Final Exam HK 376 Chapters 15-21
Chapter 20: Detail the variety of athletic and business opportunities made available by the advent of cable TV, as well as the different ways that different sports sought to take advantage of those opportunities.
- ESPN - Sports Center takes over newspapers - X games are created and featured - sports given more opportunities on the air increased visibility of sponsors and the market for products ranged from shoes to video games. Once cable television became the normal form of entertainment in house holds all kinds of new opportunities arose. ESPN was created that had to fill their channel with sports 24 hours a day. This lead to some lesser watched sports getting air time and a commercial explosion for companies to advertise. Sports Center became the flagship show on ESPN and replaced the newspaper for sports news and scores. This athletic viewership boost and increase in business turned American sports into an international commodity. The growth of broadcasting and international markets brought great wealth into American sports, mostly benefitting male sports.
Chapter 17: Summarize the developments in college football that sharply boosted the sport's popularity in the 1960s.
- new, wide-open style of offense - more elaborate half time shows - Pseudoevents- cheerleaders, half time shows, weekly press polls, Heisman's trophy, end of the season Rose Bowl.
Chapter 17: Detail the advantages & disadvantages that college sports had over professional sports.
3 Advantages: - college sports received financial assistance from the institutions that sponsored them - because they were "non profit" educational enterprises, college sports did not get taxed on the money they got from sponsors, admissions, licensing fees, nor media contracts - college coaches did not have to pay amateur athletes a salary that the market would bear, they got away with under paying. 1 Disadvantage: Colleges did not have a draft to pick players, to avoid all out bidding wars teams had to strategically plan how to chose players. NCAA was suppose to supervise and enforce this.
Chapter 18: Explain how Muhammed Ali differed from Robinson in both goals and strategies.
Ali and Robinson were different athletes. Robinson was a church going, quiet, well behaved man. Ali was anti-Christianity, outspoken, confident, and black supremacist. Robinson was seeking to gain equality and a fair playing field for African Americans. Ali was there to make a statement and make sure that people knew he saw African Americans as the superior race and set out to prove that not only in the boxing ring but also in the media and public.
Chapter 15: Analyze the impact of television broadcast on the patterns of American life.
As soon as the television was introduced to the public, Americans have allowed television to consume a staggering amount of their free time. Television, along with the automobile, central heating, air conditioning, and more spacious yards/ homes, lead to a shift in leisure from being held in public settings to the privacy of one's home. Fans were able to watch sports from home. To attract more tv viewers to the games, television directors developed a range of new techniques- multiple camera views, replays, slow motion shots, flashy graphics, catchy music, charismatic announcers. New rules were implemented to speed up the game. It contributed to the further nationalization and eventually even the globalization of sports. Finally, television pumped additional millions of dollars into sports, enriching team owners and eventually players while raising new questions about the impact of big time, big money sports on educational institutions and on the life ambitions of star struck young fans.
Chapter 21: Describe the old and new challenges faced by athletes, coaches, and communities in the 21st century, as well as aspects of American life that the study of sports can illuminate.
As the U.S. entered the 21st century, residents were playing sports more than ever before. While inequalities still existed, many more obvious obstacles had been removed. Women made up 43 percent of college athletes, which outnumbered men on the 2012 U.S. Olympic summer team. African Americans stood among the most visible, talented, and highly promoted stars in all kinds of sports. A growing number of efforts also sought to strength support for gay and lesbian athletes. Despite the progress, athletes, coaches, and communities still face a broad range of sports-related issues. Some, such as the need to balance college sports with academics, are long-standing challenges, intensified by a rising public profile and huge influx of money. Another, is the strengthening link between football concussions and permanent brain damage- these are NEW issues. Sports also serve as a way of clarifying issues and dilemmas that range from the depiction of Native Americans in popular culture to questions about differences between men and women.
Chapter 21: Explain the dilemmas that the discovery of CTE posed for the NFL, as well as for the nation's football fans.
