ABSTRACT
During the second half of the nineteenth century, college sports evolved into activities that were bureaucratically organized and controlled by higher education institutions and alumni. This chapter considers the academic experiences and success of student-athletes. It examines the problems and cycles of reform efforts in college athletics, and considers the dominant features of the peculiar institution of college athletics in the United States. Next, the chapter focuses on the corporate and commercialized college sports programs fall under the organizational umbrella of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). American Indians, like Edward H. Simpson and Jim Thorpe, have faced a number of factors reducing their chances of being recruited and of participating in college sports. The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) began with lofty principles and goals. Under the AIAW, women's college sports were administered and coached by women, but under the NCAA, many female directors of women's athletics became associate directors of athletics for women's sports.
