, North Carolina Stater or any other university should ever play basketball in Madi son Square Garden, they would have started on a line of inquiry which would have brought about a better understanding. Obviously it was no ed ucational interest that : brought the teams there, no huge concentration of alumni, no essential training program. It wasn't wholly a matter of money. They were there in response to a far more complex and subtle compulsion: to assist their schools as a part of the system of American higher education to carry out that system's latest and growing responsiblity namely, to pro vide public entertainment. In our American society the need for entertainment is an inevitable con sequence of the changing conditions of our lives the lenghtening life" span, the shorter work week, speed and mo bility, industrialization and prosperity. These changes create social vacuums, and for filling social vacuums the American system of education and particularly higher education is one of the most efficient devices ever invented. It is flexible, highly varied, and in touch with virtually the entire population; furthermore, it is charact erized by a genuine spirit of service. It is manned by agressive and accom modating people; it is suffused with a thoroughly practical philosophy. A Matter Of Addition Hence, to its already great and grow ing array of services its teaching, re search, adult education, military train ing, and general public service it has added another, public entertainment. This responsibility has been accepted in some instances eagerly, in some in stances reluctantly, but nonetheless accepted. Drama, music, radio, and television widen the education as well r as the ; entertainment services of the universities; wherever these: touch the public they possess mpre of the char-: acteristics of entertainment than edu cation. Yet of all the instrumentalities which universities have for entertain mening the public, the most effective is" athletics. V" ' "". "" .What educational institutions,, thus . far have not seen is that the responsi bility for - supplying public entertain -: ment is a responsibility different in kind from those they have previously performed. (The failure' to understand this fact has led to endless strain in the management of athletics, to be wilderment among educators and the public, -and even . to outright scandal. Conceived as education, athletics is inexplicable, corrupting,; and uncontrol lable; as -public entertainment, and even as public entertainment to be provided by . educational ; institutions, athletics becomes comprehensible and manageable. Arguments That Obscure ... The most essential distinction bet - ween ; athletics and I education lies in the institution's own interest in the , athlete ' as distinguished from its in terest in its other students. Univer sities attract students in order to teach them what they do not already know; they recruit athletes only when they are already proficient. Students are educated for someting which will be useful to them and to socety after graduation; athletes are required to spend their time on activities the use fulness of which disappears upon gra duation or soon thereafter. Universities exist to do what they: can for students; ; athletes are recruited for what they' can do for the universities. This makes the operation of the athletic program in which recruited players are used basically different - from any educa tional interest of colleges and univer sities.. ,.- v .;: . ; : The ; fundamental distinctions bet ween athletics and education are some what obsecured , by several argumtnts frequently heard. The first is that ath letics has "educational values." This is the familiar "character building," "team- spirit," "sportsmanship" argu ment. Anyone who knows the actual operations of athletics will admit that such values could be realized far better if athletics were handled as recrea tion and physical education. Bound To Detract The second argument 's that many fine athletes make fine scholastic "re cords implying that there must not, after all, be any conflict between ath letics and education. Again the answer can be short. Big-time athletics re quires 20 to 28 hours per week of its devotees, aside from the time spent away from the campus; hence it is bound to detract from ah athlete's education. But how can an impoverish ed athlete get a c!hance at a college education? I'll answer that question with another: Is he any more entitled to it than anyone else? College athletics is public entertain ment. Last year football audiences -numbered 40 million, and now basket ball is outstripping football in attend ance. - It is estimated that the public pays $100 million a year to the colleges for admission tickets, and television has added enormously to the number of spectators and to the revenue. Public interest as measured in publicity, news paper coverage, and attention is far beyond that given to any educational activity. In no major school does the attention given to the appointment of a president compare with that given to the appointment of a coach, and the general public Can name many more coaches than presidents. The same force lies back of the other features of athletics the num erous and high-priced coaching special ists, the elaborate half-time shows, the colorful bands (supported almost as completely by scholarships as are the athletes and for the same purpose), the frolicsome majorettes, the carefully planned and executed spontaneous stu dent rallies and demonstrations, the food, drink, and program concessions. None of these could possibly serve any educational purpose for which a col lege or university exists, but they are . wonderful aids to public entertain ment. Perhaps most significant of all is the fact that the rules of the games themselves are now constructed and reconstructed with their entertainment value uppermost. Like : dramatic coach es - and . directors , bringing into being . a r Broadway : production, the . coaches and athletics directors gather, each year to adjust the rules of football and basketball for the purpose of heighten ing the dramatic and entertainment value. Consider the Bowl games. They are important influences on. athletic polic ies, and at the same time irrefutable evidence that athletics, so far as ithe Bowls are concerned, have no educa tional significance whatsoever. So far as I know, no one seriously claims that 1 they do. " .