College Athletes for Hire: The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA's Amateur Myth

The purpose of this book is to show how college athletes started playing sports as amateurs, but quickly through athletic scholorships have turned towards professionalism. An amateur is one who engages in sports in their free time. This is leisure time, and athletes joining in this time will compete solely on thier will to play and not participate in return for room. board, tuition and fees. An athlete becomes a professional when one accepts an athletic scholorship which may include any of these incentives. This book is primarily about professionlism. The start of the Sanity Code showed signs that the NCAA was turning professional. The Sanity Code stated that financial aid could be awarded to students on the basis of their athletic ability. They called these gifts for play, not pay for play. Recieving any payment at all according to Sack and Staurowsky, makes that athlete a professional. This book touches on the relationships between coaches and players. Under scholorship, athletes must perform under the rules of the coach. I just recently finished my senior year of Division II football. I was under scholorship and my coach did have total control over my actions. My coach acted as the employer, and I was the employee. Schools that don't offer scholorships such as the Ivy League, and Division III schools, players aren't under such strict control. Athletes don't have to practice or play if they don't want to. These players are under no obligation to their coaches. The authors give a good argument that under scholorships, athletes are held under contract, similar to an employee contract. Chapter 5 was a very interesting chapter. The authors explained how sholorships turned into employee contracts through the issue of worker's compensation. In the Van Horn Case the courts awarded Van Horn's family death benefits because Van Horn was under scholorship for his athletic ability, thus making it an employee contract. I thought that adding in the Askew factors made this chapter powerful. The Askew factors were used by the State of Michigan in determining the existence of an employment relationship. One factors is the employer has the right to control the employee. The second factor is the employer can discipline or fire the employee. The third factor is the employee accepts wages to pay for everyday living expenses. The fouth factor is the task provided is a part of the employers business. As a scholorship player I think that athletes under scholorship do meet these criteria. Athletes are under control of the coach and are disciplined. Athletes accept room and board that are used as their everyday living expenses. I also think that since sport revenues go into a universities general fund, then that sport is part of the universities business. This book supports my arguements. Sack and Staurowsky end their book with possible reforms of collegiate sport. I agree with these thoughts. College

"... a nationwide money-laundering scheme." How Walter Byers, executive director of the NCAA from 1951-1987, described the awarding of athletic scholarships in 1957, which essentially lead to the professionalism of college athletes according to Allen Sack and Ellen Staurowski."College Athletes for Hire" is a book that should be read by anyone interested in the NCAA and its place in American sport. The authors of this book, Allen Sack and Ellen Staurowski, have compiled an historical look of college sport from its beginnings as an amateur sport to the highly commercialized spectacle it has become today. Built upon British ideologies of amateurism, college sport quickly grew as universities discovered college sport, moreover college football, to become a revenue producing avenue as well as an avenue for bringing prestige to the universities. As college sport grew, the price of winning brought illegal inducements to athletes and essentially the end of amateurism established in the early days of competition. With the advent of athletic scholarships, the athletes essentially became employees of a university as the scholarship acted as an employment contract where the athletes received free room, board, tuition, and fees for his/her service. With the rise of professionalism in college sport, especially at the Division I level, the NCAA continued to argue that college sport was still a leisure activity and that college sport still adhered to its original amateur principles. An argument the NCAA continues to use today. This amateur myth has been used not to benefit the athletes in anyway, but to keep the NCAA and its member institutions free from antitrust violations, workers compensation claims, and from paying federal taxes. Sack and Staurowski have put together a well written and well research analysis that can finally help to dispel the notion of the amateur myth and put to light the issues affecting the NCAA, its member institutions, and most importantly, the athletes who help to generate millions in revenue, but fail to reap the benefits of a true higher education.The book takes the reader on a journey of the NCAA from its inception in 1906, when it was established to restore amateurism, through the rise of women's athletics, the rise in commercialism of college sport as a revenue producing entity, and finally to the issues affecting the athletes themselves. Sack and Staurowski show how athletes have been receiving some sort of payment for their athletic ability and performance on the playing field since the beginning of the NCAA. The so called amateurism of the NCAA created and underground network of illegal payments, which were provided by, boosters, alumni, local residents, and college officials. It was not uncommon for athletes to be given a job and receive payment for which they performed no work at all. Sack and Staurowski show that the NCAA itself has violated its own long established princip

