CFI

Culture, Commerce and Collegiate Athletics: The Fate of the Student-Athlete
March 19-21, 2000

Millions of Americans, both in and out of school, support college sports and faithfully track the fortunes of their favorite teams and athletes. Some student-athletes become nationally known and endure the forced attentions of modern celebrity, while others toil in obscurity. But this is nothing new. For more than 125 years, athletics have been an important part of American collegiate life. The ideal of the student-athlete is deeply imbedded in American culture, and can trace its intellectual roots back to the gymnasia and academies of classical Greece. From the fictional adventures of Frank Merriwell at Yale, through the Saturday afternoon heroics of Red Grange and the Four Horsemen in the 1920s, to the heavily funded and merchandized teams of our own day, college sports have provided the stuff of American legend.

Yet the success of athletics at American colleges and universities has proved an ambiguous triumph. Money followed popularity. As early as 1910, the NCAA was founded in an attempt to end the corruption and scandals plaguing college football. Already questions were being raised about the student-athletic ideal. Critics argued that the athlete was being privileged over the student. These concerns have grown as collegiate athletics have become ever more lucrative, heightening the pressures, and temptations, for coaches and players alike.

So, as a new millennium dawns, what is the future of the student-athlete? Can we recapture the ancient athletic ideal, or reinvent the ideal of the scholar athlete for a new millennium? This symposium will address these and other relevant questions from a variety of perspectives, drawn from a range of disciplines across the spectrum of liberal arts and sciences

Participants

J. Barton Luedeke is President of Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. Dr. Luedeke graduated from Hanover College in 1964 and earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Illinois in 1971. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and serves on the President's Commission of the NCAA. The title of his lecture is: Whither or Wither: Intercollegiate Athletics in the New Millennium.

Derrick Ramsey is the Athletic Director at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, KY. He is a former star quarterback for the University of Kentucky and has recently been inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. He is quickly becoming well-known for his innovative approach, and for demanding rigorous academic standards from KSU athletes. His talk will address the challenges facing the student-athlete, educators and administrators in today's world of collegiate athletics. The title of his lecture is: The Last Time It Was a Game.

Joli Sandoz has played, coached, and written about competitive athletics since her first plunge off the Longview, Washington, YMCA swimming pool starting blocks in 1961. Her sporting credits take in varsity competition in swimming, softball, basketball, and track and field, and nine years of intercollegiate coaching including working as the first woman track coach at Harvard. Sandoz teaches American studies and women's studies courses at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and manages her own research and writing business. She has edited five books, including the first historical collection of women's fiction and poetry about women's sport, A Whole Other Ball Game (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997). Her most recent anthology, co-edited with Joby Winans, is the first women's personal nonfiction about women's competitive sport, Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sport (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999). The title of her lecture is: A Whole Other Ball Game: Women's Experiences of Sport.

Murray Sperber is Professor of English and American Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. He the author of three books: Shake Down the Thunder, Onward to Victory, and College Sports, Inc., and numerous articles on the subject of sports in higher education. The title of his presentation is: The Myths and Realities of Big-time College Sports.

Schedule

Prelude to Winter Symposium - Films: Knute Rockne, All-American and Horse Feathers - Presented in conjunction with the Foreign and Classic Film Series

Kick-Off Event - Ogle Center - Tuesday, March 14 - 7:00 p.m. - Roundtable Discussion
Reception follows at 8 p.m. - Participants: Jon Enriquez, Lynn Hall, Jim Crone, Marty Riggs, Sarah Kean, Shawn Turner

Sunday, 3/19/00

7:00 p.m. Opening Reception - Ogle Center
8:00 p.m. Roundtable Open Discussion - Ogle Center

Monday, 3/20/00

10:30 a.m. - Roundtable - CC Board Room - Open Discussion
4:00 p.m. - Derrick Ramsey -The Last Time It Was a Game - Horner Center Room 102
7:30 p.m. - Murray Sperber - The Myths and Realities of Big-time College Sports -Class of '65 Lecture Series Speaker - CFA Recital Hall

Tuesday, 3/21/00

10:30 a.m. - Roundtable - CC Board Room - Open Discussion
4:00 p.m. - Joli Sandoz - A Whole Other Ball Game: Women's Experiences of Sport - Horner Center Room 102
7:30 p.m. - J. Barton Luedeke - Whither or Wither: Intercollegiate Athletics in the New Millennium - CFA Recital Hall
8:30 p.m. - Closing Reception

Special Acknowledgement: Actor's Theatre of Louisville provided CFI with discount coupons for the play: No. 11 (Blue and White).

To request a brochure or for more information about the Center for Free Inquiry, contact us at cfi@hanover.edu or call at (812) 866-6848.