Taming the Monster: The 1929 Carnegie Report on College Athletics

Introduction

The South is strongly influenced by college football, which grew in the 1920s both regionally and nationally (Doyle 28-51; Borucki 477-94). Its growth was such that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching produced a report, American College Athletics, proposing to answer two questions posed by Foundation President Henry Pritchett in the preface: "What has organized sport to do with the work of an intellectual agency which the university and the college are conceived to be? And how can college boys find the time or the money to maintain so costly a display for popular entertainment?" (Pritchett viii). The report unleashed a flood of response—not only within the higher education community, but also from the newspapers that covered college sports, particularly football. At a time when sports journalists, like the rest of the profession, were beginning to address ethical and professional questions, the Carnegie Foundation report included a chapter on sports journalism that challenged the excessive coverage devoted to college sports. Thus, sports writers were reporting on a movement that addressed their excesses as much as those within college athletics. How did that affect coverage of the report and the broader debate it encouraged?

This article will analyze coverage in four newspapers (New York Times, Charleston News and Courier, Chicago Tribune, and Washington Post) that published articles about the Carnegie Foundation report and the accompanying discussion within the academy. The three larger newspapers were recognized as elite, authoritative news sources during this period; the Post and Courier was selected because it provided a perspective from the South, as the oldest daily newspaper in the South. Newspaper coverage of the report's proposals was not only crucial to the proposals' acceptance, but also reflective of how important media outlets were framing the issues. The title of this article, "Taming the Monster," refers not only to the Carnegie Foundation's efforts to check the influence of college football, but also to the transgressions of sports journalism that the profession itself was trying to check-conflicting values that were displayed clearly, in content and in style, on sports pages in 1929.

Background

American collegiate football has been around for a century and a half. However, the game has not always been played with the same rules that are used today. Football, as we recognize it, began in the late 1800s (Maggio 21-62). It started as a mesh of soccer and rugby, and there were few rules and regulations (Davis 66-69). Players would show up to the fields and play in whatever clothing they were wearing; uniforms, helmets, and pads were not yet required. During the late 1800s and early 1900s many players suffered cranial damage, wrenched legs, cracked ribs, broken necks, concussions, broken shoulders, blood poisoning, broken arms, torn ears, etc., while playing the game (Hoshizaki et al. 136-48). Between 1880 and 1905, there were more than 325 player deaths (Maggio 21-62). While many people saw the dangers of football, few were ready to eradicate the game entirely. However, the high death rate led President Theodore Roosevelt to meet with coaches and administrators at the White House to find ways to make the game safer (Lewis 195). The meeting led to the creation of what would become the NCAA.

Player deaths led the general public, news sources, fans and university administrations to fight for more regulations in the game. Starting in 1872, implementation of new rules began to shape the game into what it looks like today. Interference was one of the first notable changes. Ashworth explains that players previously had to run at the side carrier (18), which made it more difficult for the defensive team to tackle him. Maggio notes the addition of the forward pass, a decrease in playing time, six men at the line of scrimmage and the offense having to move ten yards, instead of five, in three tries (49). These rules were put into practice to help decrease the number of player injuries. The forward pass would allow the offensive team to gain more yards by throwing the...