A competitive business: The ideologies, cultures, and practices of men's and women's college sports during the depression.

摘要

This is a study of how the uniquely American institution of “Big-Time” college athletics survived the ideological and financial challenges of the Great Depression and why many Americans thought this survival was important. As a study of institutional perseverance, this dissertation focuses on the financing and commercialization of athletics during the 1930s, the ideologies and belief systems that university leaders employed to justify the continuation of the athletic programs, and the conscious use of universities' athletic programs to build communities of interest in the universities themselves.; While American public universities suffered tremendous funding cuts during the 1930s, they also had to educate increasing numbers of students. The mounting financial troubles, coupled with a perceived increase in the number of radical student activists, contributed to a general sense of crisis on American college campuses. University leaders used their intercollegiate athletic programs to preserve traditional American values and institutions. By emphasizing the competitive nature of men's athletics, educators inculcated male college athletes with individualistic, masculine values, seeking to reinforce the existing American political and economic systems.; In contrast, the prevailing model of women's college athletics during the Depression taught a communal form of democracy. This model did not allow for individual attention or high-level competition, and it stressed “proper” femininity. However, many female students and teachers felt constrained by the limitations imposed by this model. In 1941, a contingent of Ohio State educators controversially challenged their profession's leaders and coordinated the first national intercollegiate golf tournament for women, a turning point in the narrative of women's intercollegiate athletics.; The institution of college athletics survived the era's extreme financial challenges and the ideological challenges epitomized by the Carnegie Foundation's 1929 American College Athletics because its leaders successfully mustered justifications for maintaining the programs and because, in many places, at least football retained its profitability. However, the most compelling justification for the continuation of intercollegiate programs was that the teams and the publicity they attracted enabled the universities to build “imagined communities” of interest, drawing the allegiances of people who had never attended their classes and whose support was essential during the Depression.