- . V 'j 'V All of the Bowls for obvious reasons are located in the South or in winter vacation areas. IThey are immensely successsf ul business promotions; there is nothing about them remotely re lated to education. As one man put VtvtV ; -uc v. it: "Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange, Bowl all . are gravy bowls!" A ' half million people saw the 'games in the eight major bowls last January' 1, and it is estimated 70 million more heard them on radio or saw them on televisi sion. Receipts were almost $2.5 million. The distribution of the money follows a kind of formula in each conference a large percentage to each .school participating in the Bowl, a smaller percentage to each school in the con ference and to the conference treasury itself. A more subtle formula to en sure support for Bowl games could hardly be devised. Participation in one of the Big Four Bowls Rose, Sugar, Cotton, and Orange may bring each participating school as much as $125, OO0. Everyone profits except the' players, whose amateur status has thus far confined them to such grubby re wards as gifts of gold watches, blank ets, free tickets which usually can be scalped, sometimes a little cash the last usually" secretly. Under pressure from the players and perhaps from a sense of institutional guilt at the in defensible exploitation, the rewards to players are improving, but they still are far below the-A. S. C. A. P. and Equity pay scales for big-time enter tainers. And Here's How How is all this to be made compati ble with the nation's educational sys : tern? Most troubles arise from the fail ure of colleges to see that in supply ing public entertainment they have embarked upon an operation which is different from their educational func tionsand one that requires different management. Colleges have acted as if athletics were merely an extension oL student recreation. Since athletes come from the same high schools as other students, are about the same age, and do get a kind of education, it has been assumed that the academic re gulations applicable to the general run of students should also apply to athletes. We overlook completely the different reasons for which each is there. Hence schools have prescribed the same formal academic require ments for both the athlete and the nonathlete a minimum number of hours must be taken, a certain number of courses must be passed, systematic progress, however slow, must be made toward a degree, and a host of other regulations must be followed. Yet athletics, like a corrosive acid, has eaten through every academic re gulation to the great frustration, be wilderment, and cynicism of the edu cational community. It has defeated faculties, forced the resignations of cut presidents, wrecked coaches, and undercut the suport of ; institutions -where the efforts to apply academic regulations have been insistent. Where such regulations have been success fully applied they have all but killed the athletic programs, or put them in abeyance, as at New York Univer sity, Fordham, or Pittsburgh, until a more "understanding" attitude permits -revival. There are, of course, many schools Oberlin, Swarthmore, Haver ford, Bowdoin, to name a few that at thact little attention from the entertainment-seeking public because they make little attempt to supply public entertainment. The truth is that the appetite of the public cannot be satisfied by the quali ty of entertainment which can be pro-, vided by, athletics governed by acade-, mic regulations.i Consequently, at insti tutions which are meeting the public's, . demands, academic regulations must- be ignored, compromised, or eliminat-. ed. Admission' requirements for athle tes have become' less formidable than they used to - be, and usually an ar rangement can be made for- the boys -to make up high school deficiencies. The requirements as to courses, pro gress toward degrees, and even grades can generally be met by either a flexi ble elective system or the "tailored curriculum", leading to a highly spe cialized "degree" in which many houijf of handball, swimming, and coaching can be included. Where this does not suffice, every athletic department of any size provides at its own expense . counseling and tutoring service for any of its men likely to get into trouble. Not all athletes need these negations of educational regulations,1 but the point is that when required the nega tions must be available. How compell ing the necessity is can be estimated by the situations which come to light when these compromises are not suf ficientthe wholesale cheating at West Point, the alteration of records at William and Mary, special examina tions, and countless other devices in volving various degrees of accommo dation or even fraud and misdemean or. No