CTE was a prominent brain disease that many football players, from high school ages all the way up to professional, faced. "Iron Mike" Webster, died of a heart attack at age 50, but brain scans revealed that he suffered from CTE, which contributed greatly to his unstable mental health. Many players who had similar deterioration in their brains, committed suicide. CTE became linked with football-related concussions. Players affected by CTE, who later committed suicide included Terry Long, Andre Waters, Ray Easterling. Football had always celebrated toughness, the willingness to take hard hits, and to get back in the game as soon as possible after injury. CTE began showing up in high school and college students. Between 2010 and 2012 participation in football declined nearly 10%. New rules had to be implemented for the safety of the players however, they feared what this would do to affect the fans.
Chapter 17: Describe the dilemma that recruiting posed in big-time college football, and the variety of ways - both legal and illegal - that colleges & coaches sought to appeal to top prospects.
Coaches got paid a lot of money to win games. Recruitment became more important than coaching- developed well-coordinated, systematic means. legal: - athletic scholarship that consisted of room, board, and tuition illegal: - cash, cars, free apartments, false credits, fake transcripts, or high paying jobs NCAA both policed and prosecuted these violations, this was very difficult because few employees were able to oversee so many teams. Resulted in disparities in playing strength, Oklahoma and Nebraska for example were always on top, later on this shifted to Florida teams.
Chapter 20: Explain the economic & cultural factors that boosted American women's sports in the cable era, as well as the challenges that women continued to have.
Corporations sought a new audience that many sports avenues had neglected, women. The first sought out women's professional league was basketball. Title IX had greatly enhance women's college basketball and stars were already developed so this seemed natural. US women had only won bronze in the 92 olympics so they sought to restore national pride and put together a super team an entire year before the 1996 Olympics. There was extreme publicity for the team and a tour playing exhibitions all over the country. After the 1996 Olympics, the WNBA formed. That same 1996 olympics the USA women's soccer team won gold. They then hosted and won the women's world cup in 1999. They were role models for girls and formed the WUSA after that world cup. Challenges: Women had to transfer the excitement from the World Cup and Olympics, to the week-to-week games played. Game attendance fell, low attendance made it hard to attract sponsors, and the WUSA only lasted three seasons. Men were paid significantly better than any female athlete at the time, this was also a challenge faced by female professional athletes.
Chapter 16: Detail the factors that contributed to the decline of major league baseball in the television era.
Football was thriving, baseball was struggling. Baseball tried to expand in the 1950s but audiences lagged behind. People were move from urban areas to suburban areas making it a longer commute to get to games. The teams were playing so many games that fans saw most of them pointless and not of importance until the end of the season when many teams were already out of the pennant race. This made it hard to fill the stands. The shift to consumer culture and many more other ways to fill fan's free time made it difficult to justify spending that time at a ball game. Baseball owner's also struggled to devise a plan to make the television contract satisfactory to every owner. This lack of television contract hurt baseball's popularity as their rival, the NFL, was soaring on the television front.
Chapter 19: Describe the political, legal, and cultural work required to create new opportunities for American women's college sports, as well as the specific challenges women faced as they tried to create new professional opportunities.
For decades, physical educators who controlled college women's sports downplayed competition, focusing on games and sports that emphasized self control that promoted proper womanhood. This era came to a decisive end, but women still faced lingering concerns about women's physical and emotional stamina, and reluctance to allow women into what many saw as men's rightful domain. Women's competitive sports began to make gains during the 1960s driven by a desire to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. The USOC created WAB, and the USOC received a generous donation from Duke tobacco to promote women's sports. Aside from this donation, colleges devoted little money to early teams. Billie Jean King "Virginia slims" because they weren't getting paid enough money (no one would come to watch) expressive on court, "Battles of the SExes" anything to promote viewers (professional)
Chapter 18: Summarize the ways that Curt Flood's decision to challenge the Major League Baseball "reserve clause" were linked to the broader activism of the 1960s.
IN the mid 1960s MLB players head of player's union was searching for a player to head up a legal challenge on the reserve clause. In stepped Curt Flood who was traded from St. Louis to Philadelphia. Flood was an All-Star center fielder who saw his actions as part of the civil rights struggle of the time. He traveled to Mississippi to support civil rights workers. In 1964 after winning the World Series he was threatened as his home in California by a man who had rented the house to Flood without realizing he was black. He wanted to stand up for his rights and saw the reserve clause as oppressive and almost slave like. He filled a lawsuit, which he lost and that then cost him to lose his records as well as his position in the MLB. He knew it would cost him his career but he did it for the good of everyone. In 4 short years, his determination payed off when the reverse clause crumbled.