An in depth look at the evolution of both amateurism andthe NCAA, Sack & Staurowsky take a historical view to show how theNCAA falsely classifies college athletes as amateurs. The authors look at current labor and contract laws, as well as historical court cases, to draw comparisons to what the NCAA refers to as athletic scholarships. Are athletic scholarships a gift given for ability? Or, are they a payment for services rendered. The authors argue that scholarships are an employment contract for services. The fact that the scholarships must be renewed every year by the coach, and can be taken away from a player for what the coach deems poor performance, or for that matter even an injury, make the arguement a very strong one. If scholarships were merely a gift, then shouldn't an athlete be allowed to walk away from the sport with no prospect of financial harm? By current NCAA standards, the authors say this is not the case. "College Athletes for Hire" shows how and why the NCAA passed legislation allowing for one year renewable scholarships giving total control of the coach over the athlete both on the field, and in some cases off. Furthermore, athletes are awarded these athletic scholarships on athletic ability alone, with no consideration of academics or, in many cases, personal character. The thesis argued by Sack and Staurowsky that athletes are already 'unpaid professionals' is even stronger when the authors use a legal perspective to show how courts have interpreted employment contracts. When discussing amateurism and scholarships, a working definition and background is needed. The book does a good job in providing a history of what amateurism is defined as. The use of the word scholarship, and how the NCAA defines an athletic scholarship, is also thoroughly discussed to avoid any confusion of the use of these terms. While reading the book, it was alarming to consider the point that Universities, athletic directors, and coaches can financially benefit from ticket sales, sponsorships, and endorsements, while the athletes are not allowed anything more than a full scholarship. Although the topic is well studied, this is not a book to take with you to read leisurely. It is highly academic and close examination of the issues expressed is needed to fully understand the thesis presented. The authors do not seem to have a separate agenda or act as lobbyists for any organization; rather, they have strong beliefs in what they consider to be wrong in inconsistant by the NCAA's treatment and defining of college athletes.

Mr.Sack and Ms. Staurowsky have seen collegiate athletics from the inside. Sack as a former scholarship football player at the Mecca of college football, the University of Notre Dame. Staurowsky as a former athlete, coach, and athletic director in the infancy of women's struggle to level the distribution of funding in college sports with their male counterparts. This "insider's" view gives the authors a vast amount of personal experience to draw from. But this book is not an expose` of personal experiences with college improprieties. The purpose of this manuscript is to educate the reader about the history of college sport and to dispel the theory that today"s Division I-A revenue producing programs are amateur athletics at their finest.Part I of College Athletes for Hire, gives the reader an intense background on the amateur ideal that was a vital part of the lifestyle of the Gentleman-Aristocrat in Great Britain. To these "gentleman", sport was a leisure time activity. An important point here has an interesting effect on the path of college sports in America. With this amateur view, the sport of choice was partaken to benefit the athlete, not the spectator. When the focus of sport turned to the spectator, the amateur ideal was clouded.Although this portion of the book is not an easy read, it expresses a movement towards spectatorship that, I believe had a tremendous effect on collegiate sport. This "spectatorism" in the early 1900's, was limited to attending games in person or listening via radio. But in the 1950's when the modern convenience we know as television came along, tremendous financial opportunities existed for the institutions and the governing bodies.It was also recognized that a renowned athletic team could be used as a marketing tool to bring students into the hallowed halls of universities. With all of the benefits a university could take anvantage of if their ahtletic teams performed well, it was no wonder that many athletes were recruited and induced to participate on the collegiate level. The authors make strong arguments that these factors, along with the athletic scholarship, lead collegiate athletics down the professional path while an amateur myth existed that portrayed the image of the student-athlete as just that, a student first and athlete second.Chapters 3 and 4 are dedicated to the history of women in collegiate athletics. These chapters present the adherence to the amateur ideal found in early women's athletics. Female athletes were not subjected to the pressure of revenue production nor did they receive the benefit of athletic scholarships. Women's collegiate athletics had followed the amateur ideal and seemed to serve the participant more effectively from both the athletic and academic standpoint.Chapter 5 is the focal point of the authors' belief that with the current athletic scholarship format, today's collegiate athlete is in fact a professional. This chapter delves into

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