creating the big ten
Reviewed by Richard C. Crepeau, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Central Florida
21 september 2018 archive
Winton Solberg, professor emeritus in History at the University of Illinois, is a distinguished scholar whose work in American History focuses on Puritanism, the History Education, and Intellectual History. Two of his books were histories of the University of Illinois. No doubt the latter subject led him, perhaps naturally, to the subject of intercollegiate athletics, and particularly to the History of the Big Ten.
As one would expect from Solberg's other scholarship, Creating the Big Ten is a meticulous, detailed, and analytical study. From the conference founding in the 1890s Solberg tracks the growth, development, and controversies within college football and the Big Ten through the end of World War II.
The archival work represented here is most impressive. It is clear that every general meeting of conference members, every committee meeting, all correspondence relating to the conference, have been examined, analyzed, and mined for relevant information. The result may be too much for some readers, but it is unlikely that any criticism for lack of research will appear. In addition he is well versed in the secondary literature.
Step by the step, Solberg reconstructs the founding of the conference within the major developments in intercollegiate athletics. The larger context is always in view, giving the narrative clarity and relevance.
Part I covers the founding of the conference, an attempt to clarify the meaning of amateurism, the football crisis of the early 20th century, the problems with Michigan, and the impact of World War I. The issue of amateurism is perhaps the thorniest subject of all and it is the one area where clarity escapes Solberg, as it has most others. Nonetheless the discussion of amateurism is important and essential for context.
Part II moves into the "Golden Age of Sport." The nineteen-twenties was the period of transformation of football into a massive spectator sport and commercial enterprise. One episode illustrating these changes involved Red Grange who left the University of Illinois following his final football game and before his graduation to join the Chicago Bears. Grange's use of an agent is a significant element in this story. Solberg tracks this development and its consequences for the conference, and its impact on the relationship between professional and intercollegiate football. The stadium building of the period is yet another sign of times, as is the growth of the conference apparatus and the emergence of powerful individuals and significant bureaucratic rivalries. The decade ends with the stock market crash and the issuing of the Carnegie Report on Intercollegiate Athletics. Solberg offers an assessment of both. At the same time the Big Ten censured the University of Iowa for rules violations and for what would now be termed, "lack of institutional control." This is a remarkable story told with great skill by Solberg.
At every point along the way Solberg makes judgements and offers criticism, and these are measured and justified. Certainly the subtitle of the volume, Courage, Corruption, and Commercialism, are the focal point of much of this history.
In the end several things are clear. Corruption has been at the core of college football from very early on in its history, and there is very little that is new in this category after the first decade of its existence. What is new is only the particular manifestation of corruption, not its fundamental forms. As to Commercialism the basic tendencies were in place by the early 20th century, although the proliferation of dollars has increased exponentially. As for Courage, certainly there were many individuals who tried to maintain high principles and ethics, as there still are, but like the finger in the dike this proved largely a losing proposition.
At the end of the final chapter Solberg offers this assessment confirming earlier observations by President Angell of Yale: "Football had become less a game than a business, run for revenue, not for education. Moreover, football was played increasingly by men who were neither entirely amateur nor entirely hired. And football coaching was given by men whose preponderant interest was holding their lucrative jobs at whatever cost."
Anyone interested in college football, the history of intercollegiate athletics, and the attempts at governance, will find this book an important addition to their library and their knowledge. Those who believe that reform of intercollegiate athletics is a realistic goal, will read Creating the Big Ten and weep.
Solberg, Winton U. Creating the Big Ten: Courage, Corruption, and Commercialization, University of Illinois Press, 2018. 316pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $29.95 paper, $99.00 hardcover, $21.99 Kindle.
Copyright © 2018 by Richard C. Crepeau