Synopsis
A chronicle of idealism vs. practical reality in college athletics reveals the high-risk, high-pressure decisions that led to the athletic turnaround at the University of Wisconsin--and the effects on the lives of the students involved. 20,000 first printing.
Reviews
Telander (Heaven is a Playground) describes a year's events in the University of Wisconsin athletic department through a series of vignettes. Three people draw most of his attention: Barry Baum, a reporter for the student newspaper; Rick Aberman, the university's sports psychologist; and Al Fish, the administrative officer for the athletic department. Telander also weaves in the stories of dozens of Wisconsin athletes, coaches and administrators to trace the changes in the university's athletic department throughout 1991. The year was marked by the department's efforts to cut its budget deficit, an endeavor that included eliminating baseball, fencing and three other sports. In well-written, magazine-style prose, Telander (a senior writer for Sports Illustrated ) puts a human face on the University of Wisconsin's athletic department. And although the year held a number of memorable events, Telander, as it turns out, was too quick off the mark, for in 1993 the football team, which struggled in 1991, went 10-1-1 and won the Rose Bowl. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
How the University of Wisconsin athletic department went from a debt-ridden mess in 1990 to one of the healthiest programs in the country, capped by its once hapless football team's stunning 1994 Rose Bowl victory. Telander (The Hundred Yard Lie, 1989) spent 1991 doing a closeup study of what was then a sickly sports program at the fourth largest university in the country. Wisconsin, highly rated academically and with the nation's largest budget--$1 billion--was operating its athletic department at almost $2 million in the red. Its football team was less than mediocre, and the basketball team hadn't been to an NCAA tournament in half a century. The only bright spot was the highly successful hockey team, which was able to pay for itself. Things began to change, writes Telander, when Donna Shalala (now US Secretary of Health and Human Services) was named chancellor in 1988. She inherited an athletic department in such disarray that the state had ordered an audit. She cleaned house and named Wisconsin sports legend Pat Richter as athletic director. His first move was to hire Barry Alvarez as head football coach. In three years he took the team to its first winning season in a decade, culminating in the Rose Bowl victory. Telander examines the effect of such sudden growth on the student-athletes, the school, and the community. While he gives Shalala ample credit for her determination to win while maintaining high academic standards, he's a bit dubious about the role played by ``budget analyst'' (some would say hatchet man) Al Fish, whose supervision of the department's reformation has included megafundraising efforts via rock concerts and the school's endorsement of a sports drink. Telander's oddly muted admiration combined with jaundiced cynicism spike any punch the book might have had, but despite the confused viewpoint, his analysis of the program's transformation is sound and sturdy. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
The athletic program at the University of Wisconsin served for years as a doormat in the Big Ten Conference, especially in football and men's basketball. Hoping to construct an overview of an entire athletic department, Telander, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, spent 14 months observing Wisconsin's sports program in detail. The time frame (December 1990 through January 1992) was fortuitous since the university was undergoing great change. It had a new chancellor, Donna Shalala (now U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services), one of whose goals was to set the athletic department on the right course. She brought in a new athletic director who then brought in new coaches for men's basketball and football. Other changes were made as well, and two short years later, the Wisconsin Badgers were the 1994 Rose Bowl champions. Telander profiles athletes, coaches, administrators, and the local press corps with equal empathy, stressing always that institutions are defined by the people in them. This superbly informative and entertaining study shows us that college athletics can work--for the players, the schools, and the fans. Wes Lukowsky
This is Telander's third fine book on the impact of sports on the lives of young people in the United States (the others are The Hundred-Yard Lie, S. & S., 1990, and Heaven Is a Playground, S. & S., 1991). Here, he examines the workings of the athletic department at the University of Wisconsin, a large, prestigious institution that is attempting to strike a balance between educational goals and winning games. Among the many threads that Telander weaves together are budget cuts, sexual harassment, gender equity, marketing schemes, fund-raising efforts, recruiting adventures, lawsuits, violence, the NCAA, corruption, the tension between major (football and men's basketball) and minor (everything else) sports, and the effects of all of the above on the mental and physical health of the athletes. The result is a detailed picture of big-time college sports. Recommended for all libraries.
John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, N.J.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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