ABSTRACT
University of Southern California, the institution at which I currently work as an athletics administrator and faculty member, has an impressive legacy of winning championships. roughout its 128-year history, USC student-athletes and coaches have won a cumulative total of 107 national titles. Between 2002 and 2007 alone, the university was crowned national champion one time each in women’s water polo, men’s tennis, women’s golf, and women’s soccer, and twice each in football, men’s water polo, and women’s volleyball. Clearly, the institution has a culture of winning in which we take tremendous pride. Despite all the trophies, recognition, and bragging rights that come along with such an extraordinary reputation in college sports, I present an alternative conceptualization of “winning” in this chapter. Specically, I argue here that real champions graduate from college having accrued all the benets, gains, and outcomes associated with engagement in educationally purposeful activities, inside and outside the classroom beyond athletics.
