Preface

• Author: James H. Frey
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944500102
• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Date: 01 September 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

vii

PREFACE

Just

recently

a

crowd

estimated

at

250,000

gathered

in

downtown

Seattle

to

honor

its

professional

basketball

team

which

had

just

won

the

World

Championship.

Each

January,

80

million

people

watch

the

Super

Bowl,

the

contest

to

determine

the

champion

of

the

National

Football

League.

Every

day

news

accounts

report

the

signing

of

players’

contracts

in

excess

of

one

million

dollars.

Just

as

often

reports

are

filed

on

the

illegal

recruiting

of

high

school

and

college

athletes,

violence

on

and

off

the

playing

field,

illegal

payments

to

amateurs

and

efforts

to

politicize

the

Olympic

Games.

These

examples

tell

us

that

sport

permeates

the

lives

of

Americans

and

populations

in

other

areas

of

the

world.

Nothing

else

save

a

struggle

for

survival

seems

to

be

able

to

stimulate

such

emotion,

attraction, interest,

adulation

and

mania

as

do

sports.

There

are

few

persons

whose

lives

are

not

touched

by

some

aspect

of

the

sporting

life.

It

is

only

recently

that

scholars

and

insightful

practitioners

have

been

critically

looking

at

sport.

For

a

long

time

the

academic

community

re-

jected

the

study

of

sport

as

frivolous

intellectual

inquiry.

Why

should

some-

one

waste

his

time

studying

childlike

games

such

as

baseball

or

basketball

when

he/she

could

be

researching

problems

of

greater

significance?

By

the

same

token

any

athlete

or

journalist

who

would

dare

criticize

the

sporting

enterprise

would

suffer

a

similar

rejection.

The

athlete

would

be

viewed

as

a

troublemaker

and

the

writer

would

be

denied

access

to

the

locker

room.

After

all,

sports

represent

a

quasi-religion,

intertwined

with

all

other

institutions

and

reinforced

by

a

Judeo-Christian

value

system,

Sport

is

a

direct

representation

of

society.

Some

say

it

is

a

microcosm,

others

say

a

reflection,

of

society.

It

is

neither;

it

is

society.

What

we

have

discovered

is

that

sport

is

serious

activity

which

deserves

the

scrutiny

of

scholars

and

critics.

Whatever

is

good

or

bad,

valued

or

devalued,

fair

or

foul

in

society

is

found

in

sport.

For

every

athlete

who

rises

to

the

top

in

the

tradition

of

the

American

Way

there

are

others

who

are

restricted

for

the

reasons

other

than

lack

of

motivation.

Turning

a

profit

at

the

expense

of

the

consumer

is

a

practice

not

limited

to

manufacturing

or

industrial

entities.

Sport

is

serious

business.

Sport

is

not

at

all

equivalent

to

the

Sunday

afternoon

pick-up

game

spontaneously

organized

by

whom-

ever

is

present.

In

fact,

there

is

rare

opportunity

for

this

within

the

con-

temporary

sport,

which

emphasizes

high

degree

of

organization,

specializa-

tion,

and

selective

recruitment.

If

you

are

going

to

play

ball

today,

you

had

better

be

good

and

an

organization

man.

This

issue

includes

the

contributions

of

well

known

academics

and

par-

ticipants

in

sport.

Each

is

writing

in

an

effort

to

dramatize

areas

in

sport

which

need

critical

attention.

Their

writings

illustrate

that

many

of

the

myths

associated

with

sport

(e.g.

it

is

good

for

the

character

development

of

youth)

are

based

on

questionable

premises,

both

empirical

and

ideologi-

cal.

I

would

like

to

thank

each

of

the

contributors

for

their

efforts

and

The

Annals

for

willingness

to

publish

an

issue

on

this

topic.

JAMES

H.

FREY