The Origins Of Southern College Football

Author : Andrew McIlwaine Bell
Publisher : LSU Press
ISBN 13 : 0807171204
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Origins of Southern College Football written by Andrew McIlwaine Bell and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2020-08-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: College football is a massive enterprise in the United States, and southern teams dominate poll rankings and sports headlines while generating billions in revenue for public schools and private companies. Southern football fans worship their teams, often rearranging their personal lives in order to accommodate season schedules. The Origins of Southern College Football sheds new light on the South’s obsession with football and explores the sport’s beginnings below the Mason-Dixon Line in the decades after the Civil War. Military defeat followed by a long period of cultural unrest compelled many southerners to look to northern ideas and customs for guidance in rebuilding their beleaguered society. Ivy League universities, considered bastions of enlightenment and symbols of the modernizing spirit of the age, provided a particular source of inspiration for southerners in the form of organized or “scientific” football that featured standardized rules and scoring. Transported to the South by men educated at northern universities, scientific football reinforced cultural values that had existed in the region for centuries, among them a tolerance for violence, respect for martial displays, and support for traditional gender roles. The game also held the promise of a “New South” that its supporters hoped would transform the region into an industrial powerhouse. Students and townspeople alike embraced the new sport, which served as a source of pride for a region that lagged woefully behind its northern counterpart in terms of social equity and economic prowess. The Origins of Southern College Football is an entertaining history of the South’s most popular sport cast against a broader narrative of the United States during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, two momentous periods of change that gave rise to the game we recognize today.

Author : John Sayle Watterson
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 1421441578
Total Pages : 772 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book College Football written by John Sayle Watterson and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 772 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rules of the game have changed in the past hundred years, but human nature has not. "In March [1892] Stanford and California had played the first college football game on the Pacific Coast in San Francisco . . . The pregame activities included a noisy parade down streets bedecked with school colors. Tickets sold so fast that the Stanford student manager, future president Herbert Hoover, and his California counterpart, could not keep count of the gold and silver coins. When they finally totaled up the proceeds, they found that the revenues amounted to $30,000—a fair haul for a game that had to be temporarily postponed because no one had thought to bring a ball!"—from College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy, Chapter Three In this comprehensive history of America's popular pastime, John Sayle Watterson shows how college football in more than one hundred years has evolved from a simple game played by college students into a lucrative, semiprofessional enterprise. With a historian's grasp of the context and a novelist's eye for the telling detail, Watterson presents a compelling portrait rich in anecdotes, colorful personalities, and troubling patterns. He tells how the infamous Yale-Princeton "fiasco" of 1881, in which Yale forced a 0-0 tie in a championship game by retaining possession of the ball for the entire game, eventually led to the first-down rule that would begin to transform Americanized rugby into American football. He describes the kicks and punches, gouged eyes, broken collarbones, and flagrant rule violations that nearly led to the sport's demise (including such excesses as a Yale player who wore a uniform soaked in blood from a slaughterhouse). And he explains the reforms of 1910, which gave official approval to a radical new tactic traditionalists were sure would doom the game as they knew it—the forward pass. As college football grew in the booming economy of the 1920s, Watterson explains, the flow of cash added fuel to an already explosive mix. Coaches like Knute Rockne became celebrities in their own right, with highly paid speaking engagements and product endorsements. At the same time, the emergence of the first professional teams led to inevitable scandals involving recruitment and subsidies for student-athletes. Revelations of illicit aid to athletes in the 1930s led to failed attempts at reform by the fledgling NCAA in the postwar "Sanity Code," intended to control abuses by permitting limited subsidies to college players but which actually paved the way for the "free ride" many players receive today. Watterson also explains how the growth of TV revenue led to college football programs' unprecedented prosperity, just as the rise of professional football seemed to relegate college teams to "minor league" status. He explores issues of gender and race, from the shocked reactions of spectators to the first female cheerleaders in the 1930s to their successful exploitation by Roone Arledge three decades later. He describes the role of African-American players, from the days when Southern schools demanded all-white teams (and Northern schools meekly complied); through the black armbands and protests of the 60s; to one of the game's few successful, if limited, reforms, as black athletes dominate the playing field while often being shortchanged in the classroom. Today, Watterson observes, colleges' insatiable hunger for revenues has led to an abuse-filled game nearly indistinguishable from the professional model of the NFL. After examining the standard solutions for reform, he offers proposals of his own, including greater involvement by faculty, trustees, and college presidents. Ultimately, however, Watterson concludes that the history of college football is one in which the rules of the game have changed, but those of human nature have not.

