Synopses & Reviews
American public universities suffered tremendous funding cuts during the 1930s, yet they were also responsible for educating increasing numbers of students. The mounting financial troubles, coupled with a perceived increase in the number of “radical” student activists, contributed to a general sense of crisis on American college campuses.
University leaders used their athletic programs to combat this crisis and to preserve “traditional” American values and institutions, prescribing different models for men and women. Educators emphasized the competitive nature of men’s athletics, seeking to inculcate male college athletes (and their audiences) with individualistic, masculine values in order to reinforce the existing American political and economic systems.
In stark contrast, the prevailing model of women’s college athletics taught a communal form of democracy. Strongly supported by almost all female athletic leaders, this “a girl for every game, and a game for every girl” model had replaced the more competitive model that had been popular until the 1920s. The new programs denied women individual attention and high-level competition, and they promoted the development of what was considered proper femininity.
Whatever larger purposes these programs were intended to serve, they could not have survived without vocal supporters. Democratic Sports tells the important story of how men’s and women’s college athletic programs survived, and even thrived, during the most challenging decade of the twentieth century.
Review
This engaging set of essays demonstrates how individual sports were changed forever when the law was brought to bear on practices that were thought to be so important that they needed no defense. One of the strengths of the essays is that they focus directly on how the law affected the lives of individuals and in so doing set the stage for new conditions that would affect players, officials, teams, leagues, fans, and even governmental jurisdictions for decades to come.” Charles Korr, author of The End of Baseball As We Knew It: The Players Union, 19601981
Review
“Offers fine, new insights and admirably complicates the standard narrative of 1930s intercollegiate culture. Adds substantially to the literature of sport history.”
—Patrick Miller
Review
“A deeply researched and creative narrative . . . [that] makes a significant contribution to the historical literature of American sports history.”
—Richard O. DaviEs
Synopsis
This new collection examines not only how athletes looked to the nations judicial system to solve conflicts but also how their cases trans¬formed the interpretation of laws. These essays examine a vast array of social and legal controversies including Heywood v. NBA (1971), which allowed any player to enter the draft; Flood v. Kuhn (1972), which considered baseballs antitrust status; the Danny Gardella lower level 1948 case regarding free agency and baseball; Muhammad Alis celebrated stance against the U.S. draft; Renée Richardss 1976 lawsuit against the U.S. Tennis Association and its due process ramifications; and human rights violations in international law with respect to the increased recruitment of underage Latin baseball players in the Caribbean region are a few examples of the vast array of stories included. Sport and the Law links these cases to other cases and topics, giving the reader the opportunity to see the threads weaving law and sport together in American society.
About the Author
Samuel O. Regalado is professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus and the author or editor of four books, including
Baseball in Nikkei America: From the Meiji to the Majors.
Sarah K. Fields is associate professor of communication at University of Colorado Denver and the author of Female Gladiators: Gender, Law, and Contact Sport in America.