Chapter 21: Analyze the variety of challenges, both real and metaphorical, created by the male-female separation in most athletic events.
In 1980, Stella Walsh, one of track and field's greats in the 1930s, was murdered in a robbery attempt at the age of 69. The autopsy revealed that biologically, Walsh was born with an unusual mix of chromosomes- in the 1930s her sex was never questioned but by the mid 1960s, however, women who participated in international competitions were required to prove they were in fact female. Sports remain one of the very few arenas where men are automatically assumed to perform, on average, better than women. And it remains one of the few arenas of popular culture that at its most celebrated levels focuses almost completely on men's activities and achievements. The limit of sports as a model for relationships between men and women also points to questions about the role that sports can play in social change in present day American society. Sport has at times reinforced social divisions and at times challenged them. In this context, the ubiquity of sports in American pop culture, which tends to focus attention on victory and loss within an existing system, and which celebrates its victors in heroic fashion, has often served as more conservative social function.
Chapter 15: Outline the ways that broadcasters and team owners sought to shape televised sports to their own advantage.
In the early 1960s, ABC gambled that increased sports programming would give its network greater visibility, bring in new local television stations as affiliates, an improve the audience ratings for all shows. No single person contributed more to ABC's success than ROONE P. ARLEDGE He wanted "to get the audience involved emotionally." He used cranes, blimps, and helicopters to obtain novel views of the stadiums, towns, and campuses. He employed hand-held cameras for close ups of cheerleaders, band members, eccentric spectators, and nervous coaches, and he deployed rifle-type microphones to pick up the roar of the crows, the thud of a punt, or the crunch of a hard tackle. Arledge also created the Wide World of Sports. The average audience for televised football was near 20 million people by 1977, so NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, negotiated a $656 million contract with the major networks and brought $6 million to professional football leagues.
Chapter 15: Summarize the social, political, and economic developments that made organized sports an increasingly important part of American life in the years after WWII.
In the years following the second World War, organized sports made major breakthroughs socially, politically, and economically. In 1947, The Brooklyn Dodgers had Jackie Robinson play, the first African American player to make it to the major leagues. After this decision to let a black player onto the field, organized sports would never be the same. The Dodgers were part of another major milestone for organized sports- their 1947 series was the first to be broadcasted on tv. Televisions brought sports to brand new networks of viewers. Following WWII, the Cold War created tensions that were very high between the US and The Soviet Union. The Cold War was a contest between political and economic systems:the competitive capitalism of the US and the planning-oriented communism practiced by the Soviet Union. Athletic victories showed superiority. Women and African Americans alike were fighting for equal rights in a white male dominated nation. The passage of Title IX gave college women new opportunities in sports, and the civil rights movement was battling african american segregation. Affluence of the middle class meant there was a new increase in leisure time, and a lot of individuals were spending money on sports.
Chapter 18: Describe the challenge of winning "acceptance in major-league baseball," and the strategies that Jackie Robinson and his supporters used to meet those challenges.
Jackie Robinson was sought after by Brooklyn Dodger's owner Branch Rickey as someone who would not only perform well but also have a "cloak of humility" in the face of abuse. Robinson was a 4-year attendee of UCLA playing three sports, army officer in WWII, an avid church goer, and gifted athlete. The only reason he would not be accepted was his skin color, otherwise he would have been the model citizen to white people. After his first season in the major, a difficult one, he decided a cloak of humility was no longer needed. He became as outgoing and aggressive as the other players. He realized that his determination to stand up for himself reflected that "acceptance in organized baseball marked the beginning, not the conclusion, of the struggle for equality".
Chapter 20: Analyze the economic & cultural factors that boosted the national profile of Latino baseball players, as well as the challenges that Latino players continued to face.
