The Athletic Experience at Historically Black Colleges and Universities ed. by Billy Hawkins et al. (review)

In this work, the editors and contributors have enlightened, attacked, and brought forth pathways forward for black cultures, histories, communities, societies, and their institutions, especially institutions of higher education. Via the domain of sports at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), these authors have engaged the larger spectrums of race, racism, economics, fairness, leadership and the lack thereof, sexism, and the legal system of the United States to inform about black life in America. The underlying premise is that black colleges and universities are not just institutions of higher academic educational endeavors. They are keepers and dispensers of the multiple aspects of the varying black societies, as well as institutions of learning. One of the most powerful forces in enabling these institutions to achieve their stated and unstated missions is the sports programs of these community partners—specifically, the major revenue-producing sports of football and basketball. Just about all of these more than 106 HBCUs are unsound in their fiscal stability.

The opening chapter of this work, covering HBCU histories, economics, student athlete experiences, and recommendations for the future of athletic funding at these institutions, informs the reader about the original missions, purposes, and actual impact of these entities on the growth and development of not only their students but also on the communities they serve and the culture in general. Sports, being a major aspect of the culture and society, help finance many of the programs needed, both academic and social, at these institutions. It is also the major source of monies draining the fiscal coffers of these schools.

The economic situations of most HBCUs are so entwined with their sports programs, the football and basketball programs in particular, that it is hard to decide if the institutions could survive without them. The cultural and economic damage—including the loss of tradition—endured by the schools that tried survival without these sports programs is so significant that, in most cases, the negative impact lasted for many years, even after the programs had been reinstituted into the colleges and universities. Therefore, it is too risky for many of these schools to try such a proposition.

This work has captured the overall picture of the struggles by black colleges’ and universities’ sports programs to survive after the desegregation of predominantly white colleges and universities. The larger majority white-led and -administrated conferences did not integrate black institutions into their groups, even when a predominantly white conference (PWC) restructured itself. They selectively drained the black talent pool from the black community, thus leaving the quality and tradition of many HBCUs in peril. The pathways to restructuring, and providing significant development for the future, suggested in this work have commendable thought and merit.

Works of this magnitude can and should be useful in an extremely wide array of sport domains to understand multiple aspects of black culture and society, specifically sporting endeavors. Given the understanding that the authors are working with limited space, there is still the need to strengthen the history of African American/black women in sport and provide a more in-depth understanding of black Greek letter organizations in the sporting cultures at HBCUs.