ABSTRACT
Introduction: The Beginnings Intercollegiate athletics, like most aspects of American culture, followed the leadership coming from the British Isles, especially England. The idea of colleges or universities competing against each other athletically came from two elite universities in England: Oxford and Cambridge. The nineteenth-century Oxbridge universities were the early models for the Americans, particularly America’s two most prestigious universities, Harvard and Yale. Eventually the rest of America imitated Harvard and Yale in their sporting pursuits, just as the two leading Eastern institutions looked across the ocean for their inspiration. Students in American institutions of higher education, who formed and controlled the first college sports, accepted the British conventions, such as written rules and the ideals of amateurism. However, because of cultural differences between the upper-class English universities and those in America, the manner in which intercollegiate athletics were conducted soon had marked distinctions from those in England. An emphasis on a commercial-professional model rather than the English elitist-amateur model developed quickly.1
