Quick quiz: When was this quote said about college football?
“Football to-day is a social obsession — a boy-killing, education prostituting, gladiatorial sport. It teaches virility and courage … but so does war.”
This could be a critic of the game in 2014, right? In fact, it dates back to 1905 when University of Chicago professor Shailer Matthews weighed in on the violence that was plaguing college football.
In “The Opening Kickoff: The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation,” author Dave Revsine documents the roots of football in America. He shows how from humble beginnings in the 1860s, the game grew into a full-blown spectacle on college campuses by the early 20th century. Big games drew huge crowds, making the coaches and players sports’ most popular stars long before pro football burst onto the scene.
Yet what stands out in the book is Revsine’s contention that all the controversies that plague the modern version of college football are hardly recent developments. The problems were there from the beginning: cheating to secure top players; academic fraud; debates about amateurism; an overemphasis on maximizing revenue; and the physical toll football takes on young athletes.
Revsine, the lead anchor for the Big Ten Network, writes: “Any modern-day football fans yearning for a return to a simpler, halcyon time when the game was enjoyed by well-mannered and cultured Ivy Leaguers should quickly disabuse themselves of that notion. There was no such time.”
College football began when Princeton met Rutgers in the first game in 1869. Early on, Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Yale were the major powers, as the game had its biggest presence in the Northeast. Eventually, though, football took hold in the Midwest with teams like Wisconsin and the University of Chicago making their presence felt.
Revsine focuses on two early icons: Pat O’Dea, who became the game’s first superstar playing for Wisconsin, and legendary Chicago coach Amos Alonzo Stagg. O’Dea, who was Australian, captivated the nation with his kicking prowess. Back then, Revsine writes, “Kicker was the single most glamorous position on the field.” He was known for his long dropkicks, a style where the player would bounce the ball off the grass and kick it on its way back up. A Wisconsin game at Yale had papers like The New York Times writing fawning tributes about O’Dea.
Stagg, meanwhile, not only built Chicago into the first “Monsters of the Midway” before the Bears, he also helped the school cash in financially. Between 1897 and 1899, the Maroons played 44 of 47 games at home. Visiting teams actually could make more money playing in Chicago than on their campuses.
The university also saw football as a tremendous PR vehicle. Stagg recalled that U. of. C. president William Rainey Harper favored “anything legitimate that put the university’s name in print.”
Still, even early on, there were concerns about the emphasis on profits. “Money, money money seems to be the cry,” wrote author Caspar Whitney in 1894. “It will be the curse, if indeed not the downfall, of honest university sport.”
Indeed, scandals about illegal payments to players, along with other forms of cheating, would make headlines in the first decades of the 20th century. University of Illinois coach George Huff said in 1905 success of major programs “depended upon the ability of the colleges to sustain men by devious means.”
More Top Picks Best Diet For Heart Disease
The game’s violence caught the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1905, there were 19 deaths attributed to football, with three fatalities on college campuses. He summoned the game’s leaders to the White House in aneffort to reform the rules.
Eventually, the game was made safer to the extent that players weren’t dying on the field. However, more than a century later, the health issue is front and center again, threatening the long-term future of football. President Obama weighed in with his concerns last year.
Indeed, Revsine’s book shows that past is prologue when it comes to college football. It is an eye-opening and compelling lesson for those looking for the complete story of the game.
It also is interesting to note that Revsine decided to take on this project. He works for a network owned by the Big Ten and the bulk of what he does promotes college football. Yet nobody will accuse him of sugar-coating the considerable problems that always have existed.
Revsine concludes: “In 1890 college football was a curiosity. By 1915 it was an institution. But as the ensuing century has taught us, institutions are not beyond reproach. College football survived the problems that dominated its early existence, but it didn’t solve them. Sadly, it still hasn’t.”
Ed Sherman writes about sports media for the baiduhai and at his site, ShermanReport.com.
“The Opening Kickoff”
By Dave Revsine, Lyons, 304 pages, $25.95