All Guts and No Glory

All Guts and No Glory: An Alabama Coach’s Memoir of Desegregating College Athletics, by Bill Elder (2007)

Elder was born in Alabama but also grew up in Ohio, where his father moved his family to pursue business opportunities. He would later return to the south at the start of his career in college athletics.

The author had a keen eye for racial segregation early on, often asking questions of his parents that they didn’t want to answer. Elder recalls attending a Birmingham Barons baseball game at Rickwood Field, during which he asked his father why there were separate seating arrangements for blacks and whites. Compounding the schizophrenia of the segregated south, blacks and whites were allowed to sit together in the same facility when they attended games played by the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons.

As a sophomore in college, Elder returned to the south to attend school at Howard (now Samford) University. He then earned a master’s degree at the University of Tennessee. The second half of this book recalls the author’s experiences at newly opened Northeast Junior College.

By the end of three seasons, Elder had established a record of 53 wins and 22 losses. This is all the more impressive since he served as a department head, athletics director, and intramurals director in addition to his duties as Head Basketball Coach at Northeast. While he had built a strong program at the school, he still coached an all-white squad.

It was at this point that Elder was asked by the university president to begin recruiting black basketball players. While he received assurances that he would have the full support of school administration, the author quickly found himself alienated among a faculty that were clearly uncomfortable with an integrated athletics program.

Worse for the coach and his young players was the reaction of the broader community, who made it clear on a number of occasions that they did not appreciate black student-athletes. Elder’s struggles to coach in this hostile environment comprise the most compelling pages of this short autobiography.

I was disappointed that more time wasn’t given to Elder’s time after the integration at Northeast. One gets the sense that even over thirty-five years it is not a topic the author enjoys revisiting. In spite of this, I found it a captivating account throughout. Highly recommended.

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, by Warren St. John (2004)

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Warren St. John knows plenty about the fanaticism that surrounds college football in the Deep South. Like millions there, he grew up idolizing the life and career of "Bear" Bryant, even meeting the legendary coach once. His younger years coincided with a period of domination for the Alabama program, fueling his love for his team and the game.

Now a writer in New York, St. John decides to explore the question, "What is it about sports that turns otherwise sane, rational people into raving lunatics?" To answer the question, he takes a leave from his regular work, buys an ailing RV, and spends a season with the most hardcore fans, who comprise the tailgating scene. What he finds surprises even him, at times.

We are introduced to the Reeses, a couple who skipped their daughter's wedding because the date coincided with a game (although they did make it to the reception.) We also meet Don Cole, the Heart Guy, who in spite of being on the list for a heart transplant, defies his doctor's orders to travel to as many games as he can get to.

While the book offers hilarious accounts of many of these characters, these fans are more than crazed caricatures. We really get to know some of them, like Jerral Johnson, the Show Chicken Man. Johnson is a former businessman, who is living a second life with prize chickens and Alabama football as his twin passions. He's recently lost his old football buddy to heart failure.

We also meet John Ed Belvin, the ticket scalper - - er, ticket broker - - who alternately makes a killing and takes a shelling off of playing the Alabama ticket futures game.

Of interest to many in the South will be the time the author spent with sports columnist and radio announcer Paul Finebaum, the quintessential curmudgeon of the Crimson Nation. St. John describes the many precautions Finebaum must take, as he is frequently concerned about his personal safety.

The author straddles two worlds, which makes for an interesting cultural study. But while he references scholarly work on the psychology of crowds, he never loses his everyman focus. He pokes fun at how many of the fans butcher the English language, but he can get away with it as he is a native son.

In large part because St. John is such a skillful writer, this enjoyable book will appeal to fans and non-fans alike. The author has found the universal elements of his subjects and their humanity - - sometimes funny, sometimes disappointing, and occasionally disturbing - - shines through on every page.

Originally reviewed Fall 2004

Air Ball

Air Ball: American Education’s Failed Experiment with Elite Athletics, by John R. Gerdy (2006)

Gerdy has seen college athletics from every angle. He played basketball at the college and professional level, and then went on to work as a legislative assistant for the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and as an associate commissioner for the Southeastern Conference.

In Air Ball, his fourth book on American sport, Gerdy doesn’t rehash the scandals that have plagued big-time Division I football and basketball programs. The problems within the current system are well documented and affect institutions at all levels, he says, as he details the many ways the current state of college athletics undermines higher education and the broader community.

The author believes that college athletics too closely mirror the professional game, robbing students of study time as well as a chance to truly integrate with the campus as a whole. The focus on elite sport teams also pushes many to watch sports rather than actively participate at a time when obesity has emerged as one of society’s greatest challenges.

The author proposes a number of specific reforms that are certain to promote heated discussion. Gerdy proposes that game times be pushed up, even when that means that some teams won’t be able to play in prime time. He proposes a limit on eligibility in the freshman year to allow new students the opportunity to focus on academics and to transition to college life. Gerdy’s most drastic measure is the elimination the athletic scholarship. The current arrangement is too close to the professional model of pay for play, he says. This, along with the high costs of travel, coaches’ salaries, and tutors for athletes, undermines the credibility of institutions of higher education.

The author addresses a number of the sacred cows of coaches and athletic directors, among them the assertion by some that reform would lead to a drastic decline in the quality of play. He believes that these concerns are secondary to the issue of determining whether athletics compliment the mission of the university. Gerdy asserts that nothing less than a complete transformation of sports programs will accomplish this. Failing that, they must be abolished altogether.

Informing and provocative, Gerdy’s book should be required reading for educators, college administrators and anyone else who is concerned about the state and role of athletics in higher education. Highly recommended.

Beer and Circus

Beer and Circus, by Murray Sperber (2001)

The author makes a sweeping indictment of higher education in this, his fourth book about college athletics. Sperber argues that large public institutions have become too big to provide a quality education to their charges. The author describes an arms race of college athletics that places a huge emphasis on building strong teams and getting schools placed in prominent athletics conferences. Administrators, he says, pin their hopes on national championships in the hopes that this will lead to increased visibility, and enrollment, for the university.

Not only does this approach rob students of a quality education, says Sperber, but it gambles with taxpayer money as these big programs rarely pay for themselves. Another point in the volume is that the party scene that accompanies these sporting events is very damaging to students. There were plenty of stories in the Indiana Daily Student during my time in Bloomington that highlighted the drinking and partying of students. Nationally, the most high-profile cases have been deaths from alcohol poisoning. The author makes a strong, if evident, case that universities should be providing a good education, rather than a great tailgating experience, to their students.

Originally reviewed 2/11/04

Stay tuned this week for my review of John R. Gerdy's Air Ball: American Education's Failed Experiment With Elite Athletics