Latinos became more accepted as baseball players but still face some challenges. A change in the 1960's to immigration laws allowed Latinos to flood into the US. With baseball being a very popular sport for Latino and America being enticing for them that led to an uptick in Latino baseball players. MLB teams also started academies in Latino countries for skills, English, and American culture development. The economic facet was not to be ignored. Owners saw just as, if not more, talented players in these Latino countries that would play at a fraction of the cost. US youth were also becoming less interested in baseball and were more interested in basketball and football leading to more opportunity for Latino youth. ESPN deportes and other Hispanic channels helped promote baseball to the Latino culture. Unfortunately, Latino players were still discriminated against and looked down upon by Whites because they were taking sports whites once occupied.
Chapter 15: Detail the emergence of the "me" generation fitness craze of the 1970s, and the way it helped fuel the growth of sports-oriented businesses.
Many Americans turned to a focus on self-efficacy and individual well being that led to the 1970s "Me Decade." Sports saw a new emphasis on individual fitness during this time, mostly for the middle and upper class Americans. Many of these individuals were dissatisfied with the anonymity and lack of autonomy found in even highly paid white collar work. A "running boom" among both men and women promoted the establishment of road races and marathons across the nation. As more and more white-collar employees began to jog, swim, and work out, YMCA and YWCA clubs saw a rise again in memberships. The antibiotic revolution of the 1940s and 1950s- many contagious diseases disappeared but cardiovascular diseases were very prevalent. People began to exercise more, drink less, smoke less, and control their weight.Supporters of the "Me Generation" attributed benefits of running to releasing/ adding additional sources of energy, improving sex, reducing anxieties, and inducing a mystical "runner's high." Nike made an enormous profit off of this movement as well, by creating a line of clothing and shoes specifically for running and active lifestyle. Other athletic companies followed shortly after
Chapter 20: Describe the economic & cultural factors that brought NASCAR to national popularity.
NASCAR grew from southern regional interest to the nationwide interest quickly. This was due to a few factors. One factor was sponsorship by major corporations such as coca-cola and STP. They saw that sponsorship meant a popular driver for a spokesman as well as a brightly painted car with company logos on prominent display. Companies paid up to $20 million to sponsor top car for a year. The sport caught a huge television break in 1979 when CBS agreed to show the entirety of the Daytona 500. The race was very good one to be the first on national television. As NASCAR started to gain more attention promoters tried to portray the sport in terms of what they called traditional American values of religion, friendliness, civility, trust, honor, and patriotism. They used these to reel in audience members. They used public prayer, military fly overs, and American flags.
Chapter 16: Describe the variety of strategies that NFL team owners used to take advantage of television broadcast, and explain the factors that made the NFL far more successful than major league baseball in the television era.
NFL team owners took advantage of tv broadcasting and were successful for a number of reasons involving their commitment to succeeding as a unit, football's creation of drama and suspense, and their flashy tv appeals. Baseball attempted to jump into the television era, but fans were not too eager to follow along. Football began in mine and mill towns, and many owners had seen the struggling beginning- this helped to form a bond, and they worked together towards the biggest profits possible. Baseball, was every man for himself, which contributed to their inability to sign a television contract like football was able to do. Football was also ideally suited for television- it is a series of dramatic, exciting crises- breaks allowed them to savor the drama and recap on what had gone on before the break. Announcers helped novice viewers get a grip on what was happening out on the field. Not to mention, the announcers were humorous, charismatic, fans were rowdy, fields were lush green, uniforms were flashy- this all added excitement to the game. Baseball lacked all of this- they had too many games to broadcast and cameras were unable to get every member into the shot at once.
Chapter 18: Detail the efforts made by Native Americans to end the practice of Native American mascots, and assess their achievements.
Native Americans grew more dissatisfied in the 50's and 60's with mascots in part because of the era's activism, and in part because of the growing spectacle associated with college and pro sports led to more exaggerated and stereotypical portrayals. Several councils of Native Americans began targeting Indian mascots for removal. One was Stanford who promptly was presented with a formal petition from students to remove the symbol as well as improve its Native American achievements. The committees continued to press the issue as did tribal governments, and Native American communities. Many colleges dropped the mascot but pro teams were concerned it would hurt their brand and marketing strategy as well as profit. Unfortunately several still exist today, but the conversation is continuing.
