Things are changing so fast on the college athletic scene that an average fan needs a scorecard to keep up with the ever-changing names on their team’s roster, as well as the name of their coach.
One of the casualties of such dramatic change may be the ability of college sports to serve as an important mythmaker and creator of legends for American values, especially for young athletes and fans who want to learn from the great heroes of the game and try to emulate them.
In its purest and noblest form, collegiate athletics was considered a valuable venue to build and strengthen the physical body while the classroom and professors nurtured and developed the mind of an amateur athlete. The goal was to produce a student athlete graduate as a complete person who could face the challenges of adult life. Scholarships offered the poorest athlete the chance to, in essence, earn their education while performing on the field or court.
Responsible citizens were developed who would help lead their community, state and country in far more important things than a basketball or football game later in life. Former Princeton basketball star, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. senator from New Jersey Bill Bradley is considered one of the prime examples of what collegiate athletics can and should be able to accomplish.
The college game today more closely resembles the farm teams of Major League Baseball franchises. Players come and go to minor league teams such as the Durham Bulls on their way, hopefully, to the big leagues.
Long gone are the days when brilliant sportswriters such as Grantland Rice would immortalize the backfield of Notre Dame after they upset heavily favored Army in 1924: “Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden.”
The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame are still remembered because of this brilliant writing. But they were great because they stayed together in college and won a lot of games to back up Rice’s brilliant writing.
NC State’s “Cardiac Pack” run to the 1983 basketball championship would have been derailed had any of their starters been lured to another team before their miracle run. The Cardiac Pack still inspires North Carolinians today to keep fighting through adversity and tough situations.
These are lessons young people see, hear, feel and can incorporate into their young lives. It is unfair to expect every team to be a role model for our children, but one of the great attributes of high-level amateur athletics at the collegiate level has been the ability to admire such great athletes over several years who balance the rigors of their sport with the demands of the classroom with honor, dignity, responsibility and respect.
What would Rice say about a college team today whose stars are driving to class in Lamborghinis? “The latest group of hired mercenaries won another title for Wassomatta U. They defeated the latest group of hired mercenaries at Potsylvania U.” It will be only a very rare occasion when a paid, and therefore “professional,” collegiate team will be immortalized as we have seen in the past.
It is hard to begrudge the fact that when offered millions of dollars to transfer, most players and coaches now do so at the drop of a hat. America is a free enterprise, capitalist society and hopefully will always remain so. But it is important to recognize what is being sacrificed in the process. Mythmaking of American ideals and virtues is one of the casualties we will sadly recognize not too much further down the road.
Absent the mythmaking potential of college sports, it may become just another professional vocation to enjoy purely as entertainment, not unlike watching a touring ballet, orchestra or Broadway musical.
Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with coining the phrase “change is the only constant in life.” If that is the case, and it certainly appears to be true, then we need to figure out how we can find other ways to transmit the treasured American values of hard work, teamwork and sacrifice to fans who used to find it in amateur sports.