matter what the regulation, if it prevents athletics from supplying the public entertainment for which it exists, a way around must . be found. This has been the fate which has uni formly attended the regulative efforts of faculties, administrators, code com mittees, accrediting associations, and even the N.C.A.A. itself. Why should this conflict be so irre concilable? (There are many reasons, but perhaps the most compelling is that adequate entertainment can -only be provided by winning teams. No amount of gushy sentiment about "playing the game" will conceal the fact that the public wants its teams to win. Victory is a part of the total titillation. If the public can't have it from one source it will transfer its loyalties and money to some other. Chick Meehan filled Yankee Stadium with football fans roaring for N.Y.U., but when de-emphasis came, N.Y.U. found that 6,000 . was a ' good crowd to watch it play Forham, the archrival. "When Michi gan loses, someone has to pay" may be a slogan at Ann Arbor, but it sums " up the attitude of all schools with ath letic' entertainment programs. This means that to supply the ' entertain ment, the schools must get the enter- tainers. Supply And Demand The recruitment of players is the ' key to most of the athletic anxieties of college presidents, the desperation of coaches, the pressure, of alumni, and the activities of outside influences, business and otherwise. A chain re action of undesirable consequences, follows. The school must get the play er, and the best one; the player knows this, and the bidding starts. Sometimes negotiations are carried on by a parent or other relative in order that the play er may be technically free of all non amateur bargains; otherwise he be comes a part of a corrupt bargain a bout which, if questions arise, he must lies or forever keep silent Gradually the "board room, and tuition" formu la plus a little extra, if necessary has won acceptance. Sometimes the myth of employment persists as the justification for such payments, but it is now generally acknowledged to be , a myth. The effort to limit the num ber of such scholarships is actually ah . effort to equalize competition between schools. The conferences often set a limit but there are ways around it, the junior college "farm system" for - one. . ; "Vr." ' - . By a dozen : devices high . school coaches are encouraged to become feeders for particular colleges and uni versities by the flattering appointment to a coaching' school staff, support for a bigger job, or even cash. Thus the web of recruitment is widespread, sub tle, and effective. . ; . : '', The services of the " American edu cational system in the field, of public entertainment cannot be taken lightly least of all by the educational insti tutions .themselves. It may not be an, ideal -use of an educational institution to supple public entertainment, but the public interest exists; and for the in stitutions, either the necessity or the willingness to supply it also exists. The schools which would like to refuse will be compelled to supply it to keep up with their willing rivals. Their only choice "is whether they will manage the entertainment in such a way as to prevent damage to themselves as edu cational institutions damage which the present methods certainly entail. These methods frequently create finan cial obligations which imperil educa tional development because they have contractual - priority over educational budgets, Those who recruit players and the players who are recruited are too often corrupted ; not because of the bargains they strike, but because the bargains are in violation of pledges all have agreed to uphold. " -; Humiliating Schhophrenia Influences outside universities are encouraged to seek control of educa tional operations influences which are seldom willing to confine their in terests to athletics. Athletics requires an atmosphere of academic accommo dation to its necessities, to the great cynicism of faculties and students. It has bred a kind of humiliating schizo phrenia in educational administrators who are compelled to defend v with platitudes what they do not believe or to keep an uneasy silence. It has created a kind of amused tolerance toward institutions on the part of the very public which buys the entertain ment a tolerance which says that whatever the virtues and respectability of higher education on all other scores, it must be given the privileges of this secret sin. At the risk of scornful disagreement let me outline how, it seems to me, the great strain in our educational institu tions can be reduced. The first and most crucial step is purely intellectu al: to make the admission, both inside and outside the universities, that our programs of intercollegiate athletics are operated primarily as public enter tainment and not as educational re sponsibilities. This will lay a founda tion for entirely new solutions to the problem. The Panacea, He Says With the acceptance of this concept most of the undesirable stresses and strains will begin to disappear. Ath letics that is, winning athletics now becomes a legitimate university oper ation. Recruiting becomes not only le gal but justifiable. To get the best ath letes becomes not only understandable but commendable in exactly the same way that one seeks for excellence in any department of the university. One gives the athlete what the resources will allow just as Illinois offers the graduate assistant in history or chem istry, what it can to attract the best. No one thinks the less of Illinois be cause it can outbid Montana for grad uate students. In