Chapter 21: Outline the forces driving the increased use of PEDs and the debates they sparked.
Originally developed in the 1930s, anabolic steroids became an issue after WWII, as both the financial and political stakes of athletic success skyrocketed. One debate that was sparked questioned why it was alright to use cortical steroids in order to heal muscles, but the use of anabolic steroids in order to build muscles, was banned. The use of steroids was most prevalent in baseball. The era from the late 1980s through the late 2000s became known as the "steroids era." Debates also broke out about the awards won while athletes were using-some athletes like Lance Armstrong, claimed that victories or records obtained while using PEDs should be honored, because the drug use was so widespread that it was impossible for individuals to win without them. Baseball, a sport dominated by statistics, faced having to question what to do with the numbers that were achieved with the help of PEDs, as well as whether steroid users should be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Chapter 16: Explain the factors that helped professional basketball players form the most effective players' association, as well as the results that effectiveness produced.
Players associations deal with broad issues like maximum and minimum salaries, salary caps, grievances, healthcare, and pensions. Oscar Roberston was president of the NBA players' association form 1965-74. Thanks to a long season, Robertson's help, and a small number of players they developed a cohesive and effective organization. The NBA relied more heavily on stars than other teams so if one or two stars held out, it was bad for the league. Players around the NBA were all very good friends and were looking out for each other so they knew what was going on within the league. The results of this made their salaries sky rocket. It went from an average of $20,000 in 1967 to 5.2 million in 2006.
Chapter 18: Outline the evolution of efforts to use sports to improve conditions for African Americans and other minorities in the 1950s and 1960s, taking into account the nature of the problems that athletes and coaches sought to address as well as the strategies they chose.
Racial politics saw the same kind of rapid, unpredictable transformations found in other aspects of American life during the 50s and 60s. Legal structure was changing, black political power was changing, racial prejudice was on a slight decline, and the nation had growing concerns for its international image which helped African Americans challenge white supremacy harder than ever before. They began by attacking barriers that prevented blacks with all the same social privileges as whites. By the end of the 1950s, more and more AA were signing with professional teams. Scholarship opportunities for AAs were multiplying. After those began to fall they moved onto a broader American societal critique. This lead to a "Black Power" movement that challenged economic structure that was not fair to African Americans and started celebrating Black culture themselves.
Chapter 18: Explain the origins and effects of the different social change strategies adopted by baseball player Roberto Clemente and boxer Corky Gonzales.
Roberto Clemente was a great baseball player who experienced prejudice. He spoke proudly of his heritage and freely spoke Spanish in the clubhouse when it was against MLB rules. He raised a few questions about structure of American culture but mostly let his humanitarian actions and kindness speak for itself. He dies tragically of a plane crash when he was taking earthquake relief supplies to Nicaragua. This is when he got most recognition being the first Latino in the Hall of Fame and the Roberto Clemente award being established going to the biggest humanitarian in baseball. Corky was different in that he was much more radical. He had an impeccable reputation as a boxer even in a corrupt sport like boxing which spoke to his character. He not only boxed but also tried to effect change in local business, politics, and even became the chairman of Denver's War on Poverty committee. He was the key national organizer of the Chicano movement. He fought hard for Latino rights and was very outspoken.
Chapter 18: Analyze the strategies of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, assessing which were most successful and why.
Some of the strategies that were used were boycotting events, talking to the press, and their outward expression at events they attended. The boycotts took place at the track championship at New York Athletic Club. This chose this because the NYAC let black and Jewish athletes compete but not join the club. The boycott brought much attention. Almost none of the nation's top black competitors showed up for the meet, many others stayed away as well. National publications filled up with detailed descriptions of persisting prejudice and discrimination. The press was another way OPHR was successful, with Sports Illustrated penning a five-part series about the challenges that black athletes continued to face, and the dark side of black athletic stardom. OPHR took that divide a step further, charging that U.S leaders used the success of a few AA to suggest that those who continued to struggle had no one to blame but themselves. The last, and arguably most memorable and successful was the act of John Carlos and Tommie Smith. Their famous act of bowing their head and raising one fist during the national anthem after the 200 meter dash in the Olympics is still iconic today. The USOC was embarrassed and sent them out of the village. However, this isn't the last that was heard about them this Olympics. They were talked about and the meaning of their gesture for the remainder of the Olympics and still today.