Author : Tony Barnhart
Publisher : Triumph Books
ISBN 13 : 1623684889
Total Pages : 498 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Southern Fried Football (Revised) written by Tony Barnhart and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2008-08-01 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore the cultural phenomenon that is college football in the South. This completely new edition provides a close-up look at the great players, great rivalries, great coaches, and great traditions that make college football in the South more than just a game. It is a way of life that lasts 365 days a year.

Author : Derrick E. White
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469652455
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Blood, Sweat, and Tears written by Derrick E. White and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2019-06-27 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black college football began during the nadir of African American life after the Civil War. The first game occurred in 1892, a little less than four years before the Supreme Court ruled segregation legal in Plessy v. Ferguson. In spite of Jim Crow segregation, Black colleges produced some of the best football programs in the country. They mentored young men who became teachers, preachers, lawyers, and doctors--not to mention many other professions--and transformed Black communities. But when higher education was integrated, the programs faced existential challenges as predominately white institutions steadily set about recruiting their student athletes and hiring their coaches. Blood, Sweat, and Tears explores the legacy of Black college football, with Florida A&M's Jake Gaither as its central character, one of the most successful coaches in its history. A paradoxical figure, Gaither led one of the most respected Black college football programs, yet many questioned his loyalties during the height of the civil rights movement. Among the first broad-based histories of Black college athletics, Derrick E. White's sweeping story complicates the heroic narrative of integration and grapples with the complexities and contradictions of one of the most important sources of Black pride in the twentieth century.

Author : Jon Nelson
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1614236135
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A History of College Football in Georgia written by Jon Nelson and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When teams meet on football fields across Georgia, it's more than a game--it's a battle for bragging rights and dominance in a state that prizes football above all other sports. Join seasoned Georgia sports journalist Jon Nelson as he tracks the history of college football statewide. Whether it's Georgia Southern's glory days with legendary coach Erk Russell, the bitter rivalry between Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, the Mercer College team's historic beginnings or Shorter University's up-and-coming program, every team in Georgia makes the cut in this hard-hitting history. Enhanced by an appendix with each school's records, championship statistics and coaching accomplishments, this is a book no Peach State football fan can do without.

Author : Thomas Aiello
Publisher : LSU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780807138021
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bayou Classic written by Thomas Aiello and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2010-09-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The annual clash in New Orleans between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars represents the fiercest and most anticipated in-state football rivalry in Louisiana. The most significant national game to feature historically black colleges and universities is more than a contest; the Bayou Classic is a lavish event, featuring celebrities, a fan festival, and a halftime "Battle of the Bands" that offers an intensity equal to that of the gridiron. In Bayou Classic, Thomas Aiello chronicles the history of the game and explores the two schools' broader significance to Louisiana, to sports, and to the black community. When the Southern University Bushmen football team traveled to Monroe, Louisiana, to play the Tigers of Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute for the first time on Armistice Day, 1932, few realized they were witnessing the birth of a phenomenon. Aiello recounts Southern's early dominance over the smaller, two-year institution; Southern's acceptance into the Southwestern Athletic Conference; Grambling's hiring of the legendary Eddie Robinson, who would lead the Tigers to 408 wins between 1941 and 1997; Grambling's first victory over Southern; and years of alternating home and away games. In 1974, the rivalry found a neutral site in New Orleans -- first at Tulane Stadium and then the Superdome -- and became the "Bayou Classic." An NBC television contract introduced the Bayou Classic to a nationwide audience and completed the transformation of the game into a major event. The Bayou Classic remains the only nationally broadcast game between two historically black schools. Aiello supplements his colorful narrative with period photographs and informative appendices providing game results, statistics, and all-star teams from every year the schools have played. "To appreciate the rivalry," Coach Eddie Robinson once noted, "you have to realize Grambling and Southern fans are close friends, as well as relatives." Bayou Classic offers a splendid history for fans, friends, and those who want to know more about this special game.

