College Sports: A History

by Eric A. Moyen, John R. Thelin

A bold and foundational history of the inception and evolution of intercollegiate athletics in the United States.

In College Sports, historians Eric A. Moyen and John R. Thelin tell the intriguing story of the success—and excess—of American college sports from their inception to today. Arguing that the modern American university's structure spurred the growth of big-time sports, Moyen and Thelin also highlight the treatment of marginalized groups in athletics and the role that commercialization and the media have played in shaping college sports.

Using a wealth of secondary resources, archival records, newspaper articles, and oral histories, Moyen and Thelin offer a chronological account of the popularity, success, and continued challenges of college sports. Most scholarship has portrayed athletics as an anomaly within higher education, but history reveals that college sports enjoy a symbiotic relationship with universities. Reform and a return to a purely amateur model have rarely been a compelling option for those institutions that are successful in commercialized big-time college sports. At the same time, the majority of student-athletes compete in a very different model. And despite their progressive posturing, colleges have been slow to fully adopt civil rights and social justice issues. When full participation was finally extended to women and minorities, it generally meant a move away from the amateur model into a commercial enterprise.

By examining key events at specific universities, athletic conferences, and the NCAA, Moyen and Thelin trace how the media and sports marketing have created an incredibly successful financial model for schools in big-time conferences. Yet this model has also created a precarious fiscal situation for hundreds of other institutions. This provocative and refreshing take on sports in American universities provides the context in which to understand—and improve upon—the current landscape of intercollegiate athletics.

Genres: Sports, History

496 pages, Hardcover

Published November 26, 2024

Reviews

[Mark O'brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even before you reach the first chapter you're expected to wade through an 8-page preface, 5 pages of acknowledgements, AND a 16-page introduction. But what can we expect when the book is written by two college professors?
In other words, this is not a book for the general reader/average sports fan.
It's an academically oriented, in-depth look at college sports and the money, benefits and abuses around it. It examines the role of boosters, college presidents, faculties, players and others, especially in the big-money sports of football and basketball, which often generate less money than they cost!
As a casual sports fan, I knew the basics of this material, so I did a lot of skimming. However, the authors do provide thorough documentation, handy for anyone who wants to know the ins-and-outs of college sports before today's Name-Image-Likeness Era.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moyen and Thelin provide an insightful history that considers not only the history of college sports through the lens of policy and procedure development, but also considers the social and political histories throughout time. There are considerations of the NCAA, NAIA, and other elements, as well as the somewhat standard elements of football and basketball that are seemingly a necessity in these works, but Moyen and Thelin provide a phenomenal service to readers by considering in some detail the history of intramural and club sport, as well as other sports largely marginalized in broader histories. Most importantly, they denote that there is much to consider in the history of sports and that we have a need to continue the work they started as both fans and consumers of college athletics.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

History part o the book appeared well researched and factual. Where the authors showed their ignorance was in the modern section. They had several date error on the CFP era and didn’t dive into the real reasons why realignment happened in the 2010 time frame. Those of us who follow the rams that switched conferences, understand that Texas & Oklahoma’s greed and arrogance blew up the Big 12. Authors also whiffed on how Nebraska made it to the Big 12. Missouri and Texas A&M laughed all the way to the bank for 12 years until texas and oU came begging to SEC.

Missouri was offered the slot first but turned it down because of not being offers a full financial share for several years. Nebraska bent over and took it to get out of Big 12. So much more should have been researched here.

[Alex Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some really cool info in it that I never knew, and it offered a pretty good overview of the early history of college sports. I think that later in the book the structure kind of broke down and became fragmented— it got more difficult to follow and the info was much harder to connect to earlier chapters.

What really got me about this book was how many typos there were. Multiple instances of misspellings, missing punctuation, and times where they clearly meant to use a different word than was printed. The binding also sucked and I had to kind of rip the book open every couple pages because the base of the pages near the spine was stuck together.

[Luke V · Rating 3 out of 5]

the more things change, the more they stay the same... the battles over amateurism, over the place of women's sports, etc. all of these have been fought multiple times over the history of college sports. I came away from the book with a much more detailed (perhaps too detailed) understanding of this phenomenon. Numerous copy editing errors took away from the pleasure of reading the book.

[Patrick Tarbox · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a very academic book, but it is an academic read that is very good at tying together the university administration side with the athletics side and how they came apart over the years. If you are a big college fan, you may be a little stronger on the recent stuff than the authors, but it is still a good read.

[niko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book. A lot of really interesting tidbits. Kind of crazy that you could write a whole new chapter about the House case and everything else that’s happened in the last 12 months. At some points was a little lengthy/repetitive and quite a few typos, but did what it set out to do

[Graham Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of the history of college athletics. Provides a broad narrative with many perspectives and felt like it was an easy read throughout.