Chapter 17: Explain how college basketball's 1950s point-shaving scandal contributed to a broader suspicion of American institutions, and detail the effect the scandal had on college basketball as a whole.
The 1951, it was revealed that nearly three dozen players from seven different colleges, including players from the strongest teams in the nation, had been involved with fixing games. Garden was not only a Mecca of college basketball, it was also the "clearinghouse" for New York's sports gambling establishment. Chrles K. McNeil invented the strategy of "point spread" which quickly turned into "point shaving." In "point shaving," gamblers pid players not to lose games, but to minimize the points to win by less than the quoted point spread. This scandal occurred at the same time as: - fall of China to communism - Korean war starts - Soviet detonation of atomic bomb - Joe McCarthy's charges of treason in high governmental places This increased the climate of suspicion and mistrust of many American institutions.
Chapter 15: Explain how the social changes of the 1960s and early 1970s affected attitudes toward organized sports, both positively and negatively.
The 1960s saw both prosperity and turmoil. Americans sought to challenge what they saw as shortcomings in national policy and culture. African Americans challenged the many forms of discrimination they had been facing since before the Civil War. The Civil Rights movement combined legal action with grassroots endeavors that included marches, demonstrations, boycotts, and voter registration that banned unequal treatment based on race. Sports had growing numbers of African American athletic stars. The women's liberation movement began to gain momentum, and growing numbers of U.S. women began to see sports asa way to build individual capabilities and advertise women's abilities. The passage of Title IX required the nation's colleges to allow women access to the same sporting programs as men. Sports received a lot of criticism both because of its own short comings and because of its ties to Americanism made it into a symbol for critics of national policy. A counterculture movement criticized the intensive, warlike competition of sports like football, and promoted freestyle sports like frisbee instead
Chapter 19: Detail the effects that the conservative political retrenchment of the 1980s had on women's sports.
The 1980s saw a sharp conservative turn which proved to be a rocky decade for women's sports. Ronald Reagan was elected president and this brought back many traditional values, including gender relationships. Athletic difference reappeared due to genetic differences between male and female. This retrenchment slowed title IX enforcement which hurt colleges' women's teams. The Supreme Court even ruled that in the Grove City College vs. Bell match that they didn't have to reach title IX's equal opportunities request.
Chapter 20: Outline the economic and cultural factors that turned the NBA into a worldwide phenomenon.
The NBA had rapid rise to an international league very quickly. One main reason was the management of David Stern. He took advantage of global expansion of trade & communication. He promoted the NBA worldwide including broadcasting the 1991 NBA finals to 70 countries. Another reason was Phil Knight and Nike. They brought on a Michael Jordan and helped market his shoes all over the globe. The NBA promoted player expression of hip, urban fashion, fancy shoes, and expressive style that you still see in NBA players today. Finally came the Olympic dream team of the 1992 Olympics. It included all of the stars from the USA that played in the NBA. These players put on a show and won the gold with ease for all the world to see.
Chapter 16: Analyze the combination of marketing and playing styles that turned professional football into a cultural phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s.
The NFL had its "Golden Age" in the 1970's and 80's. In order to take advantage of television revenue, they introduced commercials. Teams in the late 1970's urged fans to become rowdy with banners, towels, and pennants to wave during games. In 1980 almost every team had female cheerleaders who were dressed skimpy. Then came Monday Night Football which was the center of a new kind of broadcasting. MNF is as big today as it was back then which is a testament to its cultural relevancy. The teams began to play different due to rule changes by owners. The pocket for the quarterback became a normal way to play. Offensive linemen were now able to extend their arms and open their hands to initiate contact with defenders. This changed offensive linemen from quicker guys to large men. The West Coast offense which was an all out aerial attack became prevalent. The NFL introduced the Wild Card game to allow more teams to compete in the playoffs.
