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Chapter 1 Introduction Mention Michigan to a sports fan, and the image that probably comes to mind is that of the university’s football team storming onto the field wearing those ferocious maize-and-blue striped helmets. Fans think of our great rivalries with Ohio State and Notre Dame. They recall the names of such legendary Michigan sports figures as Yost, Crisler, Harmon, and Schembechler. Some may even remember one of our most famous alumni, Gerald R. Ford, as the Michigan football player who became president of the United States! Indeed, much of armchair America thinks of us first and foremost as a football school, even though the University of Michigan is widely regarded as one of the finest academic institutions in the world. College sports are woven deeply into people’s lives in university towns like Ann Arbor. Men (almost always men) sit for hours in bars or golf clubhouse locker rooms debating the wisdom of certain offensive formations or defensive strategies. They remember critical moments of critical games better than they remember events from their own lives: Michigan’s great upset of Ohio State in 1969, or the catch by Desmond Howard that beat Notre Dame in 1992 and won him the Heisman Trophy, or Brian Griese leading an undefeated Michigan team to a Rose Bowl victory and a national championship in 1997, while his proud father Bob Griese called the television play-by-play. More broadly, college sports permeate these university communities as their culture revolves around these events, season by season: football in the fall, basketball and hockey in the winter, the NCAA tournaments in the spring. Merchants , restaurants, and hotels depend on football crowds. Alumni are bound to their institution by the common experience of returning each year for a football weekend or attending a bowl game or an NCAA tournament. 3 But our university communities feel the repercussions of athletics programs at an even deeper level. College sports can affect the morale, the psychological state, of our entire population. When Michigan is winning, on track for the Rose Bowl, life is upbeat in the university, in Ann Arbor, and across the state. But when Michigan is losing, clouds gather, people become depressed, and New Year’s Day looks like a grim experience. Pity the poor Michigan coach—or president—who actually has a losing football season, subjecting all those Wolverine fans to a barren holiday season in the frigid Michigan winter. For many, whether as athletes or spectators, intercollegiate athletics provide some of the very special moments in their lives. Athletic competition can teach both the athlete and the spectator some of the most enduring lessons of life: the importance of discipline , perseverance, and teamwork. Through sports we learn that 4 • INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS AND THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY The Michigan football tradition the most important goals are achieved only through effort and sacrifice —and, sometimes, even these are not enough. They provide a sense of excitement, pride, and involvement for the entire, extended university community. They even help make that community by providing an important emotional bond among the diverse constituencies that identify with these ever-more complex social institutions we call universities. The Dark Side of the Force Yet today there is another, darker side of intercollegiate athletics, one that should give us all cause for serious concern. Many question whether the quasi-professional nature of college sports is consistent with our academic purpose. Some universities take advantage of student-athletes, exploiting their athletic talents for Introduction • 5 “The Catch”: Desmond Howard’s game-winning touchdown catch against Notre Dame in 1991. (UM Photo Services.) financial gain and public visibility, and tolerating low graduation rates and meaningless degrees in majors like general studies or recreational life. The perceived pressure to win at all costs can lead to cheating and scandal. We are occasionally embarrassed by misbehavior in college sports: players taunting one another, coaches engaging in tirades against officials, athletes getting into trouble with crime or drugs. Of less public concern but of great concern to the academy is the gross overcommercialization of sports: the pressure to schedule events every night of the week to fill the schedule of the broadcasting networks, the hype and sensationalism generated by the sports press, the predatory behavior of sports agents, the advertising plastered over competitive venues and institutional images. The pressures generated by the commercialization of college sports can be seen all around us. Perhaps the most extreme example continues to be the NCAA basketball tournaments (now...

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