Description
Book SynopsisPlay-by-Play is an eye-opening look at the political infighting invariably produced by the deadly combination of university administrators, athletic czars, and huge revenue.
Trade ReviewVery well researched and thorough... A welcome feature is a detailed, exhaustive time line of the intersecting strands of college sports and electronic media over the years. An additional bonus that closes the book is its helpful bibliographic essay, which functions as a literature review covering archives, general works, legal issues, and periodic literature and should be a boon for further research. Library Journal In addition to its obvious appeal to sports fans, Play by Play provides an interesting examination of how society deals with new innovations and their changes over time, the conditions under which cartels attempt to organize, and the factors in their success or failure. -- Stanley L. Engerman Journal of Economic History Based on a nearly exhaustive investigation into the primary sources, including some fifty archives,... Smith's research makes abundantly clear that the presidents and athletic departments of America's leading education institutions have consistently tried to use the media-newspaper, radio, and television-for their own gain. -- Randy Roberts Journal of American History Smith's book provides a mother lode of information for those interested in the merger of big-time sports with big-time media... Smith has clearly combined a fan's interest with a scholar's devotion in researching his subject. -- Thomas Alan Holmes Aethlon No one knows more than Ronald A. Smith about the history of intercollegiate sports in the United States... [ Play-by-Play] offers an extraordinarily detailed historical examination of the relationship among top-flight college sports (principally football), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and television. -- Warren Goldstein American Historical Review A well-researched, historical analysis... Provides an often troubling account of the corruptive power of money, broken promises, misguided priorities, crushed dreams and academic compromises. Not exactly uplifting stuff, but required reading for anyone who wants to gain a greater understanding of why it's too often true that concerns about the records of a university's football and basketball teams seem more important than the quality of a school's faculty or the educating of its students. -- K. Tim Wulfemeyer Journalism and Mass Communication Educator
Table of ContentsContents: Acknowledgments Introduction 1 The Media and Early College Sport 2 Marconi, the Wireless, and Early Sports Broadcasting 3 The Broadcasters 4 Graham McNamee and Ted Husing Dominate the Airwaves 5 The Radio Threat to College 6 In the Image of Rockne: Notre Dame and Radio Policy 7 Radio Goes "Bowling": The Rose Bowl Leads the Way 8 Sport and the New Medium of Television 9 Networks, Coaxial Cable, Commercialism, and Concern 10 Notre Dame Chooses Commercial TV 11 Penn Challenges the NCAA and the Ivy League 12 The NCAA Experimental Year and Reactions 13 Networks: The Du Mont Challenge 14 Regional Conferences Challenge a National Policy 15 TV and the Threat of Professional Football 16 Roone Arledge and the Influence of ABC-TV 17 Advertising, Image versus Money, and the Beer Hall Incident 18 The Television Announcer's Role in Football Promotion 19 The Cable Television Dilemma: More May Be Less 20 TV Money, Robin Hood, and the Birth of the NCAA 21 TV Property Rights and a CFA Challenge to the NCAA 22 Oklahoma and Georgia Carry the TV Ball for the CFA Team 23 TV, Home Rule Anarchy, and Conference Realignments 24 Basketball: From Madison Square Garden to a Televised Final Four 25 TV's Unfinished Business: The Division I-A Football Championship Appendix: Radio, TV, and Big-Time College Sport: A Timeline Notes Bibliographical Essay Index