Author : Andrew McIlwaine Bell
Publisher : LSU Press
ISBN 13 : 0807174114
Total Pages : 201 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Origins of Southern College Football written by Andrew McIlwaine Bell and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2020-08-12 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: College football is a massive enterprise in the United States, and southern teams dominate poll rankings and sports headlines while generating billions in revenue for public schools and private companies. Southern football fans worship their teams, often rearranging their personal lives in order to accommodate season schedules. The Origins of Southern College Football sheds new light on the South’s obsession with football and explores the sport’s beginnings below the Mason-Dixon Line in the decades after the Civil War. Military defeat followed by a long period of cultural unrest compelled many southerners to look to northern ideas and customs for guidance in rebuilding their beleaguered society. Ivy League universities, considered bastions of enlightenment and symbols of the modernizing spirit of the age, provided a particular source of inspiration for southerners in the form of organized or “scientific” football that featured standardized rules and scoring. Transported to the South by men educated at northern universities, scientific football reinforced cultural values that had existed in the region for centuries, among them a tolerance for violence, respect for martial displays, and support for traditional gender roles. The game also held the promise of a “New South” that its supporters hoped would transform the region into an industrial powerhouse. Students and townspeople alike embraced the new sport, which served as a source of pride for a region that lagged woefully behind its northern counterpart in terms of social equity and economic prowess. The Origins of Southern College Football is an entertaining history of the South’s most popular sport cast against a broader narrative of the United States during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, two momentous periods of change that gave rise to the game we recognize today.

Author : Charles H. Martin
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252077504
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Benching Jim Crow written by Charles H. Martin and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Historians, sports scholars, and students will refer to Benching Jim Crow for many years to come as the standard source on the integration of intercollegiate sport."ùMark S. Dyreson, author of Making the American Team: Sport, Culture, and the Olympic Experience --

Author : Lane Demas
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 0813547415
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Integrating the Gridiron written by Lane Demas and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even the most casual sports fans celebrate the achievements of professional athletes, among them Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, and Joe Louis. Yet before and after these heroes staked a claim for African Americans in professional sports, dozens of college athletes asserted their own civil rights on the amateur playing field, and continue to do so today. Integrating the Gridiron, the first book devoted to exploring the racial politics of college athletics, examines the history of African Americans on predominantly white college football teams from the nineteenth century through today. Lane Demas compares the acceptance and treatment of black student athletes by presenting compelling stories of those who integrated teams nationwide, and illuminates race relations in a number of regions, including the South, Midwest, West Coast, and Northeast. Focused case studies examine the University of California, Los Angeles in the late 1930s; integrated football in the Midwest and the 1951 Johnny Bright incident; the southern response to black players and the 1955 integration of the Sugar Bowl; and black protest in college football and the 1969 University of Wyoming "Black 14." Each of these issues drew national media attention and transcended the world of sports, revealing how fans--and non-fans--used college football to shape their understanding of the larger civil rights movement.

Author : Christian K. Anderson
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 100038375X
Total Pages : 195 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The History of American College Football written by Christian K. Anderson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-19 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides unique insight into how American colleges and universities have been significantly impacted and shaped by college football, and considers how U.S. sports culture more generally has intersected with broader institutional and educational issues. By documenting events from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries including protests, legal battles, and policy reforms which were centred around college sports, this distinctive volume illustrates how football has catalyzed broader controversies and progress relating to race and diversity, commercialization, corruption, and reform in higher education. Relying foremost on primary archival material, chapters illustrate the continued cultural, social, and economic themes and impacts of college athletics on U.S. higher education and campus life today. This text will benefit researchers, graduate students, and academics in the fields of higher education, as well as the history of education and sport more broadly. Those interested in the sociology of education and the politics of sport will also enjoy this volume.