Beyond Symptoms:Unethical Behavior in American Collegiate Sport and The Problem of The Color Line
Abstract
Beyond SymptomsUnethical Behavior in American Collegiate Sport and The Problem of The Color Line SAGE Publications, Inc.1985DOI: 10.1177/019372358500900201 Harry Edwards University of California, Berkeley Until recently, criticism of American collegiate sport typically has been dismissed as vindictive rumor and sensational distortion circulated by journalistic jackals, sports subversives, and assorted other anti-establishment sports agitators. But now, even college sports' most ardent apologists must concede that the institution is in deep trouble. Long praised for what was presumed to be its all but magical capacity to "build character" and to bestow moral and ethical integrity, college sport is today mired in an apparently expanding morass of misguided priorities, exploitation, corruption, commercialism, and even criminality. The escalating severity of proposed remedial and punitive measures is indicative of rising levels of concern over both the increasing frequency and the seriousness of major problems in college sport. Concern over academic integrity in sports programs has risen to the point that both government and sports' regulatory agencies have felt compelled to propose more stringent academic prerequisites for student-athlete sports paticipation., Cheating in the recruitment, enrollment, and financial support of collegiate football and basketball has sparked a national scandal of such proportions that coaches have