short, athletic prac tices which are not at all appropriate to "educational" activities ' become ac ceptable and legitimate as parts of a program of public entertainment. The same principle clarifies the po sition and . character of the coaching staff. Let it be the. best that can be obtained, as large and specialized as the situation requires. Let it be freed to meets its obligations without the moral strain imposed by the necessity to circumvent impossible require ments. The financial situation likewise becomes manageable. Since athletics is to be managed as entertainment, it need not in logic or in fact be a charge on the educational budget; and just as no educational institution expects to support itself from athletics, so ath letics shxmld not expect to be a charge on education. Self-support for athletics as public entertainment is at once a final liberation and a restraint. Optional Classes And why should there be concern about the academic record of a young . man who comes to a university pri marily to play on a team and whom the university has brought for exactly that purpose? I submit that nothing is lost by relieving all athletes of the obliga tion to meet academic requirments, if they cannot or do not wish to do so. Let us be courageous enough to admit . that the university's interest in them ' is that they be good athletes, not that they be good sudents. It is the insist, ence that they be students 'which cre ates the problem both for the faculty and for the athletic managers, and to the detriment of both. Of course, if a boy wishes to be a student as 'well as an athlete, by all means encourage him, but in that case the fact that he is an athlete need not . enter into his status as a student any " more than; his grades as a student should be made to affect his effec. tiveness as an athlete. The athlete will then for the first time be on a par with every other student who works his way through school. His academic progress will be exactly proportional to the time and interest he has beyond the da mands of his employment. Players' Choice , : What if the athlete has no interest whatsoever in his further education? A team entirely made up of profes sionals is not the solution for the col leges. The , best solution is a prescrip tion of academic work suited to the tastes and talents of the athlete but with the clear understanding by pro fessors and athletes alike that the rec ord as a student will be neither a hind rance nor a help to athletic success. What! ' someones says. Have unbri. died; bidding for athletes? No eligi bility rules? No discipline? By no means but let these things arise, as they,: will, from athletic and not from academic sources and necessities. Let eligibility rules be drawn and enforced by those who are most concerned about them the athletic managements not by faculties. Who can be counted on to expose infractions of eligibility rules? Oppon ents! Every roster of players is ex changed between coaches why should a faculty committee bother? Who is hurt if the ineligible player plays? The opposition! Who is the best insurance that he . won't?- The opposition! No, faculties and administrators have grat uitously assumed a lot of unnecessary burdens; and to what purpose or to what effect it is hard to ste. The relinquishment of formal aca demicnot institutional control over athletics will have very substantial ad vantages both for athletics and for education. The first is the restoration of institutional' and personal integrity. Gone will be the necessity to keep up the pretense that at" the present time suffuses the discussion of athletics is a part of an educational program. The establishment of single-minded-ness will be the greatest advantage, for educational institutions are basic ally devoted to intellectual honesty. Such honestly will free athletics as well as education from the schizophrenia from which they both now suffer. Goodbye Sentimentally A very valuable outcome will also be the dissipation of the sentimentality which currently surrounnds college athletics in the mind of the public. This myth is carefully preserved not for its truth but for its utility. Listen to any major coach talk about his team and you will see how little such senti mentality is justified. He refers to his "material," not t boys; he discusses weakness at enjfeiid tackle and back field, completely oblivious of the feel ings of his men. There is not a player whom he will not instantly displace if he can get a better one: One. of the most unhappy tasks that athletic managements must perform is to get rid of players to whom scholar ships have been given commitments made but who can't quite make the grade on the field. Perhaps the public which sees the universities as operat ing departments of public entertain ment and sees athletics as assistants in the department will come to think of the whole matter a little different ly to the great relief of everyone con cerned. . When doctors find that a given treatment results in no improvement, they re-examine their diagnosis; when scientists find that experiments pro duce no anticipated results, they re vise their basic hypothesis. Educators now find that what was once the rec reation of students in school has been transformed into a responsibility of the educational system to supply, the public with entertainment. It is essen tial that educators carry through a fundamental revision of concepts of athletic management appropriate to this transformation.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 13, 1954, edition 1
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