Chapter 19: Explain how the women's liberation movement led to the passage of Title IX.
The major force behind the transformation of women's sports came from outside athletic institutions, as part of the larger movement known as "women's liberation." This movement of the 1970s was rooted in the struggles and analysis of the civil rights movement. Women spoke about "assumptions of male superiority are as widespread and deep rooted as the assumptions of white surpremacy." Education became one of the arenas for activism and through it, the Title IX act was passed. This act was not specific to school athletics but it required that women be given equal access to all sports.
Chapter 15: Describe how growing suburbanization created both opportunities and challenges for professional sports teams.
The nation saw a mass migration to single-family houses in newly built suburban neighborhoods, as well as moving to the south and west. Professional sports became one way to build civic spirit in expanding metropolitan areas. This transformation brought many new opportunities for sports teams, for example, they became one way to build civic spirit in expanding metropolitan areas. Cities competed with one another for the title of "big league" cities, which required them to house a professional sports team. Publicly financed sports stadia were frequently seen as the quintessential symbol of the modern metropolis. more ppl means more teams (challenge) where do we build stadiums, ppls homes are displaced, teams were moving
Chapter 19: Outline the sources of opposition to Title IX.
The opposition to Title IX included: - men saw it as "giving" women opportunities that men had to spend decades working to earn. - Many individuals believed women didn't have the skills, interest, or determination that men had for sports. They haven't proven themselves worthy of getting the same opportunities - people did not think women had the mental or physical ability to compete competitively
Chapter 21: Summarize the forces driving the college "arms race" and the ongoing challenges they created for college.
The rising levels of status and money associated with college athletes only intensified the tensions that had always existed between athletic and academic goals. Between 1998 and 2007, according to an estimate of The Chronicle of Higher Education, spending on sports programs grew three times faster than spending on academic programs. This period became known as the "arms race." To lure recruits, colleges built enormous stadiums, lavish practice facilities, locker rooms, private cafeterias, and weight rooms. Money became a driving factor in the division between academic and athletic cultures. In 2011, the legendary football program at Penn State was shaken to its core after a sex abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky was brought to the surface. This made many question the loyalty of sports. Academic scandals also began to unfold. African American students had 6 year graduation rate of only 50%. A large number of athletes, at UNC, were also receiving credits for classes they hadn't ever taken.
Chapter 16: Outline the strategies that football owners used to make professional football the most financially successful professional sport of the postwar era.
They chose to look after the good of every owner instead of their own interests. This allowed them to make one large television package worth several millions of dollars. The sport of football had natural flow and breaks that allowed viewers to analyze, anticipate, and get excited about the next play. This kept fans entertained. The showing of football on television allowed fans to see more of the field than in the stands and "created a nation of experts in no time". The creation of Monday Night Football also gave appointment television to Monday nights. This was another day that Americans could consume football and it took off. They also decided to split the gate receipts 40/60 to the visitors and home teams respectively to help keep financial disparity between teams from developing.
Chapter 16: Summarize the advantages that professional football's owners brought to the postwar era.
They were all of similar background. Nearly all of them were Irish Catholic and shared history of the league's financial troubles so they understood each other and were friends. They choose to look out for the good of everyone instead of themselves calling themselves 28 republicans who vote as socialists for the league. They chose commissioners who were business minded instead of sport minded. The sport of football also lended itself to television well. They also decided to split the gate receipts 40/60 to the visitors and home teams respectively to help keep financial disparity between teams from developing.
Chapter 20: Summarize the changes that cable sports broadcasting brought to American sports.
This athletic viewership boost and increase in business turned American sports into an international commodity. The growth of broadcasting and international markets brought great wealth into American sports, mostly benefitting male sports. The advent of satellite and fiber optic cable made it easy for broadcasting companies to send their products around the globe to reach nearly 100 million homes world wide. This growth helped turn American sports into an era of unprecedented wealth. Teams and sponsors were able to reach out to targeted audiences and draw them into the sporting orbit with fasion, shoes, and jerseys. This diversified the sporting world to many more audiences than before.
