Onward to Victory: The Creation of Modern College Sports - Hardcover

Sperber, Murray

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805038655 ISBN 13: 9780805038651

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 1998

Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of Shake Down the Thunder.

With the 1940 release of the classic film Knute Rockne, All American, the myth of the hero scholar-athlete was born, and with it came the age of big-time college sports in America. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, including press accounts, letters and diaries, historical papers, and interviews with many who were there, Sperber recounts how the myths created by Hollywood studios were embellished and codified by a hungry press, infiltrating the collective unconscious with epic stories of players, coaches, and teams. As college sports became a mainstay of popular entertainment, they also were fertile ground for near-fatal scandal, ultimately giving rise to the modern NCAA. Sperber vividly re-creates the world of postwar America, with its all-powerful radiomen, its lurid press, its growing prosperity, and, of course, the infancy of television. A brilliant, detailed, and engrossing work of social history for not only sports fans, but anyone interested in the development of modern American culture.

About this title

Review:

Sperber's thesis is a tempter from the get-go: "No other American institution has experienced greater crises and scandals than big-time college sports," he writes, "and yet it has not only survived all of them but thrived. Moreover, the problems never end--and they never dent the public's and the media's love for games and their participants. Why?" He spends the next 500 pages searching for answers, and the sweep of the search is as good as the revelations themselves.

What Sperber has essentially assembled is an exhaustive, if pointed, history of college sports in the 20th century, zeroing in particularly on the 1940s and 1950s. It is a wart-filled account, carefully researched, engagingly written, thoughtfully told, and anecdotally loaded. Myths are held up to the light, and ignominy is slipped under the microscope, yet circumspection consistently wins out over sensationalism; this is not a case of accusations piling on.

The book's title comes from the Notre Dame fight song, and Sperber, fittingly, begins with the most storied of all college sports programs. He tugs relentlessly but fairly at the legends of Knute Rockne and George Gipp until they unravel, then continues yanking the seams until the whole mythic tradition frays. The Irish are far from the only culprits, though; he's especially good on the basketball scandals of the 1950s. Sperber examines the pressures and problems that accompany winning, money-making programs, from recruiting violations and academic deceits to gambling, ticket scalping, and organized cover-ups of player indiscretions. He examines the changing role of the sporting press, the hyperboles of Hollywood, and the constant need to manufacture a national heroic epic from elements more often found in sordid paperbacks. The chronicle of the dark side of college sports may not be pretty, but it certainly lights up the board. --Jeff Silverman

About the Author:

Murray Sperber is an associate professor of English and American studies at Indiana University. His previous books include Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football and College Sports, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0805038655
• ISBN 13: 9780805038651
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 614