ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 describes some of the epic struggles pitting college administrators and academicians versus ascendant football programs in the pre-World War II United States. Featured are the disputes at the University of Pittsburgh, where a coach and a chancellor collided; the University of North Carolina, where president Frank Porter Graham responded to a cheating scandal with a comprehensive (and ultimately rejected) proposal that included bans on recruiting, athletic scholarships, and bowl games; and the University of Chicago, whose president, Robert Maynard Hutchins, was the most prominent and successful advocate of abolishing intercollegiate football at his institution, which under the leadership of Amos Alonzo Stagg had once been a giant of the Big Ten. Postwar, the debate shifted from the existential to the practical: How could football programs be subordinated to the academic mission of colleges and universities? Panels and committees conned over the subject, producing recommendations with respect to recruiting, scholarships, freshman eligibility, bowl games, and coaches’ salaries. These largely met the same fate as Frank Porter Graham’s proposals two decades earlier. The most spectacular instance of pushback against football’s dominance came in late 1961, when Ohio State’s faculty voted to reject a Rose Bowl invitation because faculty were concerned that the Buckeyes were too dominant a presence on campus and football was out of control—an act that is almost inconceivable today.