Chapter 17: Analyze the factors that turned college FB into big-time entertainment, and then detail the many new conflicts that arose when the desire to win clashed with the NCAA's efforts to oversee player recruitment.
Throughout the 1960s, college football thrived. Game attendance doubled from 10 million a year to 20 million. Strategic innovations brought new excitement to the game, for example, the week-by-week reassessment of which teams were the nation's best, and which teams would be in the end of the season bowl matchups. Television viewers increased, and therefore, money increased- this made college football and basketball into huge economic engines, magnified the power of the NCAA and intensified the debates over the relationship between sports programs and colleges' broader educational missions. NCAA but without the power of them overseeing it
Chapter 17: Outline the series of events that led colleges & universities to institute official athletic scholarships and turn enforcement of scholarship & recruitment rules over to the NCAA.
To supervise and enforce these complex agreements among themselves, they extended greater authority to the NCAA, transforming it from an athletic association into a sprawling, frequently unwieldly, and not always effective economic cartel. Prior to 1940, colleges had limited the NCAA's authority to the creation and modification of rules for various sports, the supervision of national tournaments in a few minor sports, and the assertion of amateur principles. Colleges believed that because they were "honorable institutions," they should be able to police themselves. Institutions in effect colluded to set rules that limited the price they would have to pay to the athletes if they openly competed with one another for new recruits. In 1950, the U.S. Military Academy acknowledged that all but two members of its varsity football team had been dismissed for cheating on examinations. In 1951, over 30 college basketball players were accused by the New York District Attorney's office for taking payoffs from gamblers to manipulate game scores. In 1952, the NCAA was given power to investigate and impose sanctions on colleges if they violated the rules. Walter Byers was made full time NCAA director from 1952-1988. In 1956, the NCAA approved for scholarship to given out for only athletic purposes, did not have to include academic successes. Television also contributed to the NCAA power in college sports in that, at first, too many games hurt by lack of attendance at games. NCAA set rules for # of games per region could be televised.
Chapter 19: Analyze the strategies that female tennis players used to build support for women's professional tennis, explaining why those strategies differed from the ones used to build support for college programs.
Two issues that female tennis players faced were, that since male tennis players were better than female players, they deserved more money. Second, and perhaps more germane, was that the paying spectators came to see the men not the women. Female tennis players took a different road than college female athletes because colleges had federal legislation, tied into education; professionals had to prove people would pay to sponsor them and watch them pay. Female tennis players got a key sponsor- Phillip Morris- who owned a tobacco company and used these athletes to advertise. This allowed women to show the world what they had. Athletes like Billie Jean King, who was charismatic and exciting, brought in many fans to watch her matches! Billie Jean King beat long reigning male tennis champ in "Battle of the Sexes."
Chapter 21: Detail the ways that 20th century sports continued to engage questions about ethnic and national identities.
Two questions about ethnic and national identities continued into the 20th century- Who should be a Mascot and Who is an American. Native American activists continued to pursue those efforts, in part through a second lawsuit that challenged the trademark protection on the Redskin's name. In a poll of Washington-area residents, only 25% said that their enthusiasm for the team would drop if the name changed. Writer, Dave Zirin, described the highly stereotyped pregame routine of Florida State's Mascot, Chief Osceola. A challenge faced by Latino athletes, as well as Latino Americans in general, was the high profile of sports, as well as the tight connections Americans drew between sports and patriotism. In the 19th century, there was a massive influx of Irish immigrants to the united states. In the 21st century, there was a similar influx of Latin Americans. This gave rise to virulent anti-immigration policies. Even if people did not bore hostility towards Latinos, they did not necessarily see them as integral parts of American history or culture.
Chapter 19: Summarize the specific challenges faced by female athletes who were also lesbians during this period.
Women's athletics had won greater acceptance in part because the expanding role of women in other areas of American life had reduced the gap between athletic skill and popular visions of "normal" womanhood. However, the same can not be said about lesbians during this period. They had to decide whether or not to come out, because this could hurt their individual careers and their sport. Generally, individuals who did come out as lesbian, did not lose the support of the public, but often lost support of their sponsors.
